Hi Pete,

I hope you are feeling better. That's a pretty severe injury for guys our age to come back from. Your days of running pass patterns may be over.

Since the second half swoon seems to have started early this year, I think Trembley's job could be on the line if they lose, say 23 0f 28. Andy Macphail is now on record as saying he would be disappointed if in fact the O's tube in the second half. He says the O's are deeper than in previous years and it shouldn't happen.

Also, Jeff Fiorentino is tearning it up down at Norfolk. It seems to me that he would be a better fit on the roster than Pie. Jeff is a better fielder and appears to have matured at age 26. Why don't they just release Pie and give Fiorentino another shot?

Peter - is there a better fit right now thatn George S. to the Phils? Lidge has been brutal and Romero (their lefty) just went on the DL.

Has anybody ever told you, you look like Bruce Cambell kinda?

http://www.ugo.com/tv/50-stand-out-body-parts/images/entries/bruce-campbell.jpg

pete,

mcphail is getting too greedy in trade talks for sherrill. does he really expect to land 2 top prospects from the angels for a guy who would pitch in the 8th for them or does he really not have any intrest in trading sherrill? he should try to get the power hitting third baseman that they need in brandon wood and if he cant get him, move on.

Pete since you like Texas holdem and seem to be a betting man I will bet you a Steak Dinner at your place of choosing that Andy McPhail doesn't see this rebuilding plan all the way to fruition. Futhermore i can see the headlines now, when it reads ORGANIZATION BETTER OFF NOW THEN BEFORE ANDY ARRIVED.There is no way he stays through all this mess. While it will be true that his presence made a great impact there are way to many parts broken and way to many holes to fill strictly by growing arms and buying bats. See you can try and buy all the bats you want but you won't get any impact free agents to come here. Just like i stated yesterday the losing not only has taken a toll on certain remaining veterans it has left a image of futlity through out the league.

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Pete's reply: I can't make that bet because I think Andy is the next commish, but who knows when that happens. You can be cynical, but if he quit today I would think the team's better off than when he got there. The important part of that phrase is 'better off." I don't necessarily think the team on the field is much better right this minute than the one that had Miggy and Bedard, though I'd rather watch this one than that one, and I think it's got a much bigger upside, which makes it better off in my mind.

No need to be negative with respect to AM's asking price for Sherrill. Either way he's gonna hear it from a certain type of O's fan.

Sherrill is cheap, proven, and not much of an injury risk. He's valuable to other teams who are closely bunched together; one player can set them apart. If he can get Wood and one other from LAA, take the deal. If not, hold the player until something else happens.

It worked with BRob, AM was able to land 2 of the 3 he coveted for BRob without actually trading Robers. Now Pie and Hill aren't exactly working out, but to me it proves AM knows what he wants and won't be taken for a fool.

You know, it kills me everytime I read that someone thinks Jeff Fiorentino or Joey Gathright or some other Triple A superstar would be a better fit for the Orioles than Pie.

Pie is younger than either Fiorentino or Gathright, or Lou Montanez for that matter, has never gotten a real extended shot in the bigs, was rated by many trade mags as a five tool prospect with far more upside than the other three, is probably the fastest Oriole, has demonstrated a powerful throwing arm, is in the middle of any post game celebration the O's have, and according to his manager, has been nothing but professional about being the fourth outfielder and has spent countless hours working with Crowley so that when he does get half a chance, he will be ready.

Yet everyone seems to want to dump this 24 year-old just bcause he got off to an awful start with a new team, playing a new position in a new ball park in a new league without the benefit of a full spring training to get himself acclimated to his new surroundings.

And now it seems that everyone's golden boy, Reimold, is having his weaknesses exposed on a daily basis.

Sure, Pie went 0-4 in a very rare start on Wednesday, but what do you expect? He would have to have gone 4-5 with three HRs and a double and made three great catches and thrown two people out before he gets any respect in this place. You don't think that maybe, just maybe, if he gotten some of Reimold's at bats over the past month and a half, he might have shown something? I just hope he goes somewhere that puts him in CF and says, "The job is yours, don't worry about a thing, let's see what you can do."

Because he certainly won't get it here.

as long as we dont get throw away players for him, wheel and deal.

just like salazar, trade him away while he's on the top of his game. my only disagreement is that he is relatively consistent and a good guy. he doesnt cost that much and the O's have him for 2 more years.

but, at any point I could see him melting down to a 4.75 ERA over in matter of a bad few weeks.

I think Andy MacPhail has too much integrity to jump before the rebuilding job is done. He is incrementally restoring credibility to a franchise that had shredded it in the decade before his arrival. At a time when institutions at every level are suffering because of leadership that doesn't look past the next quarterly report, he's a big-picture guy. I think he is committed to the franchise, the region, the game, and his legacy. He is also Angelos's last hope for repairing his tattered reputation.

