Tap-In Question: Is this really the most frustrated you’ve been as an Orioles fan?

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• No, the 2016 Wild Card Game, specifically watching Britton warming up in the bullpen while Ubaldo pitched, will probably be the most frustratingly agonizing game/time for me in my Orioles fandom for quite some time.

  • That's a good call. This year is more prolonged, of course, but I don't think there's ever been a time where more Baltimore-area TVs were yelled at. I know i was yelling at mine up here in central PA.

    • I would've heard you up here in Central PA (Middletown) had it not been for my equally loud screaming

  • Did Creatively19 change his name? Number 9, number 9, number 9...

    • Yeah, I might have changed it... I wonder who's face that is in my avatar...

  • I thought it would be less recent. But that was. Soul crusher for many

• Suggested retitle for this post:

  Boy oh boy, has it ever been sports fan hell following this team in the 21st Century, huh?

  • Hahaha. You’ve seen a team in the -ALCS, one step from the Series.

• Jeffrey Maier is the most frustrating. If they don't away Manny for a nice haul will be 2nd.

  • My blood pressure still rises every time I see his name.

  • Hahaha. I was still a fan then. I got ya.

  • No doubt about it for me. Especially the way the team from the Boogie Down Bronx made that kid out to be a hero when he clearly broke the rules. As if that wasn't enough, he was on all the local (to me anyway) broadcasts as the greatest kid ever. Why that kid wasn't banned for life from attending future baseball games is beyond me.

• This is not the most frustrated I've been, but I've never been less hopeful during my time as an Orioles fan.

  I'm hopeful for the impending rebuild, but any hope has to be predicated on management doing the right thing and not just making the decision to trade away players, but to get a valuable return as well. The track record on this is not good.

  I always search for reasons to be hopeful, but right now all I've got are
  --The possibility the O's get another generational talent picking in the top 5 of the 2019 draft
  --The possibility that Angelos' large adult sons can convince him to invest in signing, scouting, and developing players from all amateur markets

  Rough times in Birdland.

  • Good point. Dumping not enough. Has to be done right.

• As a life long O's fan, this is the most frustrated I have ever been with the team. I endured the 0-21 start in '88, the 14 straight losing seasons, and the 32 of 36 games lost to end 2002. But those teams didn't have much to offer in talent, this team does (at least more than those teams did). In '88 there was Cal and Eddie and not much else. Eddie would be soon gone, and I get the feeling that the clubhouse knows that this year's O's are going to see their star in Manny Machado also leave, maybe sooner than later. There doesn't seem to be a will to win, maybe knowing or thinking that soon the team will be a bunch of prospects and bad contracts. Add the injuries that always seem to plague this organization, and it has been a horrid start. This season has a chance to be one of the worst ever. If you're thinking it couldn't get any worse than that 1988 season, consider that the O's were 4-26 after 30 games that year, right now, the O's are 8-22, only 4 games behind that pace. On the bright side, the 1989 O's gave the fans reason to cheer again. On the negative side, the O's could be entering another 14 year losing skid.

  • Good post. Drink chip.

• Dan, I believe the answer to your question is going to be directly related to your reader's age. The younger fans are going to tend to be more frustrated with this season than us old geezers that actually CAN remember 1988 season among others you've already mentioned. Another example of this is to imagine how frustrating it must have been for those that can remember the '69 World Series loss after winning 109 games? Losing to the '79 series after leading Sister Sledge 3-2 and going home? Is this the most frustrated I've ever been with the team? No, not by a long shot. Besides, there is a lot of season to be played, and frankly, I believe the team can only go up from here.

  Buck up campers, it ain't over 'til the Germans ... oh nevermind ... who am I kidding? I've used that schtick before and frankly ... stick a fork in this team they're done and it's OVER!. On 2nd thought ... this is pretty freakin' frustrating.

  • Boog is always our ray of sunshine. Our Big Toe.

• I don't think it's the most frustrated - but probably as dissapointed as I've been in quite some time. I really didn't expect this team to win the division, but thought they were going to be a heck of a lot more competitive than this.

  The lack of any consistency on offense is just astonishing. You wonder if they can ever pick it up again. And, even if they do, it's going to be far too late to make anything out of this season.

