"Time helps you make better decisions," MacPhail said Friday. "There is no certainty that your decisions are going to work, but the more time you can let things percolate, the more likely you're going to come to a decision you're comfortable with."
Now, before you start rolling your eyes and wondering whether Andy can get any more conservative, at least understand that he's not sitting up there dispassionately watching the train hurtle off the trestle.
"I have the same reactions as everybody else," he said, "but I have to temper that with what I think is in the best interests of the Orioles long-term. I think there is only one path that will get this organization where it wants to go."
That path has already been laid out. MacPhail arrived here with one primary goal - to refurbish an Orioles player development system that was once (albeit a long time ago) the envy of the major leagues.
Based on the amount of public whining about all the young players who ought to be up here right now, he apparently has made some real progress where there was almost none the previous decade or so.
"Things don't change overnight," he said. "We really have made more progress than what you could have reasonably assumed."
The next step will be to assimilate those young players over the next year and fill some key holes in the roster with quality free agents.
Fans have a right to be skeptical after 11 straight losing seasons, but MacPhail has resisted any attempt to mollify them with a window-dressing move like spending $5 million-plus to sign Martinez.
Things look grim right now, so much so that some fans wax nostalgic for seasons like 2005 and last year, when the Orioles hung around for half the season before plummeting into a competitive abyss. MacPhail would prefer to turn that around this year and head out of 2009 moving in an upward direction for a change.
In the meantime, he apparently is willing to take the heat.
Listen to Peter Schmuck weeknights at 6 on WBAL (1090 AM).
