Good Luck, Buck

So my beloved Baltimore Orioles, mired in last place with the worst record in all of Major League Baseball, announced yesterday that they have hired ESPN analyst and previous Yankees, Diamondbacks, and Rangers manager Buck Showalter as their new manager. Showalter replaces interim manager Juan Samuel, who took over the club after skipper Dave Trembley was fired in June.

It's no secret Showalter faces an extremely arduous task. Not only do the Orioles have the worst record in baseball, they haven't made the playoffs since 1997 and they play in by far the toughest division in baseball, playing upwards of 50 games annually against the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays. The Orioles haven't even really been competitive for the past decade, their lone decent year in 2005, when they entered the All-Star Break second in the AL East and just 2 games behind Boston, but imploded in a disastrous second half marked by Rafael Palmeiro's suspension for steroid use just days after collecting his 3,000th career hit.

So what can Showalter do to right the ship in Baltimore? Here are a couple ways I think he could potentially turn things around (though it'll take a lot more than just a couple changes to fix this train wreck):

1. Let the kids play

This point should be rather obvious. The Orioles have nothing to play for this season. This is a time to let all the young guys play consistently at the big league level and see what they can do.

The Orioles have had a lot of hyped young hitters and pitchers debut in the past year and a half, and they've both achieved varying degrees of success and seen varying amounts of playing time.

This year has been rough on most of the Os' young hitters. Nolan Reimold looked like the solution to the revolving door in left field last year, hitting .279 with 15 HR and 45 RBI in 2/3 of a season last year. But Reimold regressed this spring and was demoted to AAA Norfolk, where he's only hitting .227 in 64 games. Meanwhile Felix Pie played well enough when healthy last season that the Orioles entertained thoughts of putting him in left and moving Reimold to first base or DH. But Pie has again spent most of 2010 on the DL. Catcher Matt Wieters has failed to live up to big (probably too big) expectations and is hitting just .248, though he did hit two home runs on Monday for his first career multi-homer outing. Third baseman Josh Bell has shuffled back and forth between the bigs and AAA the last month and seen sporadic playing time in Baltimore, though yesterday's trade of Miguel Tejada to San Diego should open the door for him to see more playing time.

Despite their struggles, now is the time for these young guys to get their hacks. Leaving them on the bench or in AAA only hurts their confidence. The absence of leadoff hitter Brian Roberts for almost the entire season has clearly had an effect on the entire offense. But Roberts is finally back and Showalter should start trotting out a team that could potentially look like 2011's Opening Day lineup card. As much as I appreciate the contributions of guys like Ty Wigginton and Corey Patterson, they don't figure into the organization's long-term plans. It's more important for guys like Reimold, Pie, Bell and Wieters to get the repetitions (and maybe a few more guys like Brandon Snyder deserve a September call-up).

The youth movement has been even tougher this year from a pitching perspective. Brad Bergeson, Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman, and Jake Arrieta are a combined 10-27 and boast respective ERAs of 6.95, 5.46, 7.92, and 5.40. All of them except Matusz have shuffled between Norfolk and Baltimore and Bergeson even had a brief stint in the bullpen. Their confidences are down and they've had a lot of bad luck. It would be easy to say Showalter should consider shelving one or more for the rest of the year. But instead I think that Showalter should end all the instability in the rotation and just let the guys all know they're going to continue to get to pitch without fear of demotion. Expand the rotation to six guys (with veterans Kevin Millwood and Jeremy Guthrie) so that everyone can pitch while also avoiding overworking the young arms.

2. Trust Andy MacPhail

Buck Showalter has a history of quarreling with management during his past stints as a manager. In both New York and Arizona, he was fired despite successful tenures in part due to conflicts with management only to watch his former team win the World Series the following season. Orioles owner Peter Angelos has also had many disagreements over the years with his managers and front office executives. But Angelos in recent years has turned over personnel oversight to general manager Andy MacPhail and allowed him to work independently.

MacPhail for the most part has done an excellent job as general manager. In his first year he moved Miguel Tejada and Erik Bedard to Houston and Seattle, respectively, for strong five player packages. For Tejada he got the powerful left-handed bat of Luke Scott and lefty pitcher Troy Patton, currently in AAA. The Bedard deal was arguably the organization's best trade since stealing Frank Robinson from the Reds for Milt Pappas and assorted junk in 1966. MacPhail reeled in Adam Jones, already a Gold Glover and All-Star in center field at just 25, and the aforementioned Chris Tillman (who's still just 22). In addition, the Orioles got closer George Sherrill who made the All-Star team in 2008 and last summer MacPhail shipped to the Dodgers for Josh Bell and hyped minor league pitcher Steve Johnson.

Showalter needs to put trust in MacPhail to continue to make smart moves rather than creating a power struggle over personnel decisions. Showalter has proven he can manage a baseball team and MacPhail has proven he can assemble talent. If the two can coexist then good things should come of their relationship.

3. Show some fire

This may sound bizarre, but I want to see my manager arguing calls and every now and then getting ejected from games. Former manager Dave Trembley rarely argued calls and even when he did he appeared to do so half-heartedly. I'm not saying I want my manager to act like this, but a little passion can show your players that you have their back and gain their respect. This

wonderful recent Sports Illustrated feature on Bobby Cox

suggests how the occasional well-timed ejection can be the perfect catalyst for success. Heck, check out this list of the top ten most ejected managers between 2004 and midway through 2009. Seven of the managers on the list have won a World Series and two more have managed in the October Classic. The only two on the list who haven't (yes I know that's 11 guys on a top-ten list, there's a tie for 10th place) are Eric Wedge and Ron Gardenhire and even Gardenhire has been highly successful with the small-market Minnesota Twins over the past decade, leading the Twins to the playoffs 5 of his 8 seasons in charge. And of course, the greatest manager in Orioles history is the fiery Earl Weaver, whose tantrums are the stuff of lore in Baltimore.

Strange as it may sound, there seems to be a strong correlation between frequent ejections and success for major league managers. For that reason, I hope we see a good amount of Buck Showalter doing exactly what he's doing in the picture above this post in an Orioles uniform.