(Don't) Blame It On Angelos

I may catch some flack from some O's fans for saying this.  I don't mean to offend those of you that this post addresses, it's just that... well, we've gotten lazy.  You see, I've been watching the Orioles lose for the past 14 years just like the rest of you.

I've been listening to Orioles fans curse the name of Peter Angelos for years now.  After all, it's his fault for not putting a winning team on the field, or so the logic goes.  Now listen, I'm not here to say that Angelos is without blame.

The truth is, I honestly don't know the full extent to which the Angelos family is involved in baseball / business decisions.  I would imagine it's safe to say they have significant input given their positions within the organization:

Peter Angelos - Chairman of the Board / Chief Executive Officer (Owner)
John Angelos - Executive Vice President

The problem is, we don't know what input or decision-making power the Angelos' have in baseball or business decisions.  There has been A LOT of speculation, but at the end of the day we just plain don't know.

The most egregious complaint in my mind however, is about the money the team spends.  Fans often claim that Peter Angelos doesn't want to spend money, that all he cares about is pocketing revenues.  To address this, let's look at some data from the past few years...


FACT 1 - The Orioles were the last team not named Yankees to lead MLB in payroll.
According to this website the Orioles outspent the New York Yankees by about $6 Million in 1998, spending a total of $71,860,921 on player contracts.  To give some context, that would be the equivalent of $101,070,212.38 in 2012 dollars.

FACT 2 - In 2000 the Orioles spent the equivalent of $108,451,977.36.
The Baltimore Orioles 2000 payroll came in at $81,447,435 putting them in 4th place behind the Yankees, Dodgers & Braves.  That doesn't sound like an owner pocketing money to me.

FACT 3 - The Orioles have spent over $90 Million on payroll within the past 5 years.
Hard to believe, but in 2007 the Orioles payroll came in at $93,554,808 according to Cot's Baseball Contracts.  In today's dollars that comes out to roughly $103,489,831.86.  Even at $93 Million the O's weren't among the top five in the league, coming in at 10th overall in terms of payroll.


Listen, I get it.  Payrolls of $67 Million, $73 Million, and $84 Million don't exactly make us believe that they're putting in a full effort to build the team.  The facts though are that as the team gets younger, more of the players are cost-controlled and will receive big raises when they are closer to free agency (a la Adam Jones). The team likely can and very well might expand payroll as attendance picks up and the roster demands it.  I just don't see using player salaries as a good point of emphasis when complaining about the team's leadership.

So, sorry Orioles fans.  You're going to have to find something else to complain about because the facts just don't support your opinions here.  If you're interested in looking at inflation adjusted values, I'd recommend using this pretty cool & intuitive tool: Inflation Calculator.

2013 Free Agency Targets

Cost of Winning

To this point in the season, the Baltimore Orioles have spent $859,283.10 per victory.  This compares favorably to others in the AL East as you can see in the graphic below:

Only the Rays have paid less money per victory than the Orioles to this point in the season.  Expect those numbers to come down for the Red Sox and Yankees however, unless you expect them to finish right around .500 on the season.

2013 Free Agency

With that said, let's figure out how to spend more of the Orioles' money.  MLBTradeRumors assessed the O's 2013 contract situation, and we can see that there aren't a lot of core players that should be leaving the team, so there's definitely the opportunity to make the team better for 2013.  MLBTradeRumors has also supplied us with a list of 2013 free agents, so we have an idea of who is going to be available.  Remember that some players could be DFA'd by their teams resulting in a larger free agent pool.

Positions We Don't Need

Catcher, First Base, Shortstop, Center Field and Right Field are probably locks for 2013, meaning we will likely only potentially be targeting backups at those positions.  There are some intriguing names at those positions, so we shouldn't dismiss them off-hand given we still have almost 70% of the season left to go.

Second Base

Cano won't see the light of day as far as the free agent market goes, and there really aren't any other intriguing options outside of him.  The O's will go in-house for a second baseman if Brian Roberts can't play the positions full time next season.

Third Base

There are really only two interesting options here and they are Kevin Youkilis and Mark Reynolds.  Everyone else is either under-performing or on the wrong side of 35.  The O's will almost certainly decline Reynolds' option but could pursue him on a cheaper deal.  Similarly, the team could opt to use him almost exclusively as a DH, replcaing him at 3B with an internal option like Robert Andino.

Left Field

Interesting players here are (obviously) Hamilton, Bourn, Upton, Victorino, Sizemore, and Torii Hunter.  Hunter and Sizemore would be upside plays, while Victorino, Bourn and Upton are more known quantities that will require long-term commitments.  On the other side of the coin, Josh Hamilton is a superstar, and would likely require a commitment north of $100 Million.  Realistically I think Reimold might be the best value for us, and we could always let Xavier Avery get full time ABs in left field next season.

Pitching

There are honestly too many targets to consider, especially since good pitching will always be in demand for the Orioles.  I just want to take a moment to bring up Brandon McCarthy, my favorite non-Oriole right now.  McCarthy has an ERA of 2.95 this season.  McCarthy has seen a career resurgence in Oakland, and seems to be aa generally good guy.  Just me being selfish here, but I defy you to tell me he can't help this team.  It should be noted that McCarthy is a ground ball pitcher, so he could be successful in Oriole Park, he isn't being buoyed by the massive confines in Oakland.

At some point in later in the season I'll break down specifically, by position the potential free agents the O's could pursue.  The point of this post is really to just get everyone to start thinking about the options on the market and the direction the birds could take.  We'd love to hear the players you think the O's should keep an eye on for the rest of the season.