Orioles-Pink Sox Open Thread
I keep starting this post, getting fifty or so words in, and deleting it. I just can’t find the words right now.
I’m holding out hope that Garrett Olson will find them for me, at the expense of Paul Byrd.
It’s winnable.
Orioles-Pink Sox Open ThreadI keep starting this post, getting fifty or so words in, and deleting it. I just can’t find the words right now. I’m holding out hope that Garrett Olson will find them for me, at the expense of Paul Byrd. It’s winnable. 8 comments to Orioles-Pink Sox Open Thread |
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I haven’t really been feeling up to watching the Orioles lately, but I’m tuning in to at least the beginning of tonight. Good to have AJ back, since he’s already homered off Byrd. Who knows? I still expect good things eventually out of Garrett Olson, and I sure do expect to see some improved composure or something out there.
Thought to chew on tonight: Was this a successful season or not?
I chewed on it.
Answer: No
It’s an interesting question. If you had asked me three weeks ago I’d have said, absolutely, yes. I really didn’t think they’d Swoon again.
They did, and that changes things.
I still say yes, though, and it has to do with the ideas I advanced in my “now what” post.
It’s a success because we accomplished what we needed to: figured out what we’ve got, and established a base for moving forward.
The bigger question is: will the upcoming offseason be a success or not? I’m going to be very disappointed if we stand pat. I don’t think we should overpay, but we need to bring in a shortstop and a pitcher or two. I think Tomas’ suggestion of Khalil Greene and A.J. Burnett makes a ton of sense.
I’d like to see us in play for Teixeira, but not to the point where it gets ridiculous. If we can get him for 5-6 years and less than $20 million per, cool. I don’t think he’s worth more than that.
So, yeah…success. We have to remember what we wanted back in March and not judge this season off of the raised expectations. We’re pretty much right where we need to be, all things considered.
I agree with Drew, after watching that debacle. It never fails, Oriole baseball in September. I said August and September were the key, and they shit a brick again. And with this schedule, is there any chance they win even 8 games in September?
No. Failure. But I certainly liked what I saw for 66% of the season. Pitching, pitching, pitching.
“Was this a successful season or not?”
In some ways. I think for the minor leagues it was a great step forward. As an organization, I think it was productive. A success? If the Rays make the World Series and lose in game 7, is the Rays season a success? I think that’s an argument I’d have to make.
With that logic, no.. this season was not a success but I believe that we accomplished a lot with very little. We finally saw some games in HD. We signed some young talent from Venezuela to kickstart our international scouting efforts. The trades, don’t have to really talk about those. The offense spark in the second half.
Overall I was very happy with the Orioles for the first 2/3rds, I liked to see people don the black and orange apparel again, it was nice to see some people get excited about baseball again. I’m pretty happy about the Orioles right now and for the future.
I guess in some ways it was successful, but overall it’s probably a no from me. We knew the team was going to be bad, and now they’re showing it. They have played hard though, and a few hitters have really had great seasons. We know Jones is a keeper, as is DT, of course. So those are positives.
My biggest problem with this year is that we have not discovered one legitimate major league starter. We knew Guthrie was good, so this isn’t a surprise. But it’s now questionable whether Cabrera is even a decent #5 starter, so that’s a huge negative. And after that things have been just awful. Not a legit 4 or 5 in the bunch, in my opinion. Maybe, maybe Liz will be OK, but he hasn’t shown it this year. So in that sense the year has been a complete failure. The minors are looking better for sure, but we’re talking about the major league team, right?
And these swoons just kill the fan base. It’s brutal. So until we eliminate these end-of-the-season swoons, we will not have a truly successful season.
Thanks to the magic of RSS, here’s Dan’s Lost Comment:
dan the man Says:
Jones – Success.
Sherrill – Success.
Albers – Success.
Sarfate – Success.
Scott – Success.
Johnson – Success.
Huff – Success.
Guthrie – Success.
Roberts – Success.
Mora – Success.
Markakis – Success.
Tillman, Arrieta, Wieters, Matusz, Mickolio, Snyder, Reimold, Montanez – Success.
Andy MacPhail made trades, reaped the benefits, added depth, hired some good organizational guys, honored the WS teams, brought back the retro bird, put Baltimore on the jerseys, got rid of Jay Gibbons, came up with a real plan for this organization, and allowed Dave Trembley to change the ethos of this team by holding players accountable and preaching pride and respect. Success.
This year is a success because AA Bowie was a success. By the way, I’ll be there on Wednesday for Game 1 of the playoffs.
Sci is right, we didn’t find one god damned major league quality starter this year from AAA. And that sucks. But that doesn’t mean the season is a failure. It just means those players aren’t who we thought they were – yet. There’s still hope for Olson and Liz. But the real major league quality pitchers aren’t ready to be brought up yet. Andy knows now that this organization is in real bad shape. He’s had one full year now to evaluate some shit and you know he’s going to make the right moves.
I’m not too negative, but we’ll probably finish in last place. We have one quality starter…our bullpen is up and down.
Was this season a success? No. Was it more exciting to watch than in past years? Yes.
Cross your fingers for ’09