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Yesterday there was an article in the Baltimore Sun stating that the Orioles would consider bringing back Davey Johnson if they fire Sam Perlozzo.
Davey Johnson back in Baltimore?
BRING HIM BACK, NOW!
I know the history of bringing back coaches/managers to the same organization after great runs is not good. Just look at Earl Weaver and Joe Gibbs. My response to that?
BRING HIM BACK, NOW!
As I've stated here many times, the real problem with the Orioles is not the manager, or the co-GM's, or the players. The real problem with the Orioles is Peter G. Angelos. That said,
BRING HIM BACK, NOW!
Davey Johnson won't solve the O's bullpen woes, their erratic starting pitching, and their DH/1B, no-power threat lineup. My thoughts?
BRING HIM BACK, NOW!
All of that said, Davey Johnson will bring one thing that has been missing since his ugly departure nearly 10 years ago: HOPE!
Davey Johnson is one of the best managers of the last 25 years. In New York, Cincinnati, and Baltimore he took proud franchises back to their winning ways. Very simply, he is a WINNER.
Davey Johnson is one of the best handlers of bullpens I've ever seen. The O's have a lot of talent in the 'pen.
Other than Boston, the AL East is down. Give Johnson 100 games with this ragtag bunch and allow his input in the offseason and the O's could be winners next year. They have a nice core: Roberts, Bedard, Tejada, Markakis, Ray. They have some other terrific young pitching talent: Cabrera, Loewen, Guthrie. These guys need a proven winner to command their respect.
Before last season, the Tigers had had 12 consective losing seasons. They had a nice mix of veterans and young pitching. They hired a proven winner as a manager, even though he had not managed in 6 years. The result? A World Series berth.
Peter Angelos, BRING HIM BACK, NOW!
As another Orioles season disintegrates into uninteresting mediocrity, I saw a number that blew my mind. The Orioles have the 10th highest payroll in baseball at $95.11 million, just behind the defending AL champion Tigers at $95.18. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. What kind of idiot pays this much money for the crap the O's put out on the field every night? Peter Angelos, of course!
The number one problem with the Orioles is they have no organizational philosophy. When the Oriole Way finally died in the early 80's, culminating in the 0-21, 107-loss disaster of 1988, the O's decided to rebuild. At that time the O's had a plan in place driven by a philosophy. They were going to build the team around pitching and defense. They were going to trade old for young. And they decided to build the team around 28 year old Cal Ripken. While it seems crazy now, there were discussions about trading him because he was their most valuable commodity. Luckily, Ripken was young enough (and obviously talented enough) to build around.
That summer the O's traded Mike Boddicker to the Red Sox for a couple of minor league prospects - Brady Anderson and Curt Schilling. They released Scott McGregor. They traded Fred Lynn for a prospect - Chris Hoiles. They started Jeff Ballard and eventually Bob Milacki, Pete Harnisch, and Curt Schilling every 5th day. After the season they traded Eddie Murray for a top prospect, SS Juan Bell, and 2 young major league pitchers - Brian Holton and Ken Howell. They then traded Howell for 28 year old Phil Bradley. They traded Mike Morgan for 22 year old Mike Devereaux. They drafted Gregg Olson in '88, Ben McDonald in '89, and Mike Mussina in '90, all young pitchers. While not all of the moves worked out (e.g. the Eddie Murray trade), they had a philosophy and stuck with it. The result? Surprisingly, in 1989 the O's went into the final weekend of the season just 1 game back of the division lead. While they fell short, they had a nice core on which to build.
Of course, the Orioles made a major misjudgment in 1991. Thinking they were just a big bat away from contending, they traded Schilling, Harnisch, and young Steve Finley for slugger Glenn Davis. Davis got hurt while Schilling and Finley went on to very long, successful, and in Schilling's case, Hall of Fame, careers. Harnisch didn't last as long but had a nice 10 year career.
