Did you expect a lot of proven major league talent for a 30-something on the decline? Do some research into the prospects we got and how they are rated as prospects. Obviously if you evaluate a trade in which our aim was prospects, by how much major league talent we got, then you can make it look terrible. Nice frame job. I am not saying the deal blew me away but your little blurb frames it to look worse then it is. How about the fact that three of the guys in there are rated by Baseball America as 3 of the top 6 Houston prospects?
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Pat,
No offense at all but that means exactly what? They had a shot at Roy Oswalt over a year ago. My comment was more directed at how Tejada's value dropped.
-- Bill O.

A salary dump by any other name.

In all seriousness, that may be about as much progress as can be expected from this organization.

At least they completed a trade, with the benefit of reducing costs.

The bad news for the fans is, the team is not improved in any significant way.

So much for Andy being allow to make real deals that will help this club.
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Capt.,
It starts by making room, I suppose.
-- Bill O.

Looks like they are trying to right the ship from the last Orioles/Astros deal...Davis for Schilling, Harnisch & Finley. Only time will tell if the Warehouse braintrust got it right this time. They sure didn't sell anymore tickets or merchandise today.

Before posting a negative comment you should do your research. I new and heard of Scott and I live in PA, in fact I know alot of ball players as I follow the sport every day. Check out what these guys did in their entire professional career and not just their one year before passing judgement.

People complain when the Birds don't make a trade. Then when they get rid of an older high priced player for 5 younger players, they still complain.
Unreal.
I think it is an excellent trade. Much better than the wonderful Glenn Davis for Shilling, Harnish and Finley deal.

I think this is a great trade. Tejada is no good for team chemistry. If even one of these players turns out to be an every day player it was worth it.

You guys are getting our best young starting pitcher in Patton. He's the key to this deal believe me and was thought to be Houston's next frontline starter.

Wrong, positive trade all around for the O's.

odd- it seems like they got 5 players including a top pitching prospect (Patton)for Tejada - a declining player with suspect baggage that will be clearer tomorrow.

Costanzo also hit 27 HRs. Perhaps you should actually try to do some research before you declare this "not much"

I checked the houston news for reaction and many can't believe that they traded this many people, especially patton.
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Arman,
Headline wasn't mine and it has been changed. Still, I think the deal reflects, as my short observation indicated, that Tejada's worth had plummeted.
-- Bill O.

You gloss over the best player in the trade - Troy Patton, a highly regarded young LH starter. Apparently you don't know much about players who aren't household names. There's another term for these type of players - prospects. Consider that more encouraging news. The Oriolies were lucky to get this much in a trade for a declining talent with a $13 million contract. That's why they "didn't get much".
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Jim,
My point exactly ... in '06, Roy Oswalt was on the table.
-- Bill O.

Bill,

Don't be so down on Costanzo - he has a commodity that's sorely lacking in the O's system - raw power. He hit 27 HRs last season in AA. We haven't had anyone put up that kind of power production at Bowie in years.

This looks like a pathetic trade for the O's. Guess my decision, a very tough one (after 40 years of following the O's), to put a deposit down on a partial season ticket plan for Washington Nat's games was a wise decision. Clearly looks like the O's dumped Tejada simply to reduce the payroll. We got zip, Zip, and more ZIP, in return. Horrible trade. Horrible trade. How can we give Tejada away. At least get 1 or 2 decent prospects. Don't give him away! What a stupid organization. Arrgh!!!

Bill,

Patton is a good prospect.
---------------------------------
Bobby,
He does seem the most promising. For the fans' sakes, I hope he is.
-- Bill O.

Albers is a decent pitcher only 24. Sarafate throughs 97-99 mph. Troy Patten might turn out to be a bullpen guy. Luke Scott is one of the players the Astros are whyning about. Costanzo even though he is 24 and only in AA he still hit 26 hrs.

Better think again...I'm already planning on picking up the sfearate fellow for my roto team. Time to sell the junk and look foward

Bill, I am lukewarm with this trade.

I thought dangling Tejada would have gotten a tad more in quality, not necessarily quality in a trade.

