The immortal Bob Skube--that's who Tea Bag Shelby nailed at the plate.

T-bone! Outstanding! And also hooray for a baseball nickname that isn't just a shortening or pluarlization or strangulation of the last name. If he played today he'd be J-Shelb.

Roch:

Any word on Flanagan? Jeff didn't mention him in his story today regarding potential Duquette replacements. Is he still an Oriole?

After reading countless blogs about Surhoff, Hoiles, Anderson, etc... coming in and taking over as first base coach, I start to wonder.

Is the front office just looking for ex-orioles to fill the position or are they actually finding men who are qualified for the job?

I'm starting to get a little scared here. Yes it would be nice to see BJ or Hoiles at first or third, hell maybe even Bordick (if we are throwing names out there).... but lets not hire these men if they are not right for the job. Yes, maybe they used to be Orioles, but they were catchers, outfielders and infielders... Are we simply hiring these men because they are O's fans, because if that's the case then I guess I'm right for the job. I can certainly pat the players on the a$$ at first and tell them when to haul a$$ to second (hehe) Doesn't seem that hard to me..... But if there is more behind it, then lets hire men who have coaching experience!!!

In my opinion the only ex-orioles who should coach at first or third should be Cal or BJ.... They have the heart and the knowledge and they are well respected in the Baltimore Community. Anyone else is a question mark to me.

enter A for AHHH I hope the Yankees blow next season!

I think if the O's discuss moving Bedard before they have a serious negotiation with him over an extension we can safely say that nothing has changed and we are stuck in 4th place until the Angelos family finally gets tired of their toy and sells to a serious buyer.

Trading Bedard is a seriously bad idea. Also, to go back to square one now is another seriously bad idea.

If the team had crashed and burned with Bedard, Lowen, Guthrie and Benson in the rotation and Ray in the bullpen I would agree that we suck and need to knock down the walls and rebuild the thing.

But the rotation we had from mid-July through the end of the season was a group of itinerant cobblers. To argue that the team needs to be rebuilt from the bottom based on that is the equivalent of saying the moon program should have been stopped because you couldn't get your model rocket to launch.

The O's need to keep Bedard and they need to send a clear message to baseball that they are committed to winning today not next decade. They need to get Bedard and Roberts tied down for 5 – 10 years. To do otherwise means Bedard is gone, Roberts is gone, Markakis will be gone in 3 years and Guthrie will probably go, too. Talent that good is not going to wait for a rebuilding process that will not be done until the backend of their careers.

To go back to my favorite example of a moribund franchise finding life, the Detroit Tigers were in a worse situation in 2005 than the O's are in today. The relatively cheap veterans who came to Detroit and made them winners went in part for the money and in part because of the commitment ownership made to making the team a winner ASAP.

Detroit was a team with a lot of negativity that constantly beat itself. Then came 2006. Amazing what one season can do…

And if you are still hung up on the “we have to get younger to get better” stuff, think about this: Detroit got older from ’05 to ’06 and have an average older than the O’s.

The teams that are the constant winners might develop good young talent, but they are not dependent upon it to compete.

In Boston – Manny, Papi, Lowell, Drew, Crisp, Beckett, Schilling (sort of), Lugo, Varitek, Timlin, Okajima, and Matsuzaka are all imports. Boston did not develop any players like these (Schilling excepted) and could not be in the position they are in today if they depended entirely on their own system. In fact, only 1 or 2 of the constant winners relies completely on their own talent to win.

On the other hand, if you stop a minute, how many teams (that do not have $150 million plus payrolls) can tick off a list of homegrown talent like the O’s?

*Roberts led MLB in steals most of the season and finished 2nd, has one of the top On Base %'s in the AL and plays superlative defense *Markakis is, I am sorry Mr. James, the top defensive RF in the AL and maybe baseball and is becoming a legitimate RBI and power guy *Bedard is Bedard *Guthrie has all the potential everyone says DCab has with the maturity of a 5 year vet.

