great sports town to draw over 2 million for a lousy lousy team roch, listened to your round table show today. macphail said absolutely nothing in an hour. but at least he has a better voice to listen to than flanagan. think the birtds should try to get a. jones or hunter to play c.f. sign patterson and put him in left. let moore play 3rd. use mora all around, lf, 3rd base and first base. or lf if we don't sign a lhunter or jones. they should be open to play wieters if he shows he can play in spring training. he's been in college 3 yrs. has a solid foundation. just be open to it. trade miggy for maybe 2 really good double a players guys who have all 5 tools and they need to try to trade for texieria or look to sign him when he is a free agent pay him miggy's 13 mil plus 5 or 6 more for 5 yrs. and convince him he's needs to come home and be the oriole savior.

Jennifer, if you called yankee fans "queer" for honking at you, than what does that say about you if you call guys who honk at a woman "queer." Does that mean you look like a dude?

All you ripping Trembley for sitting Markakis. Please, get over it. "not respecting the game?" Are you kidding? Perhaps Nick will hit 300 for 10 straight years. THEY ARE IN FOURTH PLACE WITH NOTHING TO PLAY FOR!!! Give it a break.

True about A-Rod, Roch, but I noticed that when Miggy gave his batting glove to some kid the number applauding him increased significantly, with maybe as many as 50 people cheering.

Kudos to the following players who still played hard despite the outcome: Millar, Moore, Liz and House.

Roch, Can you give us a recap of what happened on your radio show today? I missed it, but would love to know what was said.

just blow the whole thing up and start over.. they are just too many players away from even simple respectability,,,and 7 games under is not respectable. It's not. Not anywhere.

If i hear one more time..."the O's were 58-65 before the blahblahblah (big collapse)"...thats 7 games under in a division where you need to finish 22 games over to even have a chance. this is flanagan-speak. lets hear someone say they were 7 games under and it is totally unacceptable, and the people responsible for this will be heading out the door. Like other winning teams do. Or is this franchise hell-bent on accepting mediocrity, or worse?

NO RETREADS. Don't re-sign Patterson. Get rid of Huff, Payton, Gibbons. BURN DOWN THIS VILLAGE so we can save it.

Bringing one outfielder and a reliever or two won't get us 3rd place in the AL East let alone the playoffs. This team has 2 competent starters, 2 competent relievers, a 2B and a RF. Tejada's as good as gone already. That's it, folks. The cupboard's bare.

Start building for the Next Great Orioles Team - not a team that might win 75 games with a few breaks.

Look on the bright side, O's fans...at least the team didn't tank it with seventeen games to go, like the Mets!

To Freddy Kallens--I agree and disagree. Yes, to the team re-signing C-Pat, considering Weiters if he shows he's ready, getting a guy who can hit the three-run dinger consistently like A. Jones, and seeing if Moore can play as a regular; no, to getting Hunter (or Rowand), good as he is, because is doesn't have plus power and is a hitter is too much like those already in the system (ditto Rowand), to dealing Tejada (especially for essentially the giveaway price you suggest) as his bat is still needed (you can't get rid of him without exposing another weakness of the team) and to trading for Teixeira, because the Orioles don't have enough to get him from the Braves and the Braves aren't interested in trading him.

It will be interesting to see if the Teixeira train has left the station forever as far as the O's are concerned, as Atlanta is going very hard at trying to re-sign him this offseason and with Schuerhotz at GM, I wouldn't count them out. The Orioles had their opportunity at trading for him during the season, when they could have had a better shot, but apparently are gambling that he'll want to come back to Maryland. That still may be a scenario, if he really wants to play with the Orioles that badly, but the trouble is he played for Georgia Tech in college and appears to like playing for the Braves.

I agree with Bill on the Shore except that Patterson did nothing to shortchange the fans or team. He was a very exciting player this year. Granted he started slow. As for Huff and Payton and Gibbons, so long dudes. Tejada is going to be a problem because what can they get for him and if it is nothing, how will his offense be replaced?

