What is wrong with the Orioles' system?

The Orioles have a problem and it is a mystery to most. On the Internet and the airwaves, the new clarion call is the Orioles' need to improve their scouting and player development systems. Well, that is great, but I am willing to be dollars to doughnuts that the callers and posters do not know the first thing they are talking about. That is to say, they feel something needs to change, but I doubt that many out there know what the job of a regional crosschecker is.

Of course, they are reacting to another dismal season where all of the arms the Orioles have attempted to grow have been, once again, choked in the weeds. Chris Tillman seems to have forgotten how to throw a fastball and Brian Matusz's velocity has wandered off like a lost toddler in a toy store. Toss in Brad Bergesen's somehow almost X-Men-like ability to attract line drives, Jason Berken's attempt to recover from shoulder issues and Brandon Erbe's lost season, and it is a fair question to ask.

Recently, ESPN and Stats Inc. guru Keith Law was asked that question on 105.7 The Fan. Even he was at a loss. He entertained the fact that it could very simply be bad luck, but one can't operate under that assumption. Furthermore, there are simply too many players with problems to not investigate what is happening. Right?

So let me be the one to post it directly to Andy MacPhail and the Orioles: What are you doing? Are you planning on investigating the organization's player development system to see if there is something that they should be doing differently or better? Are you currently engaged in reforms to correct past problems that will hopefully insulate prospects in the future?

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