Orioles Fire Mazzilli

[AustinHoya03]

The O's canned Mazz this afternoon. Although he probably didn't deserve to be fired, Baltimore had to attempt to right the sinking ship somehow, and new leadership in the clubhouse is one way to do that.

What do the O's fans out there think? Good move or bad move?

[SFHoya99]

Not an O's fan, but I just have to chuckle when a guy is fired for getting a team to overperform in the first half, then watches them come back to earth.

Repeat after me, Angelos: The O's are not a first place team in the AL East, especially not with those injuries.

[the_way]

I'm an O's fan. And the problem is not solely Mazzili. Every O's fan who followed this team knew they would lose when the second half of the season began like this , and that their early success was short-lived because this team is fundamentally flawed and poorly assembled. Mazzilli is a small part of the bigger problem. He is peanuts. Its the front office, starting with Angelos. That is the plague destroying this once proud and storied franchise. He has destroyed this franchise. Much like Dan Synder has destroyed the fabric of the Redskins. Angelos is a great businessman. I can't fault him for that. I repsect him for trying to get his money and getting his money. That is what a businessman is suppose to do, and that is what great businessmen do. But he is not a baseball man, and thus the franchise has been destroyed under his reign. The farm system is horrible. There is no type of player development. There is no hope or optimism with this franchise. Miguel Tejada, Melvin Mora, and Roberts and Camden Yards as a ball park are the only bright spots. The ace of the pitching staff would be 4th or 5th starter on most Major League teams. Thats it. The front office is so bad, that they didn't even let Mazzili pick his own coaching staff when he was hired. So all of his assistants were not of his choice, they were from the previous Mike Hargrove regime. The front office fired the pitching coach and brought in Ray Miller as a pitching coach. Again, Mazzilli, the manager, had no say in this. He was a lame duck skipper to start with, not to mention he had no experience managing.

That is not to say Mazzilli was a great manager either. Many people/fans didn't like him anyway, particularly his decision-making in games. The players were complaining about him this time last year. There was a big article written in the Washington Post about how the players couldn't stand him and didn't think he was good enough to manage. Mazzilli had a heck of lot more talent than Mike Hargrove did when he managed the O's. Mike Hargrove had NO talent when he coached the O's. ZILCH. Just like Pinella with the Devil Rays, they struggled because Angelos was sandbagging the team to make it look like bringing a Washington team here would hurt the O's financially. So they fired Hargrove, who is good manager, despite the fact he got the most out of the Edited-poor talented roster. Yet, they fired him or didn't renew his contract because they "didn't like his personality". I'm not joking, that was one of the reasons they mentioned. They interviewed Mazzilli and after 20 minutes they said they were "floored and amazed" and hired him right away. Beattie and Flanagan (The GM's of the O's) said they saw "something special in him". They thought that since Mazzilli was a Joe Torre disciple from the Yankees, that type of success would translate here with the O's. Well, we see where that went. The man is fired after a year and a half. That is what is killing this franchise. Edited-poor management from top to bottom.The deal was all set to acquire AJ Burnett from the Marlins. Boston was trying to get him. Nobody had a better deal to land him than the O's. Angelos nixed the deal, for whatever reason, and they don't land him. This franchise will go nowhere as long as Angelos is at the helm.

[JohnJacquesLayup]

theway said:

This franchise will go nowhere as long as Angelos is at the helm.

Truer words have never been spoken