Pete,

What will hit Houston first the ravens or hurricane IKE? Is there a change the game gets moved here.

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Pete's reply: I doubt it. Looks like Ike is fizzling.

He's going to put up similar numbers to Teixiera this year, and will cost about half as much next year. If the team makes good progress next year, he might also be willing to extend his contract. There's no way we should trade him, unless MacPhail can pull another fleecing, a la the Bedard deal.

Of all the talk of the need for a new, power hitting first baseman and/or third baseman, is Huff that bad a defensive fielder that he shouldn't be given the opportunity to play either of those positions, full-time.

In my opinion, his bat is worth giving him a shot at first base full time, giving the DH to Luke Scott, and letting Lou Montanez or Nolan Reimold a shot for left field next year.

I thought the O's might have been able to get a big time prospect who is major league ready for Huff during the trade deadline that the O's might not have been able to normally get because at the deadline, teams are desperate for the final piece, but since that didn't happen, I say don't trade Aubrey.

No one knows if Huff will do this again next year, but he has put up numbers like this in the past so I would like to see if he can do it again in an O's uniform.

Welcome back, Aubrey! Personally, I'd be happy to keep him for next year, but if they can get a good haul for him, he's far from untouchable.

He's proven himself to be a legitimate cleanup hitter in a year in which we weren't even supposed to have one. I think we would be crazy to get rid of him. Just look how our offense picked after his return to the line up last night. He's having fun, he's relaxed, he's hitting and now the fans love him. Keeping him is a no brainer in my opinion!

Huff's fate will depend on what the other teams offer for him. McPhail won't sell cheap - see Brian Roberts. He does have one year left, so Andy is holding the aces.

No Guthrie tonight? They are now saying he has the "flu" and will miss his start - Again? Is this Trembley's decision or Guthrie's? Seems a bit fishy to me. Either pitch him every 5 days or shut him down. What a shame! Guthrie is the ONLY reason to watch the Orioles. Not to mention, this is killing both of my fantasy teams!

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Pete's reply: No conspiracy here. I think the guy really has the flu.

Peter, Where is the box score for the 14-3 win over the Indians ? Could not find in the morning Sun. Thank you for your WBAL humour.

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Pete's reply: You must have gotten an early edition. Sorry.

I have nothing against Huff but I believe he's over paid and if the O's can trade him for value then do it. If not I'm not opposed to keeping him another year either with the production he has given the O's too. Unfortunately there isn't much in the cupboard so offensively we need his bat (or another) in the lineup so another year is not totally out of the question.

On another but related topic, before we get too excited about Olson's nice pitching performance last night, the Indians had 3 players in their starting lineup with a batting avg LOWER than Brandon Fahey. And one of them was 3 for 4.

Pete, after the way the lineup has performed through the second half of the year, what do you see as the team's most pressing needs this off-season? This is the first time I have had to watch from afar (I pulled a reverse-Schmuck and moved to southern California from the Baltimore area), and even with MLB.tv it has been hard to keep good track of the team. It seems to me that they really do have a solid stock of (overworked) bullpen arms, as well as a great lineup outside of the shortstop position. This just doesn't seem like a group that you want to blow up for more prospects this offseason.

They should aggressively pursue THREE great starting pitchers in this year's free agent market (I'm aware of how unrealistic this is), expecting at most two to produce. Two starting pitchers at/around the level of Guthrie would make this rotation unbelievably better, and improve the depth from the top rather than the bottom (as prospects would).

Aubrey Huff was always a solid player in Tampa, and I would tend to believe his performance next year will probably resemble 2008 more than 2007. I would keep him unless you could turn him around for a major league-ready SS prospect.

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Pete's reply: I'm with you on most of that. I'd shift the focus to pitching with one caveat. You can't expect all these vets to jack up big years at the plate again.

Does Guthrie have the flu or is his arm /shoulder hurting?

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Pete's reply: I think it's the flu, but I'm taking their word for it. They haven't hidden any other sore arms this year.

Huff must stay. We need a threat in the lineup. On another note did you hear about the raw deal handed to the Bowie Baysox? First time in the playoffs since 97 and the Cleveland sends down Travis Haefner from their Triple A team in Buffalo to help the Akron team beat Bowie. Palmer and Thorn mentioned it during the telecast last night. They showed Haefner sitting in the Indian dugout. Hired gun!

