Yesterday we learned that Andy MacPhail will step down as Orioles president of baseball operations when his contract expires on October 31st. The decision isn't a total surprise, but it will obviously have a big impact on the O's going forward. Let's round up some links on the move…
- Dan Connolly and Peter Schmuck of The Baltimore Sun say that the team's hierarchy has begun to take shape following MacPhail's departure. The situation with Buck Showalter could be similar to when Davey Johnson was hired as manager in 1995, and Johnson helped lure Pat Gillick over to serve as GM.
- MacPhail told Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com that he doesn't expect to offer any input on his replacement.
- Dan Jennings of the Marlins and Tony Lacava of the Blue Jays are on the club's short list for GM, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter).
- The Orioles have not yet asked permission to interview anyone, according to Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun (via Twitter), but that should change soon.
- Both Connolly and Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reiterate that Showalter will remain in the dugout and not take over as GM (all Twitter links). The team is putting together a list of GM candidates according to Rosenthal, and Connolly reports that Showalter will be instrumental in the decision.
- MASNSports.com's Roch Kubatko speculates about some potential candidates to replace MacPhail. Here is MLBTR's list of the top 20 GM candidates.
- Connolly grades MacPhail's tenure as a C-, mostly on the strength of his trades (acquiring Adam Jones, Luke Scott, J.J. Hardy, etc).
- Steve Melewski of MASNSports.com says the first job for the new regime will be to correct the team's scouting and player development system, which has come up short in recent years.
He gets a D. C- is really generous.
A D is really generous.
MacPhail was hired to rebuild the Orioles. He failed in every aspect. After four years, there is still zero talent in the high minors. After four years, the Orioles still have zero international presence. After four years, another pile of money was wasted on mediocre bats and relief pitchers.
MacPhail’s one saving grace, and the only difference between him and every other chump that occupied the big office in the Warehouse before him, is that he tends to make very good trades. But even with those trades, he’s only acquired two quality MLB players over the past four and half years – Adam Jones and J.J. Hardy. I guess I’ll give him a few bonus points for Mark Reynolds here as well.
But it really comes down to talent and on-field results, doesn’t it? Do the Orioles have more talent than they had four years ago? Probably, but not by much. If the talent was there, they wouldn’t have lost 93+ games in each year of MacPhail’s tenure. And the big ugly blemish is in the minors. Where is the talent there? The Orioles have been drafting high for well over a decade, and what do they have to show for it? The organization doesn’t draft very well and they’re even worse at developing talent.
But that’s a whole different story. And hopefully that story will change with a new GM. Hopefully, the new GM will be allowed to fire Joe Jordan and the Stockstill brothers. Jordan, hired in 2004, has been the head of scouting for seven years, and scouting has obviously been horrific for those seven years. The Stockstills have been around and in charge of player development since 2004 as well, and player development has been even worse.
If this organization is going to go anywhere, a lot of people need to be fired. Whoever is hired as GM needs to have full autonomy. But with Peter Angelos in charge, there’s no way that’s going to happen.
He gets a D for a few good trades, updating the Spring training facility, and adding a facility in the Dominican
Who cares where they train? Does that bring in more talent?
The organization is no better than it was the day he was hired. He was brought in to fix a bad organization, and, aside from the handful of trades mentioned, he didn’t do anything. The MacPhail Era was nearly identical to the inept regimes that preceded it.
I’m sorry, but when absolutely nothing improves, aside from the quality and location of a training complex, the guy in charge gets a failing grade.
DROID sent this.
For the Dominican yes it does. For the spring training situation, it brings major leaguers and minor leaguers closer together to facilitate a MUCH better spring training experience. You aren’t right on this stuff. I get your other points, but some of his business decisions, such as this one, were simply good.
I completely agree. MacPhail is a fantastic businessman.
But he’s a terrible GM.
And, once again, he was hired to improve the Orioles, and he didn’t do anything to accomplish that. The way I see it, that earns him a failing grade.
I think C- is it. It’s not the most visible stuff but MacPhail’s mark is a lot of internal infrastructure. It’s sad but the organization was a mess when he started 4.5 years ago. A lot of spread thin affiliates, non-existent International program (still needs work), awful ST complex, scouting and development (as much as they have to improve still) was gahd-awful.
Right now there is still a ton of work, but the O’s have improved under a lot of those areas under MacPhail to about “average,” which says a lot of where things were in the 00s.
It doesn’t matter who the “top 20 GM candidates” are if they’re going to let Showalter pick the GM. He’s going to pick whoever will do whatever he wants them to do. It’ll be like the Angels all over again. This is why their organization is so screwed up.
The real question has to be around the lack of development of the young pitching. Matusz, Arrietta, and Tillman were all disappointments. Matt Hobgood was a huge bust.
How about Paul Westerberg as a possible Replacement?
I feel very bad for the O’s, I feel like their process was pretty solid but things just never seem to work out for them. As was already said, he did make solid trades and getting guys like Hardy, Jones, Gurhrie (WW?) Scott, and even Reynolds turned out well, it’s just that every prospect they had seemed to flame out. Pitching prospects are the most fickle of the bunch but it’s hard to explain NONE of them panning out in four years and many of them simply getting worse (Matusz went from a promising young #3 SP to posting up the worst season of all-time, can’t explain).
They also dealt with the pressure of competing with the Yanks and Red Sox, and unlike the Rays, actually had the money to spend but always ended up with getting their plan B guys instead of the big ticket free agents, and it showed as most of them turned out bad. Tampa has a flawless scouting department, and I can’t really explain how they do it at this point, and Toronto is solid as well, but as we seen with TB, getting ahead of NY and BOS is not impossible, and they had an advantage financially but it just wasn’t gonna happen.
You don’t have to be a “baseball analyst” to realize that the Orioles’ most urgent need is a whole new staff in the scouting and player development departments. Especially the people who are supposed to find pitching prospects and teach them how to play baseball. As bigpat pointed out, Tampa knows how to do it. So do the Yankees. Oakland used to.
The Orioles used to churn out talented young pitchers like McDonald’s does hamburgers. Unfortunately, the folks who found them and coached them are older than I am, but there must be a secret manual laying around someplace between the old Memorial Stadium and the site where Brooks Robinson’s restaurant used to be.
It would be a step in the right direction if the new GM gets Buck’s permission to pass on Prince Fielder and spend that $120M+ on some scouts and coaches and a lot of 18-year-olds who can throw a baseball across the plate any time they want to, and the faster the better.
DIPOTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!