I'm mixed opinions about this one.
------------------------------
Anthony,
Some folks are jumping on me because they believe the O's got some prospects here ... and that may be true. Or not. That's the nature of prospects. My point was that it said a great deal about Tejada's value.
-- Bill O.

What do you expect to get for an aging (we don't know his real age) player who is clearly on the decline and will most likely get named in the Mitchell report? The time to trade Tejada was a couple years ago when his value was still high, but the owner blocked it.
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David,
It was a year ago that Roy Oswalt reportedly was on the table.
-- Bill O.

Bill,

YOU ARE WRONG! I notice you don't follow minor league baseball.
---------------------------------
Earl,
For the fans' sakes I hope I am. We'll see. But the nature of prospects is that they may work out and they may not. In '06, Roy Oswalt was on the table. My observation was in how much Tejada's value has come down. Now tell me ... you want to pay $30, $40 for tickets, pay for parking and spend $10 on a hot dog and a beer to go out and watch Luke Scott in the outfield and Matt Albers on the mound ... with the hope that Troy Patton is going to be a big league pitcher. And yes, I do follow minor league baseball, I'm in Baltimore, aren't I.
-- Bill O.

Wow Bill -- you seriously need to dig a little deeper. Patton is the key to this entire deal: a LHP who was the No. 3 prospect in the Astros system according to Baseball America. Constanzo was ranked No. 6 in the recently released rankings. As for Albers, he struggled this year but has tantalizing talent and was the 3rd-ranked prospect a year ago. So yeah, no household names -- now. But when the O's were fleeced by Houston years ago, Schilling, Finley and Harnisch weren't exactly household names at the time.

Remember Bill, Oswalt and that deal was pulled off the table by the Astros not the Orioles. And the Orioles had no intention of keeping Oswalt. The same may end up being true for some of these players.
--------------------------------------
Could be ... we'll see.
-- Bill O.

Bad trade for the Astros. They've just added to their payroll to the point that they don't have money or prospects to get a No. 2 starter. You don't trade a top pitching prospect (Patton) for a 30-something shortstop when you were in fourth place last season. Dumb move.

I'm from Houston and you got the better end of this trade. Patton and Albers are huge losses. And quit saying Oswalt was on the table b/c he never was.

Obviously you don't follow much baseball. Patton and Albers were both projected mainstays in Houston's pitching rotation by 2009 and Sarfate has got to be better than anything we trotted out of the bullpen last year. Go to the Houston Cronicle website and read the comments. Everyone is very upset that the Astros gave up Patton in this deal. One guy called it Glenn Davis in reverse.
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Jimbo,
We'll see ... but I look at it from the point of view of the people who go to games, pay $30, $40 a ticket, come up with $10 or $15 for parking, $10 for a hot dog and beer. Are you telling me that ... from what we've seen of Albers, for instance ... that it's worth it to a fan to pay that kind of money to watch him start a game in April or May 2008. My point was mainly this ... statistically, Tejada was arguably the best everyday player the Orioles had ... admittedly, Markakis and Roberts are more valuable. And this group of players was what Tejada was worth. On the surface, that's not great news for Orioles fans. I guess we just have to tell them to wait until 2009.
-- Bill O.

are you kidding bill? get real, man...

27 years of controlled contracts for 2 years of miguel tejada. 27 years!!! 5 chances for a good player, scott could outhit tejada with enough at bats, patton is the real deal (#3 on the astros prospect list)... i mean... tejada wasn't going to get us brandon wood. he hit 19 homers. he walks to first base.

p for please do some research

Oswalt was never offered to the Orioles.

This looks like a pathetic trade for the O's. Guess my decision, a very tough one (after 40 years of following the O's), to put a deposit down on a partial season ticket plan for Washington Nat's games was a wise decision. Clearly looks like the O's dumped Tejada simply to reduce the payroll. We got zip, Zip, and more ZIP, in return. Horrible trade. Horrible trade. How can we give Tejada away. At least get 1 or 2 decent prospects. Don't give him away! What a stupid organization. Arrgh!!!

All of this Oswalt talk... He signed a 5 year, $73 million extension in Aug '06. We would want to pay him $13 Mil (his '07 salary) with a team of re-treads around him??? That's a salary dump prospect on a team like the O's and he would bring us to about 80 wins last year if we were amazingly lucky...

