“Loyal” is the only part that implies acceptance. And, sure, I love the bird on the hat and the team itself no matter how badly they play. But that doesn’t mean that there never comes a time to put higher expectations in place. Now is that time, and now has been that time since MacPhail took over.

We said from the beginning: 2010 is where we start looking good, 2011-12 is where contending becomes a realistic goal.

I’m ready for that. Very much ready. And if it doesn’t happen for some reason, I’m ready to evaluate why and call a spade a spade if necessary. I won’t suddenly hate the team, and I’m pretty sure they won’t suddenly hate me/us. We all (well, most of us) have the same goals.

To the discussion of baseball’s economic system: eh. It’s broken, and I’ve said that before many times. It’s not getting fixed anytime soon, so I think it makes more sense to focus on discussing what’s possible given what we have.

i’m really quite passionate when i’ve had four bottles of wine.

i really do admire you guys – if i ever design a sport i’ll be like “dude i know some fans who’ll watch forever” haha.

I am glad, though, that it’s “officially” the time to stop just accepting and start actually turning a discerning eye towards Andy MacPhail has arrived. I’ve been saying for a while now that for whatever reason this winter feels like a watershed moment. It’s just nice to know I’m not alone in that feeling.

There is an awful lot of work to be done, and anyone who thinks the Orioles are even midway towards their goal (in terms of roster construction) is definitely drinking the kool-aid. But that progress can be pushed or pulled dramatically this winter…

Yes we have been supportive, blindly at times, of Andy MacPhail since he came on board. Why? Because of his track record and because the organization pre-MacPhail was Redskin-esque. Because as soon as he came on board, things started to change from Angelos on down to the field. I won’t go through the list of accomplishments that MacPhail has brought to the Orioles since his tenure, we all know it. On the field, though, it boils down to having ridden the team of costly veterans, having acquired good young talent, having rebuilt the farm system, and then finally this year, seeing the fruits of all that at the major league level. It didn’t translate to wins, but name me another young team in baseball that has a core as talented as: Markakis, Jones, Wieters, Reimold, Bergesen, Tillman, Matusz.

Now here’s what I’m saying: all this time, us O’s “apologists” haven’t just been drinking orange Kool-Aid without thinking. What we were doing was saying, let’s give this a fighting chance, let’s give Andy some time to right the ship and let’s understand that it’s going to take some time because shit hasn’t been done right around here for over a decade. To me, that’s not Kool Aid, that’s just straight up sound thinking. We never said, “Andy we’re with you no matter what”. We’ve always said, “Andy, we’re with you unless you prove that your plan isn’t going to work.” The plan is fully in place (sort of, we still need Josh Bell and Arrieta). Now is the time to acquire quality veterans, to really see if this plan is going to produce results.

If it doesn’t, us “apologists” are going to call it like we see it, and I guarantee that. Because we’ve never been just apologists. But where I agree with BBM, is that if the plan doesn’t work, it’s going to be more baseball’s fault than it will Andy MacPhail’s.