  On the positive side, this makes it absolutely clear that the team needs to rebuild. We have some nice position player prospects at some of the spots where we will probably lose free agents, so maybe it doesn't take as long to get back to a more competitive team. If we get a top prospect or two for Manny, then the future looks that much brighter.

  • Disappointed is a solid word. Hated when my mom said it.

• This team reminds me of the 88 team. They have little chance of winning many series. Poor fundamentals, lack of positional talent, and bad pitching makes for a long season. So this team and the 88 team are tied for my most frustrating time as an Orioles fan.

  • Wonder if it will end up that way. We’ll have a good seat, as Showalter likes to say.

• The Orioles have taught me to enjoy the little things. The season may suck, but what's the one player who had a great season that was wasted. Last year, it was Mancini. Lost in the garbage was enjoying a homegrown talent develop and perform. This year, hopefully it's him further with some Chance thrown in. I'm all for blowing it all up at this point. I rather watch youth take a chance and spread their wings if we're committed to the bottom of the standings.

  • Also, absolutely love the Jace Peterson hustle.

  • He’s been fun to watch

• Dan - I think you've got the Bartender Blues. Listen to George Jones sing about it, it helps.

  Most frustrated ever, no. I am 48, for perspective.

  88 was frustrating because of the firing of Senior after 6 games when we knew we had no real team. The Syd Thrift years were pretty brutal.

  Believe it or not, I think the most frustrating was 97. Best record in AL and then Benito wastes a great Mussina start. I think I am more frustrated when there are high expectations.

  I expected a .500 team at best this year. Hopefully, they won''t screw the pooch on making trades for the pieces that probably won't be here when/if we are winning again. My thoughts on who to get rid of are another topic entirely.

  • Ahhh. Armando Benitez and the slider

• I think a lot of this has to do with a fanbase that has recently come back to the team in the last 5 years and got used to the O's being at the very least, competitive. To see the absolute failure and abysmal play of this team this season is new for some of them. During the dark times (2001-2011), I admit I didn't follow as close either, and having the success of the recent seasons does really make this season a tough pill to swallow. What will determine how we view this season in the future though is what decisions will be made now, to prevent another decade of mediocrity? If they rebound next year to be an 78-80 win team then I think this year is an anomaly.

  • Good post. Drink chip.

• My most frustrating time as an O's fan was 1979 and losing the WS after having a 3-1 advantage. This is frustrating, but we knew this team wasn't really built to contend, no matter what DD said. I saw this coming, and I'm more bummed that we didn't do the incremental things to improve the team to avoid this disaster. But I've been more frustrated before.

  • Hey all: sorry I took a break in commenting. Had to be out of a town for a spell. I’m back. And I tell you what Big Daddy, I didn’t see THIS coming. A .500, also-ran team? Sure. But this? Oof.

• I'm not all that frustrated, because I believe once this team lances a few boils it can come back stronger in 2020. This is nothing like the 2000's, knowing every single year you were going to watch a bunch of nobodies finish 4th. Get rid of Machado. He wants to go be A-Rod somewhere, bye. How nice of him to actually look like an elite player, rather than just have everyone say he is, in his walk year.

  • You're the best BanMo. I can only wish your words regarding Machado had been mine. Spot on.

  • I hear ya. And I’m not saying it is coincidental. But to be fair, he’s 25. Peak years typically come around 26-28.

• This season has ceased to be frustrating — it’s obvious they are a last place team at this point.

  You know what’s worse than 8-22?

  7-25.

  That’s the number of winning seasons to losing seasons since Angelos bought this team (assuming they remain on pace to lose again this year).

  7-25.

  THAT is my frustration, Dan. Not a single season, but the the ruinous mismanagement of a beloved team by the Angelos family. I have no faith in the sons of Petey, based on past experience and observations of the children who come from such wealth.

  • After reading your response, this has to top the “most frustrating” seasons I had thought about. But seven winning seasons out of the last 25 (Angelos ownership) is now tops in my mind.

    • Yes, thank you — I meant to type 7-of-25, not just 7-25.
      Fingers moving faster than me brain.

  • Wow!! I gotta second that emotion.

