Cal now has the honor of losing alongside his buddies, who are rapidly being shed anyway, for lower premiums than they would've fetched if the O's struck when the iron was hot. The same thing happened in Philadelphia. He and the other players were up in arms when it looked as though their mediocre first baseman, Rico Brogna, was to be let go. So they signed him for another few years, wasting money on mediocrity and holding back phenom Pat Burrell for another year. The bottom line is that when it comes to personnel decisions, players don't know what they're talking about.
Players are too close to things to have a good perspective.
And it's understandable, really, that players stink as GMs. When Cal Ripken puts his weight behind Brady Anderson, he does it because he has developed an attachment to him, because he has seen Brady do countless wonderful things for the club. But there's no room for that kind of sentimentality in baseball. A good GM is a ruthless one, one who eats the heart out of a player's career and then chucks him away when his usefulness is gone. That, sadly, is how you win.