vmax Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 MacPhail has to do better. His drafting results are so-so.His veteren signings are ...basicly no impact or improvement.The players he's inking to long term deals and extensions...yawn. You can't turn around a team with 13 losing years with mediocre choices and results.You have to hit big in all the above catagories.He hasn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spen Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 I think he is doing OK. Vlad has been a good signing. Hardy seems to be a good signing. Reynolds is annoying with his average but with his RBIs it could be argued that he is has been a decent signing. Markakis is a good player who is not having a great year. Perhaps most important of all is Roberts, he may be the Orioles best player and he has been out a month. I am not sure how many were drafted under Andy but I have been reasonably impressed with the starting pitching. If they can learn how to pitch when the team is rebounding like this year they may be very dangerous when the team is even better (if all goes well theoretically) in a year or two. Open the checkbook for Adam Jones, hes a keeper. Its hard to go from losing almost 100 games to being good right away. I think the goal of this year was to turn things around, stop the mentality of losing, and be better than last year with hopefully getting close or at 500. If they can do that and look promising for next season they can probably interest a higher caliber of free agents. Right now its frustrating because they win 4 or 5 then lose 4 or 5, but I do think they are markedly better than last year, and thats all I really wanted to see. If my numbers are correct they were 18-46!! this time last year. Wow thats awful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vmax Posted June 17, 2011 Author Share Posted June 17, 2011 I'm happy with this season too...about what I expected...and I'm not after MacPhails head. Here's where I'm going with this... MacPhail's been here 4 years.Name the solid core of players the O's have to build around? They don't have an infield for starters. No 1st baseman of the future, 2nd base, shortstop, 3rd base...You got Weiters, Jones and Britton....and some other pitchers who could step up.I can hang with the down year for Markakas...he'll rebound.I think Roberts is done...can't stay healthy...and they gave him good money. Might end up a bad signing. When healthy he's great. But in 4 years that's all they got. He's got to do better at bringing in talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cravnravn Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Good points Spen, my only concern is trading away those young pitching arms..And also desperate teams do desperate things, they definately need to take their time with the new draft pick in Bundy, I have this gut feeling that hes going to be another Strausberg or worse yet a Ben McDonald. Yeah Im satisified, because there is no quit in this team so far, for the past 13 years all we have seen is the Oh well here we go again attitude. The team is not that far off from contending, we need dependable hitters & fielders at the corners.. Im still holding out hope that this ballclub can put together a 13 out of 15 winning streak and jump back in contention, with no team dominating the AL east, a streak like that could inject some life back into the fans and team, maybe even produce a little "Why Not" talk in August.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spen Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Wow, contention August I think would be a dream but what a good one it would be. I'll be happy within 4 games of 500 or so. I understand what you mean Vmax, I wish there was more of strong core of players but I am not sure I feel Andy has had enough time to do that. The lack of a legit first baseman has been annoying for the last 20 years with the exception of when Raphael was here. Who knows, maybe if they get close to 500 they can interest some better free agents in coming here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vmax Posted September 3, 2011 Author Share Posted September 3, 2011 It's confirmed.They need better players.Andy hasn't found them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papasmurfbell Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 OK I am goong to be the voice of reason. Why would it not take 13 yrs to develop players to make a winning team like the Rays. It has only been 4 yrs of building via the draft. The problem is it will take soooo much patience and also Peter still is in charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dc. Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 The problem still remains scouting (everywhere) and scouting/investment in foreign markets. I still remember last year or the year before when, even after a few years of Andy, we still had one of the smallest Latin American scouting corps in the entire league - and I'm talking contenders employing 20-30 scouts and O's employing 6 or something like that. It was embarrassing. It still is. Our scouting is horrible. It's horrible in the Latin nations where many teams are bringing in young stars. It's horrible for the draft in many cases. It's horrible throughout the minors when it comes to bringing in the right players and retaining the right players. It's horrible in the majors when it comes to scouting other teams and talent - both to prepare our team to play and to evaluate talent for free agency or trades. The minors are also still a mess in terms of coaching and development in general - though we are seeing moderate improvement in the last year under Buck who said it right, along the lines of "if we bring a guy onto of major league team and he doesn't know how to take a lead or cover 2nd base or where to throw the ball on a given play, that's not his fault. Shame on us for putting him through our system and never instilling those skills in him." Finally - I think as a part of development we need more work in training/exercise/endurance whatever you want to call it. I love Nick Markakis. I love Brian Matusz even with his recent struggles. But both need to put on 10-20 pounds of muscle. For Nick, it's about turning his singles into doubles and doubles into home runs - maximizing the obvious talent he has when it comes to seeing and hitting the ball. For Matusz, it's about velocity and endurance and injury prevention. These little twigs who 'know the game' can't play the game as well as they should. Hell, Jacoby Ellsbury has 20+ home runs this year - and no one knows how - but I bet it has something to do with growing up when he got to the majors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papasmurfbell Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 It is peter. Say he was forced out and Cal was allowed to by the team. How long before he had them going in the right direction? Less than 4 yrs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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