The O's are looking for cheap talent under control for many years and Oswalt is obviously not that. If we had made the trade last year for him, we may be trading him this off-season (admittedly we may have received more in return - but you know what the O's can do to a good pitcher's stats :-) ). We were obviously not looking for proven impact players in return, especially when trading a player that is losing impact each year!
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Frank,
As I've said before the reference to Oswalt was meant to illustrate how much value that Tejada has lost.
-- Bill O.

Bill,

I would agree with your assessment if the Orioles make no other moves this offseason. Bedard and Roberts are the big trade chips, and if the O's cash those in also, there should be plenty of young talent for people to go see at Camden Yards this year.

Some of these prospects are well-regarded; they are some of the better prospects in the (admittedly weak) Astros system. They're not likely to be future stars, but could be productive role-players (relievers, back-end starters) in a rebuilding team. I like the trade.

Lifelong Astro Fan Here. The trade is Patton for Tejada. Luke Scott needs to be a DH and isn't near as good as the Bloggers allege. Albers is a journeyman pitcher who doesn't throw hard.

Constanzo came over from Phily in the Lidge for Bourne trade recently. He was highly rated by the Phils in 2006 but is no longer considered a top prospect. Sarfate throws real hard and has some upside but is a few years away from the majors.

I know many say Tejada is declining but the stats show a .296 batting average after 3 years of over .300 in Baltimore. He will look great in the #6 spot behind Pence, Berkman and Lee and should love the short Crawford Boxes in LF. Looks like .320/ 25 HR/ 120 RBI. He can make 1 error per game at SS if he hits that well.

Ok, lets clear the air about Roy O., HE HAS NEVER BEEN ON THE TRADING BLOCK!! I have been an Astros fan for more than 30 years. The Astros would never trade Roy O. not even for 10 Miguel Tejada's. Roy is one of the top 2 or 3 pitchers in all of baseball. Jahnna, Roy, everybody else etc. I'm starting to think that the Astros got the short end of the stick......we get 13 or 14 million a year, for two years, and lose two pretty good pitchers in Patton and Sarfate (100 mph pitcher!!!) and Michael Costanzo a talented AA young player. Plus the O's only have to pay all six player about 4 million at the most!!! On the other hand, the Astros lose one of the best defensative SS, in Adam Everret to get a 31 year old, has been or could be, with 13 million dollar salary?

So who got the short end of this stick?

As an Astros fan, I'd say the O's got the better part of this deal. The Astros gave up what few prospects we had to get an declining player with a reputation of being a clubhouse cancer.

As for Luke Scott's .255 average last year, that was somewhat deceptive. Scott was tearing up lefthanded pitching for most of the season. Unfortunately Phil Garner, in his infinite wisdom, would never let Scott face lefthanded pitching. Garner choose to platoon Scott so that worthless players like Jason Lane could get ABs. Luke Scott hit .336 his rookie year and was productive at the plate last year in limited ABs. He was fourth on the team in RBIs and had 18 HRs.

Bill O, the first poster was right - do some research before you sit down in front of the keyboards the next time. The Roy Oswalt deal never got that far along to be considered serious. And in this deal, the O's also got a tremendous young arm in Troy Patton and a good-looking young hitter in Michael Costanzo. Matt Albers, I feel, will eventually pull his weight as a solid reliever. Both Dennis Sarfate and Luke Scott are past the 'prospect' age, but Scott poked as many homers last year in less plate appearances than Tejada (and puh-lease! don't pull that "Oh but it was in Houston where everyone hits homers" bull. The Houston park takes away as many homers to center as it gives up to left).

This is a deal that could be solid for both clubs. I'll revisit one of your columns in two years to eat crow if that's appropriate. Will you come back and devote a column to eating crow if you're wrong?
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Willie,
Certainly, if you'll join me at the dining table if works out the other way.
-- Bill O.

