The Red Sox are the new Yankees. There's nothing to like about them except they are not actually the Yankees. Between the Terps and Skins getting embarrassed and the Red Sox doing their thing, that may have been my worst sports weekend in a long time. A-Rod appearing to be leaving the Yanks is excellent, but I won't be satisfied till he is acrually signed outside of the division. Anyhow...

Welcome to the offseason everyone. Our record has been wiped from the Green Monster. Let the healing/rebuilding begin. Less than 4 months till pitchers and catchers report!

How convenient for ARod to wait until the 7th-8th inning last night to make his announcement that he's opting out of his contract. Seriously, how self-absorbed can you be? Not that I think ARod would ever consider playing here anyway, but I really hope the O's don't even consider going after him at all, because we seriously don't need any "it's all about me" players.

Hey Roch, did you hear Peter Gammons' comments last night about this situation? They played a blurb on Mike&Mike this morning, and it was pretty amusing...

While Alex Rodriguez might be one of the best individual players to ever play the game, I believe he is also one of the bigest clubhouse cancers in the game today.

This guy is all about money. Making $25 million a year is not enough, so he opts out of his contract. Then to make sure he gets the attention HE WANTS, he does it during game 4 of the World Series.

I loved Peter Gammons for calling Arod out last night. Any team that signs him better be prepared for the clubhouse issues that it will cause.

If you could sign him at $15-$20 million a year...maybe you take a chance, but he is looking for $30+ million -- what a joke.

And how many World Series rings does he have again...oh yeah...ZERO!

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Signing A-Rod, however unlikely it is, would be amazing for the O's. It would bring:

The huge bat so desperately needed.
Solid left side defense.
More wins.
The team back into relevance.
Hope for the fans.
A message to Bedard and Roberts.
A message to all other free agents.

His huge contract would bring in so much more revenue that it would pay for a lot of itself. The O's have plenty of money, they need to spend it on SUPERSTARS, not the Huffs and Baez's of the world.

I like LaTroy, he was a fun guy. And I don't think anyone can get upset with him for telling the truth. We ALL know there is a culture of losing...and unfortunately the fans are just as guilty as the players when it comes to having a losing attitude. A LOT needs to change to get it all righted...hopefully Dave can steer the ship in the right direction.

While it would be a dream come true for me to see Alex in an O's uniform I don't plan on holding my breath. I'm just proud of him for giving what, in my opinion, mounts to a big "F*** You" to the fans and media of New York for treating him like their pet scapegoat since his arrival.

And while I REALLY didn't want to see the Sox win the series, I'm just glad it's over with. Now the winter can officially begin and we can see what Andy and Dave really intend to do with this team!!

I’ve been saying this about Bedard and also Roberts: while they are from our system, and they’ve been in the big leagues for 4 or 5 years, we talk about them being our “young” talent. At ages 28 and 29, they aren’t “young” but rather are at the beginning of their prime playing years. They’re not old, either, but let’s not call them young. Nick Markakis and Adam Loewen are young. And, to look at the team that just won the World Series, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, and Jon Lester are young (all future stars within our division—this should be more disconcerting than the supposed payroll advantage the Red Sox have over us).

Section 34: You’re right about what you said. It seems as if anyone who gives a negative assessment of the Orioles is discounted. Perhaps it’s our bias toward the hometown team. I recall the same thing happened before the season when most outside media were predicting the O’s to finish in (gasp!) fourth place. There were people here predicting 90 wins, for crying out loud, and the team even having a shot at the wildcard, as if somehow that were realistic.

People like Bill James, while not without fault, have a good reputation for a reason. They’re often right. Not always (no one ever is), but often. It’s hard to look at what we saw in 2007 and what we have in our system and not say that perhaps he might be on to something.

And as for James’ assessment of Markakis as a “decent right fielder,” I’d like to know what he means by the term “decent.” A lot of people (myself included) use it to mean good or above average even if that’s not necessarily its dictionary definition. If he means average or okay, well, I’d quibble with him on that, but I wouldn’t discount everything he says because of it.