And you might have noticed Mora played gold glove 3B this season and hit well enough to hold his own, Luis Hernandez plays D better than any of the guys Fox raved about during the post season and Ramon, if he decides to show up, is one of the best catchers.

Maybe I am just naïve, but that sure sounds like a nucleus to me.

The difference is in the guys around the nucleus. The O’s will not start to win if those guys are Manny. Moe and Jack. But that is just what “starting over” will mean. Again.

Enough piddling around. As the great philosopher Pink said, “Lets get this party started!”

Biff: You remember that name or did you look it up? Either way, thanks.

As for Flanagan, he's still an Oriole, but no word yet on if/how his duties will change. I assume we'll know more once MacPhail makes his hire.

Rob in SD,

I too am curious about Flanagan, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that there is little to no room for him in the organization. And to the extent that there is room it's probably not, in his eyes, desirable any longer. If the Sun reporters are worth their (admittedly not too large) salaries, they're working hard on an in-depth article on this matter.

...I'm on the record here for not loving the idea of hiring too many former Orioles...but John Shelby is a pretty good hire...he was always a gritty nuanced type of player who had an appreciation for the game and kept track of the little details that goes on in games with strong fundamentals...certain players are just like that (e.g. BJ Surhoff, Joe Girardi, Greg Zaun, Joe Torre, Buddy Bell, etc..) and even in their playing days, they look like future managers/coaches...and usually speaking, the best coaches are typically not the superstars...it's the guys who love the game, ingratiates themselves into the details, and have to work hard cus they can't get by on raw talent alone...

...that being said, just cus they are one of those kinds of players doesn't mean that they are gonna be good coaches automatically...buuuut the difference here is that Shelby has a strong endorsement by one of the biggest pro-Fundamentals/Coaching/Development guys in Bmore, Cal, and he does have a good track record in a perrenially very strong farm system...the Dodgers have stayed on top of the top farm charts for the better part of more than a decade...

...weighing in all of these factors together, I think that this hire was a stroke of inspiration...it hits on a few different areas...

actually, that throw by Shelby was in Milwaukee the Saturday before the final weekend.

I'm almost certain T-Bone made that throw against the Brewers during the rubber game of the series in Milwaukee, one week prior to that final four game series in Baltimore. Still, it proved to be an important win since the Os nearly played themselves out of contention during the next series in Detroit. Regardless, it's still good to see Shelby back in an Orioles uniform. Maybe we can bring John Lowenstein back to the broadcast booth.

Roch - I believe T-Bone threw out Doug Scoubee...perfect throw with Dempsey taking a decent hit at the plate...what a great moment.

Tom D - You have to also realize that the Tigers did it with great starting pitching and a bullpen. Last I checked, we didn't have either. They also hit home runs, we don't. I'm under the impression that they clubhouse wasn't a disaster. It seems, after LaTroy Hawkins' comments, that ours is. The Orioles are not a good team. While it would be great to keep Bedard, Roberts, Markakis, if they're just going to leave then the FO absolutely has to get something for them. Otherwise you're just wasting talent and getting nothing in return for it.

OK, I found the details of Shelby's throw.

It was Sunday 9/26/82.....the week before the Brewers eliminated the Orioles. Shelby threw out Bob Skube to complete a double play to end the bottom of the 8th inning, to preserve a 3-2 Orioles' lead. The Orioles scored 2 in the top of the 9th and won the game 5-2.

I want to pass along a great website that I discovered several years ago which contains box scores from every game in MLB history.

It's fun just to search players and see a box score from some long-ago game.

http://www.retrosheet.org/

What, nothing so far on the loss of Kurt Birkins to TB? Was it a deliberate accident to leave him exposed and not take him off the waiver wire? True, he seemed to regress last year, but the team never stuck with him long enough and I thought all those starts at Norfolk were supposed to make him a viable LH longman or spot starter. Apparently not. (I saw one such start in Louisville, where I think he lasted about 6 IP until Joey Votto or Aaron Herr and the Riverbats started bombing him). At least the TB waiver claim makes Raul Casanova available for re-acquisition.

