The General Manager (or Executive VP of Baseball Operations) position here in Baltimore is not for the faint of heart. Before even discussing the financial resources of New York, and Boston, or the brain-power of the Tampa Bay and Toronto front-offices; one has to first consider the situation here in Baltimore. When Dan Duquette was announced to the Charm City media November 8th, Duquette inherited the organizations 14 consecutive years of losing, and the animosity and/or ambivalence that losing has generated from the fan-base.
Animosity and ambivalence might seem to be adjectives in direct opposition, but they are both accurate descriptions of Baltimore baseball circa 2012. A lot of average fans have been beaten down by the losing, and are generally ambivalent to anything the organization does. They are not paying attention to minutia, because they can not get past their bigger picture reasoning that nothing can change for the Orioles, until Majority Owner Peter Angelos no longer holds that title. These fans throw their collective hands into the air, and limit their emotional investment. Maybe there is some logic to this. Maybe it is a defensive mechanism. Either way, apathy from fans (or would be bigger fans) is as crippling to a franchise, as the continued losing is as debilitating to the fans.
For the fans that allow themselves to continue to feel anything, the default setting is usually anger and that growing animosity. With the benefits of Facebook, Twitter, Radio etc; you can see in real-time how the blood boils from these people every-time something occurs in Birdland. Yesterday’s trade of Guthrie being an example.
It should be clear to anyone, you can not hold Duquette responsible for the organization he inherited. You can only hold him responsible for the actions after his hire. Prior to Duquette’s hire, the view of many was that it did not matter who was hired. That whoever was hired would ultimately fail just as MacPhail, Flanagan, Jim Duquette, Beattie, and Thrift before him. That whomever was hired would not be able to bring about significant change to the organization.
My feeling is the past three months have proven that opinion (that it did not matter who was hired) wrong. I’d argue that Duquette has brought more change to the O’s organization in these three months, than any of the aforementioned Executives brought the O’s in their entire collective tenures.
Some examples:
1) Amateur Scouting Director Joe Jordan has been replaced by Gary Rajsich (formerly the National Cross-checker for Toronto).
2) Under Rajsich, the existing Professional Scouts have been resigned to the Amateur side, and the O’s will rely more video and statistical analysis while evaluating players on other teams.
3) Boston’s Southeast Cross-checker Danny Haas has been hired as the National Cross-checker for Baltimore.
4) Fred Ferreira has come on-board as the Executive Director of International Recruiting. Ferreira has helped bring in 10 new international scouts, working in the Dominican, Venezuela, Curacao, Guatemala, Holland, and Costa Rica. Ferreira has stated the O’s are looking into adding a Venezuelan academy.
5) Ray Poitevint has also joined the International Department, as Executive Director International Baseball.
6) Former Phillies General Manager Lee Thomas has been added as an assistant to Duquette.
7) Rick Peterson has been hired as Director of Pitching Development.
8) Stephen Walters has been hired as an Economic Advisor.
Whether those hires ever represent improvement with the on-field results remains to be seen, but denying the change these moves represent seems foolish to me.
That said, when I grade the O’s Off-season, yesterday’s trade had me dropping my Grade from B-/C+ down to a C. I believe the Orioles did an adequate job of matching (or possibly exceeding Guthrie’s ’12 production). The priority though should have been getting back players with youth, upside, and years of team control. If that was not possible (Duquette has been quoted as saying it was not), I think I would have preferred to have gambled that Guthrie’s market would have improved prior to the non-waiver deadline. Past that trade, the moves for Teagarden and Eveland were also underwhelming.
I’m at a C overall, because while I am very enthusiastic about the organizational moves made, clearly more on-field talent needs to be obtained. To be clear, I do think Duquette has done a good job of improving the 40 man roster. Chen might be the acquisition with the most upside, but improvement is improvement, even if it is minimal. If you look at the 40 man roster from the end of the season, to now, there has been incremental improvement at a number of spots.
This grade can still move in either direction. I am very interested to see if the O’s will make a substantial bid for Cespedes. My contention for sometime has been that they will. A trade or extension of Jones could widely swing the grade as well. I can get behind a trade (depending on the return), or an extension (depending on the contract) either way, but I’d love to see resolution either way prior to the end of Spring Training.
The conclusion is that there have been some legitimate positives accomplished, with more work to be done. We will see where the evaluation goes from here.
You can grade the O’s Off-season at the BSL Message Board: https://baltimoresportsandlife.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=393&start=10
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Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.