Baltimore Orioles To Retain Manager Dave Trembley

In a move that comes as a little bit of a surprise, the Baltimore Orioles will pick up manager Dave Trembley’s option for 2010. This means Trembley will be back to manager the Orioles.

I say the move is a little surprising because the Orioles have played so bad down the stretch (they have 13 out of 15), there would be pressure on GM Andy MacPhail to replace Trembley.

But according to Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com, Trembley hasn’t lost the clubhouse and has the respect of his players such as Jeremy Guthrie.

“Every manager is a leader and someone that sets a tone,” Guthrie said. “He gets a team through the tough times. He’s done a tremendous job, Dave cares about us and first and foremost, as a player, that’s what you have to have.”

I think managers in the American League and the National League should be judged differently. In the AL, because of the DH a manager is judged on how he manages the clubhouse, not so much on X’s and O’s.

Let’s face it, in an AL game how many tough decisions does a manager have to make? One? Maybe two? And even those decisions, the average baseball fan could probably make.

In the NL, not only do you have to manage the clubhouse, but because of the pitcher hitting, you have to manage the X’s and the O’s as well. If you can’t manage the X’s and O’s of the game, you will be exposed very quickly.

That being said,  if Trembley still has the clubhouse, then he deserves another shot to manage the Orioles again. However, he is going to have to start winning some games.

With a great young offensive core of Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, and Brian Matusz—expectations will be up in Baltimore in 2010.

If the Orioles don’t have a respectable record in 2010, it won’t matter how much the players like Trembley—he won’t be back in 2011.