Everyone wants to make comparison to the Davis trade but this is more like the Eddie Murray trade 19 years ago this month. We traded our best player for 3 "top (can't miss) prospects" - Juan Bell, Brian Holton, and Ken Howell. Well as we know, they missed. Our "fans" and media drove Eddie out of town because he didn't have the defensive range and wouldn't get his uniform dirty. That public discourse diminished his value and look what we got for him. By trading our biggest stick it put us in a position to chase after all the supposed big sticks available thru free agency or trade - Phil Bradley, then Sam Horn, then Glenn Davis. We have suffered through the jinx of Eddie Murray ever since (except when we spent like the Yanks to buy a playoff team in the mid 90s). I hope this trade doesn't continue the cycle. Our fans and media have to stop creating the perception of diminishing value in these ballplayers. Eddie was 32 when traded and went on to many good/great years after that.

Bill your loosing credability. I'm down here in Texas and here as well as the National media it is obvious that the Orioles got a good trade off. Next time do more research before you imply a trade is not encouraging.

EDWARD BENNETT WILLAIMS GOT RID OF EDDIE MURRAY

I think the orioles got younger and some talent, both hitters have some pop especially when you look at homers compared to at bats. the pitchers are young with some stuff no way nto evaluate this right now.. Tejada should be happy and produce very nicely for them but we could still be the winners in this deal.

I like the trade. Houston gets a good hitting infielder to fire-up their anemic offense and the O's get a major league outfielder who hit as many HR's last season as Tejada in 100+ fewer at bats and some good looking arms for now & later plus a future thirdbaseman with power. I'm an O's fan so I might not be completely objective, but reaction around the baseball world seems to agree that the Birds did pretty well.

Bill - your "no household names" post is being used on baseball sites as the typical O's fan's response to the trade - well done Mr. Negative. It's true that the Warehouse crew has done little to engender positivity in the past, but really...the grabbing up of household names hasn't worked too well in the past. Remember, we're in a marathon here, not a sprint..
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Patrick,
Thanks for writing. For the fans' sakes I hope it works out but let's see how many run down to Camden Yards and pay $35 plus parking to see Matt Albers pitch. Don't mean to pick on that guy in particular but he's the one who seems most game ready among the pitchers. And as far as it being a negative post, if you read it ... the point is that the Orioles didn't get anything near what most Orioles fans thought Tejada would fetch. The post reflected more on what Tejada's value really was. So maybe the Orioles, on balance, did okay. Maybe they got the better of it. I wasn't picking winners and losers. Some commenters are. But these guys really are not well-known accomplished MLB players. Does anyone believe that some substantial percentage of Orioles fans, before today, had ever heard of Troy Patton -- the guy I'm being told is the key to the trade. This might work out ... but at the moment, it's a pocketful of promises. And that's okay. But it is not, I guarantee you, what Orioles fans thought would be the worth of Tejada.
-- Bill O.

How many late bloomers are there in any sport? Look at the ages people! Good players with few exceptions distinquish themselves, either in college or the minors by age 24. Eddie and Cal were 19 when they came up. Tejada is 31 not 39. In decline at 31 ? If Tejada had a good spring traing, his trade value would have doubled. The timing smells.

"A pocketful of promises", that's all a prospect is until they prove themselves consistently on a ML field. I think MacPhail has helped to do a good thing here and while there are no guarantees with these young players I think they'll prove valuable to the club.

Bill

I agree, only I would have pulled the trigger on Tejada after the '05 season.

I think it is much more than coincidence that Tejada's HR and RBI numbers tanked after his 'B-12' usage became public.

Maybe the report later today will shed some light on him.

I believed what Rafael Palmeiro stated after his positive drug test then and I believe it even more now...once Tejada had his "B-12" stopped, he has not been the player he was before.

Its time the Orioles developed some younger clubhouse leadership and with Tejada gone that will be much easier.

Bottom line...I'm glad they made the trade, but they held on to him too long, just like they did with another 'questionable' player...Gibbons.

Tejada's #'s have not tanked. The guy is 5' 9" 210 lbs. the most hrs. he ever hit was 34. His ML average for his 9 best seasons are 28 hr's. He missed 29 games and hit 18 hrs. Don't compare apples to oranges, or in this case lemons.

T'man

You are comparing the apples and oranges...forget his Oakland days.

He was paid all that money to drive in people and if you look at his Orioles HR/RBI per game percentages before and after 'Palmeirogate' you'll see the true story.

I believe 'tanked' is a accurate account.