Monthly Archives: October 2018

I’ve said previously that with all of the former 2018 Baltimore Orioles in the MLB playoffs, the Buck Showalter era is indirectly living on in absentia. I suppose that might come off as a bit of a stretch. But if you think about it, there’s some truth behind that statement.

New York fell to Boston last night, 4-3. That was an elimination game, so Boston now advances to play Houston in the ALCS. New York won 100 games in 2018, which in most seasons and in most divisions would have been enough to win the division. Not this year in the AL East.

New York of course had to play an elimination game at home last week against Oakland, and then jump head first into a best-of-five ALDS against their rivals (Boston). And as the Orioles and Oriole fans will tell you, those Wild Card Games will take a lot of out you. Obviously you’d rather play in the Wild Card Game as opposed to staying home. However they aren’t exactly pleasant experiences – win or lose.

The O’s won seven games and dropped 12 to New York this year. The only team in the American League against whom they won more games was Tampa (8). Granted going 7-12 against a division foe isn’t winning you any titles. However at the very least the Birds were slightly more competitive aainst New York than they were against most other teams.

You see where I’m going with this, I’m sure. New York finished eight games behind Boston in the standings. The O’s went 3-16 against Boston – had they ended up with a similar record against New York, the division is much tighter. And who knows how things play out at the end of the day?

New York still would have had some work to do given that circumstance in order to stay out of the Wild Card Game. But the fact is that you just don’t know how things end up playing out. So one way or the other, the influence of the Orioles was felt – directly or otherwise.

I maintain that the Baltimore Orioles made a mistake in not retaining now former manager Buck Showalter. But what’s done is done. Having said that, maybe I shouldn’t include that former title just yet. Showalter’s contract doesn’t expire until the end of the month. So technically he’s still the manager of the Orioles. But I digress.

When Buck first got here he non-ceremoniously announced that this would be his final managing job. It wasn’t a comment that received a lot of fanfare, but I remember him saying something to that effect. One has to wonder if he feels differently now.

Let’s say that he does feel differently. Let’s say that at 62, he wants to manage – next year. Where could he possibly go? I’ll start with the most obvious: the Anaheim Angels. That’s a team that could in theory be a contender now with the right leadership. Furthermore it’s a team that’s used to a veteran manager and a steady hand. Overall, Showalter would very nicely fill a vacuum there.

Minnesota is also looking for a new skipper, and while that’s a team that might need just a bit more building, it’s also a possible fit. The same is true but moreso (in the building part) in Texas. Showalter lives in Dallas, and is a former Texas manager. So that would be a homecoming of sorts.

Ultimately I think it matters what Buck himself wants to do. His credentials as a manager are well-known. If he wanted to manage now I think there would be no shortage of suitors. But it wouldn’t surprise me if he took a year off. Maybe re-evaluate things after next season. But I don’t see Buck going the way of other former Oriole managers and either becoming a scout or a perpetual assistant. If he wants to be a manager moving onward, he will be.

The Baltimore Orioles won’t begin the search for Buck Showalter‘s replacement until they have a new General Manager in place. That guy will then apparently have full autonomy in hiring a manager. However Showalter wasn’t retained after a season in which anything that could go wrong, did. Maybe that’s a reason to look elsewhere, but it’s also a trend in MLB.

A trend that I would argue has newly changed and for the worse. It’s only because of this season that Showalter has an overall losing record with the Orioles. But I think you have to look at the overall body of work. And the overall body of work says that Buck’s a winner.

Having said that, Minnesota let go of Paul Molitor, who was the 2017 Manager of the Year this past week. Took the team to the post season, was voted Manager of the Year, and the next year was let go. Molitor was THEIR GUY. He played for Minnesota way back when (and I was a big fan of his, for the record). Heck, even Joe Maddon in Chicago was talked about as potentially being let go after the Chicago Cubs exited after the wild card game. Tough crowd.

The worst thing that could have happened for managers across the league is that the likes of Aaron Boone had immediate success in New York. It’s one thing when you see someone like Cora in Boston having success, because Cora had paid his dues as an assistant coach in baseball. He finished his playing career, and worked his way up the coaching ranks.

Boone had literally NEVER coached a game in his life. Meaning at any level…ever. He finished his playing career and started in a media role. He was then hired as the manager of the New York Yankees. Now mind you, I’d put his baseball savoir faire as fairly high given his career and given his family name. But what does it say about the coaching industry when someone who’s never done it and didn’t really earn his way there by experience wins on day one?

What it says is that teams are going to be getting much more fickle when it comes to their coaches. Buck Showalter was hired at the tail end of 2010. The team performed brilliantly after that, finishing on two winning months. 2011 was another tough season, although they had a winning September. At the time, it appeared that the team was on the right track however – mainly because the name Buck Showalter had clout.

But given those same circumstances now, do we think there wouldn’t be Orioles fans asking if Buck was the right guy? Of course there would be. Because a guy who had never done it before was winning up the road in New York, and because in the absence of admitting that you’re in full rebuild mode (which the O’s are now), you aren’t given a license to lose.

That doesn’t mean you should have a license to lose per se. But sometimes you know it’s inevitable – such as the next couple of years for the O’s. Look to the NFL, where the same thing is prevalent. The great Jon Gruden went back to take the helm of the Oakland Raiders, and started 0-3. There were people wondering if that was the right choice.

