The Orioles lost in extras to a Josh Willingham homerun falling 4-3 spoiling a nice ninth-inning comeback for the downtrodden team. Btu the real news is coming from Baltimore Sun columnist Kevin Cowherd. In an article posted tonight he reports that “whispers” are saying Orioles manager Dave Trembley could be fired as early as tomorrow.
I have been one of Dave’s biggest supporters – but this needs to happen. Last year I wrote that “if the team is struggling by the All-Star Break” you need to make a move. Well this team has had a first-half thus far that will rank as one of mankind’s greatest crimes. How much of that is Dave’s fault? That is up for debate. Baseball is not like football, Dave isn’t calling plays like a football coach all he can really do is set the pieces and let the game play out and react to what happens. Dave can’t call for a three-run homer or tell the pitcher to get a double play. Success in baseball, unlike almost any other team sport, is truly in the hands of the players. But still, you can’t fire the players so the manager goes.
What has Dave Trembley done to keep his job? Well I think he has done a good job of keeping this team together and not imploding. I think he has done a good job and handled a very tough season with a sense of class and professionalism. I think that ideal has filtered down through the players as well. There have been no outbursts in the media, there has been no finger-pointing. When you listen to the team talk, even candidly, you still get the sense that they are playing for one another. Take today for example, they did not play like a defeated team. Even Julio Lugo, who was nearly run out on a rail for loafing after a short grounder, gutted out a single with two outs to score the game-tying-run and send the game into the bottom of the ninth.
This team did not give up on Dave Trembley. This is not a Lee Mazzilli situation where the players had clearly given up on him. Where he did not bother to show up on time to team meetings he called. Where Miguel Tejada, allegedly, said o his teammates that we had to win “in spite” of our manager. Now, how much of that is rumor mill – how much is fact we may never know; the point is I have not heard nearly the stuff coming out of Trembley’s clubhouse.
A change needs to be made, like it or not. No one ever thought it would be this bad, no one planned for this, when something like this happens you need to make serious changes and they begin with the manager.
But the Orioles should not stop there. Terry Crowley should go as well. The Orioles young hitters have regressed under Crowley. Too many of them are struggling at the same time. You can look at one or two and say “baseball” but not everyone. Not ALL of them. Crowley has been around too long and I think his message is growing stale. Before he had the excuse of slightly inferior talent but not this year.
Atkins should be DFA’d. There is no more room for a failed experiment on this team and Atkins needs to go. Andy MacPhail sent Jay Gibbons packing and paid him 12 million to do it, he should have no problem cutting Atkins loose.
It is bad times in Bridland. Again. A season that had a lot of promise has been washed away. All the hope, all the promise is once again replaced with scorn and cynicism.
