Is it just me, or do the Orioles seem to suffer an extraordinary amount of injuries to their pitching staff every spring? Is this a conditioning question, or just bad luck, or is it normal and I am just being paranoid?

Roy,

This is another time I will give Macphail some credit, although it pains me to do so. Before he got here not only the farm system but the very infrastructure of the organization from front office to minor league conditioning and training methods had become dusfunctional. Peter Angelos was "stangling the baby" with his miserly methods.

The majority of the warehouse is as dysfunctional as ever, but the on the field operations in the minor leagues have made tremendous strides, including training and conditioning. That wasn't hard to do compared to what it was.

It's just unfortunate that the fans at the major League level won't really see the results for a long time, if ever, because relying soley on the theory that a major league team can become a winner without importing proven top talent to supplement the program is a 50/50 proposition at best. Macphail has made clear since 2007 his lack of interest in quality Free Agents or outside marquee talent through either signings or trading prospects. His message is, it's the farm system or else. So far it's looking more like the "or else" to me.

All that being said, I think that the arm problems with the pitchers and the other injuries to position players in the last few year has been just plain bad luck. But when it rains it pours and as Macphail is finding out, when it comes to the Orioles, Murphy was right.

Yup,break out the bubbly,last place is staring at us once again.I know,the season hasn't even started,but nothing I have seen or heard excites me in any way.AM says it time to be accountable for wins and losses and then 4 days later and 4 losses later says he's not concerned yet.Brian Roberts going back to Baltimore for a second opinion,Gonzalez and Millwood,our 2 "BIG" offseason acquisitions not looking good,Reimhold not completely healthy,Atkins not impressing,the offense is almost non existent,somebody give me some hope here.

Good points all Gil. Why does it pain you if the GM of your favorite team does something right?

I haven't heard of anyone's labrum tearing this year! WOO HOO!

And you've made me take a harder look at the on field product since AM has been here and i agree that more could have been done to be more competitive, although i don't think the right players were there to take the Os to 90+ wins, we could be looking at mid-80s this year.

I think we're a year away from that.

Oh yea, I loved it when you used 'inertia' in a post a few days ago.

'The sky is falling (or has fallen)' hand-wringers should get a grip for a week or two. I'm astonished that the guillotine is being sharpened for someone who's shown himself to be a decent judge of talent. Matt Holliday in the AL East might be better than Larry Bigbie or Jackie Brandt or Al Pilarcik or Willy Tasby or hundreds of other flycatchers, but would you really want him to be the highest paid ballplayer on a team reconstituting? It would be an injustice were his salary equal to the Lowenstein/Roenicke platoon. Use a little judgment here, people. Andy MacPhail doesn't have to be Branch Rickey not to be subject to venomous and ill-informed criticism. And the ad hominem attacks are simply stupid.