Like everyone else, I hope the hiring of Shelby is mainly because he is on the same wavelength as Trembley. If former Orioles are skilled coaches and fit that bill, all the better. But I'd love to see the Os do it right this time and let the manager put together his staff so that they share the same philosophy. (But if he hires his nephew as bench coach, I think that's where I'd draw the line.)

Tom D, good to have you weigh in strongly on keeping Bedard. It was getting lonely on that front lately.

Seems like the main arguments by people who want to trade him this winter are:

1. Afraid the Os might not be able to sign him to a longterm deal.
2. Afraid he might not pitch as well in 2008.
3. Afraid he might get hurt.

I don't think successful teams are built by front offices that make their decisions based on fear of the things that might go wrong.

Instead of seeing all the storm clouds, worrying about being hit by lightning, they develop a plan and they make it happen. MacPhail and friends (and family) need to do everything humanly possible to keep Bedard and the other few young, legitimate all-stars on the roster.

Eric Bedard was not only an elite pitcher in terms of Ks and ERA this season, but had WHIP of 1.09. Check out how many regular starters in baseball were better in that category.

A good GM (and I have a feeling that Andy MacPhail qualifies) will see Bedard, at 28, as the kind of building block that every team covets -- and if you trade him, it might take 5 years to replace that very large cornerstone with anyone comparable.

And if you trade him, it is very unlikely that you would get enough in return. You will not get any more in return than you would get from trading Tejada - probably one major-league ready player and one other prospect. While that makes sense in Tejada's case, it would be a disasterous decision with Bedard.
And frankly, if you can't convince Bedard that you have a real plan to build the team the right way, and reasonably quickly, then you're not much of a GM.

As far as worrying about Bedard going down with an injury, I've seen a lot of names bandied about this blog of guys to acquire in trades. No one making those suggestions can say with one shred of evidence or confidence that a single player mentioned is guaranteed to stay injury free in the coming year -- young or old. You simply don't know.
Any of us could make a list off the top of our heads of 40 or 50 quality players who went down with signficant injuries this season, and next to none of those were predictable. It's simply part of baseball.

You don't trade your best young pitcher because youre worried he might go down with an injury. If that were true, most teams would be trading the top of their rotation every year. (And as Roch is fond of pointing out, Bedard has already had his surgery.)

I'm praying that the Os finally have a man running the club who will act in an affirmative and confident way, seeing through an intelligent baseball plan, and building on the strengths the club has, not 'solving' one problem by creating another. I'm tired of GMs who seem to be in reaction mode all the time.

Phil F.--great post on Bedard's injury history. Many people are stating that Erik is an established #1 starter. Folks, he's had one excellent 3 month run. If I'm spending $100 million on a long-term contract for a pitcher, I need much more "establishment" than that.

Overlooked thus far in the Orioles front office makeover and imminent on-field personnel changes is the old standby employed when team performance is sagnant and fan interest wanes:

THE UNIFORM CHANGE

Same old package, but with shiny new wrapping to give an outward new look!.

Anything big planned in this area?

Or would any such change also require a thumbs-up/thumbs-down from The Greek Geek before anything as trivial as a button hole change can be initiated.

I'm in agreement that the Orioles could contend in 2009. I wouldn't say I expect it to happen, but some wise moves this offseason and some luck could turn things around. A 2009 contender means you don't trade Bedard, because you just don't replace an ace very easily. Position players are easier to replace, so I'd like to get good return on Tejada now in hopes that what we gain will be solid contributers in 2009.

I'd like to sign Bedard to an extension, but if that hasn't happened you have the option of evaluating the team in July 2008. If things don't look improved, you trade him for a king's ransom at the deadline.

gtr where is your head at son. the play was in Memorial Stadium. The Orioles had to win the game in order to tie Milwaukee for the division lead. I was sitting in the lower reserve behind the Oriole dugout and it was also Earl Weaver's last series as the Orioles manager.
These moves won't mean a thing if Peter Angelos and Sons stick their heads in Andy's business. T-Bone back in the Orioles fold great move and hopefully they can get another former Oriole to be the bench coach.

