The O's need to get their Priorities in check!!!!!

[DScott]

I cant believe the O's didnt try to outplay the yanks when they were trying to get Pavano.Pavano spent like 2or3 days at Camden Yards checking out the place and the people.He seemed interested to me, and the front office didnt put up a fight against the Yanks.They also could have showed a little more interest in a Tim Hudson trade too,before the Braves got him.We have a whole lot more prospects than the Braves and could have offered them a whole lot more young talent than the Braves.We dont need anymore bats like Delgado and Sexson.These guys werent really interested in Bmore anyway since Sexon signed with another and other teams are interseted in Delgado.The Orioles had one of the highest batting averages in the league last year and Im pretty sure it will be like that again.We need starting pitching and we need it now!!!!!!!!!!

[rubisco43]

Re: The O's need to get their Priorities in check!!!!!

We've been afraid to pull the trigger since the late 90's when our team of overpriced, underperforming players made Angelos sick to his stomach. Aside from Tejada last year, name a marquee guy we've signed... NONE. And I don't see it changing, especially with the DC team in jeopardy. There's no incentive to build our team now with no competition. Delaware doesn't have a team, neither do the Carolina's or either Virginia's. So basically we own the entire market to the south of us.

[rubisco43]

Re: The O's need to get their Priorities in check!!!!!

We've been afraid to pull the trigger since the late 90's when our team of overpriced, underperforming players made Angelos sick to his stomach. Aside from Tejada last year, name a marquee guy we've signed... NONE. And I don't see it changing, especially with the DC team in jeopardy. There's no incentive to build our team now with no competition. Delaware doesn't have a team, neither do the Carolina's or either Virginia's. So basically we own the entire market to the south of us.

[CMH]

Re: The O's need to get their Priorities in check!!!!!

Javy Lopez? Sidney Ponson? Those guys are good players. Maybe you rooting for the team has you overlooking it. Yea, Ponson had a bad year, but he's a marquee 3rd starter (ok so I'm pushing it )

Anyway, it might not be entirely Baltimore's fault. If I'm a free agent and I see the Yankees and Red Sox in the same division, chances are I'm not going to want to join the Orioles.

[CMH]

Re: The O's need to get their Priorities in check!!!!!

Javy Lopez? Sidney Ponson? Those guys are good players. Maybe you rooting for the team has you overlooking it. Yea, Ponson had a bad year, but he's a marquee 3rd starter (ok so I'm pushing it )

Anyway, it might not be entirely Baltimore's fault. If I'm a free agent and I see the Yankees and Red Sox in the same division, chances are I'm not going to want to join the Orioles.

[SPTO]

Re: The O's need to get their Priorities in check!!!!!

I think the reasons why the Orioles aren't going after some of these guys is that the last time they tried doing that kind of stuff the team was underachieving. (save for a couple years where they actually did quite well) Just look at the guys running the Orioles front office. Jim Beatie was the GM in Montreal and he knows a thing or two about finding good young talent to stockpile the minor league system. I think that this is what the Orioles will be trying to do, build up a good minor league system, let them come up to the Bigs and see how they perform. This is exactly what happened with Mike Flanagan as a player. As I recall I think he was a product of "The Oriole Way" so this is what they're trying to acheive.

It may be painful to look at right now but in a few yrs the Orioles will have some good to great talent in the major league level all from their minor league system.

[SPTO]

Re: The O's need to get their Priorities in check!!!!!

I think the reasons why the Orioles aren't going after some of these guys is that the last time they tried doing that kind of stuff the team was underachieving. (save for a couple years where they actually did quite well) Just look at the guys running the Orioles front office. Jim Beatie was the GM in Montreal and he knows a thing or two about finding good young talent to stockpile the minor league system. I think that this is what the Orioles will be trying to do, build up a good minor league system, let them come up to the Bigs and see how they perform. This is exactly what happened with Mike Flanagan as a player. As I recall I think he was a product of "The Oriole Way" so this is what they're trying to acheive.

It may be painful to look at right now but in a few yrs the Orioles will have some good to great talent in the major league level all from their minor league system.

[rubisco43]

Re: The O's need to get their Priorities in check!!!!!

Javy Lopez? Sidney Ponson? Those guys are good players. Maybe you rooting for the team has you overlooking it. Yea, Ponson had a bad year, but he's a marquee 3rd starter (ok so I'm pushing it )

Anyway, it might not be entirely Baltimore's fault. If I'm a free agent and I see the Yankees and Red Sox in the same division, chances are I'm not going to want to join the Orioles.

Me rooting for the team has nothing to do with what I believe are marquee players. If you want to consider Ponson or Lopez "marquee" players, fine you can do so, I don't. Both solid role players and will contribute to the team, but neither can be considered studs. Studs would be like a Hudson, a Randy Johnson... hell, I'll even say Zito would be a marquee guy.