Having high expectations isn’t a bad thing. But you have to be fair to people. When I look at Paul Molitor, I don’t think he was treated fairly. Two years removed from winning the franchise’s first world series in 108 years, would it have been fair to fire Joe Maddon? I’d say not.

Was Buck treated fairly? Tough to say; his contract was up and both parties’ obligations to one another had been fulfilled. However my point is that I feel it’s a disturbing trend in baseball to suggest that it’s okay to cut someone loose after a short time if they aren’t winning right away. Ultimately, you have to give people a chance. As Showalter himself would say, …these aren’t robots. We’re dealing with human beings here.

Yesterday was a ground-shaking day for the Baltimore Orioles. Buck Showalter is out, as is Dan Duquette. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the hiring of Andy MacPhail smack in the middle of the 2007 season. That set in motion the process by which Showalter and company came to Baltimore. Yesterday bookended that era.

For what it’s worth, Director of Player Development Brian Graham will handle the duties generally given to a GM in the immediate interim. However the Orioles also announced last night that they would be looking to fill these positions from outside the organization. That means that nobody who currently works in the front office or on whatever remains of Showalter’s coaching staff would be under consideration.

So in that sense I hope that Orioles fans will be patient. I would remind you that the first move should be to hire a GM. That GM will then look to hire a manager. MLB isn’t a fan of teams making moves like this during the post-season. So with that said if the Orioles don’t make an outward or public move during October, don’t fret. Furthermore, it’s possible that many of the potential managerial candidates may be coaches on the current staffs involved in the post-season.

However simply because a new breeze now blows in the Warehouse, doesn’t mean that fans should forget what Showalter and Duquette’s tenure meant for this team and this city. They’ll be remembered as winners, regardless of what their record states. Both men released statements yesterday very graciously thanking the Orioles and the fans for the opportunities that they were given.

And on that note let me throw one more thing out there – and I’m speaking specifically about the field manager now. Orioles fans should support whomever the new guy ends up being. It’s not his fault that in essence he isn’t Buck Showalter. You never want to be the guy to follow a legend, and whomever the new guy is will have that on his plate. Buck himself would expect no less than 100% support for the new regime.

There will be times moving forward where fans will look back longingly at the Showalter era in Baltimore. I’m no different than anyone else in that regard. I can’t think of a more professional manager, or one who cared more about his players or the fans and the city. He was at home in Baltimore from day one, and that was evident to everyone. To use a Buckism that I’ve heard more than once, “we’re just lucky that he passed our way.”

Opening Day dawned a bright one for Buck Showalter and his Baltimore Orioles. It was a beautiful day, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards was expected to be full. Come the end of the day, the team had done it’s part – with Adam Jones smacking a walk off homer in extra innings to start the season off right with an Opening Day win against Minnesota.

Fast-forward to the middle of July, and the Orioles were quickly looking to sell off the likes of Manny Machado and any other pieces for which they could get a positive return. That Opening Day win ended up being the highlight of the season. A season in which the Orioles hoped they would contend. But one in which everything came crashing to a halt at once.

They say that you can’t win a pennant in April, but you sure can lose one. I’m not sure when it became evident that the 2018 Orioles weren’t going to make it over the finish line. Admittedly I personally believed that the skill on the team would progress back to the players’ mean numbers. In the case of Adam Jones, they somewhat did. But then you have Chris Davis, who at .168, finished with the worst average in major league history.

With the exception of an early season series win in the Bronx, anything that could go wrong for the 2018 Orioles did go wrong. Again, I personally believed that it was nary impossible for the mental errors and overall bad luck of this team to continue. But I was wrong. The Orioles’ two big spring signings, pitchers Andrew Cashner and Alex Cobb, started slow. Part of that was due to little to no time in spring training. Part of it was also due to the fact that when they (and numerous other starters) finally did have good outings, the bats were quiet.

If the Orioles weren’t swept in a series they would perhaps salvage a win in the final game. That seemed to be the pattern up until the end, and including the final series against Houston. So the O’s made the tough decision to be sellers at the trade deadline, trading the likes of Manny Machado and others. The O’s got 15 prospects back, and very much dedicated themselves to a full re-build.

And that’s perhaps the silver lining of this season, as the franchise was newly dedicated to the future. However the path to get to that point was difficult. And once they had re-tooled the roster a bit, it certainly didn’t get any easier. There was seemingly no mercy wherever the Orioles turned over the course of the season.

However the hope coming out of 2018 was the fact that if the organization plays its cards right, there could be sunnier days on the horizon. The Orioles appear firmly planted in attempting to build the team from the ground up, in the manner that Houston and the Chicago Cubs did. Can that be done successfully in the AL East? Beats the heck out of me.

Again, the highlight of the year was Adam Jones’ walk off homer on Opening Day. But it was Jones who also gave us an additional moment to remember on the season’s penultimate day. Many fans had looked forward to that day since perhaps April or May – as the misery would end. However the entire final weekend turned into a love fest between Adam Jones and the city of Baltimore (with Jones’ contract expiring and him appearing set on becoming a free agent). And perhaps…

…the fans themselves were reminded of why they loved this team so much. Win or lose, the Orioles are special. And that’s partly because the fans are special. While there was a lot of grousing (and justifiably so) from the fan base over the course of the summer, the scene this past Sunday at Camden Yards involving Adam Jones left Orioles fans wanting more. Begging for summer to extend even just one more day. That’s obviously not possible. However it shouldn’t go unsaid that when this team heads to Sarasota in February, hope will spring eternal.