It's over. It's finally over. From Sam Per-lose-o to Captain Kirk, from Flanaquette to MacPhail, from Daniel Cabrera to Danys Baez, from Jay Gibbons to Jay Payton, from Victor Zambrano to Victor Santos.... what an awful, awful season.

There really isn't anything more to be said (unless you're gettnig paid for it). So I won't.
I've run out ot negative adjectives, and I'm a writer.
Thanks for embarassing us again, O's...and yourselves.

Final draft order for 08. TB # 1 Pitt #2 - O's - KC #3.

2007 orioles official fans who came into the stadium 850,000 red sox-yankee fans 810,000 the other500,000 i don't know about . tickets sold and the fans who showed up are two different things. next year 1.75 million maybe. ROCH ,IF THE ORIOLES PLAYED HALF AS GOOD AS YOU DO IN KEEPING THIS BLOG GOING ALL YEAR MAYBE US FANS WOULD HAVE SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2008 !!!!!!! GREAT JOB THIS YEAR GOING ALL THE WAY BACK TO SPRINGTRAINING AND KEEP UP YOUR GREAT WORK THIS WINTER. HOW ABOUT A HOLIDAY PARTY THIS DECEMBER AT ANITA'S OR AMBER'S HOUSE FOR ALL YOUR BLOGGERS???

If Mike Flanagan is shown the door, here are what may be a few of the contributing factors (I'm sure there are other significant examples, as well, but these come to mind):

2003/2004 offseason--The one recent offseason where the Orioles swung for the fences, but managed only a solid double in the gap. The signing of Miguel Tejada was big, but the front office struck out with Vladimir Guerreo, then opted for Javy Lopez over future Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez. All Pudge, who was deemed too old (relative to Javy) has done since then was to help lead the Tigers to the World Series and play in every All Star game. And Javy? After a good year for the O's in 2004, he played a decent, but injury-riddled '05 and was considered expendable in '06 when the team signed Ramon Hernandez, later to be trade to Boston for a prospect. (Lopez was cut by the Rockies earlier this year and was never picked up by another team.)

2004/2005 offseason--The Flanagan front Office had a shot at Tim Hudson and Carlos Delgato, but settled for Steve Kline, Steve Reed and Sammy Sosa.

July 2005--The Orioles, Marlins and Rangers tried to work out a three team trade. For the Orioles the main prize was highly-coveted Florida righthander A.J, Burnett, while Alfonso Soriano was rumored to go to Florida. Baltimore offered pitchers Jorge Julio, Steve Kline, Hayden Penn and Sidney Ponson. At the last minute the O's backed out because the Marlins insisted that third baseman Mike Lowell be included in the deal, but his $21M contract was the deal killer.

2005/2006 offseason-- Veteran lefthander Kenny Rogers was available as a free agent, but apparently was deemed too old (and perhaps a potential troublemaker), so the O's passed on him. Another struggling team, the Tigers, took a chance and all Rogers did was provide the veteran presence that helped show a talented, but immature pitching staff how to win, start the All-Star Game for the AL and pitch strongly in the AL Playoffs and World Series, dominating the Yankees, A's and Cardinals.

July 2006--In potential deals regarding Tejada the Flanagan front office got greedy, as it turned down offers from the Astros (Morgan Ensberg, Adam Everett, and intitally Roy Oswalt!) and the Angels (Ervin Santana and Ricky Aybar, but Flanagan insisted on Casey Kotchman).

It was a total joke to sit Markakis to preserve the .300 batting average, I don't care if the O's aren't playing for anything. Anyone who doesn't see a problem with that has no respect for the game, and frankly I expected a lot more from Trembley -- he's one of the last people I'd expect to pull a bush league move like that.

Thank god it's over!!!

Nice show Roch, and everyone else who loves the O's.

Wait 'til next year.