I completely rule out the Cubs for one main reason: they don't have an owner! A team needs an owner to commit $300 million on a player, especially a team that just signed Soriano, Ramirez, Zambrano, Lilly and Marquis to fairly hefty deals. As far as the Angels, for how many years has Moreno talked about making a big splash? And has he done it yet? Boras made a mistake taking the Yankees out of a bidding war. Call me crazy, but I think the Tigers and Giants will be big players.

Hey, Roch.

I can't imagine that Hawkins' comments would surprise anyone here. We've all talked about the sour, defeatist attitudes on this team for some time. Call it whatever you want, 'losing culture' or 'systemic disease', but it's real and it seriously effects day in, day out, year in, year out performances and results.

It effects every level of the organization, from the front office, to the coaches, to the scouts and the players. From Aberdeen to Baltimore. It grows, multiplies and spreads like a cancer.

It makes it near impossible to attract the interest of the quality players, and maybe even the teachers, from around the league who might help (Example; "Giradi to Manage Yankees" 3 months after "Girardi Has Trouble Holding Down Dinner After MacPhail Offer").

And it will also make it difficult, if not impossible, to successfully retain the services of the quality players we've got. I suspect they're all counting the days or on bended knee praying for a trade.

So, how does this seemingly hopeless, bottomless pit, black hole of an organization turn things around? I don't have a clue. But I hope Andy MacPhail does.

While it may sting to hear Hawkin's comments, the fact is he is right on the money. Gotta have faith that Mcphail has the smarts to make the hard decisions this offseason.

Just read the Hawkins piece.

For those who haven't, here it is in a nutshell. Hawkins has figured out that:

1) Losing makes people unhappy, and causes you to lose confidence.

2) Winning makes people happy and confident.

3) It's better to win.

Whoa, stop the presses.

The problem with worrying about clubhouse atmosphere is that when the chemistry is bad, front offices try to improve it by acquiring well-liked players without worrying enough about whether they can actually play.

Get good players, start winning instead of losing, and it's amazing how that clubhouse chemistry suddenly improves.

Hey, LaTroy Hawkins is pretty profound after all.

The layoff killed the Rockies. End of story. That being said I still think the Red Sox are a much better team, and even without the layoff i still would have bet on them.

A-Rod...Is there any way we could sell him the idea of "the player that saved the team." Granted, one player is not going to make turn the Orioles back to the top of the division, but with his addition it would send the right message to the players that the team wants to win. I think it would keep Bedard and Roberts in Baltimore.

Are the Orioles even considering throwing an offer at him? Whatever they offered they could subtract $12 million that they could drop by trading Tejada.

People are now going to look at the Red Sox payroll and go off about how the guy with the biggest (okay, 2nd biggest) checkbook bought himself a championship.

But look at how many of their key players were acquired the old fashioned way, either developed in the system or through smart trades.

Beckett, Lowell, Varitek, Ortiz, Pedroia, Papelbon, Youkilis, Lester, Ellsbury were all available by trade or draft. It can be done.

Lester and Ellsbury weren't really key this season, but their time is coming, or has come.

Hate to say it, but Ellsbury looks like a young Ichiro, without the great arm.

Bad is the best word to desribe Hawkins pitching when he was here. Everything he threw was straight as an arrow and somehow his lousy performances were due to a 'bad' atmosphere? What a loser; he should be thankful that the O's were so desperate for pitching that they gave him a chance to 'resurrect' his mediocre career. Why don't these guys just keep their mouths shut and be happy that they are still pitching?
Arod and/or his agent turned down 72 mill because he'll get more somewhere else and he gets to leave the constant limelight in NY. The timing of his announcement was a little weird-during a World Series clinching game but typical grandstand move by Boras.
My guess is that Arod ends up in Anaheim as the owner has deep pockets and they are a definite contender. At least the O'S won't have to face him as much as he killed us last year. This opens up a possible trade for Tejada to the Yanks as he would likely accept a move to 3rd and maybe we can get some decent value in return. I know that's a stretch but it's hard to believe the Yanks won't try to make some moves to fill a huge void in their offense.

Tom Hicks must be loving life like you said. The Rangers can thank ARod for the $20 million donation.

Roch--great line about ARod waiting for Bynum and Bako! Would I be upset if we signed the guy? Of course not because baseball is a sport that has to be played with Monopoly money. Still, there are just too many holes that the O's need to fill to expect one player to cover them all.