  • Yes. This is it. You can point at the things happening now and make all sorts of assertions but the Oriole Organization under Peter Angelos watch is hot garbage. Buck’s management of the jumbled parts that the garbage collector Duquette assembled for him is all that kept the ship from sinking the last few years. The ship’s taking on water in Manny, Buck and Duquette’s walk years.

  • right on!

  • Can’t argue with the numbers. But I will say I think it’s more about the organizational process than it is any one individual. The decision making process is so bizarre in this organization — whether its who makes those calls or perhaps more important — when that there never appears to be a plan. Andy MacPhail had one and had the OK to execute it. You need both. And that doesn’t appear to be the case now (or again).

• This unfortunately is not a surprise but things appeared to look up with the Cashner and Cobb signings. My frustration has been that this team after the 2016 playdown mostly sat tight with a flawed roster neither moving players nor extending them. I was a season ticket holder in 1988 but my biggest frustration was the wipeout from the Royals in the 2014 ALCS. I thought the Os would go to the World Series -- but lose to the Giants in seven -- as nothing seemed to work right in that series and the rest is just sad.

  • KC was built perfectly for the postseason.

• Yes! I’m not doing another 14 year stretch. The window closed when Buck had his brain fart in Toronto and let U face 2-3-4 in Toronto with best reliever in the game on the bench. Not turning over this roster then all but guarantees another decade plus of ‘rebuilding’. Plus I don’t like the field manager as part-time GM or the weight training coach handing out stupid contracts. Dan will be a vilified by many around here but the real problem is owner/Buck/Brady couldn’t be worse collectively at talent evaluation. Lastly, you better be working with Dodgers on frame work of deal and signal to the league Manny is available June 1, have your best offer by June 15th. But this front office dynamic is completely dysfunctional and if I didn’t grow up as a fan I’d have already walked away.

  • I’m with you until the June 15 stuff. No need for arbitrary deadlines. There is a real deadline. And the Os should be pushing to get the best deal up until it. Period.

• The 2015 offseason, with DD’s dalliance with Toronto, and the staunch refusal to make any impactful moves to better a team that was four games from the WS — that was far more frustrating than this.

  • They signed a guy for $161 million that offseason. It was exceptionally impactful.

• I have followed this team since 1966 World Series when they swept the Dodgers is was 9. I was spoiled through the 70s. There were a few disappointments the 69 World Series and the 79 World Series. Even the year of 88 didn't get me frustrated. The era of losing every year I still had hope . The last 5 years were a reminder of what it had been even though we didn't win a World Series we at least contended. This year's team was constructed poorly right from the start. It seemed like it was thrown together without much thought. We have a lot of people who will be free agents at the end of the year including some in management. That person seems to have his foot already out the door.I am frustrated with the lack of effort from him than I am with the team. I will always cheer for the team even if management is an idiot.

  • I’m not sure I’d agree on the little effort. Moves are always being made. Maybe the blueprint is faulty. But I have little concern about effort.

• By far, yes this is the most frustrated I've been as an Orioles fan. Been a fan since the early 1970s.

  • I’m right with you!

  • Interesting.

• I was born in June 1953 and have lived my life as a die hard Orioles fan. I was at the Thanks Brooks day in the 60's after he won the MVP and they honored him with praise and gifts. I was at the game in April 1977 when Brooks hit his last home run, a game wining 3 run walk-off in a damp cold Memorial Stadium. I scored the game and had him sign it. I was at the Thanks Brooks day after he retired. I sent a letter to Harry Dalton the GM asking him not to trade Frank and received a personal reply from him. I have a stock certificate of the original Orioles. I went to boarding school in Mass. and had an illegal transistor radio to listen to the O's in bed at night. If there was an O's game on the radio I probably had an earphone in my ear listening. I moved to Connecticut in 1977 and had to endure Yankee fans all around me as an O's fan including Jeffery Maier. I have endured all the frustrations already mentioned. I can't say that any one is worse then the other because anytime the O's don't win the World Series is a frustration to me. If I had to choose one it would be the entire Angelos era. After Eiy Jacobs I though it couldn't get any worse but Peter Angelos proved me wrong. Sure he saved the O's from moving but he hasn't allowed the team to do what a team needs to do to win. That is what frustrates me because it didn't need to happen. The only thing that might have been worse is if Loria had gotten the team instead but Loria did win several World Series's.

