Monday, May 7, 2007

I want the O's to lose. There, I said it.

Can you be a fan of a team and want them to lose? Because that's what I'm doing with the Orioles right now.

I want them to lose. Yeah, I said it. And here's why...

Winning a few games here and there isn't going to do the O's a damn bit of good in the grand scheme of things. It's really just going to hurt their chances at what could be their first 100 loss season since 1988. After all, I'm sick of the 90 loss seasons. If we're going to suck ass, at least do it with some gusto.

Any sorry team can go out and post a 70-92 record like the Birds did last year. But when I look back and see 70-92 or some variation of that record, I think to myself, "Damn, they sucked that year." This time, I want to look back on the 2007 season and say, "Holy shit, I forgot about how absolutely dreadful they were!"

If anything, let's make year #10 a year to remember.

The tragedy, however, is that they shouldn't be this bad. When the season started, even the most pessimistic fan believed they had a legit shot to crack the .500 barrier. They had a roster perfect for platoons and a young pitching staff with tons of potential.

But then Perlozzo and the front office totally butchered the roster management (Knott still only has 4 AB's in an O's uni) and platoons are about as likely as a Dodo bird landing on your front lawn. Then the pitchers started dropping like flies.

But let's face it, these are the Orioles we're talking about.

The 2007 team was constructed to be a .500 team, as they have been for years. How else can you justify Deivi Cruz and Omar Daal as your marquee signings? If that is the goal, the worst case scenario is going to be a 100 loss season, like it could very well be this season.

But if the O's set their sights higher, and actually did some intriguing things once in a while, like go out and get as much young high-OBP talent as possible, instead of filling out your roster with cuddly fan favorite players like Mora, Roberts and Gibbons, then you might actually be able to set your sights on the playoffs and beyond. That way, when the injuries crop up, the worst case scenario is .500.

We've said it a million times, and each time it's said the cement it's written in just gets a little drier. Angelos has no incentive to win. He's making money one way or another. Even if attendance continues to drop he will still be laughing all the way to the bank while O's fans pay the price.

The only thing O's fans can do as the losses mount is stay away and hope that empty stadiums embarrass Angelos into actually doing something different for once. Stop signing mediocre players, for one. Allow the front office, as incompetent as they may be, to make moves on their own, without every little detail of a trade being analyzed and ultimately vetoed.

Going 81-81 is probably the worst thing imaginable for this team right now. It will lull the front office and Angelos into thinking they're on to something, and then they'll just keep doing more of the same.

So that's why I root for the losses to continue. Wins won't come as often as they need to to make a run at the playoffs, so why win at all? Football fans root for losses all the time to get a better draft pick. Why can't I do the same? Only, other than the better draft pick, I'll get to watch as Angelos has to defend his decisions, and hopefully, change the way he does things.

So let's make this a season to remember and see how Angelos reacts when the O's drop a 3-digit number in the loss column for 2007.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow,I completely agree with everything you just said.EVERY year we hear..."we are right there" if we pitch well,and our offense hits we could be in the race for the wild card" IF this IF that IF everything under the sun goes right we can be competetive" Well guess what folks that isnt happening so dont hold your breath.Im so sick of the trade deadline rolling around and the goofballs up in the warehouse sitting on their hands because we are still "mathematically in it", or that little troll killing any trades because he wont have anyone to market the club with on TV.The best thing for this team would be for us to sit 30 games back at the deadline so those idiots who are running this club cant use that as an excuse.This team is going nowhere until a fire sale happens and we can get some youth on this team to build around.

The problem is the FO thinks that people will stop coming to the games and attendence will suffer but guess what THEY ARENT COMING NOW GUYS!!This is just the backwards type thinking that has us in the mess we are in now.If we did blow the thing up I actually think attendence might go UP a little because the fans would respect the FO for doing what has needed to be done now for some time.Gut the team except for Lowen,Bedard and Markakis and fill the rest with guys who could be stars in the future who dont cast much and market the young guys and the future.Now that is forward thinking,but Angelos cant or doesnt want to see over the pile of money that MLB has given him for letting the Nats move in down the road so he could careless.

Blow the team up at the deadline,get a ton of prospects and lets see if we can build a young core rather than sitiing on the .500 fence in eternity like we are now.And not for the remainder of this season,next years as well.Thats right a WHOLE YEAR of telling your fans the truth,which will be we are going to SUCK this year.Let the young guys play and see what you have got,they wont cost anything so you can slash the payroll and save that money for 2009 and whatever CHOICE FA we need to fill in some need areas at that time.Its called BUILDING a team,something this organization has no clue how to do.

I think they know how much the fanbase is disgusted with them and think with the backing the team has right now it could lead to only 5k showing up every night instead of 10k,and we the fans woouldnt stand for that type of team that could lose 95-100 games.Well guess what,is losing 85-90 any different than a 100??NO it isnt,and like you have said badoriole it just tricks the fans and FO people to thinking we are "close" and have a chance to compete when in reality we dont.

So Im sorry for ranting but I hope the O's lose every game as well,and will be cheering for anyone who is playing them.

Anonymous said...

I forgot Cabrera in my above comment,add him to the short list of "keepers"