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fire trembley

Peter,

Can Luke Scott play 1st?

THIS IS TURDLAND!

Me again you punk b******! I have said it once and I will say it again. I have no plan! I just love wheelin and dealin! It gives me time to collect fat paychecks and vacation. Well got to run ill be in the Caymans with my boy Mike Flanagan. A long day of hustling blue collar yokels makes me need to take out the private jet and get out of town. Hahahahahah
-Andy MacFail

Pete

That pic of kakes and Huff slappin high five looks pretty weak man.

Well, I guess this answers my question to you the other day. I had a feeling that the Hughes deal meant either that Huff had better start looking over his shoulder, or he was just gone.
So Huff gets to show what he can do with a contending team and the O's lose a mediocre 1st baseman with an inconsistent bat. Of course we'll never really know if this was a good trade until we see what the young pitcher ends up doing, but for now, I'm happy.

Well I guess this was the easy move to justify firing Trembley at the end of the season! Now they jettison Baez and Mora and lose over 100 games and fire Trembley.

Not very nice but it’s an easy reset button

Maybe Jacobson is a stud. I've never heard of him until this moment. But trading a veteran slugger who plays every day for a jeezly relief pitcher, the most interchangeable part of any baseball team, good for maybe sixty innings, makes me groan. A starter I can understand, but this guy could project to be, what, as good as Danys Baez?

This trade looks like one that PITTSBURG usually makes, when they just give away ball players to contending teams. You can't tell me that we couldn't have gotten more then a single A ball player for him. He still has a chance to drive in 100 rbi's this year. This organization has to be a laughing stock around the league.This trade helps you pete , now you don't have to keep defending dave t as much because as every day goes by he has a built in excuse for losing.Silver slugger last year and the best we can get for him is a teams 10th best prospect. That is a JOKE

Why again didn't we deal Huff at the deadline last year?

He would've brought back a very nice haul.

Many here said that move should've been made. Now we get this for him.

Sorry, but AM dropped the ball on this one.

Salary purge. Nothing more.

I don't like to see huff go, but he proved to be a more effective trade chip than first baseman. As for what we got in return... an established major-league corner-infielder can return more than one bullpen prospect. At least two pitching prospects, or a prospect and some kind of journeyman stop-gap.

Pete, what are the odds of Nolan Reimold getting some shots at first base? With our outfield situation, and Felix Pie pressing for more playing time, our DH/1B hole just opened up for competition.

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Pete's reply: I think that's possible, but haven't heard any confirmation about it.

Great move!

Yeah, yeah ya got nothin' for him for the forseeable future, but in a little over a month from now you were gonna lose him anyway.

And if you think we would have signed him for next year...that chance is still on the table.

Lets find out about Scott. Lets check others in the system.

The O's have had a losing mindset for over a dozen years. Huff has NEVER played for a winner. Pinella challenged him to step up plublicly in Tampa...made no difference. Get the picture?

The O's need the right attitude in the clubhouse before they will have the right attitude on the field.

Still have a couple more to go unless they suddenly see the light.

So Pete, is this option better than offering Huff arbitration and potentially getting picks back? Would we have even offered him the arbitration at this point?

Anyway people have been wondering why we don't have any young power relievers in our system so I guess we got one potentially in this deal.

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Pete's reply: I think they weighed whether they wanted to take a chance on paying Huff $8 million or more in arbitration next year, since there was reason to believe he would accept the offer.

I'm all for trading Huff (and Mora too if anyone wants him) but all we get is a potential middle relief guy for a 100 rbi man? Huff needed to go for attitude as much as declining production but he had to be worth more than that to some contender.

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Pete's reply: Not really. He's only signed for six weeks and he was not a big factor the last time he was in this situation and went to Houston.

For whatever reason, the commenters here are among the few who dislike any trade the Orioles make to get young prospects for older veterans.

