A realist Orioles fan...

Hello,

So the O's are having a stretch where they are once again, up and down and still in the run for the playoffs. As I've wanted to be a radio announcer since I was 14, isn't the rule: You have to be objective? And yes, I am being extremely objective and critical.

In 2014, the Orioles won the American League East, making a few band-aid moves, but it worked out because a lot of people didn't understand our strategy. We had a strength of our bullpen, a great D, and we lived and died by the home run. To build upon that great success, I was hoping Dan Duquette would use the money wisely enough to make some moves do so. Instead, he let Nick Markakis walk... he let Nelson Cruz go and he's having great success with Seattle... and now... the O's are up and down and don't know what to do. The O's once again sat on their hands, watched everyone else improve, and teams re-worked their strategies.

Fans say: "But we increased our payroll."

You increased payroll, ok. BUT WHAT IMPROVEMENTS DID YOU MAKE!?!?!? Dan Duquette, you were so distracted by the President and CEO job of the Toronto Blue Jays, that you didn't do a thing!

Folks, I am a Orioles Fan, but there's a thing called: Being a realist.

The pitching this year has let us down badly... We've turned a corner with our D after a questionable first half. We're still free swinging at the ball, just living and dying by the homerun. Might I also state that we also have NO MINOR LEAGUE TALENT younger than 24 READY to come up to the big leagues. We don't have any promising prospects at all! See, my feeling is, if they don't get into the major leagues by 25? They are a career minor leaguer... Our farm system is the OLDEST in professional baseball at 27.8.

Do you guys not understand that the farm system is barren and has no ready talent to come up. Hobgood.... huge bust... Bundy... not even close to being ready, he's oft injured and never ready to go. I gave him time, but I'm running out of patience with him.

I figured some of these guys we had doing really good right now were young and poised and ready to go... Nope, some of them are going into their 30s... Does that not speak any volumes?

I continue to say, we got a lot of questions on our team and understand, our future does not seem to be very bright as Dan Duquette has already stated: WE'RE NOT SPENDING MONEY.

YOU HAVE TO SPEND MONEY TO COMPETE AND CONTEND... You have to get the right talent to help the rookies grow up.

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Fans, if we have enough to carry the team to the postseason. That's fantastic. But anything less than the World Series after being in the ALCS means the season was a failure.

Last year wasn't luck, it was just a lot of strengths we had finally come together.

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I also ask Adam Jones to stop being such a pathetic prick. Look man, if you say you are the leader you so claim to be then you need to start acting like it and not being so arrogant and uncaring of where this team goes.

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Losing Markakis was a huge mistake. He was the true leader of the team and spoke when spoken to. He spoke up when he had to. He was the true captain of the team and just did his job. He was very mild-mannered.

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Fans,

Can you please hear me out? I'm being objective and a realist. I'm not sure if this team has enough left in the tank to get to the postseason... This team is on E... There's no minor league talent ready to come up to help the team... Fans, we may have to face it... there is nothing like in the tank. I hope we have something big come down the stretch, but I don't have a lot of hope for this year or next... Dan Duquette has made it clear that not much is changing next offseason in terms of spending.

Does that not ALARM YOU!? Seriously? Does that not make you a bit fearful about the team's future? This team has no ready prospects and the future is pretty dark.

This is why we need to spend and make signings... it starts this offseason.

~ Joshua