T-Bone was my favorite Oriole of the 80's and I was always T-Bone in the neighborhood whiffle ball games. Good to have him back. I echo Jennifer's sentiments about all of the former O's as coaches, but all of the guys they are talking about do have coaching experience even if it is limited. And we are talking about first base anyway.

Backing up a bit, Silva would be one of the worst free agent signings we could possibly make. Why not keep Trachsel for a fraction of the price or re-up Benson? Silva gives up BOMBS!!! Low strikeout totals and a flyball pitcher equals a horrible run in an O's uniform. In OPACY he would be an utter disaster. 38 HR's given up in 2006--how quickly we forget! I would probably give up the sliver of hope that I have that this team might turn a corner if they signed Silva. It would be totally demoralizing. This would be followed up by trading Bedard for a catcher and a DH and I wouldn't care that MASN is not in HD.

"n" for no way in hell you sign Silva as a free agent

I agree with Tom D's post. We are realy not that far away from being competitive.
Keep Bedard, Loewen, Guthrie, Cabrera / Olsen. Gives you a very strong nucleous of starters. Markakis and Roberts, gives us a start at positon players, Wieters will be here by 2009 behind the plate. what we need is one starting pitcher who wants to win. a closer (Cordero), a Shortstop, (trade Tehada) for a couple good prospects.
Some middle relief. And a power guy for the outfield. And unload the rift raft. And this team will contend by 2009. Think about it.

Boy, a sure sign that things are slow on the off-season baseball front is all the discussion about the merits/pros cons of a 1st base coach!
I always thought that job was filled by a drinking buddy, distant cousin,etc who couldn't get a baseball job anywhere else.
There's no way former stars like Ripken/Surhoff are going to lower themselves by taking this job.

BigBill,

You are correct; it was in the rubber game on the previous Sunday, September 26, 1982 in Milwaukee. Roch was wrong about it being during that famous final series in Baltimore, and gtr was wrong about it being the Saturday before.

I've read the figure $100M several times now from the "trade Bedard" advocates. I'd like to know where that figure comes from.

Signing Bedard to an extension -- in essence a new contract -- most likely would be for 4 years. Are you suggesting he would demand/command $25 million per year? Even at 5 years, are you arguing that the Os would have to invest Barry Zito money, just because the Giants did? Or even Zambrano money that the deep-pocketed Cubs dished out?

I think the $100M figure is significantly overstated. It makes the argument sound better, but it's off by 35-40 percent.

By the way, the reason for keeping Bedard isn't that he's suddenly a proven, experienced #1 starter. The reason for keeping him is that he is a great young pitcher, who has the potential to be a #1 or #2 for a long time. You know, the kind of pitcher everyone keeps saying the Os should trade for or develop in the system right away.

The notion of trading Bedard, Roberts and the handful of truly talented young players because it's probably going to take 2 or 3 years to be competitive, would doom the Os to taking another 5 or more years before they have all the pieces to compete for a pennant.

So Kurt Birkins, one of only three lefthanders out of the bullpen is dropped and picked up by the D-Rays before he hits the ground without as much as a word written by the inky wretchs. Is this a decision by the new pitching coach, or the tried and true coin flip method. Let's seeeee, he pitched a couple of good games and a couple not so good. What the hell ! Let's turn him loose, who needs another half-way decent pitcher? We need to have another ex-Oriole pitcher out there to bite us in the ass time after time.
As for Bedard, he will require $90+ million to sign a five (5) year contract. That's $18 mill/yr. and for those of you who don't have your calculators handy, that's about 14.5% of a $125 million dollars payroll. Oh yeah! The troll is going to buy that in a New York minute I'm sure! Looky, Bedard has given us what.... Three months of $18 million/yr pitching. Not enough for the troll or me at this point.

so with all these front office changes, surely we can get Baltimore on the away jerseys riight?

S is for Signal.