I like Aubrey Huff, but he's having a very average year, and we had him under contract for another month and a half. Are you seriously saying that the Orioles would be better off keeping an average 1B for another 40 games in a lost season than getting a young prospect with a chance of being a good late-inning reliever?

After the reaction to the Sherrill trade, in which MacPhail was lambasted for not getting at least Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw along with the rights to Sandy Koufax's Hall of Fame plaque, I suppose this is not surprising. But there's no way you can argue that the Orioles are not better off as a franchise for next year and the years immediately afterwards now that this trade has happened.

Steve,

I think Huff is worth a little bit more and the fact we dont have anyone else at first is some scary stuff man

Here's a clue as to why Huff has always been on last-place teams. It's because he is a very average player who has been playing a prominent role. If he's your cleanup hitter and starting first baseman, well that probably means you're not very good. He's a butcher in the field and an OK hitter who happened to have his best year here last year.

When you're in last place, and a guy like this is 6 weeks from free agency, I'll take the young kid who throws 96. Maybe he pans out, maybe he doesn't. I can say with certainty, however, no team will make the postseason with Huff as its cleanup hitter.

Why did we get so little for a guy who might drive in 100 two years in a row for a substandard double A team?

Don't get me wrong, he needed to go (attitude would be #1 reason). Now how about getting something for Mora? Yeah, I know; there's no interest among other teams.

As for what the Orioles got back for Huff, if I remember correctly, Huff passed through waivers. This means all other 29 teams had a chance to say they wanted Huff without trading anybody at all, just paying his (not exorbitant)salary. And nobody bit. That ought to say something about his market value. There just aren't that many contending teams that need that kind of help at 1B/DH.

If we are making moves like this why don’t we just pull a Milwaukee and cut Baez and Mora

To begin with I'll start by saying I know nothing at all about the kid the O's just picked up. I do know a little about Huff & although he's in a bit of slump, the guy has been worth every cent invested & has done everything asked of him except hit 68 homeruns & drive in 129. He still posed a threat in the middle of this lineup & getting an "A" level player now when in another 2 weeks some teams may have REALLY picked up the interest makes ZERO sense.This deal...if it even qualifies as one, could have been made in the offseason if there was nothing better offered for his services.
This can only lead to two choices now on the table for Trembley...either his buddy Andy has already told him you're back next year so don't worry about this pathetic pitching staff & gutted lineup...we're good for next year with our secret weapons OR...he has made Dave's ability to win with current crop of losers so impossible that it makes McFail's job self-fullfilling by saying "sorry Dave, you just didn't win with all I gave you".
Bottom line, this trade sux...except for Huff who now gets to play on a real team.
Thanks Andy...you are certainly making it easy for many to find other things to do when the O's are home.
Albers...worthless.
Sarfarte...really worthless.
Sherrill...gone for NOTHING.
Tillman...decent but, not quite Cy Young as advertised.
Jones...very good.
Scott...very streaky.
Huff...gone for NOTHING.
Bradford...gone for Really NOTHING.
Zaun...gone for a pulse.
Walker...just plain gone.
Burress...gone for zip. Although getting zip is still probably a small victory for the O's.
Bass...don't get me seasick.
So all in all, I just don't see how we're really pulling the wool over anyones eyes with these deals...what have we gained through all of this that helps this team turn the corner?
As I said, Dave is either really safe or he is seriously being setup.
Best of luck Aubrey...I bet your trade has just really made the mood in this morge of a clubhouse so much better. Jerks!

Good move for the O's. Here's my thinking:

1) This allows the Orioles to give more playing time to the younger players who have been dividing starts- namely Reimold, Scott and Pie. We'll get a better look at them for the final weeks of the year and see what they do with more consistent playing time. I'm not even sure I agree that losing Huff will hurt our offensive firepower- since Scott and Reimold (and recently, Pie) haven't exactly been slouches at the plate, compared to Huff's .253 average.

