Chat » The Baltimore Orioles will continue their rebuild

BALTIMORE (AP) —ing project without manager Buck Showalter and executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette Joe Morgan Jersey , who were fired Wednesday after the team finished with the worst record in the major leagues.With Duquette procuring the talent and Showalter making it work on the field, Baltimore snapped a run of 14 straight losing seasons and made the playoffs in 2012, 2014 and 2016.But the Orioles finished 75-87 in 2017 — losing 19 of their final 23 games — and this year staggered through a 47-115 season, the worst since the team moved to Baltimore in 1954.The club issued a statement Wednesday night that read, in part: “We thank Dan and Buck for their many contributions over the past several years. Under their leadership, prior to the 2018 season and for six consecutive years, the club delivered competitive teams playing meaningful baseball into September. … Everyone in Birdland and across our organization will cherish these memories, and we all join in thanking Dan and Buck for their contributions.”Showalter and Duquette have contracts that expire at the end of October.“It was decided that they would not renew my contract, and I think that’s for the best,” Duquette said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I want to thank (owner) Peter Angelos for the opportunity to lead the Orioles. We had some very good seasons, and I’m proud of what we did here.”A three-time AL Manager of the Year, Showalter ranks second on the Orioles’ career list with 669 victories, trailing Earl Weaver. He took over in August 2010 and orchestrated the resurgence of a floundering franchise.Once hailed for making baseball in Baltimore relevant again, the 62-year-old Showalter is out of a job after a season in which the Orioles finished 61 games behind Boston in the AL East.Before opening day, Duquette signed free agent pitchers Alex Cobb and Andrew Cashner. He also spurned trade offers for pending free agent Manny Machado with hopes that the Orioles could be a contender in 2018.It never happened. Baltimore went 8-20 in April and owned a 19-50 record on June 16. Just over a month later, before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, Duquette tore apart the roster by swapping Machado, Zach Britton, Jonathan Schoop and several other veterans for 15 minor league prospects and international signing bonus slot money.“Nobody could have anticipated the season would go as it did,” Duquette said Wednesday night.Duquette began the rebuild, but he won’t be around to see it to the finish. Director of Player Development Brian Graham will handle day-to-day oversight of baseball operations while the Orioles search for Duquette’s successor.Showalter earned AL Manager of the Year honors in 2014 after taking the Orioles to the AL East title and a berth in the Championship Series. He was also chosen Manager of Year with the Yankees in 1994 and Texas in 2004. His career record is 1,551-1,517, including 669-684 with Baltimore.“I just think ever since he came here, the franchise just gained a little more accountability, gained an edge for some time,” Orioles outfielder Adam Jones said before the final game of the season. “It’s the end of an era. A great manager, a great tenure. I don’t know if he’s going to coach or manage again, but he’s got grandchildren. Go golf. Relax and go sit on the golf course.”Duquette joined the Orioles in November 2011. Baltimore reached the postseason in 2012, the first of five successive seasons in which Baltimore finished at least .500.Duquette’s tenure in Baltimore featured the crafty signing of free agents Nelson Cruz and Mark Trumbo, both of whom led the majors in home runs with the Orioles. But Duquette also signed right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez Dave Concepcion Jersey , who went 32-42 over the length of a four-year, $50 million contract, and Baltimore is still paying the price for the seven-year, $161 million deal offered to slugger Chris Davis before the 2016 season.Davis batted .168 this season, the lowest batting average by a qualifier in major league history, and he struck out 192 times over 128 games.Duquette replaced Andy MacPhail as Baltimore’s overseer of baseball operations. Before that, the 60-year-old Massachusetts native enjoyed successful tenures with the Boston Red Sox from 1994-2001 and the Montreal Expos from 1987-93. The Red Sox reached the playoffs three times under his guidance.The Orioles say they will hire an executive from outside of the organization to lead the baseball operations department. That person will be in charge of choosing a new manager. It’s time for a strategy that incorporates both Puccini and Podsednik"Chicago White Sox baseball is over, alas. Even baseball played by teams other than the White Sox is preferable to no baseball, but even that is now over, alas.Better minds than mine are drafting and posting their offseason plans, scouting the available talent, hunting up salary figures, pouring over free agent lists and 29 other teams’ MiLB and 40-man rosters for bargains, trade targets, and probably even some Rule 5 possibilities. They’re creating their models for what they hope will be the 2019 White Sox. Some base their plans on what they think the White Sox front office will do. Some base their plans on what they, themselves, would do if they could. Some attempt the latter within a framework of the former. Some will shoot for the moon. Some will shoot for