Dissecting this Disdainful Franchise

I feel like now is as good as time as any to really analyze this franchise top to bottom. With Andy McPhail’s contract ending this season, the rumors have been flying about whether he’s going to be back next year or not. Most people are begging that he’s not. I’m the opposite. McPhail has been the most successful at his position in a long time. I’m not saying he’s perfect but he willingly took on one of the hardest jobs in the MLB (trying to make the Orioles good again), tries to get talent on this team, and has the full trust and support of owner Peter Angelos, which is hard to come by. It’s really a vicious cycle about getting talent: to get talented players on your team, the players have to want to come here and they want to come to a team if they know that team could win the WS. However, to be a winning team and contender for the WS, you need talented players! To top it off, to change the President of Baseball Operations yet again would start the entire rebuilding process over. Do you want another 14 years of losing? Didn’t think so.

More after the jump…

In addition to rumors of Andy McPhail being gone, there are rumors of Buck Showalter moving upstairs. No way. He’s not made for that. He’s made to coach and instruct players not find and sign players. Finally, there are rumors of Cal Ripken, Jr. becoming GM. First off, this will not happen soon because he’s said he refuses to do anything for the Orioles until his son is done school. However, even if he changed his mind or when his son graduates, I don’t like this idea either. He isn’t familiar with scouting professional players. I have a better idea: make Cal the GM of the minor leagues. He already works with the minors on player development. He has some knowledge about scouting and all that aaaaand that’s where the true problem lies. The minors.

The minor league system is terrible. How can you expect to win in the future if the players that you are developing for the future aren’t good? Take a leaf from the Rays book and just sign young guy after young guy after young guy, that way you know that at least a few of them have to turn out as good players. The mindset cannot be to go out over-spending millions for has-been veterans (cough..36-year-old Vladimir Guerrero..cough). If this is your mindset, your team will not be good long term. They could have one or two good seasons if the has-beens turn in a good season, which rarely happens anyways. What you need to do is just sign tons and tons of young prospects and then fill in the holes with free agents, but ones that are still relatively young.

Finally, the Orioles need to do some serious firing and re-hiring. The minor league trainers, coaches, and scouts need to be changed completely. Why is it that almost every single pitcher coming out of the Orioles system gets hurt? Because the trainers suck. Why is it that the Orioles seem like the unluckiest team ever because almost all of their top prospects usually don’t work out? Because the coaches suck. Why is it that this franchise loses season after season after season and is one of the most, if not the most, disgraceful team in the league after being one of the most dominating and respecting? Because the scouts suck. There aren’t enough scouts either; the Orioles are a team with one of the lowest number of scouts around. Hire more and hire more effective scouts.

Even if all of these things were to happen, it would still take a while for the O’s to win and contend. However, if these things don’t happen, who knows if we’ll ever see another winning season. Or World Series for that matter.