Sitting here watching the Orioles attempt to painfully
surrender any hope of reaching the post season, I’m reminded of frustrations
past – a late season collapse in 2013 and…well, any season from 1998-2011. But
with those teams you could at least see it coming. The team had weaknesses and
certain things were just not sustainable. While both of those may factor in
this season, that should not be the case.
I know everyone will point to the losses of Nick Markakis
and Nelson Cruz (which were sizeable, no question), but even then, on paper at
least, the Orioles were still the deepest team in the AL East entering the
season. And though he’s disappeared lately, Jimmy Paredes did a fine job of
making us forget all about Nelson Cruz the first two months of the season.
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| Buck Showalter has long been recognized as one of the most intelligent and meticulous baseball minds, but his career has been marked by a seeming inability to find an effective way to motivate his players. |
Now before you go flying off the deep end, hear me out. And
I will also say up front that I like Buck. He has done some fantastic things
since he arrived, but I think the turnaround he brought has also masked some of
his deficiencies.
In each of Buck’s past managerial stops, his teams went to
the World Series almost immediately after he departed as manager. The Yankees (
1996) and the Diamondbacks (2001) both won it the season after his departure. The Rangers never finished higher than 3rd
in his tenure, and after a last place finish the year after he left, they
posted back to back 2nd place finishes before back to back World
Series appearances. So what’s the
problem?
In Buck’s previous stops, he had a reputation for being a
hardass. He would ban music and games from the clubhouse and was really strict
with players. Clearly that is not the case in Baltimore, but I would argue he
has gone to the opposite extreme, to the detriment of the ball club. It seems
he is so afraid of repeating the mistakes of the past that he refuses to hold
his players accountable or dole out any discipline to players who fail to
perform or who repeat the same mistakes ad nauseum. Picture that parent who is
so obsessed with being their child’s best friend that they allow them to get
away with anything rather than discipline them and be seen as the bad guy. Rarely,
you may get a child who behaves anyway and does things right, but more often
than not, you get undisciplined and poorly behaved children. That’s what I see
in Baltimore right now – a lack of discipline. When your star player comes out
and says that the team doesn’t get frustrated or disappointed by losses, that’s
a big problem. Is it supposed to reflect well on a team that playing poorly and
getting beat doesn’t inspire any negative feelings?
The reality is, whether being too hard or too soft on his players, Buck has a weakness when it comes to finding an effective way to motivate his players. This team has consistently displayed a lack of fire this season. I have no doubts they want to win, but they don’t seem to care if they lose. It’s almost the old Little League mantra of “doesn’t matter if we win or lose, as long as we have fun and try hard.” Sorry, but no. This is the major leagues – winning matters.
The reality is, whether being too hard or too soft on his players, Buck has a weakness when it comes to finding an effective way to motivate his players. This team has consistently displayed a lack of fire this season. I have no doubts they want to win, but they don’t seem to care if they lose. It’s almost the old Little League mantra of “doesn’t matter if we win or lose, as long as we have fun and try hard.” Sorry, but no. This is the major leagues – winning matters.
This is why look at Showalter. I appreciate
that he’s calm overall and realizes it’s a 162 game season; no one should get
riled up over each loss or bounce off the ceiling with joy after each win – it’s
a marathon, not a sprint as Buck likes to say, and on that point I agree.
My problem arises with the fact that Showalter NEVER seems
to get angry or fired up. And when players see a manager who is always calm,
cool and collected, even after embarrassing losses or long stretches of poor
play, they’re going to adopt the same attitude. In what other profession would
a boss sit back and pat his employees on the back for a screw-up or a series of poor performances and continue
to offer words of encouragement? That’s not how the world works.
I actually had a prominent member of the Baltimore media
tell me last year that these are grown men and you don’t discipline grown men.
That’s the most preposterous thing I’ve heard in a long time. I’m not saying
call them out publicly or humiliate them, but a manager should be laying into
the team every now and then when they’re playing poorly to light a fire under
them. The fire always seems to be missing from this team because the manager never
ignites it. Buck never fires up his players, you don’t win a World Series without
that fire and passion, and Buck has never won a World Series – oversimplifying
a bit? Maybe, but there’s a connection in there.
A manager is a boss and the players are his employees. He
should definitely try to get along with them and connect with them on a
meaningful level to earn their trust, but his sole responsibility is getting
the most out of his players so they win ballgames; not to try and be their best
friend so they won’t get mad at him.
The thing about that “best friend” parent is that for a
while they seem cool and people like them – but after a while, respect is lost
and people realize the approach just doesn’t work. If this team has any hope of
salvaging a playoff berth this season, their leader needs to start holding them
accountable and doing whatever he has to do to light that championship fire –
going out every night and going through the motions does not and will not cut
it. Players need to be held accountable for poor defense, repeatedly poor plate discipline, poor ABs with no regard for game situation, etc. I've seen issues with this team and with certain players throughout the season (and even into past seasons) that continue to occur and don't even seem to get addressed, much less dealt with.
I’m by no means calling for Buck’s head, but he needs to make
some changes to his approach with his players, or he will wear out his welcome
in Baltimore sooner rather than later. And he may just wind up taking a back row
seat while another one of his former teams makes a run for the trophy.
--Christopher Mills
@OriolesOTW