  • It all starts with the top. I get that. But I don’t think it is that simple either.

• It is in my top 2, for the simple reason the front office is a reactive office not a proactive front office. Moves could've been made in keeping or trading Machado a few years ago.

  • THAT is an opinion I fully share. Given the constraints, just not enough creativity — or lack of a full plan.

• I think it's worse than frustrated for me - I'm indifferent.

  I would never suggest that this team has given up or isn't trying to win, but there is definitely a lack of fire. There is a palpable sense of failure that surrounds the team and I just can't bring myself to watch the train wreck each and every night.

  The good news, I think, is that the FO will have to rebuild. Young prospects and AAA guys don't tend to win much, but their passion excites me enough to tune in.

  • Indifference is the worst. In anything. Drink chip for your lack of sorrows.

• Trying to compare frustrating seasons is like trying to compare players from one era to another and state which is one is better. It's a shame that we have so many other seasons to compare this one to in regards to disappointment. This season is obviously frustrating. For me, it started with Chris Davis leading off on opening day. How does the team leader in strikeouts who also has one of the worst on base percentages with no speed lead off? It has all flowed downhill from that. The defense is pathetic, which is a reflection of mental readiness and concentration. There is little to no situational hitting; everyone swings for the fences. Machado selfishly announces that he is going to play shortstop and the team caves in to him knowing that he is doing it to increase his payday next year when he will be playing for another team. There is apparently a power struggle between Buck and Duquette. Every day we don't trade Manny our return becomes less. There is little interest in the O's which is evidenced by the attention being paid to the Ravens draft picks. There are about 20 more things that can be said. Sad.

  • I completely disagree about the diminishing trade value daily with Machado. That’s not how this works. You want to go as deep as you can so you can get a team that decides to go for it. Competition for his services will heat up in July if he remains healthy. Trust me.

• I believe there are several categories of frustration: single game vexations (one or two plays), series agonies (one or two games), and seasonal disappointments (teams). Since your examples seem to fit the latter category, I’m going to stick with frustrating seasons and the teams responsible.

  For me, last season was the most frustrating I can remember. In April I thought the Os had a very real chance to make the postseason, probably as a Wild Card team. At the end of August that goal was well within reach, despite the starting rotation. And then, well, we all know what happened after that. Even before their September swoon the Orioles were a Jekyll/Hyde team. They’d put together a decent win streak and then lose two or three series. Even with Dan Connolly’s Projected Comeback Player of the Year Ubaldo Jimenez pitching every fifth game (and no, Dan, we will never forget you made that prediction) there was still some cause for optimism, especially with Ubaldo’s third or fourth start that reminded us how good he could be.

  And so, from April until September, it was hot, cold, hot, hot, cold, cold, etc. By the end of the season I was so drained I could barely muster enough interest in the postseason to root against the Red Sox and Yankees.

  As bad as this year’s team is – make no mistake, this is a really, really bad team – my expectations were pretty low heading into Spring Training and elevated only slightly by the additions of Cashner and Cobb. That tentative optimism came to an abrupt halt with the Orioles’ first home series. And I wonder how many other fans experienced, as I did, a sense of doom when Zach tore his Achilles doing sprints in December. Add to that Spring Training injuries to the two guys we were counting on for comeback years, Trumbo and Davis, and the handwriting on the wall was all too clear.

  Sigh.

  • OK, now a little clarification. I did say I thought Ubaldo would be the biggest surprise on the 2017 Os. And that I thought he would have the best year of his four as an Oriole. But no hardware was involved. In fact, having his best year of 4 didn’t exactly make the proverbial bar particularly high.