Skokie. All are better armchair GMs than I am. Therefore, my plan is less concerned with who the Sox will field in 2019, and more concerned with how I will make it through until then. No baseball sucks. But not having a plan to get through these blighted, uncaring, and dismal months make it worse.So here is katiesphil’s 2018-2019 offseason plan.1.Organize physical mediaI am one of the 13 people left in the U.S. who still buys things on physical media. I still buy books with pages and covers. I still buy CD with discs and inserts and covers. I still buy blue-ray discs with, um, discs and inserts and covers. And I have lots of each. And over the last few years, they’ve all gotten completely out of order. It seems like only yesterday that I could think of any given Mott the Hoople record and know immediately in which room and on which shelf to go find it. It wasn’t really yesterday, though, it was a couple/few years ago, and now I have no damned idea. Where the hell is my boxed set of season four of Homicide? Who knows! Where is that John and Beverly Martyn disc with “Auntie Aviator” on it? Who knows! Where on Earth is the third volume of Truman’s Hawkworld run? Who knows! Where is the neat little book on the knuckleball? Who knows!With no baseball, I have the time to organize some of this stuff so that I can find things when I go looking for them. Right now I just say “who knows,” shrug, and move on.SSS/baseball connection: I’d like to write about the knuckleball book (and a number of others), but can’t find it. Additionally http://www.redsfanproshop.com/authentic-cliff-pennington-jersey , I’d like to write about and enjoy a handful of baseball-related movies, but have to, you know, find the damned things first. Cost: Nothing, technically, but I’m kind of lazy, so there’s that.2.Get out to the theater someI got a jump start yesterday as the family and I took in Hello Dolly at the Oriental Theater. While it might just undermine the he-man, macho image I have around here, I like the theater, including musical theater. I am happy to report that Hello Dolly, with national treasure Betty Buckley, is a delight: fun, frilly, lush, and completely devoid of any social significance whatever. Highly recommended. I also have tickets for Fiddler on the Roof, and Lyric’s upcoming La Boh茅me, which I consider the perfect gateway opera for the youngest daughters as it features lovely, memorable music, and a (for an opera) coherent and easily-followed story line. Others will be added between now and March. SSS/baseball connection: None, but it beats the hell out of basketball and football.Cost: $50 - $100 per seat. I like front row balcony when I can get / afford ‘em. 3.Learn more about advanced statsAs the SSS faithful have gathered over the years, my knowledge of, and interest in, advanced stats both trend to low end. The interest part, however, is growing, and so I’d like to use the offseason to up the knowledge part. If any of you have a suggestion for a book that will help me out, please leave the title in the comments. It will be greatly appreciated. Warning/consideration: Think “Baseball Stats for Idiots”-level. As the SSS faithful have gathered over the years, I’m kind of an idiot with regard to advanced statistics.SSS/baseball connection: Obvious, I’d think.Cost: I don’t know. Is it available on Amazon marketplace*? 4.Get some reading doneRelated to both 1 and 3 above, but worthy of standing on its own, because:There are lots of unread books that I can locate in my houseI have active accounts both at Amazon and 57th Street Books Ken Griffey Jersey , and there’s a Powell’s down the street, tooThese will not all be baseball books, of course. The world is filled to the gills with interesting things to read about, and after 57 years I’ve still only scratched the surface. I have known some very nice, intelligent people who claim they don’t read. I can accept them, I can befriend them, but I will never, ever understand them.SSS/baseball connection: Some of them will be baseball books, maybe even about the Sox. I have a couple of things I haven’t gotten to on the shelves here somewhere 鈥?Cost: Variable,* but always worth it5.Re-watch my DVDs of the 2005 World SeriesI haven’t pulled them out in quite some time, but after a season like this past one, it might do to wallow some. It was quite a ride, and there are lots of familiar faces not seen in a while. It will do me good to remember that the team has some pretty good stuff in its past, and remind myself that there’s really no good reason why it can’t have some pretty good stuff in its future. Heck, even some for-old-time’s-sake Hawk won’t kill me now, will it? This assumes, of course, that I can find them.SSS/baseball connection: Like being wrapped in tentacles, but in a good way. Cost: Depends. If I can find them, $0.00. If I can’t, $79.89-$119.95 (plus shipping) for the full set, which is apparently no longer available new. Otherwise, it’s $1.49-$12.64 for the pathetic, single-disc highlights. (All prices per Amazon. I’m not willing to look any farther right now, since I think I know where they are.)Total payroll: $800-$919.95 (plus shipping)**Plus the cost of the stuff I don’t know yet, since I don’t know yet. This seems like a bargain, if it helps pass the offseason and get me back to actual baseball. Still, to paraphrase Freewheelin’ Franklin of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: Baseball will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no baseball. No kidding.