Steve--Heard the "no respect for the game" argument before concerning holding out Nick so he'd be assured .300, but neither you nor the others have offered a solid reason why that's not respecting the game. Would you have preferred Markakis take an o-fer and end up under .300, as if that's somehow more in keeping with the "integrity" of the game?

A manager (in this case, Captain Kirk) has the call as to who's in the lineup and just because he chose to sit him for the final game shouldn't be considered bush league. Markakis' .300 for the season is in the books now and can't be taken from him.

How is protecting that accomplishment disrespecting the game? I can see Nick taking his chances today and I don't have a problem with that, either, but I do think there's more than one way to look at it.

Markakis wanted to play. Maybe the manager keeping him out wasn't disrepecting the game . . . maybe it was.

The fact that Nick wanted to play, the teams MVP, shows some disrepect towards him. He's earned the right to make that choice in a meaningless game on the last day of the season. He wanted to play because he was confident that he could at least go 1-3 and maintain the .300 average. Maybe when he gets that hit, you remove him for a pinchrunner and he gets a standing O in his final appearance in an MVP year. Wouldn't that be a nice touch.

Not having him in the lineup on the day he was named the MVP also shows some disrespect to the fans. I was very upset when I saw Payton in rightfield.

I'm sure it had to be a little disheartening to not play on the day you are named the team's MVP.
Much of what Trembley says sounds good, but he does not always back it up.

So when do we find out if we have the 3rd overall pick or the 4th?

Dollar for dollar, over the past 10 years we may be the worst franchise in sports. It's been a blast. Better than WWF wrestling but without the steroid enhanced freaks... oh wait.

I say blow it up if possible. Keep in mind everyone, for every trade you suggest there has to be an organization on the other end willing to deal. Who wants a player that a 69-win team wants to get rid of? Chances are they are actually trying to better their team so why pick up Oriole retreads (e.g., Payton, Gibbons, Mora, Baez). In most cases the options will be release or grin and bear it. Might as well give them the message before the offseason that no spots are secure.

I'm not even going to remark on the Jones, Hunter stuff anymore because it's a waste of time. Might as well throw ARod and the Easter Bunny in the mix for likely players in Orioles uniforms next year. The question is do we want to overpay for Rowand if he is willing to cash in his career year? Dunn like others have said is intriguing but will be off the table soon.

I think we should find some promising young cricket batters in Malaysia or Bangaladesh. Can't be worse than raiding Pittsburg's minor league system, can it?

If it wasn't for the 40,000+ crowd against Tampa Bay on a Tuesday evening in July to send off Cal Ripken to Cooperstown, this would have been the lowest attendance in Camden Yards history.

final post. watched the first inning, and true to form turned it off.

watched the phantastic phils on mlb.com. now that was a game. the stadium was rocking. like RFK style rocking. congrats to our friends to the north. let's go phillies. (fyi the spring training game i went too in march was philly / cleveland, still my pick for the world series!).. ; )

let's go (forward) O's...

I for initiative

Hey Roch - thanks for helping us all remain (relatively) sane this year. I was at the opener and really only kept tabs with the O's through your Blog - and got to have a hometown feel even though I live in Buffalo, NY. Thanks to all the passionate O's fans out there who participate in the banter - it made the season more tolerable...hopefully something looks a up for next year? Can it get worse? (laughing)

Is anyone else concerned about Jamie Walker's analogy between the difficulty of Andy McPhail's job and that of George W. Bush? Does this mean we can expect Dick Cheney to replace Tom Trebelhorn and Donald Rumsfeld to replace Sammy Mejias? I'm personally holding out for Colin Powell to replace either Mazzone or Crowley. And as bad as I think Dempsey is, I much prefer him over Tony Snow.

"D" is for Democrat!

2008 can't get here fast enough!

"i" is for incumbent or is that incompetence. Actually, there's no need to distinguish between the two.