2) It gets us a good young prospect who the team will control for years more, versus Huff who will be a free agent this fall and is on the downside of his career. If this guy ends up being a merely serviceable reliever, as one poster sarcastically predicted, we come out ahead. And he could be much better than that...

3) With everyone encouraging the Orioles to open up the pocketbook this offseason, offloading Huff also means that Detroit will be picking up the remainder of his contract for the year- approximately $2 MILLION. This is not an inconsequential sum of money, and I'm sure most fans would agree that a few million could be put to better use. Now if the O's don't end up making a big splash in the offseason then everyone can launch into the tired "Angelos is just pinching pennies" tirade...

Good riddance to a slacker with a terminal case of Peter Pan---I Won't Grow Up--Syndrome. Winning or losing was all the same to Huff.
He was a terrible influence in a clubhouse in desperate need of leadership and character. Huff has no more backbone than his good buddy, Bubba the Love Sponge. AM has given us a good demonstration of addition by subtraction.

I think AM should have dealt Mora before Huff but none the less the whole thing stinks. This is up there in worst years to be an orioles fan.

Sorry, but there are some seriously delusional people on this site. Ya'll really expect more than what we got for a .253 hitter being rented for 40 games???

The more quality arms and younger players the O's can stock, the more likely to find several that will work out or be good for trade bait.

This team has shown us time after time they love pinching pennies! I wont believe anything has changed until we sign some free agents.

I don’t like Dave Trembley but what a sleazy thing for AM to do to him today. Can the Orioles do anything without coming off as slimy? He shouldn’t have got this job to begin with but he has no chance of keeping it. Maybe because his lack of experience the team saw no point in brining in a vet to do this so they told Trembley beforehand something like this was going to happen to accelerate the rebuilding process. Either that or they are going to treat him like Milton from office space and make bad moves to let the problem correct itself.

I would have preferred getting 2 comp picks for Huff, but he probably would have probably got tepid response on the FA market and we would have been stuck with him for 8 million next year. He regressed to worse than he was 3 years ago, so, to get the comp picks he has to turn down arbitration, which is unlikely, as teams aren't spending big money on average at best FA's.

At least they got a prospect and not a lousy journeyman (see Surhoff for Trenidad HUUUUUBBBBAAARRDDDD!!!)

Not that they would say it to you, Pete, but I guess the O's thought it pretty likely that Huff would take them up on arbitration. That's the only way getting a relief pitcher from last year's 4th round makes much sense.

I suppose it's also possible that they're in such a cash crunch that they didn't want to pay Huff's remaining money or the bonuses for the two top-50 picks they would have gotten had some other team signed him. That would also be consistent with drafting Hobgood instead of Matzek/Wheeler, and never really negotiating with Givens.

From where I sit, I don't like this deal. This is not enough talent for what we could have gotten next year in June.

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Pete's reply: I don't think Huff had a lot of value, because he's only going to be around for six weeks. Doubt it was totally a money move, but $2 million is real money. I think they decided they didn't want to take a chance on him accepting arbitraion. This just clears the decks so they can work some guys out at first.

Pete,

Any thoughts as to whether the O's were concerned that Huff may accept arbitration? I think he was slated to be a Type A free agent. Isn't that worth a first and third round pick? This isn't football, where picks are that valuable, but does the scouting report on Jacobsen suggest that he might be worth more than what could be obtained in those picks?

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Pete's reply: I think they were concerned about that, but don't know for sure.

There are some really ignorant people on this site.

1) Anyone who refers to the Orioles GM as "McFail" is either 6 years old or mentally-retarded. MacPhail has brought more direction and progress to this club than anyone since Gillick, and I'm sure the borderline-illiterate posters who call him "McFail" could do better.

2) Jack, you are absolutely correct that Tillman is not quite Cy Young. Cy Young didn't make the majors when he was 21 years old. Or 22. And when he debuted at 23 he finished with a 9-7 record and middling ERA. So Chris Tillman has accomplished more at 21 than Cy Young. Thanks for making that point.