I see that potter & Trembley aren't the only ones going with the new "Oriole Way" in hires ,MacFail is engaging in nepotism too! Brilliant! MacFail the fourth can have an office right next to dumb & dumber in the warehouse.
What to do with Flanagan? Easy, yet a vital task for the smoother operation of the FO.... he can be in charge of fetching the martinis & entertaining the offspring/relative "senior VPs" with old baseball stories & jokes, thus keeping them occupied & out of the real baseball peoples hair. Brilliant!

Now the Shelby hire.... good move, hopefully. I like where Trembley's heart is & what he is trying to accomplish. I just pray that the dysfunctional ownership trifecta doesn't undermine him as they have so many other previous regimes.

How did Birkins end up with the D Rays? I never heard what happened... waived, cut, made to walk the plank... what? I mean, come on, FOX should have cut into the WS with an update on this for us! ESPN missed it too!

The T-Bone throw was without a doubt in Milwaukee. That was a huge game and series because, as I recall, the Brewers had at least a 3 or perhaps a 4 game lead going into that weekend (in Milwaukee), and I think the Orioles swept the Brewers in their park. We'll leave it up to the historians and Internet geeks to settle it!

Can someone explain to me why I've even seen Nick Markakis' name mentioned a couple of times around here when it comes to talk of trading guys away for talent before they have a chance to leave? Now with Bedard (while I believe it would be a huge mistake for this organization to trade him without doing everything in their power to sign him to an extension) I can understand the talk about. But Markakis still has 4 years left before he can become a free agent. Can we please give Trembley and McPhail at least two more seasons to see how this team changes before we start getting into talks about where Markakis is going to end up?

I agree with those around here who think that we're NOT as far away from being competitive as others want to make it sound. No, I don't believe we're only one big bat or one star veteran pitcher away from taking on the Sox (and who knows what the Yankees are going to be like)...but I don't think this entire team needs to be blown up, because I feel there is enough top notch talent in Roberts, Bedard, Markakis, Loewen, Guthrie, Ray (sometimes even Cabrera) that it's worth hanging onto and building off of.

Hey Eddie in NYC:

You wrote: "ingratiates themselves into the details." To ingratiate means to attempt to get on someone's good side--to seek his favor. It derives from the Latin "gratia," meaning "grace."

You probably meant "immerse," as in "immerses himself in the details."

EJ in Ohio,

If you are right that Bedard's trade value is the same as Tejada's, then I would agree with you that he should not be traded. And I think that you are about right with Tejada's value.

But Bedard is much more valuable. He could easily be among the top five starting pitchers in baseball. He can make a good team great, instantly. He would be a big advantage in the post-season for those teams who actually have the luxury of structuring for the post-season. Any team that believes it is close to contending would be see him as the guy who puts them over the top.

The only teams who wouldn't be in the market would be teams with big multiple holes to fill and not enough players in the system to fill them.

Like the Orioles.

I think that Bedard would bring two young players ready to make an impact right away, and to put up Markakis-level numbers in the next year or two. Something on the order of James Loney and Matt Kemp would be realistic and would make the Orioles a far better team, in 2008 and well into the future.

And I do think that's a good estimate of Bedard's value if the Orioles dealt him this winter. Possibly even a bit higher.

About the injuries, yes players do go down all the time unpredictably. But with Bedard it is becoming predictable. Over the five seasons since he made the roster, he has only been available about 60-65 per cent of the time due to injury, whether you count innings pitched or days on/off the DL. It is actually a little worse than that because he pitched much of 2005 while hurt. He has really had only one full season out of five since he became a major leaguer, 658 innings in five years. He would have been available for the postseason in only two of those five seasons.

And people are ready to throw an extension at him for five years and $100MM????

He would have to pitch a lot more than 658 innings to justify that.

This is in part an argument about how far away the O's from being a contender or even a pretend contender.

I see a team that's horrible at two of the three OF positions and at both corner IF positions, and at DH.

These are huge holes, and until they're addressed by bringing in players who are little more than overpriced fillers, the Orioles can't seriously think about contending. Regardless of whether Bedard is healthy and pitching for them.