I wonder if AM trades Sherrill, Huff, Baez, & Mora and just gets back prospects for them and the O's continue their tailspin in the second half, whether he would take the trades into consideration before pulling the trigger on firing Trembley?

The only thing I ask if Mora gets traded is a day's notice so I can get out to the ballpark on root on my fellow Venezuelan on one last time as an Oriole!

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Pete's reply: I would be absolutely shocked if Melvin got traded.

Hey rockville this doesn't have anything to do with integrity, this has to do with the impossible task of competing in the Best divison in all of sports. Unless his next manager hire is spectacular you won't have to worry about Angelos's reputation.

I don't get this "grow the arms and buy the bats" deal. I don't see how adding quality starting pitching would keep us from growing the arms. Winning teams need to figure out how to do both at the same time. That's the challenge for any GM in the AL East. That's how the GM should be measured. It appears that the Orioles goal is to build a nice young (inexpensive) team that competes for third place every year.

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Pete's reply: I don't think Andy is an idealogue who would pass up a free agent pitcher if he thought the guy would get the O's over the top.

Sherrill has been up and down with his performance since he got the job as the closer last year. It's over longer periods of time though. He's very good, don't get me wrong, but I don't see him as a true lights out closer very far into the future.
His value is at a high right now. He's been pitching great for over 2 months. I could envision a second have drop off again soon. I think the time to act is now. I'd make the deal for one power hitting corner infield top prospect, or I think we may regret not doing it in a few months.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we should not trade Sherrill!!We have no replacement and if or when we ever get competitive, we need someone reliable in the late innings.
I guess I can live with a Sherrill trade if we can get a solid everyday 3B(like Inge or Iwamura) but to just dump him for prospects sets us back. How many of these so-called prospects ever pan out? I remember the hoopla re: Scott Moore and George Costanza(sic) and where are they now? Half the pitchers we received in the Bedard/Tejada trades will never see the black and orange so whenare we going to learn?
Any trades we make this year should be geared towards making us competitive in the short haul. I would embrace the 'addition by subtraction' approach to shedding us of unproductive guys like Mora/Wiggy and would gladly tolerate giving them away for mid-level prospects and even nothing.
Useful players like Sherrill/Scott/and even Huff should be retained. If we start trading these types, might as well start over and trade Roberts too.

They'll be no trades of consequence.

We should be looking to deal Sherrill for Logan Morrison or to the Dodgers for Andrew Lambo (Pete would love him- he's half Greek).

I don't expect anything to get done.

Blancione - define your terms. How do you define the rebuilding reaching fruition. As you point out, this team could be third best in the majors some years and miss the playoffs. If World Series is all that qualifies, by your definition, as reaching fruition, he might DIE, never mind move on before the job is done. So please define your terms as personally I am inclined to take your bet if your definition of terms is anything like mine. The same goes for "improved". By my terms the organization is improved over the day AM was hired. The day Angelos agreed to a true rebuilding process we were improved. But some wont agree until the record reflects it. Some dont see improvement in the organization unless it shows up on the major league team. So you need to define your terms if your proposed bet is serious. It only takes one season to reverse a losing attitude. It only takes one player to fill a void in leadership. If we build a rotation that rivals, or exceeds the best in the game, players will notice and reconsider their aversion to Baltimore. All that crap is typical fan talk, IMO like body language or arguing over batting order or rest patterns. None of it is a legit reason we lose. We lose because we are not a good team; the rest is a lot of fans flapping their gums.

I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but I'd hate to see Sherrill go. I wasn't much of a Sherrill booster, but he has convinced me that he can do the job now. Having said that however, I have great faith in McPhail and know he won't trade anyone away just to make a trade. If Andy thinks the deal is right, I'm willing to trust him.

"Half the pitchers we received in the Bedard/Tejada trades will never see the black and orange"

I agree with you that prospects for Sherrill would do the O's no good at this stage of their rebuilding effort. But how can you even make a statement (above) that is so far from actuality? Dennis Sarfate, Matt Albers, Kam Mickolio and George Sherrill have already made their Orioles debut, and Chris Tillman will make his next week. Troy Patton will also be called up this season as well. That leaves Tony Butler. Four out of seven have been here and two more will be soon. That's six out of seven or 86%.

The O's will best be served if they trade only a few spare parts (that will not be back next season) like Danys Baez, Mark Hendrickson, Brian Bass and the likes. Oscar Salazar was exactly that, a spare part. Trading Huff will bring less value than the Type A draft pick and Mora has no value.

Open up a spot for Vic Diaz...the guy can flat out rake!!!

The argument can be made for trading any of the guys who've been talked about. What I personally want, though, is for every 'prospect' we get to be either a major-leaguer who may be stuck behind an established player, or someone who's already been very successful at AAA. If I see a bunch more A-ball players, to me that would be AM saying we're not going to be ready in 2011 or 2012, but we're looking another five years down the road. That's the scenario I'd find devastating.