I would love to hear the stellar deals some of these posters could have pulled off. As Sam said, Huff is hitting .253 and is under contract for 40 more games, at a cost of $2 million for those 40 games. If anyone thinks they could have done better than offloading his entire salary and picking up another organization's #10 prospect, you should be a GM.

So, the Os wouldnt trade Huff for Jonathan Sanchez, but they do trade him for a single A dude?

6'6" huh? There seems to be a trend with Orioles favoring height in their pitchers.

I'm not exactly sure how losing a guy with an 87 OPS+ is detrimental to the offense. That number means he has been part of the problem. Huff has been a big let down this year. I have to believe that Andy MacPhail expected Huff, as one of the veterans coming off a decent year, would at least help stabilize things with an average second half of the season.

Can any of the nay sayers explain how sticking Huff in the lineup helps this team? Ditto for the veteran presence and winning attitude stuff. If Huff had any of that, MacPhail would have kept him around.

Who knows if this deal is going to be good or bad but it will be interesting watching the game tonight!

Andrew, I could have not said it better

I'm just glad we won't have to hear him called Huff Daddy anymore. Joe Angel apparently thinks it makes him sound hip (is hip a hip word?), but it actually just makes him sound like an old white guy wearing a hawaiian shirt (no offense, Peter).

The ignorance of these comments astounds me. Six weeks and 2 million dollars for a player hitting 250. Stop talking about 2 seasons of 100 RBIs. That has as much to do with batting behind Roberts, Jones and Markakis than anything else. Someone has to get those RBIs. He isn't even going to be the Tiger's regular 1B or cleanup hitter. They have Miguel Cabrera at 1st. Huff would have accepted arbitration because he'd get more money that way than on the open market so the draft compensation wasn't going to be possible. I'm not wild about a reliever from A ball, but his numbers are good, he's one of his team's top 10 prospects and all we lose is a guy who's having a down year and isn't the future at 1st for us. As for the AM haters, try coming back down to earth. What is it you actually expect? In just a few years, he's rebuilt our farm system, taking it from one of the worst to one of the best. He pulled off a legendary trade for Bedard, another solid one for Tejada and has the team building the right way, from youth rather than overpriced, past their prime vets who do nothing but ensure another losing season. 09 was always going to be a rebuilding year. If you're really an O's fan, suck it up and embrace what looks to be a better future.

I will take the glass half full position and say the this salary dump is an indicator that the O's will be shopping the free agent market over the winter.

If the Jacobson dude is ever any good, that would be a bonus.

Albers needs shut down. He hasn't missed a bat in a while now. Bass isn't much better.

We could challenge the Nat's for the #1 draft pick. 100 losses is a done deal.

ouch...

To get a top 10 prospect out of an organization in exchange for a 2-month rental is a move the Orioles had to make. I also don't think we can say Huff should have been traded last year as the team's great offensive output was the only thing that prevented a 120-loss season.

Moving forward we get to evaluate Scott and perhaps Michael Aubrey at 1st base and if no-one pans out we will still be able to make a play for a FA including Huff.

What I would really like to see is the Orioles hand over the 2.5 million they will save to Mychal Givens before midnight tonight.

Great trade for the O's. Getting a player for A.Huff who will only be on Detroit Tigers for 40 more games is great. You have to believe Andy is moving us in the right direction. Huff was not going to be here next year. We have no choice but looking forward to the offseason to see what will be spent on free agents. Hopefully we will get a #1or#2 pitcher who's not damaged goods (Koji). We will eat his contract while he's back in japan retired. Next up trade D. Baez I would have said trade Mora but that story would have to begin with Once upon a time long long ago. Great job Andy

jack -

If you're going to be an ass, at least be realistic.

1. Josh Bell is .382 with 2 homers in 10 games for Bowie. Steve Johnson's got a .300 ERA along with 13 K's in 15 innings. Both of them were solid for LA before they came to the O's. A lot more than "NOTHING" for Sherrill if you ask me.

