Orioles Set To Name Dan Duquette General Manager Tuesday

One of the worst parts about getting older is the no-Santa kind of realization that scouting isn’t a glamourous job. It should be, dang it. Watching baseball game after baseball game in short-sleeve shirts, wielding a radar gun, and divining the secrets of the sport with a well-trained eye. Sounds pretty sweet. The reality is an unbelievable amount of travel and little pay.

“As you get more video and statistical analysis on a player, the longer they’re in professional baseball, it’s not as vital to have them seen by eyes, professional eyes,” (Orioles GM Dan) Duquette said. “Players establish a record of their work.”

There’s no arguing with that.

The question, of course, is whether or not Duquette is the right man to build the farm system. And (of course) whether ownership will enable anyone to build a productive farm system.

Dan Duquette took over the Montreal Expos after the team lost 90 games in the 1991 season. He turned the team around quickly, building two straight second-place teams. But his greatest accomplishment might have been the ‘94 Expos, who lost the NL East by just 2.5 negotiations.

Also, Duquette’s patented organizational strategy -- Acquire-A-Pedro™ -- probably isn’t going to be as effective if he tries it again. The Orioles are pretty hosed compared to the rest of the AL East, actually.

According to this tweet from SI.com’s Jon Heyman, the Baltimore Orioles have a new general manager. (No word on whether white smoke appeared above Camden Yards.)

Duquette has been out of baseball so long that his job-before-last was as general manager of a team that no longer exists, the Montreal Expos. And yes, I know the Expos still exist as the Washington Nationals. But still.

Here’s a name from the past, via Ken Rosenthal:

Source: Dan Duquette to interview with #Orioles for GM vacancy tomorrow.Duquette was the general manager of the Montreal Expos from 1991 to 1994, helping build one of the greatest what-if teams in recent memory, the 1994 Montreal Expos. He left the Expos for the Boston Red Sox, where he remained until 2002, when he was replaced by Theo Epstein under new ownership.

There was more in that vein, but Aaron Gleeman’s not buying it:

Well, yes.