Actions Speak Louder than Words

[TGO]

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "instability"?

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3077371

Hugo Chavez. Threats of nationalization make any sort of investment incredibly risky.

[BaltBound]

Also I don't understand how you can say Josh Bell has failed to perform. He has played all of 6 games! You can not say a guy has failed to perform in the major leagues when he only has 19 AB!

Very true, but realize Tejada enjoys playing baseball.

[Hank Scorpio]

Thank you for the effort, Tony. Much appreciated, along with everything else you do.

Trea's head's gonna explode off his neck reading that, lol.

[waroriole]

That's not what I got out of it at all.. I think you're trying to build a house before laying the foundation with this assertation.

It's best to just ignore him, especially when he gets on his little tangents.

[crowmst3k!]

The article confirmed my concerns about the persistent crony-ism, the lack of perceived importance of going "big" internationally with scouts and signings. For a team that really flushes money down the toilet on some MLB free agent deals (Gonzalez, Atkins), it's hard to believe that they couldn't cough up another 5-10 million to be earmarked for the hiring of scouts and loads of amateur international talent.

If this team wants to become the rays, then why even sign the Gonzalezs and the Atkins of the world? Why not use the plethora of pitching prospects in the system to find a closer and use a cheap and effective guy like Michael Aubrey to man first? That's an easy $18 million that could be used to scout and develop talent that's ripe for the picking in Latin America.

I'm not going to fault MacPhail for this, either. It seems that from day one, he has wanted nothing more than to finally get a foothold in each of these countries and tap into the talent pipeline. The reluctance on an organizational level to put any kind of real bonus money or scouting salary into these areas smacks of an organization that still doesn't care, or doesn't believe the hype about Latin amateur talent. To my mind, that is a decision that comes from ownership, not from a guy who has spent 20+years in a baseball front office.

[SteveA]

Put this on the other Thread.. but will post here too..

Just read it. Nothing earth shattering. I thought it was well done and perfectly summarizes the events that have led to the futility. The piece with AM was interesting but clearly AM decided to get ahead of this article with both an interview with the Sun and appearances on 105.7. A lot of what he said in those interviews were reiterated in Tony's piece. Maybe he was worried about Tony's context. Either way it speaks to the O's perception of the "power" of the Hangout.

Honestly, it hasn't changed my opinion either way. I still can't stand Angelos and I still give AM til next season to make progress on the ML level.

Good Job Tony and thank you!!!

So you don't care at all that we have completely failed in 3 years under MacPhail to make progress on the scouting side, or to even get our scouting and player development people reading out of the same book?

Those are the type of things that a new GM should concentrate on immediately and after 3 years should have made a lot of progress on. And those are things that will AFFECT our "progress on the ML level" for the next decade. Fix it today and you see positive impact on the ML level 5 years from now. Failing to start fixing it immediately after taking over... and you are delaying that progress.

We hired a respected baseball man who had been with good, well-run organizations and had a family history with the Orioles organizaiton which did these things right. Regardless of whether a Matusz or a Wieters was producing at the ML level, before this season I at least had hope that MacPhail was taking steps to get rid of the systemic flaws in the organization ( lack of scouting, lack of coherent coaching philosophy, lack of communication between scouting and player development ). As this season droned on I started hearing hints from Tony and other sources that wasn't true. And now that has been confirmed. He's been here three years nad has done VERY LITTLE to address those systemic flaws. As long as we have those flaws we will wind up having kids come up who are not prepared well for the majors, and who perhaps are not as good as we thought they were.

If you read this and you aren't extremely disappointed in MacPhail, then you are looking at the wrong thing. Whether we got a player for Bradford, or whether Deal X or Deal Y got made, has FAR LESS IMPACT on the long term future of this organization as fixing the systemic problems. And this article seems to indicate that very little progress in fixing the systemic problems has taken place under MacPhail.

