Thursday, January 18, 2007

Quick Hits: Orioles Rambings and News

More on the Sporting News Article:

Well, there was a lot of talk on the local radio in Baltimore today and well as in Washington about the Sporting News report I opined on earlier. If you happened to have not read the article, here it is.

The Sporting News picked the Baltimore Orioles as the worst franchise in all of baseball. I was listening to the MASN show “Playmakers” today, and the hosts, Roch Kubatko, Amber Theoharris and Steve Stofberg took great issue with the article online.

I think the point of the article was even though the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals have been worse statistically record-wise than the Orioles; the team has much more resources, financial, market and talent-wise and basically should not be as bad as they have been the past decade.

As well, a lot of the onus is once again shouldered on Peter Angelos, the decisions made by the team in terms of free agents and the consistent turnover of staff, front office executives and coaches. Considering the team’s history and former reputation before Angelos owned the team may be another reason why the Sporting News picked the Orioles as the worst baseball franchise.

Personally, I have no qualms about the article, although in my mind we are not the worst franchise in baseball. I think most everything is true, and echoes the sentiments of what fans feel.

The Orioles may not be the worst franchise, but they are one of the worst in the sport.

Sadly, there was a time when the Orioles were considered the model franchise in baseball.

Sports Illustrated Analysis:

Even though the anyalsis about the Orioles from Sports Illustrated isn’t as bad as the Sporting News article, it is still in a way blunt and somewhat brutal. Sports Illustrated’s John Heyman handed out a grade for every team’s winter moves and gave the Orioles a C.

A grade of a C is satisfactory - not good, not bad, but average. Here’s what he says about the team’s moves:

“Peter Angelos should have stuck to the asbestos litigation business. He blew it big-time (even for him) when he rejected a trade last July for Miguel Tejada that would have netted the young and talented duo of Ervin Santana and shortstop Erick Aybar (the Angels are still breathing a sigh of relief over that one). Moreover, Angelos didn't even entertain the idea of rebuilding through a Tejada trade this winter. Angelos seems to enjoy perpetuating mediocrity. On the plus side, rather than waste a ridiculous amount of money this winter, as usual, the Orioles concentrated on one of their greatest areas of need, the bullpen, and did pretty well with most of the contracts by comparison. In all, they signed seven players for $76 million, not terrible by today's standards.” - Grade: C.


I don’t disagree with his analysis at all – I think its spot on. Some may agree Miguel Tejada should have been traded or not, but I think for the good of the team, trading him would have made perfect sense.

I love Miggy, but with his numbers last year, we could have gotten at least a couple of prospects, and some young, serious talent for him. In the end though, the Orioles could not part with a fan favorite, and the organization still believes that they are close to contending. The move would have helped the Orioles get younger, plus given the team flexibility to sign other players.

The bullpen deals were good and needed, but I still think the team spent way too much for it. Aubrey Huff may be an average to above-average, but he was better a lot of the alternatives for the Orioles team.

Why can’t do the Orioles do this? The Nationals, Twins and a few other teams are having a “Winter Caravan” where players and staff members of their respective organization travel around the metro areas of the team’s cities and interact with fans at various stops. The Caravan for the Nationals, Twins.

Again, why don’t the Orioles do this? Considering how bad the team has been, and event like this would help to encourage fans to be positive about the 2007 season & awaken the fan base.

Ok, enough of the negativity today. Wow.

Orioles Mailbag: Spencer Fordin in this week’s Orioles.com mailbag takes a look at the middle infield, specifically, Miguel Tejada and Brian Roberts.

A Great Article on Adam Loewen: Slam Sports Online has a great article on Orioles pitcher Adam Loewen and his goal of spreading baseball throughout Western Canada. Also mentions Justin Morneau, first baseman of the Twins and MVP of the American League.

From the Blogosphere: The Roar from 34 Blog takes a look at Ken Rosenthal's articles on Cal Ripken gives their reflections on them.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Issues such as their abrupt cancelation of FanFest leads to them being the worst organization all around in baseball. There is no doubt about it. At least teams like the Twins, Pirates, Devil Rays, and other small market teams would never cancel their fanfests a mere 9 days before. I'm not saying that teams like the Devil Rays or even Royals have had sucess of late, but at least their organization is a better one. I couldn't agree more with the Sporting News.

Anonymous said...

Issues such as their abrupt cancelation of FanFest leads to them being the worst organization all around in baseball. There is no doubt about it. At least teams like the Twins, Pirates, Devil Rays, and other small market teams would never cancel their fanfests a mere 9 days before. I'm not saying that teams like the Devil Rays or even Royals have had sucess of late, but at least their organization is a better one. I couldn't agree more with the Sporting News.

Unknown said...

Anon - I agree... *sigh*

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