inconceiveable!

I’m sure there will be people on this site who line up to defend and make excuses for Dave Trembley, but I find it disturbing that the Orioles have chosen to keep a manager who led them to the second-worst record in baseball this year at least the third-worst season they’ve had as a franchise. The Orioles pathetic second-half performance and September finish makes it obvious to me that he doesn’t know what he’s doing and that his player don’t respond to him. Why they want to make someone so obviously incompetent their public face is beyond me.

This is the first thing Andy McPhail has done that give me a genuine reason to question the direction the Orioles are going in.

This is the first time that MacPhail has succumbed to the mentality that has dominated the Orioles of the last 12 years that there is value in keeping the familiar around regardless of obviously ineffective the familiar may be.

the players are on notice
the manager is on notice
the free agents are on notice
mr. andy macphail just told MLB the Os are in business for business
i think 2010 is going to be fun

…Albers?

Trembley again. That just really sucks.

And let’s be clear. The whole… team sucks so Trembley should get another chance is just silly. Just because many of the players on the team are bad doesn’t mean Trembley was good at his job.

He made a bunch of reactionary and boneheaded decisions, and does not appear to understand the tools that actually are in a baseball managers arsenal. Cesar Izturis second? Are you kidding. He was doing this long before we had a bunch of AAAA players starting every day. Hit and runs with slow players and other small-ball silliness. Sure the stuff isn’t that big of a deal, but it’s the tools that a manager has to improve or hurt his team tactically. Most decisions a manager makes are unimportant relevant to player quality. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to find a manager that makes the best decisions.

Were did the FanPosts widget go?

I’m a Green Bay Packers fan (there was no football team when I was in Baltimore and my Dad is from Milwaukee) and I vividly remember what was like in the pre-Favre era. The Packers were the most pathetic franchise in the NFL, but the fans were always convinced that they were just a few years away from turning it around. Every loser coach deserved another year to turn it around. Every player that didn’t embarrass himself on Sunday was either one of the best players at his position or a future star. Needless to say, none of this panned out.

Just change the names and it’s the same with the 2009 Orioles. Rather Bart Starr or Forrest Gregg or Lindy Infante who deserves to show what he can do with a good team and no injuries, it’s Dave Trembley. Rather than Don Majkowski, Ken Ruettgers, and Brian Noble being players who will take them to the promised land, it’s Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis, and Adam Jones.

This team is lousy and will remain lousy. It’s bad enough that they’re in a division with the Yankees and the Red Sox, but they’re in a division with the Rays who are even younger than the Orioles. There are problems up and down the organization. Keeping Dave Trembley is just the most obvious manifestation.

How about Tom Kelly? As long as Pimlico is nearby I’m sure he’ll be happy.

Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any baseball teams that really would’ve accomplished something if they just would’ve been more patient with the manager.

Between 1947 and 1955 the Dodgers won five pennants with three different managers.

Teams that have won 100 games have fired managers like Whitey Herzog and Danny Ozark and lived to tell about. Getting rid of a guy like Trembley who is a bad manager in a ton of demonstrable ways shouldn’t be a hard call. You guys are clinging to him like he’s some precious jewel. This baffles me and makes me vaguely sad.

That’s what drives me nuts about guys. He hit and runs and bunts and his pitching moves always fail and his players play stupid. These are all things that get better managers than him fired.

If the problem is a character flaw on the part of the players, that’s Dave Trembley’s fault! He’s their manager! That precisely the sort of thing he’s supposed to be worrying about.

Mike Hargrove really had no talent and despite a horrible season in 2001 (which Trembley will be lucky to match) they inched slightly better each year until he was fired. In his two and a half years the O’s have gotten worse and it’s always some reason other than his incompetence. What happens next year when they lose 105 games? Can they fire him then or, once again, would no manager been able to do better?