2. Way to judge Tillman after, what, four starts?

3. MacPhail didn't sign Walker.

4. Who did you want for Brian Burres?

I'd have more for you, but it's time for dinner.

Enjoy living in ignorance.

finally!!! Now if we could just leave Mora in the hotel on our next road trip this would be a great season!!! Anything we got for him is a bonus. I cant beleive people are ripping Andy so bad for this. The prospect is the #10 in the Tigers org. That is a pretty good haul for a washed up slow as a joke 1st baseman.
People stop thinking we should have got 2 great prospects for Huff he is an average player that had a career year last year, thats it.

The Zaun trade was clearly a pre-cursor for this. Rhyne Hughes and Brandon Snyder are the future at first base for the Orioles. AM just talked about getting as many 1st base prospects as possible, so following that logic a Huff trade to get something before he left was better than nothing. In fact, AM was hinting at it all along.

It means that Macphail has officially given up on the season and the prospect that the team could be comptetitive while rebuilding. He is blowing it up and hoping the fans will hang in for another few years until the Orioles can put a young team on the field that can win. It is a big gamble.

Huff was not the long term answer at First base so Andy decided to speed up the process and rip it up faster. He can justify 100 losses this year and next. After that, if they don't win, the long arm of PA will intervene and Andy can rebuild somewhere else.

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Pete's reply: Gil, nobody ever thought the team was going to be competitive this year, so how could Andy give up on it being competitive?

We all knew that Aubrey Huff was not going to be an Oriole for much longer but I wish it was Melvin Mora instead. We should have gotten more for Huff than just one pitcher who will end up with the Frederick Keys unless the scouts see something special about his talent. Yep, we do seem to keep stocking up on pitching, hope this pays off in the long run. Now, please, please, unload Mora and get some worthy prospects back in return.

Get a grip on yourself.......We are lucky we got anybody for Huff. And if you are so in love with him, then wait 2 months and resign him.
As far as the team is concerned...it is what it is. We have a bunch of young guys coming onto the team and it will take some time to see if some of them make it. We have a bunch of older players that need to go...Huff, Mora...and we have a pitching staff that is absolute atrocious....but there are some rays of sunshine. So my advise is call up everybody you can......lets watch the next 40 games with an eye on the future....let the kids play and see if anybody looks like they can ball.

Jacobsen pitched at Vandy, and I'm a Vandy season ticket holder. He had great stuff though he didn't have a good junior year. Could be an effective reliever if he locates his pitches consistently

stupid stupid stupid

Hilarious trade! Tigers give an A baller with possibly no MLB future for proven MLB talent…straight up! Oh well at least the Orioles are finally in rebuilding mode..

Wonder what derogatory name he'll come up with for Detroit? As for me, "good riddance." He was a very ho-hum attitude player. I'm here to collect my money and play out my contract. That was Huff as I saw him. Adam Dunn was the player we needed, but this is Baltimore. That said, our record will not be any worse without Huff.

No one wants Mora, so how can he be
traded?

No one wanted Huff either, apparently only
Detroit did. So we got something for nothing since Huff was gone in 6 weeks anyway. I mean whats the value of renting a player for 6 weeks? A single A prospect sounds about right.

Where have some of you naive people, especially Phil have been for the better part of the last 25 years?
The Orioles have been rebuilding, rebuilding, rebuilding for decades now.
Angelos, McFail, Trembley, Crowley and Kranitz have done nothing but go backwards since they have been on the Orioles.

If bad baseball were a card game, this Royal Flush would take the pot every time!

What a nightmare!
GO RAVENS!

As was stated earlier, and, evidently bears repeating, anyone who refers to MacPhail as MacFail should go get their shinebox and shut the f up.

Dueces, clowns.

Glad we got rid of him. I could not stand his losing attitude. He was setting a bad example for the young kids.