So the prevailing opinion is that we should resign Bedard and trade Tejada. Along the same lines we will get a lot back for Bedard and get something back for Tejada. Some Yahoo writer who may or may not be a yahoo himself said that the O's FO was likely to deal Bedard because we are in good shape with starting pitching (paraphrasing this). If they believe this to be true, that scares the crap out of me. I guess it is all relative but a 5.00 ERA doesn't make it seem like you have a surplus. Not to rehash this ongoing debate but we have very little starting pitching--just a whole lot of what-if's and maybes. That has been our style around here and I was hoping that would change. Time to pony up for the all-star. You blew it by waiting, but don't compound the mistake by not signing Bedard long-terrm.

I feel like the writing is on the wall, but I don't know why. I haven't heard Bedard ever say he definitely wants out. Oh well, the O's should certaily be listening to all offers for all players so I won't blame them for their efforts.

"k" those things that happen a lot with Bedard on the mound

Someone suggested that the Orioles might sign A-Rod. I got a pretty good laugh out of that one. That's one of those whoop it up laughs. Thanks for that.

Roch, do you hear anything new about a Tejada trade?

The Boston Globe a couple of days ago had a short item to the effect that this was at the top of the list for MacPhail.

Pretty much a must-do move for the team at this point.

I thought it was a riot last night when Fox had “breaking news” about A-Rod opting out of his contract. The Red Sox were in their championship hour, and here the World Series announcers were going on and on about A-Rod and the Yankees. Ha ha. The Red Sox fans must’ve been loving that. They had the last laugh, of course, but just for a few minutes, it was a riot.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say, A-Rod’s not coming here. There’s no chance. His offense would be a dream, but him coming here is just a dream. Let’s face it: the O’s are in a deep, deep hole. They aren’t close to contending. This team is like other black hole organizations like Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Tampa Bay where being terrible year after year is the reality. No good player who has more than one team interested in him is going to want to come here.

Unfortunately, unlike these other teams, the O’s could afford A-Rod (yes, I say they could afford to pay him $25 million a year--whether or not it would be a smart idea is another question since they have many deficiencies that need addressing). Yes, the O’s situation would be greatly improved by signing A-Rod in many respects, particularly in becoming a more attractive destination for top free agents, but A-Rod and any other top free agent aren’t not going to be the trailblazers who hop on board and try to transform the O’s from losers to winners. They’re going to go for a team that has a chance at winning soon. The best thing we can hope for is that he doesn’t end up with the Red Sox.

Phil F: Ellsbury wasn’t key during the regular season, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a player so inexperienced who was so poised in the postseason. The guy took over for Coco Crisp and ran with it. He hit .438 in the World Series, .360 overall. He’s 24 and has 116 regular season major league at bats. Did anyone tell him he was a rookie and should’ve been scared out of his mind?

First of all, I keep hearing about a new Yankees manager is Mattingly or Girardi. I get tired of hearing about it. Is there anyone else in the running? I used to like LaTroy Hawkins until I read this story today. Just because he was bad, you can't blame the whole team for your own failure. 4.48 era isn't Nick Markakis's fault. Nick is a winner and he shows it on a losing team. He's an all-star player who could be on the highlight reel every night. Nick didn't make LaTroy be bad. I was hoping the Rockies would have won the World Series, but then again, I'm happy for Kevin Millar. Is that sick or what?

I hope the Steinbrenner's win..... let Girardi rot.

I think the O's should give the Cubs, via MacFail naturally, a few million$$ to make sure they $ign ARod. It would be the best $$ they spend all winter. Maybe the Texas owner could send a little too for good measure.
How can this guy get MORE than $25M a year? That's just insane.
ARod brings more than selfishness, surliness , & bad karma to a clubhouse.... come on guys, whatever team he joins will now have a wealth of knowledge on which steak houses to go to in each city not to mention the best strip clubs...
I bet Mrs. ARod can't wait for that next contract to get done too.

I say the next Red Sux to cry about his love for the Bosox & all that bs, then $ign in NY with the Spanks , will be Lowell...... they seem to have some extra cash available now & need a 3B....

