MacPhail talks about the surge and offseason

Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail said the club's vast improvement over the last two months hasn't changed his approach to the offseason. "It really hasn't had that huge an impact over those issues we think we need to address," MacPhail said. "There isn't anything that's, 'Oh gee, we don't need to address that now.' I think we're still trying to take as realistic a six-month view of this as we can. "We made no secret of the fact that the first thing we'd like to do, easier said than done, is try to address the middle of the lineup and try to get a sort of bona fide threat in there that we think will have an effect of making our other players better around him. That's something we felt we were lacking over the course of this season." Asked if he's satisfied where the club is at the present time, MacPhail replied, "You can't be satisfied with the record and you certainly can't be satisfied with the first four months. I am happy with the last two months and I'm happy for us to this degree: I think it's important for our young players...I think they got something here the last two months that nobody could have anticipated, starting with myself, based on the first four months, and that's the confidence that they can play at this level and compete here. They've done it for too long over too tough a part of the schedule to think it's just a fluke. "They've played at a .600 clip against some of the very best teams in baseball, and that I'm very happy about, but we certainly can't overlook the first four months of the season. We have to understand there's still a considerable amount of things we have to address. But what I am happy about is the idea that I think our young players that looked like, at the midway point in the season were taking a step back, have sort of reversed that and demonstrated that they can compete under the toughest circumstances in baseball." MacPhail mentioned the Orioles' improved record against division foes, but added, "I don't think we're at the point where we just think everything's rosy and this is the way it's going to be going forward. We know that there are issues we need to address and we know we can't ignore the first four months of the season." I've been trying to forget them.