No, the worst thing to come out of the winter meetings are the rumors swirling around that Angelos is not happy with Andy MacPhail.
John Heyman of Sports Illustrated wrote this yesterday...
Word among intimates is that Angelos already is questioning MacPhail behind the scenes. Word around the town is that Angelos is upset that MacPhail hasn't kept him in the loop on every detail (if true, I couldn't blame MacPhail for that).
Now, MacPhail hasn't done much since he arrived in Baltimore, but he has said all the right things and has laid a good groundwork for building this team into a contender. He's even gone as far as saying that the Orioles won't be competitive until 2010.
Hey, he's just stating the obvious. And could you imagine former GM's Mike Flanagan or Jim Duquette uttering those words?
At any rate, MacPhail has been a good fit for the Orioles, who were desperately in need of someone who could tell it like it is, and not simply tow the company line. But now it looks like even MacPhail could be ruffling some feathers in the warehouse.
And the most troubling thing is that we were told all along that Angelos and MacPhail worked well together, and that Angelos had given the team over to MacPhail.
But now comes this rumor. And if it's true, it does not bode well for the Orioles.
It would just prove that no matter how "comfortable" Angelos is with anyone, he's still going to be the same old meddling owner he's always been.
I would cast this rumor off as heresay, but then think of this. The Cubs reportedly had an offer on the table that would send 2 LHP SP's (Rich Hill and Sean Marshall) to Baltimore in exchange for Brian Roberts. The pitchers aren't clones of Erik Bedard (who is), but they both had sub-4 ERA's last year, and are both still highly touted even though they are 26 and 28 years old. It's a deal that should/could have been done.
But we all know Angelos' feelings on Roberts. He vetoed a deal that would have sent Roberts to Atlanta last offseason in exchange for 1B Adam LaRoche and 2B Marcus Giles. At the time, it felt like a fair deal. LaRoche was an up-and-coming slugging 1B and Giles would have been a slight drop-off from Roberts. But Angelos stepped in and said "no." Since then, it has looked like Angelos made the right decision, but for all the wrong reasons.
So it would come as no surprise to hear that Angelos vetoed yet another deal involving Roberts, this time to the Cubs. And in the era of MacPhail, a man who had supposedly been given free reign within the Orioles organization, this is the worst news that could come out of the winter meetings, or any meeting..
It's sketchy, yes, and one must make a few jumps in logic to make the connection, but we know Angelos. We know his past.
Would this really surprise you if it turned out to be true?
Let's pray it's not.
Hey, he's just stating the obvious. And could you imagine former GM's Mike Flanagan or Jim Duquette uttering those words?
At any rate, MacPhail has been a good fit for the Orioles, who were desperately in need of someone who could tell it like it is, and not simply tow the company line. But now it looks like even MacPhail could be ruffling some feathers in the warehouse.
And the most troubling thing is that we were told all along that Angelos and MacPhail worked well together, and that Angelos had given the team over to MacPhail.
But now comes this rumor. And if it's true, it does not bode well for the Orioles.
It would just prove that no matter how "comfortable" Angelos is with anyone, he's still going to be the same old meddling owner he's always been.
I would cast this rumor off as heresay, but then think of this. The Cubs reportedly had an offer on the table that would send 2 LHP SP's (Rich Hill and Sean Marshall) to Baltimore in exchange for Brian Roberts. The pitchers aren't clones of Erik Bedard (who is), but they both had sub-4 ERA's last year, and are both still highly touted even though they are 26 and 28 years old. It's a deal that should/could have been done.
But we all know Angelos' feelings on Roberts. He vetoed a deal that would have sent Roberts to Atlanta last offseason in exchange for 1B Adam LaRoche and 2B Marcus Giles. At the time, it felt like a fair deal. LaRoche was an up-and-coming slugging 1B and Giles would have been a slight drop-off from Roberts. But Angelos stepped in and said "no." Since then, it has looked like Angelos made the right decision, but for all the wrong reasons.
So it would come as no surprise to hear that Angelos vetoed yet another deal involving Roberts, this time to the Cubs. And in the era of MacPhail, a man who had supposedly been given free reign within the Orioles organization, this is the worst news that could come out of the winter meetings, or any meeting..
It's sketchy, yes, and one must make a few jumps in logic to make the connection, but we know Angelos. We know his past.
Would this really surprise you if it turned out to be true?
Let's pray it's not.
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