Hawkins is probably right, but does he mean the entire organization, the players, coaches? Whoever, they have to go.... it's called addition by subtraction. But then, we still have that owner problem & the 2 meddling offspring....
Hawkin's 4+ ERA would have been a leader in the pen this year Roch....

I wouldnt mind the Red Sox if it wasnt for all the bandwagon fans..I like alot of there players and how they play the game. I cant and will never say that about the Spankees....Also the Sox have Tim Wakefield,come on you cant hate him.

To everyone thinking the Orioles should try and nab A-Rod.... HAHAHA! Are you flipping crazy?

We're worried about whether or not we can offer Bedard enough money to stay... so I'm not so sure we are even in a position to afford A-Rod...(Even though I personally think he is overpaid).

But whatever, I'm just glad the WS is over. It was quite possibly the hardest thing to watch (besides the 2007 O's season). I'm just mad the Rockies couldn't sneak at least ONE WIN in there, but whatever. Beggers can't be choosers.

Here's hoping in 2008:
-The Yankees crumble without Torre and A-Rod
-The Red Sox start their 86 year disappointment over again
-Bedard and Roberts Stay
-Markakis gets a pay raise
-Bedard, Roberts, and Markakis all start in the All Star Game and Bedard is named MVP
-Millar does not get booed on Opening Day
-Cabrera amazingly finds his form and is unstoppable and compared to the likes of Josh Beckett
-Guthrie starts to look more and more like Bedard
-And the Orioles are the most feared team in the MLB

Sorry, I am in a wishful mood today. It must be the cold weather that's finally arrived.

Enter O for Opening Day 2008? Who's going? : )

Even if the Orioles would pay the exorbitant salary demands of Arod, he wouldn't come here. Texas sold him on their great prospects and that he'd be the big money centerpiece to lead them. Their farm system then was better than ours now. Arod and Texas soured on each other and on losing. I doubt he'd repeat that mistake, nor the likelihood of having to finish behind the Yankees year after year. He's really got to resent them to turn down their extension offer.

Hey Roch, any chance The Sun will pay for you to go to Arizona and Hawaii to give us some first hand accounts of the prospects... I'll buy a couple of Sunday papers to help out.

hawkins really didn't go negative in any kind of ad hominem way against orioles ... he may actually have done his former teammates a favor with his assessment.

so before everyone says he's a bad guy, look carefully at what he said.

Hawkins told the truth... We are bad... no amount of BS is going to change that. While he was here, he was bad and we were bad. He's gone and we're still bad. Just a fact of baseball life.

"In other words, it was bad.

Of course, so was Hawkins’ ERA with the Orioles – 4.48"

EXCUSE ME, BUT HIS BAD ERA WAS BETTER THAN BURRES, BELL, BIRKINS, LEICESTER,
SHUEY, LIZ, HOEY CHERRY SANTOS, WILLIAMS, ZAMBRANO,CABERRA, DOYNE, PARRISH, BAEZ, JOHNSON, WRIGHT AND SOME LOSER NAMED DANIEL CABERRA..

Another report with a misleading headline... much like the AD comments about the Ravens. You had to dig deep to find anything mildly disrespectful in his words. And the radio lead-in all week was Thomas bashes his old teammates. PhilF summed it up nicely enough. Hawkins sucked and his inefficiency contributed substantially. He should donate some cash to help with Ray's rehab.

Slow news week I guess.

CRB - Bill James was an advisor for the BoSOX. In fact, they made him THE advisor.

He said, and supported it with charts and stats, that the Red Sox would have more success with a closer by committee arrangement than with having a set closer.

The Red Sox, being dups at the time, went with him.

It was a fiasco.

James RAN from his advice faster than Marion Jones on steroids. He denied he ever said it and, even if he did, the Sox did not apply it correctly.

He was unofficially demoted and is now in his position mostly so the Sox can say he works for them. (Which brings about a question of conflict of intrerest - if James is a BoSox employee, how can he make statements about other teams? Especially teams in the same division?????)

James built his reputation in the "early days" by doing something at a time before anyone else was and being able to frame the conversation in a way that made it sound authoratative and, well, cool.

His "Runs Created" stat was revolutionary and made you wonder why no one had thought about it before.

