Jen Royle: Duquette Likely Won't Make Run At Fielder
Dan Duquette, former GM of the Montreal Expos and Boston Red Sox, officially joined his third team on Tuesday when he was announced as the new President of Baseball Operations of the Baltimore Orioles. Duquette will try to do what Andy MacPhail couldn't... lead the team to an over .500 record for the first time in 14 years.
While fans of Baltimore have been calling for the likes of Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder, Duquette doesn't seem inclined to overpay - in years or in dollars - for a big-name free agent. In fact, Duquette believes players such as Matt Wieters, JJ Hardy and Adam Jones are big enough names and players to get butts back in the seats.
"You have a very strong group of talented players up the middle. You have a core group of players here to build around along with the strength of management. I believe we'll be able to find some players in terms of finding depth in the pitching staff and overall lineup. I think the foundation is there. How long is it going to take? It depends on how long it'll take to sign the players we want."
Throwing an obscene amount of money at one player is clearly not in Duquette's game plan. In fact, Duquette seems to have the same attitude of Toronto's GM Alex Anthopoulos: "If we can't win now, we can certainly win later." And building up the farm system and putting money into international scouting and player development seems to be the logical way to get the Orioles back in the win column long-term.
"The team that has the best farm system competes year in and year out," Duquette said. "Everybody wants to look at the established Major League player to come in here and help your team. I don't know if it's terrific use of the clubs resources to just say that I'm out there in the market and signing players. If you can get a good value and investment for a long period of time.
I think our fans understand that. I believe Oriole fans know that our best players are going to have to come up from our farm system."
I know this isn't what fans want to hear. What are your thoughts?
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