• Yes, Dan, I do bethis is the most disappointed I have ever been as an Orioles fan! The talent is there but performance is awe full, emphasis intended. It hasn’t heated up yet and we have given up HRs at an astounding pace and our strike outs are historical. We have spent to oblivion on strike out kings and one year wonders. Have a young core which is almost certainly to be gone, have some youth and talent in the wings but can’t close out anything. Why even bother. Sign our true superstars, send the non performers to the bench or cut them if we can’t send them down without losing them and bring up our future and let them enjoy the show. We may as well lose with an excuse. We really have none now! I think I am too old to just watch the great ones go because we won’t pay market value. There just aren’t that many multi tool players out there. Pay them, keep them. Get ground ball pitchers, given our fantastic park, (no I’m not being sarcastic there), and when the pitchers start giving up hit after hit, or walk a second batter or miss spots consistently...get them OUT OF THE GAME BEFORE they inevitably make it unrecoverable...this is where I just can’t support Buck. Love him otherwise, but under performing is now our new Orioles Way. Defense appears to be dead...plate discipline all but absent, aside from Álvarez, who would have thunk any of this...it’s just PAINFUL TO WATCH ANYMORE...

  • Very solid Rant of frustration. Drink chip

• #4 for me. I already went over that kid from the Boogie Down... #2 is Britton watching the Jays win the Wild Card game. #3 is 0-21.

  • Maybe we should do a rank the frustration blog?

• I have been here for the long haul. I was at game 2 of the 1969 WS and I was frustrated then. I lived in Pittsburgh during 1979, and I was frustrated then. Fortunately, 1988 was pre-internet days. However, I was on the DARPAnet and some of my friends antagonized me. I think I was more frustrated beginning with the Jeffrey Meier situation in 1996 and Armando Benitez in 1997 against the Indiana. Then the terrible years happened, epitomized by the Miguel Cabrera failed intentional walk. However, I am the most frustrated by the slide since 2014. I was primed for them to win. Didn't happen. If we're bad, fine. But I worry that the braintrust isn't interested in doing anything.

  On the other hand, I still listen to my cassette of the 1983 season and the August 25 game with Tippy Martinez's three pickoffs in the top of the tenth inning with Lynn Sakata catching. That makes me happy.

  • The most shocking thing here is that you said you still listen to a cassette. That, my friend, is splendidly old school. Drink chip.

• I'm not "frustrated" b/c i don't think they are underperforming that significantly. I think they're a poorly constructed team playing poorly. This is the chickens coming home to roost. This is one the worst run organizations in all of sports i.e., international signings, over reliance on Rule 5. Btw, what is the cumulative WAR of all the Rule 5 players during the Duquette era?

  • I hear ya about roster construction. And international, two of my preaching points. But no one and I mean no one thought with that payroll and that talent thought they would be this bad. Like on pace for historically bad. Mediocre to crappy? Sure. Potential was there. But this? Oh boy.

    • Wonder what the MLB record is for run differential? The combo for bad hitting, bad pitching, bad infield play seems ideal for setting a new low. It seems like O's have been one or two hit until late in gms 3 or 4 times this yr already.

• Am I frustrated? No. I'm just disappointed. I figured we'd be .500, and then when Cobb and Cashner were picked up, I thought we were definitely going to be wild card contenders. Doesn't look like that's going to happen. Frustration for me is the final weekend of 1989 against Toronto when we couldn't win when we needed to to get into the playoffs. Frustration is the 1997 ALCS watching Mussina pitch the games of his life and still losing. Frustration for me is every day from the day in 1997 when Davey Johnson resigned as manager to the beginning of the 2012 season when we had no hope of competing and no inclination that it would ever happen again. After 5 years of fun, it's back to disappointment and dread wondering if we have another 14 years of futility staring us in the face.

  • 37 hits in 17.2 innings feels like some kind of record for me. I’m sure someone has given up more. That is a lot of hits.

  • That is a bucketload of hits.

• Not the most frustrated, Dan, but I am for the first time disillusioned. And it isn't just this season that is causing it, it's been a growing creep for a while.

  I just don't understand what they are trying to do.

  Why do they treat international signing bonuses like they don't know how to use them? Should someone explain them to DD?
  They trade away legit big league pitching talents for guys like Bud Norris. Serviceable? Yes. A game changer for a deep playoff run? Absolutely not.
  They keep Rule 5 guys on the team like they are planning for the future, but sign Cashner and Cobb like they are trying to make a run now. You can't run Rule 5 guys out there everyday and expect to win now. They are long-term projects.

  But the biggest thing?---the fact that they didn't flip Manny already is inexcusable. Maybe Seager's injury bails them out, but what in the world are they doing on that front??? A once-in-a-generation talent and they have decreased his value to a rental at best. They have to move him or risk getting a draft pick. Are they hoping other teams don't notice that so they can jstill deal from a position of strength?