Way overdue though. He should have been traded last year, knowing his stock would not ever be any higher. MacPhail really dropped the ball here. If he got the trade done last year, we'd probably get at least one starter and a couple of prospects. Instead we just dump some salary. I'm sure Angelos is giving him an attaboy for saving him 2 millions. Way to save the boss some money.

Look at the "BRIGHT", you don't have to stress about Huff swinging at 3-1 sliders ankle high.

Only time will tell if it's a good trade or not, Jacobsen could end up being the next Trevor Hoffman. The scouting report on Jacobsen is not to shabby, he was ranked as the 10th best prospect in the Tigers system, whatever that's worth.

The O's will either be young and exciting next year, or brutally painful to watch.

Bottom line HUff wasn't in the teams plans two years from now, you win with pitching, and the O's are in desperate need of Pitching.

The trade also opens the door for an off-season acquisition. If I was the GM, I would call the Padre's about Adrian Gonzalez!

Gary K,

No they haven't

If you follow baseball and you really think the Tigers pulled one over on us....you have no idea what you are talking about.

You probably also think we could trade Mora for a couple of prospects. If we could get a AA batboy and two AA batteries for Mora, Macphail would take it.

How about all the jokers acting like this is the end of the world go ahead and start following the Nats?

You're gonna complain about losing 6 weeks of Aubrey Huff? Really? And please stop with the "we could have gotten draft picks for him" school of thought. That's ridiculous. As it has been pointed out, you'd have to offer him arbitration, which he would accept, because in reality, he's not gonna get over $8 million on the free agent market. You thought his contract was bad this year? Wait until after e went through arbitration. You'd be looking at $9-$10 million for Aubrey Huff. If you really want him back, you can get him for far cheaper than that if he isn't picked up in the off season by anyone else.

So what did we get? A 2008 4th round pick who the O's didn't have to pay a signing bonus to (the Tigers signed him for $230,000), and a little salary relief on top of that. Not bad. It's not the Bedard trade all over again, but in the long run, it's painless at worst. And at best, you might get a decent pitcher out of it.

Joke of the Day:

How do you get Peter Angelos to run a marathon?

Leave a penny at the finish line.

Huff departing at this time is a wise move. He's become a #7 hitter at best and hopefully he will find his deep stroke and help the Taggers. Scott gets a chance at a new position and maybe one of the up and comers will show us something. Let's hope it works out for the best. As for the recent acceptance of Trembley's inadequacies, I can only say I wish they were bringing in Davey Johnson to observe what he'll have to work with next year. The young pitchers seem to be improving if you accept losing by a smaller margin. We definitely need a #1 for 2010.

How many of you think a fly ball pitcher can have a winning record at OP?
I mean, 3 hrs tonite...this is ridiculous. And the Angels don't hit a lot of homers.
Maybe when they start sizing guys up they'll figure out whether the guy is a fit for the park you play half your games in.

It is the equivalent of trading Keith Moreland back to Detroit...ok, maybe Champ Summers instead.

Huff is 32 and turning 33 is a bad age for hitters. Joe Posanski of SI wrote a nice piece on 33 year olds who are in decline including Jose Guillen and Alphonso Soriano.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/joe_posnanski/06/29/james.33/index.html

Bottom line : His general lack of athleticism will shorten his career.

Geez, what emotion! Trying to look at this with somewhat of a detached feeling I think this trade is OK. Huff was gone in a coupla months ahd can't we really do without him? We now have 3 AAA guys who COULD be tried at 1st. Aubrey is having a pretty good yr at AAA, Snyder is starting to adjust (leave him at Norfolk!) and the guy we just got for Zahn doesn't seem like a total zero either. The YOUNG pitcher we just got was AT LEAST as good as the draft choice we would have got IF we had offered Huff arbitration. Did we REALLY want to do that on the chance he might accept?? Clam down everyone. I don't see how it hirts the team and I think it could help, in the long run. Did someone really post saying they were upset that MacPhail had "given up" on the season by trading Huff?? Have you checked the standings lately? Just WHAT have we given up, a stranglehold on last place in the East???