Do you believe that there's an even semi-realistic chance that Melvin Mora, Jay Payton, or Kevin Millar will ever play a postseason game in an Orioles uniform? I don't see how.

Replacing two of those jokes with young guys ready to become stars, who are wrapped up for 4 or 5 years, who are relatively inexpensive, makes this a much, much better team. Even if it comes at the cost of Bedard.

What does John Shelby's nickname, "T-bone," mean?

Now that the Brewers declined Geoff Jenkins 9 mill option, do the O's have any interest. I took a quick look at his stats..lifetime .277 hitter, projects to 28 HR, 90 RBI over a full year.
The downside is the high K's and he's 33.
Maybe we should look at an incentive-laded one year deal. He does bring some pop and we are short of outfielders.

Dave-- I asked that same question earlier and the crew here gave me the reasonable answer that T-Bone was a reference to his slight build like the bone of a T-bone steak. I doubt it was from running into a catcher and t-boning him. His initials wouldn't sense either, so I buy the first one. Like most baseball players prior to the "magical 90's" he had to run around in the shower to get wet. I guess "t-bone" was better than "who dressed the fungo?"

PhilF-- nice post. EJ-- most of us do think the world of Bedard, but has he YET to refute the widespread speculation that he will probably not sign here? The man may be shy but he can read and speak English quite well at this point. If a guy wanted to be here, he'd have said something by now you would think.

On a completely separate note, do you think the O's gave up a lot of detailed organizational material during Girardi's interview in June? I wonder how much inside information the new manager of the Yankees has? Right on the heels of Mazzili scurrying back up there as well. Oh well, I guess most of the knowledge revolves around what not to do when running a franchise. Still it would be nice to know how much of the long-term plan Girardi now knows...

Phil F -
I'm always interested in reading people's reasoned arguments, especially when their perspective is different than mine. And you often bring up good info to support your arguments.

Problem is, you can't have it both ways. In one paragraph you argue that Bedard is so good and his value is so high that he will bring back at least a couple of another team's best young major leaguers. You say there will be plenty of teams that would give that much in return.

A few sentences later, you argue that his injury history presents all kinds of red flags and that he's too big a risk for a 5-year deal. Do you think you the GMs of all the other clubs don't know his history? Don't you think they'd be making the same arguments to the Orioles in trade discussions?

Let's get a Matt Kemp or James Loney (I really doubt the Dodgers will part with both), but let's do it by trading someone other than Bedard.

p.s. I don't think you'll find anywhere in the months of this blog, that I ever said it would take 5 years at $20m per year to keep Bedard. That's someone else's supposition and I think that's an exaggeration. Nor have I ever said keeping Mora, or Ramon H or Tejada was the right thing for Os to do now. Like many others in the blog, I've said there are just a handful of young, talented players that should be kept, if at all possible, and the front office should work aggressively to add to the young talent, not subtract.

I'm not persuaded that trading Bedard is necessary or worthwhile.

EJ,

Until Santana gets a deal, Zito's contract will set the standard for the price for ace LH starters.

I can't see it going below $15MM/5 yrs. unless Bedard actually wanted to stay here, but I think the opposite is the case.

The price will only go up as he gets closer to free agency. Yet another reason to do something this winter.

Tracy, I haven't seen anyone talking about trading Markakis, but if somebody did he's a fool. He is exactly the kind of player the O's need more of. But NOW, not just in 2-3 years.

You named basically the valuable core of this team. The problem is, that leaves huge holes. If one of those guys can be dealt to fill multiple holes, that's the way to go.

Tracy, whoops, I just did see somebody saying that Markakis should be traded, and he even had my same first name.

Well, it's not me and I don't believe it. I think there's a good chance Markakis is ready to step up from star to superstar, but even if he doesn't get any better than he already is, he's extremely valuable and somebody they need more of.

PHIL - Detroit is a team I have been following closely since I used to spend my summers with my grandfather in Michigan oh so many years ago. This is a team I know a little bit about.