While that poor decision and some bad luck with injuries (McDonald & Olson) took away what could have been a dominant team, the plan and philosophy led to a nice core of players who were the leaders of the '96 & '97 playoff teams - Ripken, Anderson, Mussina, and Hoiles. When Angelos bought the team in '93 he loosened the purse strings enough to allow the team to get Rafael Palmeiro and BJ Surhoff while the team made a smart trade to pick up Scott Erickson from the Twins.
Since chasing away Pat Gillick in 1998, for some unknown reason Angelos won't hire competent baseball people and allow them to develop and execute a plan guided by an organizational philosophy. Since the big-name free agents want nothing to do with Angelos, the O's end up filling their "holes" every year with overpriced second-tier free agents like Ramon Hernandez, Aubrey Huff, Kevin Millar, and Javy Lopez. And since they don't have an organizational philosophy, they end up with 3 DH-1B who can't field and shouldn't bat any higher than 6th and overpriced, crappy middle relievers ($6M Danys Baez, $4M Jamie Walker, and $2M Chad Bradford). Yet they wouldn't spend $3M on BJ Ryan 3 years ago and lost him to the Blue Jays. Instead of tearing down a shack to build a mansion, they try to patch the holes in the roof, put a few nails in it, and call it improved. When it starts falling apart again in the fall, they do the same thing the next winter.
Angelos, if you're not going to adopt a philosophy and allow baseball people to execute it, then sell the team!
The Orioles have been one of the worst organizations in sports the last 10 years. But what I witnessed yesterday was one of the most inexplicable collapses I have ever seen any team suffer in any sport.
With one out in the 9th inning, Jeremy Guthrie, a former first-round pick of the Indians smartly grabbed off of waivers this winter, was working on a 3-hit, 5-0 shutout of the Red Sox. The O's were looking at an improbable series win in Fenway, despite not having their top 2 starters pitch and going against Schilling and Beckett. The O's were about to even their record at 19-19. It looked like a chance for the O's to build some real confidence in their Quest for 82.
On an 0-2 pitch and nobody on base, Guthrie got a weak pop-up in front of the plate. Just when it looked like Guthrie might complete the shutout, Ramon Hernandez dropped the pop-up, allowing the runner to reach first. Then, for some unknown reason, Sam Perlozzo went to the bullpen, despite the fact that Guthrie had only thrown 91 pitches. Three hits, three walks, and an error later the $42 million bullpen had given up 6 runs, leading to a 6-5 loss.
In my 30 years of being a baseball fan the only 2 bigger collapses I've seen were the '86 Red Sox in Game 6 of the World Series and the '03 Cubs in Game 6 of the NLCS. Obviously those were much more important games but for a fan base looking for some hope, any kind of hope, this was devastating.
A loss like yesterday either completely makes or breaks a team. There's rarely an in-between. Either the Orioles will be unified after yesterday's game and get hot, or they will be completely demoralized and go into a deep funk. Given the losing atmosphere that surrounds Camden Yards under the Angelos regime, I expect the latter.
Five weeks into the season and I'm quickly realizing that nothing has changed with the O's. They're still mediocre with little hope for improvement.
Right now the O's are 14-17. What is more telling is the breakdown of their record. Against the best teams they've played (Minnesota, Detroit, Oakland, Boston, and Cleveland) they're 4-15, with 3 of those wins coming against Cleveland. (If Cleveland ends up falling just short of the playoffs, they're going to kick themselves for screwing around playing the O's). Against the weakest (or most injured) teams they've played (Yankees, Tampa Bay, Kansas City, and Toronto) they're 10-2.
On top of that, an organization with little depth due to years of poor drafts and lousy development has now lost 2/5 of its starting rotation. Jaret Wright was no surprise (and no big loss) but losing Adam Loewen for most of the year hurts. Not so much because he was expected to win 15 games, but because he needs experience to harness his great potential.
At this point it looks like the O's are going to have to play over their heads to win even 78 games. I could handle that if I understood that it was part of a plan. But as long as Angelos is owner, there will never be a plan. Nor hope.