How about Sherrill for Brandon Wood of the Angels farm system. He fills all the needs, a young player that plays both third and short and is ready to be called up at any given time. Sherrill would end the Angels look for a set up man both teams happy end of story

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Pete's reply: I think that's the deal a lot of people would love, but I think the Angels are going to have to have some pressing need (injury) over the next week to create more motivation to deal him?

Pete i have come to the conclusion that regardless of the topic releated to the orioles we will have different views on it. I am not saying that in it self is bad. See the major difference in our views stem from the fact that not only does andy have to completley reassemble a pitching staff from youngsters that may or may not pan out, he has to find replacements for mora and huff in addition to taking in account that some of the remaining players that will be leftover after this off season are damaged as well.No matter how much we go around on this subject you will never convince me that brian will ever recover from all the losing that he has had to indure in addition to the fact that he will now be 32 or 33 or 34 or 35 before the winning even starts.Now the second part to all of this as LUCKY HORSESHOE points out is how do we define what winning is. Do we as fans accept the fact that even if we play a little over 500 and always finish in 3 rd place to be acceptable because unless the end of time comes very soon we can's ever compete in this divison under the current rules of baseball.See you call me cynical when you accept the current state of the orioles to be acceptable.

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Pete's reply: Yes, I do, but only based on the previous state of the Orioles. You don't turn a team completely around in two years. They've made progress. They still have to prove they will spend money to buy the right free agents to complete the picture. I'm skeptical, as everyone should be, but not heavily critical, because the process has not been allowed to reach anything close to fruition on a reasonable timetable.

Tonight this offense has 4 hits off of Brad Penney. I quit.

Excepting Georgie, they'll get nothing for the guys they want to trade. Let's hope AM figures that the team will be nowhere near mediocrity until 2011 or 2012 and acts accordingly. Next year will be more of the same.
This team has nowhere near the level of talent and performance to play even 500 ball. They cannot beat a good team. Their offense is putrid.
They don't hit home runs. They have one terrible at bat after another.
I like Pete's answer way back in April...get better players.

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Pete's reply: Jim, I could have sworn you wrote "I quit" in your last post. You came out of retirement faster than Brett Favre.

For the love of God, TRADE HUFF, or just outright put him on waivers. He shows no effort whatsoever. I understand that you go through slumps, but show us some effort. Get rid of this loser.

Is it better to let Huff go at the end of the year and get the draft pick compensation?

I agree with you that we would both be shocked if the Orioles traded Mora? Who would want him? He isn't hitting, plays poorly in the field, and is painful to watch on the bases. Maybe it's time for a scouting or coaching position for him as he has HAD a good run with the O's.

As for Andy MacPhail's contention that the O's should avoid a second-half swoon because they're deeper than in the past, who is he kidding? Yes, the O's have some nice young talent, which is refreshing, but they're not half the team the Yankees and Red Sox are and the Rays are clearly superior to O's talent. Look at the starting rotation and tell me it can compete with any in the AL East. No way. Andy's just biding his time, staying in the game, so when Bud hangs it up he'll move on over to the commissioner's spot. I think the media knows this and therefore is nothing but a mouthpiece for him. The Cubs have done better without him than with him.

Blancione - The difference, IMO is that Peter and I and some fans understand that this is not a snapshot but a process. I have no complaint with your saying this team is playing poorly, even worse than its talent level IMO. But you sometimes take that and refuse to accept that even in light of that, progress is being made. We both say the same thing ie. if the pitching which really looks like it might be a true strength in a year, comes through, we could be two holes from being competitive. You see that as a problem and I see that as a HUGE accomplishment. Sure we still need at least one out of ATM (or the rest of our minors) to be an ace and another to be a 2 or 3 starter. Sure we would still be left with those two holes at the corners to fill. But do you realize how close that is? A GM builds a team. It gets experience playing together, takes its lumps, builds an identity. He then gets an offseason/trading deadline or two to fine tune. IF it works AND they get a little luck, they all get rings. If it doesnt, he then is dependant on the rest of the organization to have been busy building the NEXT generation to come up. Whether it works or not, that is what AM is attempting to build here. No guarantees. No gimmes. But that is the "plan". Not to "win X games by X date."

What you call complacency, "accepting" the current level is our recognition of progress towards a bigger goal and rating the front office on progress made, not the current level achieved in a snapshot. It just doesnt seem like such a difficult concept. We dont have to agree but you dont have to be so insulting to Pete about disagreeing either. I try to respond to your reasoned even tempered posts with some respect but sometimes reading your posts it seems you are bipolar, swinging from insulting and smarmy to reasoned and temperate. It is silly to expect respectful replies to the nasty posts.