I think the Orioles could be decent in a few years. They need a better bullpen. I thought the Gonzalez siging was good, but he was bad before he got hurt.
Maybe trade for Adrian Gonzalez? you stop the Red sox from getting him, and get a solid, young, affordable firs baseman. Now, they would probally have to give up Matusz, Reimold, etc…

and try and get a good young SS prospect. Everything else is prett much in place for them to be competitive in a very tough decision very soon.

I think they finish with somewhere near 70 wins, and the future is brighter than ever.

I might fire Trembley, but I doubt its that much on him. I would just want to shake up the vets at this point before the team identifies itself as a loser (if its not already too late).

The problems as I see it:

1) Lack of pitching depth - Brad Bergesen is a terrible pitcher. They started the year with some very bad pitchers in the pen and rotation.

2) Bullpen has been eye bleedingly awful. They’ve blown 4 saves and countless other leads. If they were only a 6 win team would be there be so much talk about them? The Royals and White Sox both have 6 wins.

3) Lack of effort and focus. This is the troubling part. I attribute much of this to the cold start.

4) Injuries - Brian Roberts to a large extent and Mike Gonzalez to a lesser (he’s been good when healthy and could have helped this team a LOT).

5) They’ve had a super tough early schedule.Tampa twice, Caught Toronto hot as can be, then a West Coast swing at Oakland and Seattle where they went 1-5. Now they have Boston, then New York, then Boston, then New York! THEN @ the Twins! That’s a nightmare schedule.
There is a decent amount of talent on this team… they need to cut

Fire Angelos! Push him out, dig up dirt on him, plant drugs in his office, tell the press he punches babies and kicks puppies…whatever it takes. Then trade the vets including Markakis. His SLG% continues to drop every year and he’s more of a nice all around player than the star they thought he would be. I think he’s now behind Shin Soo Choo in AL RFers personally. So move Markakis, Roberts, Millwood, and let the others like Tejada, Atkins, etc walk in FA after this year. Of couse Angelos would never allow Roberts and Markakis to be traded and that’s the O’s problem…well that and the Yanks, Red Sox, and Rays.

Keep MacPhail. Hire the taskmaster Buck Showalter to manage this team for a few seasons. By then the young core of players will have a good foundation (and some bitterness?).

The Birds have the makings of a very solid up the middle defense with Wieters and Jones. Go ahead a draft Christian Colon with their first pitch. The trio can play together for awhile.

As stated above, the Orioles have some trading chips from which to trade. Talented young pitching is almost MLB ready. Stick to the plane.

The big problem is the lack of presence in the international talent market - the O’s need to be spending like the Royals here. This offseason, the Orioles continued the Angelos tradition of overpaying mediocre free agents to fill holes - this is a big mistake. Instead of looking for the next Carlos Pena, adding Atkins/Tejada et al was foolish, as was giving up a draft pick for Gonzalez (even if he wasn’t hurt/ineffective).

The Orioles should have the goal of creating the best talent pipeline in baseball, and then using their surplus to trade aggressively. Right now, what concerns me most is the failure to go all in on overslot signings in the draft, the failure to enter into the international market, and the ritual ignoring of the Rule V draft to supplement the bullpen. It is hard to say how much of that is Angelos and how much is MacPhail, but they need some new vision in terms of how to put their roster together. But there is no reason why if they make some better personnel decisions that they can’t contend in the near term.

Spend big on the draft. Spend big in the international market. Stop wasting money on Atkins, Mike Gonzalez, Tejada, Millwood etc. type moves and just be patient.

I would say trade Brian Roberts but his injury depletes his value. Patience, patience, patience.

Andy MacPhail did his job to get the rebuilding process started, as an O’s fan I’m done with him though. Wasted a lot of money this offseason while not going after Chapman and allowing money to play a factor in the draft last year. It’s a tricky topic, but I can’t help but imagine having Matzek in the farm system….

Than about what he’s already done. Good GM’s don’t sign Garrett Atkins and justify him as a solution to the first base problem and a good candidate for a rebound year. A closer signed for big money, at the cost of a second round pick for a rebuilding team? Where’s the logic in that? I’m thankful for Bill Bavasi, things have been going downhill since then.

If MacPhail left the Orioles today, I’d be very complimentary of his time here. But the longer he’s here, the current pattern tells me the more I’ll want him gone.

1. The most important thing for me is player developement. Not to say that a collection of instructors haven’t been working hard at this for the Orioles, but the fact is they are not producing fundamentally sound baseball players.And beyond that I believe that the lack of this ability has cost the organization quite a few players over the years and robbed those young men of thier dreams. How many players have come down the pipe line over the past 15 years that no only were the O’s excited about but the entire baseball community as a whole, but one after another of these kids have turned into a scrap heap of unmet potential and broken dreams.Now bare with me,over the past week there has been rumblings of the possibility of Cal joining the organization in some aspect or another.Well to me this is the place for either him or his brother Billy. And while I’m at it I want to address a statement by Kieth Law, and I quote:

Steve (Baltimore, MD)

Can you please remind my fellow O’s fans that Cal Ripken has no better chance of winning with this roster than anyone else? I’m sick of people thinking a former HOF player will be a HOF manager….

Klaw (1:10 PM)

Done. And this has to be the stupidest media-created “controversy” of the year. The fact that Ripken played for the Orioles for all of those years does not entitle him to a front-office or coaching job when he decides he wants one - nor, as you said, does it qualify him for such a job, or mean that he’ll be any good at it.

I’m usually not into bashing Kieth, as it seems to be a very popular sport but this responce is just plain ignorant and un-informed. First off the Ripken brothers had front seat access as thier father was a huge contributor in one of the most successful farm systems in the history of baseball.A farm system that for 20 years produced major league ready players at an astounding pace. Beyond that didn’t cal coach the Oriole’s infield from the SS position for almost 2 decades and even going as far as calling pitches.I believe the Ripken brothers with the highest 2nd/SS combo single season fielding percentage in the history of the game have a little bit of Knowledge on how to get things done on the diamond, lets be honest that wasn’t Ozzie and omar out there.I believe if your not willing to sell that family the team, maybe this is where they fit in.

If you can’t excell at player developement, then you can’t and never will be a mid-market team that will be able to compete in the Al-east.

Stick with your core nucleus of young players/prospects and move all of your older pieces to get value. They have no chance of competing in the next 2 years, so why not get value for those players that could help in the future?

2012 Lineup
C- Wieters
1B- OPEN - Snyder makes sense here, but they could look at what is available via trade
2B- Roberts - I think they should trade him, but he may still be around
3B- Josh Bell
SS-
OF- Markakis
OF- Reimold
OF- Jones
OF4- Pie

SP- Matusz
SP- Tillman
SP- Arrieta
SP- Britton
SP- Hobgood/Hernandez/Insert Prospect Here or even go get a cheap innings eating veteran to help develop these young SPs

In all honesty, I think the Orioles have a nice nucleus for the future. Wieters can be a superstar, and Markakis hasn’t been as good as what he can be. If all goes right, they could be giving the Yankees/Red Sox/Rays some competition in 3 years.