  Is anyone steering the ship?

  I mean honestly, what is the plan for this year, next year, or any year? Presently, it seems like hoping for a wild card spot this year and then figuring the post-Manny future out later. That's infuriating.

  I can get on board with a rebuild. I can get on board with sacrificing a bit of future to win now.
  I can't get on board with this one foot in, one foot out nonsense.

  While they have exceeded expectations before, that isn't an organizational philosophy for present or future success. It's a hope that players perform at or above their career bests. You'll hit on that every now and then, but it's time to take consistency over hope. Wish they'd thought of that when throwing $160 million at a guy who hit .196 a year earlier.

  • Great post!! We should be frustrated that 1+1 doesn't = 5? The fans have voted with their feet & butts - not just this season but even during the 2016 season. They could see thru the charade.

  • Lots of good points in here, but I’m gonna pick nits. Josh Hader was at Low-A Delmarva at the time of that deal. He wasn’t considered Top 15 in a shallow system by outside publications. And he was traded AGAIN by the Astros. I love the kid, but that’s an ultimate in retrospect complaint. The Orioles make lots of trades. Some work and some are awful. But it wasn’t like anyone expected Hader to be THIS.

    • That's very true, for sure. You never know with prospects. My concern is mostly the incomprehensible strategy. Hader just adds to my disillusionment.

      Bottom line, I've never been so disinterested. I've been a 162 game watcher/listener/gamecast follower since I could pick up a ball, but I have a hard time stepping on the boat in the Harbor these days when I don't know whether the captain is taking me to Fells Point or an uninhabitable island in the Pacific.

• A big part of the frustration lies in the utter lack of attempt to sign machado, to whom I have already turned my back on b/c he doesn't even try to hide the fact of his wanting to be w/ evil empire. For me personally, it's beyond him or the team; I have turned my back on my once favorite sport. Not easy, b/c it's a sport I love(d). Lack of salary cap is at the heart of the matter. As a team, other stretches have been worse, but the thing is here, we are not going out on a limb to say that the team is going back to the dark hole in which they dwelled for 14 years. We're still too close to the successful years to be accepting of this yet. Through the Mazzili and Trembley years, losing is all the team did, so as a fan, you got anesthetized to it for the most part.

  • Fair enough on the team aspect. I will quibble with the Manny doesn’t hide the fact that he wants to be a Yankee. I’m not denouncing the concept. But I think he hides it.

• 2005 definitely. I was so disappointed with Palmerio. The O's had gotten off to a good start that year and it all came crashing down, it was like a bad soap opera with Palmerio blaming B12(Tejada) and Sosa I believe was on that team also. I pretty much stopped paying attention to the team after that until we got Buck

  • Man that was ugly. Thanks for recognizing that one. I can’t see how that isn’t the nadir for fans. Unless they just blocked it out. Every week there was another disaster.

• What frustrates me is watching Hellickson and Miley pitch great for Nationals and Brewers. I get frustrated while the front office is so slow to act on deals. Now is the time to trade Manny and not to sign those whose best are past them.
  Doesn't the front office understand that we are not winning with Manny so get the most you can for him especially since there are opportunities now rather than wait another month or two.. No one can explain the collapse of this ship which started last September...pitching, offense, defense....but standing still is not the answer. For a change let's be pro-active and recognize we are in for a 2-3 year rebuild hopefully with much of it coming front the lower farm system teams.
  Mr Will

  • Ok, I’m gonna write the piece about now and Manny. Too many smart people here don’t get how this works. The only way you trade Manny before July is if a team panics and blows you away. And I don’t see that happening. Just because the fan base is impatient doesn’t mean the FO should be.

• I don’t remember the 0-21 streak as being that “frustrating” to me. At first it was hard, but then it took on a life of its own, and I remember being more amazed than frustrated. I mean, that team was world-class at finding ways to lose!

  It was kinda fun after a bit, in a slightly morbid way. I remember many fond moments from that streak too. Everyone driving around with thier headlights on in support of the team. Bob Rivers camping out in the broadcast booth at 98Rock, playing complete album sides so he could take naps. The sold out game at Memorial Stadium when they returned from the road trip.

