What Happened?
My coworker and I were having a conversation about our disappointing baseball teams. He’s a Mets fan, so he knows disappointment just as well as we Orioles fans do. We then took some time to compare the Mets to the Orioles and I got some real perspective on how poorly this team has performed so far and how far they’ve both fallen from 2014-2015. Then I started to think more, isn’t this was Buck Showalter teams always do?
My Take
Buck Showalter undeniably deserves a ton of credit for turning the Orioles organization around since his arrival as the Orioles’ third manager in 2010. The Orioles won 34 of their last 57 games upon Showalter becoming manager in 2010, but came back down to Earth the next season. Since then, the team has followed a trajectory very well known to Showalter along his career. He took an underachieving team, brought them back to relevance, then to championship contention, and then…nothing. This pattern is discernible at each stop in his career.
His first managerial job was with the New York Yankees. In 1992, Showalter’s first year, the Yankees went 76-86, which is around par for the course for their performance in that era. Slowly but surely, Showalter turned the Yankees into a real contender, finishing first in a strike shortened 1994, and reached the playoffs in 1995. Then all of a sudden, Showalter was out the door after a confusing contract dispute. The Yankees won the World Series the next year (that’s all I’ll say about that). Showalter was gone after building the franchise and had nothing to show for it.
Showalter’s next stops in Arizona and Texas followed similar paths. He built the Diamondbacks, an expansion team, into a championship contender in 1999, but was fired after a disappointing season in 2000. The Diamondbacks won the World Series in 2001. In Texas, he got the most out of a team that traded away Alex Rodriguez, but again was fired after another disappointing year. The Diamondbacks and Rangers were both promising teams that regressed heavily in Showalter’s final seasons.
Take another look at the Orioles during Showalter’s tenure. He took the Orioles from cellar dwellers to contenders, to the brink of a World Series appearance, and now, disappointing regression. It is eerily similar. So should we have foreseen this decline from the Orioles? Is it possible his luster has worn off in the clubhouse? I don’t think that’s necessarily the case, but this is not a new phenomenon for Buck Showalter teams.
His loyalty to veterans is admirable, but may have cost the organization. The organization and fan base latched onto his phrase “I like our guys”, but has that gone too far? The Orioles very clearly have a flawed, veteran-filled roster, and we haven’t seen any real steps towards a rebuild with younger players. Though there is talent on the 40 man roster, the current parts don’t seem to add up to a competitive sum.
The Overreaction
Buck Showalter brought competitive baseball back to the Orioles and he rejuvenated a baseball town longing for a contender. One of his flaws may have been being too loyal to his guys, so maybe the front office shouldn’t make the same mistake with him. Showalter will eventually transition to a front office role with the Orioles, but maybe that’s some of the same loyalty that got us here in the first place. Should a rebuild go beyond loading up the farm system, and try to load up the front office and coaching staff too? To me, it’s fairly clear that we’ve seen Showalter’s history repeat itself for the fourth time now. Maybe we should have seen this coming.
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I think so because these guys are terrible right now I’m smdh!😠
It ain’t buck’s fault. The owner is a tight wad pure and simple
Some of us in “our” O’s family, are doing exactly what BS has done to put himself in this situation. Which is having to much loyalty to the “old guys” or whatever you want to call them. I’m not going to go in to all that and of BS’s losses directly attributed to him and no one else, but the facts are in his career history. We all knew it, his career was what it was and is, and we knew it was not gonna change, this time around. BS is a baseball guy. And I respect his knowledge and love of this great game. He is a great coach! He comes in to town and transforms the players, the front office and the fans. We all buy into his method and its a great method. not many people can say they have turned around 4 MLB teams from losers to respected contenders. However, after you do this you cant still keep your coach hat on. You have to switch and start wearing a managers hat. Managers are more than coaches, their different inherently. A great mngr. doesn’t need to coach as much he needs to be the end all be all of everything concerning the team. He doesn’t need to be friends with the players, he can be but doesn’t have to be. He has to do and make the hard decisions that every successful manager in every other job in the world does. It sucks and its hard but he also makes multi millions, unlike the woman at your local McD’s. , so that should take some of the burden off. I won’t get into the five to ten games that are squarely on his shoulders in which we loose each season. Thats not ok, by the way, one or two maybe, but not more than 3 in a year. Buck does not have it in his DNA to be a great mngr., neither do I and thats ok, but i realize this he doesn’t. He is a great coach and we should all be grateful for what he has done for our team and the city and us. But its all ready been two years over due and we are now in a middle of a third, were the team has gotten away from his particular skill set. He should be gone by now. If Lou and Jon, wont or cant do it, he should step down himself. Do we really want him in the front office as a GM, (maybe as a special contributor or something like that) . when every other team is going younger and smarter? So, thanks BS, we are very grateful for your time here, we love you and wish you the best, you will always have a space in our hearts, but please do what you know is right in your heart of hearts. Resign as Mngr.
Maybe if Dan had acquired better talent….you can only do so much with what you’ve got.
Don’t blame Buck for what DD did. You can’t make lemonade out of sour lemons. Maybe Toronto still wants DD
What kind of lemons are you getting that aren’t sour?
All lemons are sour. That’s why lemonade is full of sugar. Wow.
Linda Roman…. I think you can
Linda Roman 🤔
DD didn’t put Ubaldo in, in that WC game.
We would of lost the next round cmon now. We weren’t winning the ws that year
Lol..bye birds
This roster is terribly flawed. The decline in talent has been evident over the last three seasons. This isn’t on the manager.