Roch Kubatko Presumes a Serious Rebuild is Underway

Joined: Oct 25, 2007 Posts: 34

Quote:

O's overhaul overdue
Roch Kubatko -- On Baseball

November 4, 2007

It looks more and more like the Orioles have shifted into a serious rebuilding mode. I'm guessing team president Andy MacPhail wasn't overly impressed with what he saw this summer or what he heard at the organizational meetings.

Unfortunately, the "rebuilding" should have started sooner and been done more effectively. A lot of years have been lost. Now fans will be asked to remain patient while prospects work their way up from the lower levels of the farm system and veterans are dealt for more prospects who are closer to the majors but aren't going to bring you a title in 2008.

My question: How many of you are willing to "remain patient" through this process? And will MacPhail still be around in a few years to see it through, or will he be our next commissioner once Bud Selig steps aside?

My published response:
I'm not as optimistic as Roch that we'll see real results this offseason. Instead, I've been made a bit callous having lived through the last ten years and the vacuous lawyerese promises of "being right in the faces of the Yankees and Red Sox." "We are coming back strong next year. I know you have heard that tune before, but this time it will literally come true," Angelos promised two years ago.

If the rebuilding mode was serious, then Crowley would also be looking for work. As long as Angelos is committed to keeping "fan favorites" such as Tejada, Mora, and Roberts, there won't be a serious rebuild either. Make no mistake, MacPhail still has to run those type of major deals by Angelos. Therefore, if, for example, Tejada were to be traded, it would be an indication that the times have changed.

Let's assume that Angelos has given the green right to a partial rebuild. Stop gaps and band-aid fixes are what gave us the last ten years of mediocrity. Fans have no choice but to wait for results of a real rebuilding effort.

The real questions are will Roberts and Bedard be content to stay here and watch it happen and will MacPhail be around long enough to see it to completion. My answer to both questions is "no." There has already been speculation that the Oriole will attempt to resign Bedard and he won't accept the offer. Bedard, Tejada, and possibly Roberts are our biggest trade pieces in a rebuild effort. Payton and Gibbons can't be given away unless we duct tape a large check on their backs payable to the team that takes them off our hands.

Joined: Oct 25, 2007 Posts: 50

True, true, all the way through.

Quote:

Make no mistake, MacPhail still has to run those type of major deals by Angelos.

That is the point that Kubatko and Schmuck and the rest find all too easy to forget. As long as ineptitude is rewarded (Crowley), as long as the farm is barren (it is), as long as the front office refuses to trade overpaid veterans (Tejada, Mora, Roberts, etc.) for prospects and instead stupidly acquires mediocre castoffs (Payton, Trachsel, Patterson, Bako, Benson, Conine, Surhoff, Sosa, ad infinitum, ad nauseam), and as long as blue-chippers refuse to sign here (a list longer than your arm now headed toward Erik Bedard), I refuse to jump aboard the media's Golden Light at the End of the Rainbow bandwagon and start singing Hallelujah. One Peter G. Angelos is still the top frog around here, and not unlike Pinocchio, his nose continues to grow longer to embarrassing proportions. Until that changes I will refer you to a certain promise cited oft by Bill about coming back strong next year, about being right in the faces of the Yankees and Red Sox, and about it literally coming true.