I do agree on your latter point about being in the same division as the Yanks and Sox. We DO have to overpay to get players due to said fact. Yet Angelos won't do it. He won't overpay and he won't give up prospects for star players, so that just leaves us with status quo. He won't overpay because of the failed attempts during the late 90's which put us in our current situation. And he won't like giving up prospects (ie: Maine, Behard, etc) because of our famous Steve Finley, Curt Schilling, and Pete Harnisch for Glenn Davis debacle. But where does that leave us? Yup, in 3rd or 4th place for the 7th consecutive years. I'd rather be in 3rd or 4th place having at least TRIED something during the offseason than be 3rd or 4th with pretty much the same damn team from a year ago.

Like I said, I'm glad we didn't get Pavano (or more accurately, overpay for Pavano). But guys with proven track records like Hudson, we should've made a strong pitch for. The Braves did not give up that much to get him and we had (IMO) better players to give the A's, but we didn't pull the trigger.

[rubisco43]

Re: The O's need to get their Priorities in check!!!!!

Javy Lopez? Sidney Ponson? Those guys are good players. Maybe you rooting for the team has you overlooking it. Yea, Ponson had a bad year, but he's a marquee 3rd starter (ok so I'm pushing it )

Anyway, it might not be entirely Baltimore's fault. If I'm a free agent and I see the Yankees and Red Sox in the same division, chances are I'm not going to want to join the Orioles.

Me rooting for the team has nothing to do with what I believe are marquee players. If you want to consider Ponson or Lopez "marquee" players, fine you can do so, I don't. Both solid role players and will contribute to the team, but neither can be considered studs. Studs would be like a Hudson, a Randy Johnson... hell, I'll even say Zito would be a marquee guy.

I do agree on your latter point about being in the same division as the Yanks and Sox. We DO have to overpay to get players due to said fact. Yet Angelos won't do it. He won't overpay and he won't give up prospects for star players, so that just leaves us with status quo. He won't overpay because of the failed attempts during the late 90's which put us in our current situation. And he won't like giving up prospects (ie: Maine, Behard, etc) because of our famous Steve Finley, Curt Schilling, and Pete Harnisch for Glenn Davis debacle. But where does that leave us? Yup, in 3rd or 4th place for the 7th consecutive years. I'd rather be in 3rd or 4th place having at least TRIED something during the offseason than be 3rd or 4th with pretty much the same damn team from a year ago.

Like I said, I'm glad we didn't get Pavano (or more accurately, overpay for Pavano). But guys with proven track records like Hudson, we should've made a strong pitch for. The Braves did not give up that much to get him and we had (IMO) better players to give the A's, but we didn't pull the trigger.

[rubisco43]

Re: The O's need to get their Priorities in check!!!!!

I think the reasons why the Orioles aren't going after some of these guys is that the last time they tried doing that kind of stuff the team was underachieving. (save for a couple years where they actually did quite well) Just look at the guys running the Orioles front office. Jim Beatie was the GM in Montreal and he knows a thing or two about finding good young talent to stockpile the minor league system. I think that this is what the Orioles will be trying to do, build up a good minor league system, let them come up to the Bigs and see how they perform. This is exactly what happened with Mike Flanagan as a player. As I recall I think he was a product of "The Oriole Way" so this is what they're trying to acheive.

It may be painful to look at right now but in a few yrs the Orioles will have some good to great talent in the major league level all from their minor league system.

it's not interest in going after players, it's the players they're going after that I question. We DO NOT need hitters. We were 5th in average and 5th in runs scored last year. we need to focus our attention on getting better on the mound. starters killed us last year. had we not moved lopez into the rotation and had a complete surprise in cabrera, we would've finished no better than 4th. going into next year, our rotation looks something like

lopez
ponson
cabrera
bedhard
ainsworth/riley

we need an ace to balance the top and bottom of our rotation.

[rubisco43]

Re: The O's need to get their Priorities in check!!!!!

I think the reasons why the Orioles aren't going after some of these guys is that the last time they tried doing that kind of stuff the team was underachieving. (save for a couple years where they actually did quite well) Just look at the guys running the Orioles front office. Jim Beatie was the GM in Montreal and he knows a thing or two about finding good young talent to stockpile the minor league system. I think that this is what the Orioles will be trying to do, build up a good minor league system, let them come up to the Bigs and see how they perform. This is exactly what happened with Mike Flanagan as a player. As I recall I think he was a product of "The Oriole Way" so this is what they're trying to acheive.

It may be painful to look at right now but in a few yrs the Orioles will have some good to great talent in the major league level all from their minor league system.

it's not interest in going after players, it's the players they're going after that I question. We DO NOT need hitters. We were 5th in average and 5th in runs scored last year. we need to focus our attention on getting better on the mound. starters killed us last year. had we not moved lopez into the rotation and had a complete surprise in cabrera, we would've finished no better than 4th. going into next year, our rotation looks something like

lopez
ponson
cabrera
bedhard
ainsworth/riley

we need an ace to balance the top and bottom of our rotation.