Winter of wondering for Orioles

Entering last offseason, the Orioles were at a crossroads. New club president Andy MacPhail decided an overhaul was needed.

[jjames]

I find it very stupid that belief in media (those that know NOTHING about any talent evaluation or associated business decisions) should be given ANY credence in exact truth. Quite possibly, the editorial staff of the SUN should use people with TRUE knowledge, not scribe idiots. The current group cannot properly evalutate their own position or TRUE KNOWLEDGE base

[leon trotsky]

I fear i'll be dead before this team competes again

[jono]

There is no way the O's will pay big money for a player like Texeira after just a year ago opting to unload big money players like Tejada and Bedard to try and rebuild. The whole point of their rebuilding effort is based on the notion that the team cannot hope to compete with teams like the BoSox and Yankees in free agency, and so needs to home-grow cheaper talent. This is what the Rays have done, and before them, the Angels. It's the whole "MoneyBall" concept, and it's how a team like Baltimore can hope to be competitive. So expect the team to absolutely not pay big bucks in free agency for anyone in the near term, and for sure not a player who is hoping for anything close to $100 million. If anything, expect to see a few fan favorites go by the wayside; ie expect the team to continue to try to unload older major leaguers for young raw talent. If the team invests in free agents, they will be young pitchers, no way an expensive first baseman. There are too many holes in this team to think about spending $80+ million on any one player. Until they have 4 more reasonably competent pitchers, it's somewhat useless to land a top dollar position player.

[maniak]

angelos has 18 sellouts guaranteed per year. With MASN he doesn't need any more revenue and will NOT invest in tghis club. It is key for McFail to at least appear to be trying to help...sota like the Dems and their constituency, the ignorant middle and poor.