Pete, Ike is fizzling over Cuba, but will probably be back to a Cat 2 or 3 once it gets into the Gulf and before hitting Texas.

Hopefully it goes south of Houston, but it will be close.

Two other factors that I believe contributed to Aubrey Huff's resurgence this year: 1) hernia surgery in the off season and 2) he's trim and in better shape.

Along with the power numbers, how about Aubrey's .316 batting average?

I'm hoping Melvin Mora's hamstring improves enough so that he can get three more rbi's and reach 100, too.

When Tex leaves LA as a free agent, maybe Huff will have real trade value in the form of obtaining a legit prospect or two from them. He provides nice off-season flexibility: possibly move him to 1B, DH Scott, use Reimold/Montanez in LF; trade him for decent prospects (SS, SP) and do the same but re-sign Millar for 1B. I'd prefer the latter, since I think Scott can replace what I'd expect out of Huff next year and we've got plenty of other weaknesses to address, but I'll trust MacPhail to properly weigh Huff's trade value. And yes, there's the slight chance that we'll be the team to sign Tex but I'm not counting on it.

Could you compare Huff to the other DH's in the League? Might he not be near or at the top? That alone is justification for keeping him.

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Pete's reply: He's right there. Great season. Don't know why there wasn't more interest in July and August, but maybe that will be a blessing in disguise.

Keep Huff--we'll never get Tex anyway..use the $ for more pitching and a ss...money better spent there...we have a chance for a decent lineup:
roberts
markaikis
mora
huff
weiters
montanez (dh)
scott
jones
ss tba

we can alternate r-l plus have 2 switch hitters

I have no doubt that Huff will have plenty of incentive to show up next year. It's his contract year. I bet he hits .280+ with 25 hr and 90+ rbi again if he's healthy through the season.

However, he may have to play more 1B if Millar is not back (it's time to let him go) or they don't sign Teixiera (pitching is a more pressing need anyway).

At the start of the season, EVERYONE would have taken a 30/100 season from Huff. He delivered.

The speculation over whether he can do it again is pure BS. Huff delivered -period!

This is going to be the most interesting off-season ever...who's gonna get traded? whos gonna get signed? whos gonna make the team? so many different directions

Aubrey is a keeper, only to be traded if a team is willing to overpay in return.

Huff's bat next year, if it is at all like this year's, will make the cleanup spot a little more attractive for Teixeira. I imagine that having Huff behind him in the order makes the option of coming home a bit nicer.

I bet Tampa Bay really wishes they had him back right about now. I can't understand why they didn't trade for him before the deadline because Longoria was out and their DH, Cliff Floyd is not getting the job done. Tampa can't hit a lick right now and it's going to cost them the division. Do you know if a trade for Huff was ever discussed between the O's and the Rays?

Am I the only one that was surprised that there was NO market for Huff before the deadline? I can understand that there was no market last offseason. But the guy has started to prove himself.

play huff at 1st base along with scott
montanez in left field...when huff is at
1st scott is the dh; when scott is at
1st base huff is dh. i do not think
millar will be back...even though we will miss him. if you are going to rebuild...rebuild

After last season nobody expected this kind of producion out of Huff. However, that's what he was sold to the fans as when they got him, so it looks like the O's made a better deal picking him up then we thought. There are no guarantees of course, but I think it's quite reasonable to expect him to put up comparable numbers next year. I say keep him unless an unbelieveable offer is made.

This shouldn't even be a topic for consideration. Aubrey Huff is putting up "Eddie Murray" numbers from the cleanup spot in the batting order.

Next time, ask whether Kevin Millar should return next season!

No way we trade Huff. Here's a few people who Huff is having a better year than:

Magglio Ordonez
Vlad Guerrero
David Ortiz
Derrek Lee

And also some who he's have as good a year as:

Carlos Lee
Alex Rodriguez
Lance Berkman
Mark Teixeira

We're paying him $8,000,000 dollars next year? We got to lock this guy up long term before the rest of the league figures out how good he is!

If he continues to play like this next year he can say anything he wants about this horse***t town lol

For the second time this year, the Orioles have 'homered for the cycle', hitting a grand slam (Huff), a three-run homer (A. Jones), a two-run homer (R. Hernandez) and a solo home run (L. Scott). I have no idea, but I would be willing to gamble that this has happened fewer than 20 times in Orioles' history--and has never occurred twice in the same season. We need to get the Elias geeks on this question!!!

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