Ken, Flanagan is incompetent. We need not list examples of his staggering incompetence.I know, it's nice to reminisce and all, but all that does is to provide a grim trip down the bloodied path of recent Oriole history.
Suffice to say, his tenure as GM, dubbed the "reign of error", has sent the O's to a place from which a decent recovery will take a few years.
Only a shred of pride may stop him from playing a sympathy card, and standing up at his press conference and telling us that he really knew not what he was doing(pretty obvious) he's really sorry(quivering lips and a tear or 2), but thanks anyway for the opportunity to finish flushing this team down the proverbial toilet(it was kinda fun, and really took no guts or imagination!). Short of any player screwups, allowing him anywhere near the FO was the O's biggest mistake.

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to Roch and all the regulars on this blog for creating and maintaining a home for all us Orioles fans this season. I don't post a lot, but I check in almost every day and appreciate all the chatter. Roch, I hope you'll keep our little online clubhouse open and active throughout the offseason as you have in the past. Hopefully, it'll be an interesting winter.

Another sad season ends for the O's. It seems like yesterday I was walking out of Camden Yards after the playoff loss to the Indians. I cant believe it's been 10 years. And it seems like it will be 10 more years til we make the playoffs again.

I'll be optimistic and hope we can get to 70 wins next season!

Jennifer, thanks for the funny posts. You deserve your own blog. Announce yourself at Mad River sometime and I'll make sure you get a drink for being so entertaining.

At least we have a winning team in the Ravens to cheer on...oops. I at least have faith that they will turn it around.

Season is over. THANK YOU, ROCH! There were many times when I'd realize I never even read the game recap since I'd watched most of it on TV and go to this blog first to read the interesting Orioles news.

And thanks to all the other bloggers, too. It was mostly an exchange of ideas and angst without too much name-calling and animosity (although such evils did seem to increase when the O's season tanked in August and September - one more reason to hope for better times).

Something to remember and pin some hope on: this is baseball, and if the same formula always worked every team would do it. Sometimes getting those big free agents works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you can trade your big players for great young talent in return, sometimes that talent never materializes. The patchwork player that gets added one offseason is just another retread, while another offseason it turns out to be a veteran that somehow changes everything. Let's all hope whatever the Orioles do in the next few years pays big dividends.

I don't know about disrespecting the game, but on the final game of a crummy season or any season for that matter, start your "stars" and then take them out. It's pretty standard baseball procedure.

Even the Yankees - knowing that they're going to the playoffs - started many of their "stars" in this meaningless game, risking injury.

I gotta say it was hard to see the season end with Payton in right...

Cherri. I agree with you about the last game of the season lineup. It's hard to see Payton in the lineup any day...Let's hope they cut ties with him over the off-season.
To those Huff-bashers, let's not out him into the same category as Payton & Gibbons. At least he ended up with decent numbers. He' signed for 2 more years so he isn't going anywhere. I'm hoping he continues his strong 2nd half into '08.
Keep him at DH and he could be a steady hitter-20-25 HRs, 85-100 RBI and a BA in the .280-.300 range.

Thank God's it's over. But, I can't say that I'm going to join the ranks who say "Wait until next year." I went to Yankees Stadium in Baltimore yesterday and was totally disgusted by what I saw on the field and in the stands. Being an Oriole fan, I was definitely in the minority yesterday. Since I'm from York, PA and we now have an Atlantic League team, I'm going to do a little comparison as to why I probably won't attend anymore games in Baltimore until they put a contender on the field:

Tickets:
Baltimore-$30 for Left Field
York-$8 for Left Field

Parking:
Baltimore-$26
York-$4

Food: Nachos and a Bottle of Water
Baltimore-$9
York-$5

Team Quality:
Baltimore: Redmond starting in Centerfield for last game of Year
York: Redmond starting in Center Field for first game of Year

Drive Home:
Baltimore: Over an Hour
York: 10 Minutes

Chances of Making the Playoffs::
Baltimore: What was it? 1996
York: 1st year in existence-2nd place

Who would you rather see?
Baltimore: Bynum, Bako, Fahey
York: Hoiles, Bumbry, Tippy Martinez and, oh yeah...Brooks Robinson

Go York Revolution

Place the letter "i" in the field below for "I've had enough!"