  Can you imagine this team getting even a fraction of that love and support for being terrible, and winning a single game? I can’t. I fear that the Orioles have wasted a generation of fans good-will. What little fans are left are the die-hards, and even I’m beginning to feel a little ambivalent.

  The winning seasons from 2012-2016 masked the deep rooted organizational problems that still exist in this Angelos-run organization. We whistled by the graveyard in hopes they could pull out a championship, but the problems were still there. And now those cursed chickens have come back to roost.

  I dread another decade-long rebuild. They’ll lose me and many more if that’s what happens.

  • I like your comment about the losing streak. I continued to faithfully wear my Orioles hat through it all and on more than one occasion a total stranger would approach me and offer condolences.

  • I dunno. I was a fan then. A college freshman. It was excruciating.

• It makes for a long Summer but they can start to rebuild now with the players they can move for some young prospects

  • Sure. But not now now.

• The 14 year stretch when there appeared to be no direction or hope was definitely worse and I’m going back as far as I remember (1956). I used to turn to game on TV in 7th or 8th and decide whether to watch the rest (usually not).
  I actually find the present situation very interesting and about to get more so. Who’s GM next year? Who’s manager? Who do we get in trades? What does Opening Day lineup look like in 2019?
  Now if everything goes badly and it looks like another indefinite wasteland, I won’t be happy but I’m very curious about what’s going to transpire.
  I hope I’ll have a better idea before the deposit on my partial plan is due.

  • I was curious to see if that sentiment was out there. Drink chip

• I still feel the burn from last April 28 when the O's were rolling thru the first month and took a 9-1 lead into the seventh inning against the Yankees at the Stadium. They proceeded to completely choke away that lead and eventually lose 14-11. They were never the same after that and haven't been the same since. Davis and Trumbo wore out every blade of grass between the plate and the dugout last season and here we are again this season shaking our collective heads in amazement that nothing has changed. This team has talent but can't seem to gel. When we pitch we dont hit. And when we hit our pitching disappears. Sad.

  • That was definitely an early season definer. For both clubs.

• In those past times expectations and payroll were lower.
  Has Buck given up?

  • I can say no on that one.

• It is, but more so because I believe that a major reason for the poor play is disengagement due to ownership not paying, and keeping, top performers.
  Manny is “our guy”. “I like our guys”. Pay the man. I can’t stand the thought of him being a Yankee.

  • Ugggh. I get it on Manny. But they’ve paid plenty. And retained plenty. Jones, Davis, O’Day, Trumbo. Spending wisely and spending aren’t the same thing. The Os have done the latter a fair amount. More than half the clubs in the majors.

• To be frustrated means you still have hope. I am not sure if i have any hope left for this organization.

  When Andy MacPhail retired, he left this mantra, "Grow the arms and buy the bats." The Orioles ignored his advice, traded away the young arms they grew and got very little for them except for some rentals if they were anywhere close to sniffing distance of the playoffs.

  Further, they let their best players walk for better contracts without getting anything at all for them.

  Player leadership, defense, and game smarts started being jettisoned when they let Markakis walk. They did it again with Weiters. Both of those guys were more valuable than just their bats. But the organization devalued any skill that doesnt score fantasy baseball points. So Markakis, Weiters, and others were shown the door.

  Even during those frustrating World Series and playoff losses, I were still PROUD of our team and how they played. Not anymore.

  • Wow. That’s some pretty heady stuff. Not sure I agree with all your examples but I appreciate the post. Drink chip.

• Cant be frustated unless one cares. We care and thus, frustrated.

  • Fair point. I’ll add this: if you don’t care, you won’t read. And if you don’t read, I’ll be writing on a cardboard sign. So keep caring.

• More angry than frustrated. Management, in my opinion, had to see this coming. They obviously did not want to start the season with Manny ( as they tried to trade him ) but overestimated what they would get for him. They saw they had no closer and did nothing about that. The move of Manny to SS has more to do with making him more marketable than helping the team. The void in our utility guys ( especially with Flaherty’s FA ) was never really filled. And the signing of Cobb was almost something they seemed to be forced to do to save face for 2018. With all the soon to be FA ( Manny, Jones, Britton most notably ) and the uncertainty and unsettledness that accompanies that, management had to know disaster was staring it in the face. If I were a season-ticket subscriber, I’d be writing to the Angelos family requesting a refund.