But James has no idea what talent is. If he can't but it in a ratio he is lost.

He also is adept at moving with the wind. He denounces something - until it works. Then he is all for it and makes it sound like it was his original idea.

If someone went back over his prognostications, my suspicion is that he would be right a lot and hit some things right on the button, but that he would be wrong more often than not. And if his opinion takes him ouside of stats, I bet he is universally worng.

I don't think we're spreading around the scorn enough when it comes to the sick need of NY Yankees to always be the center of attention. Their behavior has made me want to upchuck every day for the past week. First it was the Steinbrenners, who had to keep grabbing headlines (knowing full well that Fox and ESPNY would lap it up) with all the manufactured melodrama about firing their manager and who will replace him;
then Greed-Rod and his agent $cott Bore-a$$, picking Sunday night to announce the scintillating, great "surprise" that they want more money and will opt for free agency. Did anyone smarter than a pine tree expect a different announcement from them?

Completely classless, and putridly self-centered.
If I were commissioner, I'd fine them big time, "in the best interest of baseball" and tell them to shut their mouths and let other teams have the spotlight for a couple days until the Series was over.

They're actions couldn't have been more offensive, to ALL baseball fans. I'm glad Gammons slammed Rodriguez and his agent for their disgraceful behavior, but he stopped well short of calling out all the others who shamed themselves, including his TV network.

CRB, You are correct about Ellsbury. If anything, he wasn't used soon enough, often enough.

Great poise, very mature at-bats, and on top all the rest he is appealing and fun to watch.

After seeing him, I know why he fell as low as he did in the first round. He does not have the body that scouts love. There is a built-in prejudice against outfielders who look like bat boys.

But I see what the Red Sox loved about him. A.480 OBP his last two college season, that's Epstein's kind of guy. I wonder if anyone in the warehouse even noticed.

Some teams learn faster than others. Some never learn.

Sigh...

I'm really looking forward to the World Series which starts tomorrow night. I'll take Arizona in 6. When has the Navy been only a 3 point dog against ND. 52 to 49 ND. If Cal is listed in the JUICE probe will all my Cal stuff lose value?

Roch,

With the news that the Yankees made an offer to Girardi, is there any chance that Kranitz might jump ship, and become the Yanks pitching coach?

TomD,

You picked the wrong morning for this argument. The new world champions are a team built on principles that James espoused for many years. Henry was a huge fan of James's books before he ever bought the team. Do you believe that Theo Epstein would ever have been a GM if James and a few other heretics hadn't changed a few minds about the game?

Ellsbury is a classic Jamesian draft pick.Ditto Youkilis. Is there anybody in that lineup who doesn't know how to work a count? They draft guys who know how to be selective, and it is taught through the farm system, right up to the big club.

The Yankees--same story, grinding down pitchers and then killing mistakes. Nobody saw the virtue in this approach before James et al. started talking about it.

I can remember when a guy who drew three walks in a game would've thought that he had a bad day. There are still a few places where that seems to be the case (hi, Terry Crowley) but the rest of baseball is starting to approach the game in a way that we never imagined 20 years ago.

In my original statement I said that James had changed the game forever, and nothing that has happened in the past 48 hours would make me change it.

I also stand by my statement that if the O's had been built according to these principles, we wouldn't get such a sick feeling when we think about the past 10 seasons.

BTW baseball executives comment on other teams all the team, but they usually do it anonymously. I imagine that James's agreement with the Red Sox allows him to do so in print with his name on it.

EJ--this is the same network that gave away tacos earlier in the series for a stolen base while that schmarmy Taco Bell owner praised his Grade F meat paste products. That's to say nothing of their unbiased news coverage... FOX makes me proud to be an American!

ps-- can someone summarize Gammons comments? i haven't seen them.

There is no doubt in my mind the 8 day lay-off hurt the Rockies. The long lay-off didn't help the Tigers last year either. Something has to be done about scheduling these games.

When Girardi turned down the manager's job with the Orioles I knew Torre was on his way out.

why aren't they in the position to throw that much money at him? Is Angelos suddenly going to go bankrupt if they pay Rodriguez 30 million a year?

now whether he'd accept any offers from the O's is another question...