As Roch might say, I’m going to clean out my notebook here, though I’m not a reporter, I don’t actually keep a notebook, and I’m generally not organized in any way.

Schilling won’t come here unless the club magically turns into a potential 2008 contender in the next month and a half. And he’s the kind of pitcher who’s going to cost way too much for what he gives you in terms of regular season performance. I think the main thing he has at this point in his career is experience and presence—attributes best utilized for a team like the Red Sox that’s in the playoffs.

I don’t see anything to get worked up about with Markakis sitting. It’s the last game of the season, he reached a generally recognized milestone batting average, and, other than the fact the team could’ve tied last year’s win total with a win, there was nothing riding on the game’s outcome. I get more worked up about 10 straight losing seasons and little relief in sight than a player sitting out the meaningless last game of the season.

The Victors were a mistake. To us belong the spoiled Victors. Two Victors don’t make you any better. Enough with the retreads. I realize they were left with little choice late in the season but, please, these guys’ names should not even be on any piece of warehouse paper that might have a heading, “Potential Players We Might Want to Keep for 2008” (or something similar). Just file these names in the Russ Ortiz Circular File and be done.

And, finally, man, I’m glad that’s over! Another brutal season has ended and not soon enough. How demoralizing is it, though, for the team to end up with one less win than last year, when this year started out with improvement over last year as almost a foregone conclusion?

I’m sure there will be a chorus of people saying that 69 wins isn’t so bad considering the number of injuries suffered. Yes, it is bad, sorry to say. Ending a season with an 11-28 record is not only unacceptable it’s pathetic, and such a bad ending is something we’ve seen around here before (and we’ve done worse than this). If you would’ve asked me before the season what’s the worst thing the Orioles could do this season, I would’ve said ending poorly, because it would be completely demoralizing to an already demoralized fan base and it would set a poor tone going into the offseason free agent/trade market and make it even more difficult to sign good free agents. On to an uneventful offseason!

Ken Francis - I agree with your summary of Flanagan deals that were, to be charitable, stupid. In fact, I thought the deal with the Angels was a done deal. The switch to Kotchman was almost last minute.

I do have to disagree on a couple, however.

The 3 way with the Marlins was killed by Angelos. The FO was ready to pull the trigger. (Imagine what a difference maker that would have been! With Burnett, the O's don't trade for Benson or Wright. Maine MAY have been the 5th starter. Lowell probably would have been moved to 1st or DH.... How many holes would be filled with one deal??? Just thinking about it gets my blood boiling.)

The Astro deal died because Houston wanted Bedard and/or Lowen added in without as much return. I do not remember the final deal but it involved Tejada and Bedard or Lowen for one or two guys and Oswalt was not in the package. It is hard to blame the FO for balking at that one. And, as it turns out, it was a pretty good deal NOT to make.

Finally, you left off the Brian Roberts for LaRoche/Giles deal. That was a great one.

Also there was the psychological testing stupidity where Dave Ritterpusch, who had no background in baseball, used a questionable survey to make bad baseball decisions.

Sadly, the list could go on.

Chief Clancy -- I called them queer because by the looks of things... It seemed as if they spent four hours in the mirror greasing down each individual piece of hair to perfection. Seriously there was enough hair gel in that one car to recreate that scene from Old School (only they used lubricant in the movie). Then took another two hours coordinating their "bling bling" with their horrendous outfits they were wearing.

And just because I don't want to be hooted and hollered at does not make me ugly. It means that I find Men who toot and holler obscene things to women to be complete morons. There is a nice way to tell a woman that she looks nice. Yelling sexual things out the window just makes YOU look like a retard.

enter b for Better luck next year O's.

Yeah, what's up with the hair gel obsession out there?