It's not fair, but Trembley needs to go

Collapse wasn't his fault, but Orioles need a new face

Dave Trembley reminds you of a guy in a knife fight and all he has to defend himself is a swizzle stick.

Sure, it's unfair to judge the Orioles manager solely by the team's cataclysmic collapse since the All-Star break.

Key players ( George Sherrill, Aubrey Huff) were traded from under him. Others (Adam Jones, Nolan Reimold, Brad Bergesen) were hurt. The starting rotation was shaky, even before they shut down a couple of promising youngsters to save their arms. The bullpen was one giant mushroom cloud day after day.

None of that was Trembley's fault. He didn't have the weapons to compete in the dock-brawl that is the American League East. And everyone knows it.

But that doesn't matter now. He needs to go as soon as the season ends. And the Orioles need a new manager.

Understand, it gives me no pleasure to say this, since I happen to think Trembley's a good guy and a decent handler of young players who never threw them under the bus when they screwed up.

But this is a team that has to make some major changes after another disheartening (20-49) second-half meltdown and 12 straight losing seasons.

This is a team that desperately needs to inject a winning attitude into its young players before they get beaten down and develop the same 1,000-yard stare as some of the veterans.

This is a team that needs to show its dwindling and dispirited fan base that it won't settle for the kind of ugly baseball it has seen the past two months.

And that has to start with a fresh face in the manager's office.

Let's face it: The Orioles hit rock bottom with this collapse. It's going to leave a bad enough taste in the players' mouths in the offseason as it is.

To go into a new season with the same guy calling the shots would be unthinkable.

President of baseball operations Andy MacPhail said a while ago that no decision on Trembley's future would be made before the season ends Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Fine. Two months ago, that seemed like the decent thing to do.

The thinking was clear. Let Trembley, the ultimate company guy, finish out the season with a young team that wasn't expected to do squat anyway.

Then MacPhail - and presumably owner Peter Angelos - would meet and decide whether to exercise the option on Trembley's contract.

But this latest collapse has been so devastating - even before the current 12-game losing streak - there can no longer be any question about what MacPhail needs to do.

He needs to hire a new manager.

Someone to take the club in a new direction.

From all indications, Trembley has been dangling in the wind for weeks now, unsure of his fate as the losses piled up.