  • Good solid reasoned post. Don’t agree with everything, but good rationale. Drink chip.

• Apathy is far worse than frustration, and that's where I am right now. There is not (at least from where I'm sitting) a plan for the future (let alone the present). Lame duck leaders in Buck and DD, one of the best players in the game who forced a position change so he could line his pockets more playing somewhere else next year (and we let that happen), multiple horrid contracts that will be an anchor for years, and an entire offseason spent sitting on their hands wrt the pitching staff. This team sleepwalks through far too many games, and the defensive issues aren't consistent with how Buck leads. He looks disinterested, and one has to wonder if he's also just playing out the string. It's unacceptable that you have a GM AND a manager in the last year of their deals at the same time, and with arguably the biggest personnel decisions facing this club in a generation, the silence on the future is deafening. I've been a loyal fan for many years through some really bad baseball. It was nice to make the playoffs a few times this decade, but that window is closed (some would say on our fingers), and without an aggressive and well thought out plan, we are in for a long run of futility. Maybe the plan exists, and that will be clear as they start unloading our stars this summer. I'm not holding my breath though.

  • Solid post. But one clarification. I’m not sure there are “multiple horrid contracts” that will be anchors for years. I see one. And it is significant. But unless you’ve already made up your mind on Cobb, no one is extended beyond next season that would make you cringe. Besides the aforementioned.

• No. This isn't the most frustrated I have been. The 2014 ALCS was worse when we stopped hitting.

• A question:
  Last year, when trumbo got pied in the face and got butthurt, when was that?
  I wish I could remember, my assertion is that moment is when this team ceased being a team and the downhill slide began.
  It's the little things that start great things and I think a grown man showing poor perspective and character, in a slump year, changed something intangible and worse yet (forget his contract) was allowed to return to the team this year.

  As an aside, I'm frustrated with all the hand-wringing and stupified looks, in this brief pseudo world of analytics and no depth consciousness, basic wisdom has been forfeited.
  Wisdom such as, one does not barter, cajole or reason with cancer, one attacks it, kills it, cuts it out.
  Trumbo is a cancer. Davis seems a higher character than drumbo, but his play is a cancer.
  Reason rationalize and excuse these facts and like humans before we had names for things like cancer, we wonder dumbly how a man (team) of great strength has been laid low and is weak and dying slowly (cancer death).

  As many above have said, last year this team got gut checked and revealed itself to look like the Xmas turkey from the movie Xmas vacation (Chevy Chase flick).

  Those capable of moving pieces ignored that fact and re-served the Xmas dinner with new side dishes (two new dishes).
  That's the source of my frustration, any labelhead (expert) surprised the team who rolled over on its back and showed no guts was returned intact and continued the performance this year, lacks the depth of perception to be expert at anything but Brown-nosing.

• I echo Bancells Moustache. Those years where Rodrigo Lopez and Luis Matos types were our best players were terrible. And as frustrating as mgmt or ownership can be now, we at least have some legit pieces on the club and a decent farm system. There was a spell of like 15 years of first round draft busts. We are over that so there is at least some hope moving forward.
  Also I echo Boog on the AL WC game. That is the most haunting thing...worse than Jeff Mayer because it was Buck’s choice.

• My most frustrating time as an O's fan was when Gomer Gerhart's HOF eligibility expired........

• You have to emotionally invested to get frustrated. For me the offseason after the ALCS loss to KC where they did next to nothing was the angriest I've ever been as a fan.

  They were on the cusp of a WS and just couldn't be bothered.

• THE ORIOLES ARE A FRIGGIN' JOKE! SHOOT ME NOW! PLEASE!

  • I HATE YOU ANDREW CASHNER!!!

• I always check in now to see how many runs the SP allowed in the 1st inning. Shameful.

• Absolutely. I've been a O's fan since 1960. It's not about this season. It's about this season and seasons past. The O's have needed pitching for years. I mean solid pitching. Remember, I watched old school pitching. If you had an ERA of 3.00, you were lucky to pitch in AAA. I know the game has changed. However beasball will always be about "Pitching!" Period.