In some respects, Penn reminds me of a former young Oriole pitcher named Curt Schilling, who blossomed after being traded. Their physical appearance, mechanics and deliveries are similar. Schilling was not viewed to be a potential superstar at that time.

Time will tell,and I'm not sure the Orioles had many better options, but the move does have the potential for a big second guess down the road.

This move had to be made. Penn had every chance to win a spot in the rotation and didn't perform. No way he would have cleared waivers either.

How is it that they couldn't trade Cabrera and were able to move Penn?

Wow Gil- Youre an everyday Nostradamus. EVERY move has the "potential" to be second guessed IF THEY DON'T WORK OUT.

There is no second guessing- just good or bad luck. Yes we all know of the pitchers in the past who have gone on to greatness after leaving the orioles- does that mean you keep a guy with a 10 plus era because he MIGHT be the next??

It was a great move- and regardless of what Penn does from here on out- we had no choice. Good decision MacPhail!

With all due respect to Gil, Jr., Schilling showed promise during his limited performances with the O's. I cannot recall one game pitched by Penn at the major league level where he showed any real glimmer of potential. He was just an overhyped minor leaguer like a lot of our past prospects.

Is Andino an upgrade over Jolbert Cabrera? Cabrera has had a solid spring.

I'm not a big fan of people being on the fence - one minute saying good trade and then coming back and saying but it will bite us in the end - I for one like the trade.

I believe that Penn will be a good pitcher one day, but it won't be with the Orioles and unfortunately options does come into play in these types of cases, which is why we see players blossom with teams other than the ones that drafted them.

I wish Penn the best of luck, I'm sure he'll get his pitching straightened out eventually, whether its with the Marlins or some other future team and I hope O's fans don't pin this on McPhail and Trembley someday down the road, because even though the pitching this year is not expected to do much, you still gotta give this offense a chance day in and day out to pull out some wins.

And glad to see the 4 man bench will be available to start the season.

No second-guessing this move. He hasn't earned a call-up to the majors this spring and he's out of minor league options. No decision at all. You don't just hand him a major league job based on "what if."

Tillman, Matusz, and Arietta.....

Ballard, Lowen, and Penn....

Hmmmm.... let's not get worked up too soon about 2011...

What about building a team? Developing a team for the future?
Hmmmm? I ask?

Good luck HP. You've gotta wonder why front offices make a determination based on 4 spring-training appearances, but hey...I kinda like the player we acquired. He's got SOME upside over Izturis with the bat, and supposedly a slick gloveman.

Pete-
Does Penn have to make the Marlins roster or be cleared through waivers? Can he make the Marlins roster? If he is put through waivers at the end of April following Guthrie's season ending injury and Eaton's career ending realization, is it possible the O's claim him?

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Pete's reply: Same conditions apply. He has to make the team or be sent through waivers. I guess it's conceivable the O's could reclaim him, but there's no logic to that, since he would still have to be pitching poorly to get waived.

Yeah, he could turn into the next Schilling. Or he could turn into the next [insert name of any of countless pitching busts here]. I'd say the latter is more likely.

How does the waiver wire work? The O's would have had to expose Penn to waivers to try to send him to Norfolk. Don't the Marlins have to do the same thing to ship him down to New Orleans? Also, have the O's shown any interest in Paul Byrd? As far as I know the guy's just sitting at home waiting for a phone call. MacPhail should offer him a two year deal, which would help out the rotation until some of the young prospects are ready to come up.

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Pete's reply: Same conditions apply in Florida as with the O's. He makes the team of gets waived.

Who cares? We have Guthrie as our ACE............YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
60-102.

"Some say it’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt." I believe Ben Franklin said that and wasn't he a Phillies fan?

Pete,

I kinda liked your poll about the trade, EXCEPT there was no 3. Who Cares?

This was a ho hum deal. A middle utility infielder that hits 2 bucks for a 10+ era pitcher! I guess it's news but on the flip side the other option was to release him and get nothing!!!! As the great Zennmaster said "we'll see" or we'll continue to sleep over such non-issues!

Peter, what about scott moore. will he be ready to take over 3B next year?

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Pete's reply: Good question. If Melvin has a great year, they have an option on him for next year. If he doesn't, or he gets hurt, you might see Moore sooner than that.

They had no option, literally. This is better than waivers. Hope he finds his way.

McPhail is damned if he does and damned if he don't, when it comes to trades. Give him a break. He's done a great job in the time he's been here. Everyone wanted Penn gone.So now he's gone and they are lining up to bitch about it already. I don't know anything about Andino, but if he's next behind Ramirez, he's only 24 and may be a steal if he pickes up his hitting a bit. We're sure not loaded with SS prospects, so how can we go wrong?

Any trade has the potential to be second guessed, so enough of the
'this guy could be the next insert name here and you will all be sorry.
GMs get paid to make decisions like this. Sometimes there really is no decision to be made at all and you do the best you can. Even people writing on this blog might actually be able to pull off something like this. On second thought, I doubt it...
Here's a point no one even mentions: How does your highly touted 24 yr old run out of options pitching for a team that has lost 90+ games the last 4 yrs? And managing to do that with all of 14 below average major league starts??

Who in the world was making the decisions on this guy's future...Lee Mazzilli? Mike Flanagan? Enough said. There is no doubt that Penn had not pitched well enough to make the major league roster, but he had some help in mangling his Oriole future.

I get the feeling that under the watch of someone who knows how to build a club, Penn might still be looking for his first major league start. And be ready when he got it. At the worst, the guy would not be out of options at 24.
Doing what the O's did last yr, getting a warm body to throw and not sacrificing your young arms for a lost cause, albeit painful, is really the best way to go. It's a rotten way to play the last 40 games, but the flip side is far worse and the consequences longer lasting.
You don't have to look very far to find a shiny example of that.

The way I look at it, it was either trade Penn away and get something in return, or send him through waivers and have somebody else pick him up and get nothing. As bad as the Orioles pitching staff is, they didn't have room for Penn on their roster, so he could give up 2 runs an inning. So I think what they did was the best option.

I wouldn't have traded him. I w/have brought him to Baltimore and used him in long relief. He would get plenty of opportunities and wouldn't have any pressure on him.I don't see where they would have lost anything to hold on to him.It's not like he'd hurt our chances of contending.

But now they could lose a lot.