[TiredofLosing20]

That's my big question as well. If he's for building through the draft and spending through the draft then he needs to do the same internationally for talent that can be very similar to the rule 4 draft.

I am all for going bonkers internationally, but that market is very different then the amateur draft market I think.

[JTrea81]

"I have no interest in making Mark Teixeira look bad,” said MacPhail. “What's done is done. Who's to say he made the wrong decision? I don't think I would have done anything different. The offers that were publicized at the time were accurate and I think what I made clear was that we had more room. Not that it was going to be what he ended up getting."

MacPhail insists that the idea that he was inflexible on his offer was incorrect, but it appears he was waiting for Teixeira to make the next move.

"It wasn't that we were inflexible, a take-it-or-leave-it. We were like, ‘Here's what we have and we're prepared to go a little more.’ If he was serious in engaging us, that was his opportunity to do it, and he chose not to do it. They got a better deal elsewhere in a more competitive circumstance. Everybody acted in their own self-interest."

That lays it out pretty cut and dry for me.

MacPhail is the reason Teixeira is not an Oriole, and will be the reason why you will not see a premium FA signed under his watch.

Forget about Fielder, Dunn and anybody who costs over $10 million per season.

It's pathetic really.

[SilentJames]

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "instability"?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7005552.ece

Headline: "Second day of violent anti-Hugo Chávez protests rock Venezuelan capital" From this past January.

Now, I'm not saying this is a real cause, just speculation. But Chavez is Chavez and he has been in power since 1999. With Chavez its not as simple as "just buying some land". Caldera was much easier to deal with.

The VSL was started in 1997, and apparently the Orioles were there, but for some reason left. Don't know why.

[NewMarketSean]

Good article, Tony and props for forcing MacPhail to address some serious issues that the Baltimore media has failed to do for years.

A lot of it is stuff we already knew, and stuff that has been rumors for years and now confirmed.

What I took away from it is what I have felt about the O's for years -- there is just no urgent desire to get better. They don't want to be the best at anything...they are content to say "things are getting better" when in reality, the team's record is only getting worse.

The article didn't make me want to burn my O's gear, but it definitely didn't want to cheer me up.

[soxhotcorner14]

Yeah, I get why he did it. But, if you don't trust the people around you, I think you have to bring in folks from outside that you do trust. That way you're not hamstring, and it makes it easier to bury the people like Dave Stockstill who are only a drain on the team.

I think he's trying to do that, but you have to remember it takes time. For instance he brought in Dickerson this year for a lack of a better term an "on-field director" for the O's organization. He brought him in from the Cubs, which we all know AM is familiar with. It takes time to get people to jump ship, good people you trust.

OTOH, I'm not dismissing that the rate of turnover shouldn't be a little bit better. But as AM has pointed out he admits to being very deliberate. So that's why I think thinks are happening a slower pace than we'd all like to see. Just my opinion.

[SilentJames]

That lays it out pretty cut and dry for me.

MacPhail is the reason Teixeira is not an Oriole, and will be the reason why you will not see a premium FA signed under his watch.

Forget about Fielder, Dunn and anybody who costs over $10 million per season.

It's pathetic really.

How you get that from those statements is beyond me.

Mark Texieria is the reason Mark Texieria is not an Oriole, end of story. And with this one statement we see the ENTIRE REASON for your AM delusion. You are the worst.

[bOhs01]

I am all for going bonkers internationally, but that market is very different then the amateur draft market I think.

To clarify I mean similar in that it's young talent you can develop instead of pricey veteran talent like free agency. Although much more risky then the rule 4 draft

[NewMarketSean]

Also, "sharing" a facility with the Tigers is a freaking embarrassment.

[bOhs01]

How you get that from those statements is beyond me.

Mark Texieria is the reason Mark Texieria is not an Oriole, end of story. And with this one statement we see the ENTIRE REASON for your AM delusion. You are the worst.

Perfectly said.