Baltimore Orioles' Dan Duquette: He Just Does Not Care!

Oct 11, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; Fans watch the game between the Kansas City Royals and the Baltimore Orioles in the ninth inning in game two of the 2014 ALCS game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

It is not only in Orioleland that a contingent of the faithful are worried about offseason inactivity fueling fears of falling behind the competition. The same is happening in the heart of The Evil Empire, as Yankee fans are also fretting over the same feeling of organizational malaise.

Frankly, I wouldn’t want to have to figure out that mess of geriatrics and overweights. But that’s another story.

What is in the news in New York (besides ARod’s girth) is a baseball writer for the Daily News applauding the restraint of Brian Cashman as a wise move. So Baltimore is not the only city with the beat writers calming the natives!

Among quotes from a very entertaining piece by Bill Madden are these:

"For all the sound and gasbag fury at the San Diego swapfest, only three teams — the White Sox, Marlins and Padres — significantly improved themselves without paying through the nose for it.If this were back in the ’80s, when George Steinbrenner was at his “win now, damn the future” Doug Drabek-for-Rick Rhoden manic worst, [the Yank’s top three rising prospects] would likely all be elsewhere; 36-year-old Jimmy Rollins might be playing shortstop for the Yankees, Evan Longoria and his declining productivity might be at third, and 30-year-old Max Scherzer would be a seven-year, $200 million bookend to CC Sabathia (and how’s that one working out?)."

The writer goes on to say that the Yankees have time to fill the gaping holes in their lineup.

A great truth for the Baltimore Orioles is that, even with the three losses suffered last week, the holes in the lineup are not as gaping as are oft portrayed. This is especially true with the pitching.

And even with the corner outfielders and DH, there are internal options, rising options, and opportunities to yet make some moves.

Even though (as I’ve often written about Duquette’s personality as can be seen from a distance) I don’t think he and I would be pals if we knew each other, I have to admire his tenacious focus. It really is a strength of leadership to do what you believe is the right thing, even if it is not popular.

I just really don’t think Dan Duquette gives a crap about what anyone thinks of him. He seems to understand that he is in a business where there is a lot of passion by fans (a word that is short for “fanatics”) who are going to see things differently because they simply do not see things from his big-picture perspective.

Yes, I understand the passionate exclamation that the O’s will need to replace the lost production of Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis … and that it does not take much of a big picture view of anything to understand that. Again, take away all of the 40 Cruz home runs, and the Orioles still finish second in the AL in that statistic.

But what is going to happen? Well, there is not likely to be a big free agent signing unless Melky Cabrera’s market brings him down to only a three-year deal. And even then, he might get more from Seattle or somewhere else. <<LATE BREAKING NEWS: Cabrera will be taken by the White Sox for three years a $45 million as of a report about 1:00 this morning.>>

The Orioles will likely sign Delmon Young and/or Mike Morse. Beyond that, they will add a few more fringe and marginal types to give an opportunity – like Nolan Reimold and several others we cannot now even guess.

Baltimore Orioles’ Dan Duquette: He Just Does Not Care!

By Randy Buchman | Dec 14, 2014