In the 5 years before Detroit won the Wild Card in 2006, they lost 96 (2001), 106 ('02), 119('03), 90 ('04) and 91 ('05) games. The last time the Tigers had 2 consecutive seasons over .500 before 2006/2007 was 1987/1988. The Tigers went 10 straight years of not even winning 70 games in a season. The owner was booed at Tiger stadium just for being seen in his box - he didn't even have to make a boring 45 minute speech.

The funk they were in makes our misery look like a holiday.

To say "I'm under the impression that [their] clubhouse wasn't a disaster…" is to put your head in the sand. The players were openly questioning manager Alan Trammel's decisions and he was openly questioning their desire.

What do you think 20 years of being a doormat is going to do to a franchise?

In 2006 Leyland brought a positive attitude and the team added Kenny Rogers and Todd Jones as free agents, Zumaya was promoted from the minors and Verlander went from 0-2 to 17-9. That, in a nutshell, was the difference. And none of that was really huge, either.

True, Detroit hit 202 HR in 2006, but they hit 207 in 2005 and lost 91 games!!! The HRs were not a significant factor in Detroit turning it around.

The bullpen, except for Zumaya's 1.94 ERA as the setup man and Jones' 43 saves, was ordinary. Zumaya, I agree, is quite an exception, but this does not alter my point.

Detroit changed their approach to the game. Leyland, who I think is in the Tony LaRussa/Lou Pinella class of grotesquely over-rated managers, asked the players to act like men and play like professionals and refused to dwell on the negatives (sound familiar?).

They also added a handful of key players - several of them role players - and one of their prospects came into his own. (But after Verlander and Rogers, the starters were right around .500 - including Bonderman!)

In ’07 they finish 88 - 74 and everyone wonders why the season was so bad. What a difference one season makes.

To say they O's have no starting pitching is putting your head back in that sand. Bedard, Guthrie and Lowen are a better 1 - 3 than Detroit had with Rogers, Verlander and Bonderman. Yes, that is what I said.

Just because our guys wear ORIOLES on their jersey does not make them bad. If those 3 were wearing another team’s colors a lot of people would be saying “why can’t we get a rotation like that?”

The bullpen is also in better shape if 2 things happen - a reliable setup man and closer are obtained. This puts Walker and Bradford back in their best roles and takes the pressure off everyone. The bullpen does not have to be lights out (although that would be nice), it just has to do its job. (By the way, this is exactly the same situation Detroit had going into 2006.)

I am not saying it will be easy. It won’t. I am just saying it is there for the taking - if Angelos and McFail want it.

EJ,

There will be some red flags, and it will keep his value down somewhat. If he were Santana, his value would be even higher.

But the team that goes for him will be willing to take a risk on his long term durability for the opportunity to have him pitch them into the postseason. Two years postseason baseball would look pretty good to the Dodgers and their fans right now.

Also, GMs are not so different from fans. They see what they want to see. A team that sees Bedard starting Game One of the WS in their uniform will overlook his risks. It happens all the time.

Griff in A.Z. .... trade tajada for pitching.move Mora to lf sign ARod and Schilling.....instant contender.......they could sign Tory Hunter for good measure. I love a good pipe dream

Hiring coaches with ties to the old Orioles winning tradition. Gee, why didn't someone think of that sooner?

Hopefully the talk of fixing player development is more than just talk. Until that happens, surrounding bad new players with good old tradition won't mean a thing.

Phil F: Fantastic post!!! Bedard is not just a typical injury risk--he's a big one. I disagree with EJ because I think that at least one team will be all too happy to gamble two prospects that Bedard will stay healthy, and get their team to the postseason. Two Markakis-grade players is the right price, too.

Roch, love your blog. I also appreciate your sense of humor...

I have to say though, that the joke you made in this blog may be your finest ever.

"MacPhail also hired his nephew, Lee IV, as a special assistant. We'll find out more about his duties later. But I bet they'll be special."

Subtle, effortless... Doesn't hit you at first, but then gets funnier the more you think about it.

A+, sir.