Your Forgotten Orioles

Wow, I almost forgot about the big Orioles news that happened this past week. That's not a good sign, Orioles!

So Dave Trembley joins the League of Failed Oriole Managers...so I guess he can join Mike Hargrove, Lee Mazzilli, Sam Perlozzo, and Ray Miller in chomping on a cigar and laughing at the Oriole Front Office who are trying to figure out a way out of 13 seasons of losing baseball. I'd feel bad for him, but honestly, I think even Dave wanted out by the end...

I don't follow the Orioles very closely anymore, but I try to keep tabs and be analytical. So, the big question for EVERYONE is WHAT IS THE #$!#@ PROBLEM? How is it teams like Tampa Bay and Toronto can go through reboots and win within a year or two? I understand that a reboot is supposed to take time, but you are also supposed to IMPROVE! In the past 3 years under MacPhail, we have gotten WORSE EVERY YEAR!

So, what do you change?

The manager - It's a band aid on an amputation. Does anyone really expect Juan Samuel to have more luck than Dave Trembley? Does anyone really think if we kidnapped Joe Torre and made him manage here, we'd suddenly be a winning baseball team? Players make the plays, or in our case, SEVERLY SCREW UP the plays

The GM - AMP is the next one on the hot seat...but he hasn't done a lot wrong. Gonzalez was a bad idea, I'll give you that. Atkins hasn't worked out, but he was supposed to be a low risk, low reward stopgap. Tejada hasn't been bad, all things considered. So then you'd have to go after him for not bringing in top dollar talent. But, the great teams grow their players, not buy them. Even the stupid pinstripes have begun growing arms and bats more than buying them. And we've been stockpiling our minor league prospects. And then, look at our prospects last year...Wieters looked like he was putting it together, Adam Jones was a Gold Glover, Nolan Reimold was crushing the ball before his injury, Bergesen was pitching lights out, Matusz was looking good for a greenhorn...but then this year, they all fell apart.

The Players - See above...plus, we can't keep changing player strategy every 2 years. About 4-5 years ago, we went the route of buying the talent when we grabbed Ponson, Javy Lopez, Miguel Tejada, and Raffy. We traded for Sosa a year later too. That did us NO GOOD.

So what? What can be done? Because I can't figure out a damn thing. We don't even have a consistent problem. It used to be our pitching, but our starting pitching (until 2 weeks ago) was being solid. Our bullpen sucks too, but we've been moving failed starters there, so it should get better? Our hitting sucks, but what move do we take there? Brining in one big bat can't solve this. And we tried getting a ton of prospects, none of them are putting 2 and 2 together in the minors.

So, amidst this time of change for the O's, my hopes are bottoming out. All I can hope is this is just 13 years of bad luck stored up and brought on us all in one season. I remember in Brian Billick's last season with the Ravens, where we lost 9 straight, there was a quote from one of the players..."Last year, every bounce went our way...This year, every bounce is going the other way" That about sums up the Orioles. Anything that can go wrong for them, anything you can imagine, ends up happening. Can you even wrap your ahead around who we'll send to the All-Star Game? In all fairness to the rest of the MLB, we should be barred. No one on this team has played well enough to merit an All-Star nod.

So, best to you Juan Samuel. But don't unpack your stuff in the manager's office. As a matter of fact, for your sake, I would start calling other teams and ask for them to take pity and let you be their bench coach or something.

Orioles: The Great Cal Mess of 2010

The Orioles 2010 season woes aside, things just got weirder for the Black and Orange...

So this weekend, former Sun reporter Ken Rosenthal posted a report on Fox Sports that Cal had approached Petey Angelos about a front office job with the O's, but Angelos had reportedly turned him down because he didn't want Cal to steal Andy McPhail's thunder when the Orioles eventually improve. Angelos came out right away and rebuked this, saying that Cal had never discussed a front office job, only affiliation with the Ripken Academy, that he would welcome Cal into whatever post he'd be interested, and that he doesn't see the need for McPhail to share responsibilities with anyone. In my Baltimore, Cal-loving frame of mind, I figured good ole Cal would give us the truth.

Cal released a statement today saying that Angelos never said anything about denying Cal credit, but made some cryptic remarks like "I am more excited now to explore all opportunities and find the right situation that could lead me to the next phase of my life." He did acknowledge that they have had discussion about baseball and the Orioles, with the direction steering towards Cal wanting to join the organization.

So, what do we think of this now? Well, Cal obviously didn't burn any bridges. And I do mean ANY bridges...He spoke nothing but positive spun sugar about Peter Angelos. So while I think that means he wants to keep a good relationship with the O's, it could also mean he doesn't want to get a label for throwing people under the bus if he'd be interested in, say, the Nationals FO...but, please please, before the collective city of Baltimore throws stones at me for even mentioning Cal going somewhere else, I only mean that if the Orioles were to stonewall him, I think he's keeping his options open for other jobs.

That said, I really can't believe that Angelos would be so stupid as to keep Cal at a 10-foot-pole's distance from the franchise. Granted, I can understand the notion about wanting to "protect" McPhail, because if anyone but McPhail rights the Orioles, Peter Angelos goes down as probably one of the worst owners in history. He took a team that had been very prominent and poised for greatness in 95/96, flushed them down the toilet due to personal gripes, and squandered every opportunity to rebuild. And bringing in Cal, who the majority of Baltimore desperately want to buy out Angelos as owner, could just server to make Angelos look more lame duck. But with Cal on board, it would also buy him a LOT of respect from fans, and probably some more leeway in terms of winning now versus soon.

I also think Cal's comments were worded such that I believe Angelos was stonewalling to a point, and Cal just, without throwing him under the bus, put the ball in his court. Now if Angelos doesn't make seomthing happen, he really looks bad since Cal still wants to come here and basically is just waiting for the phone call for a job.

And once again, kudos to Mr. Ripken. The Baltimore son still comes off as the golden boy for sticking with a franchise who so desperately needs a rebuild. It would be very easy for him to sniff around say the Phillies, who would be a little more win now. But once again, it appears Cal stays true to his hometown. And once again, Cal Ripken proves why he is an institution in this....institution.