What is all this love for Davey Johnson??? Stop it already.He's not coming back. With any luck.

Really?? Really? Are we really leaving in David Hernandez out to get shelled? Are we really walking Bobby to get to Vlad?? LOL

If your name is clay meredith you should walk both vlad and Bobby... even if you have to walk in a run

For everyone saying this trade was terrible because all it did was "save 2 million dollars", isn't that enough? Are you going out to the park to watch Aubrey Huff play? Are you watching games just waiting for that next bounce out to first?

The worst case scenario is that we win a few more games since we don't have Huff's slow ass dragging us down. Best case, the pitcher we got will turn into a good major league reliever. Getting rid of the albatross that is Aubrey Huff is a sign of the apocalypse? Give me a break.

Don't you O's fans get it...Stop dissecting this guy's pitches or this guy's hitting, or AM's "moves". What...do you think that PA suddenly has had a revelation?...com' on...the whole problem is PA. Where is he when the s#$% hits the fan. Do the math. PA is making a profit...I mean why would the O's be like this for twelve years. He ain't gonna change the formula. He is not a baseball person...he is a business person looking at the bottom line. He will never hire baseball people that put winning first. DT and AM are just in a long line of yes people...you can't see that?

The Huff trade doesn’t even matter you idiots this season is over. The real indicator this team is improving will be the ability of the front office to make offseason moves its critical.

Once again,Dave has proved for the second night in a row he has no idea how to handle a ballclub.Let's see,our best pitcher out of the bullpen has been Mark Hendrickson,so let's only let him pitch to one batter last night,and let's see Reimold for days because Pie has one good game,and makes another boneheaded play in the outfield.Then he sends the pitching coach out to talk to Hernandez after a routine ground ball to a left handed hitter gets rolled into the outfield but of course we're playing him up the middle.Then you pitch around Bobby Abreu to get to a future Hall of Famer who has always killed us.Yeah that makes sense.In my opinion,McFail hasn't made a good trade since the Bedard deal,and 3 years from now when we are still rebuilding,let's see where the McFail butt kissers are then.I go three or four days without watching,and then have to watch Trembley make me sick all over again.What a joke.

Baltimore fans love placing blame on everyone but the person causing the problem. Angelos is doing a bang up job! It was that evil Huff that was loafing all season!! Who cares about that silver slugger award in 2008 hes a bum get him out. Or that he played 1st base this season after playing DH all last season which might have affected his offensive numbers. LOL stop whining about the guys attitude he has a right to be pissed. He played on bad Rays teams until they got good just to come to Baltimore the new doormat of the AL East. I am happy he’s finally going to a winner. The guy deserves it!

70 losses today and we get Berkend tomorrow!

That intentional walk of bobby abreu to get to Vlad was the stupidest move all season. Total insanity.

Oh...and I forgot to add to my last post...Schmuck is one of those yes men who thinks AM's latest move is the "one" that's gonna change the whole karma...another "smuck" that cannot see the real problem: PA.

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Pete's reply: Wow, you just figured that out? What an incisive comment. Where have you been the last 12 years?

I wish we could have gotten more. But there have been a slew of really solid young pitchers coming out of Vandy recently, so ho knows? I'm willing to give AM the benefit of the doubt on this one, unlike an insane amount of my predecessors on this post.

We now have multiple corner IF prospects at the AA/AAA level, which had been a huge weakness in years past. Wigginton & Scott will be worst case scenarios if the Snyder/Bell need more grooming.

And some comments mentioning a level of anger or disgust with AM throwing in the towel. Are you serious? Maybe we should have packaged Tillman Matusz & Arrieta for Halladay in hopes we give it one final push for the AL East crown. WTF?

I want Trembley to talk about his logic behind pitching around Abreu in the post game. If Trembley starts using his patented fake out move
Umm Well we played as hard as we could things just didn’t work out and sometimes you just have to take your lumps
The media needs to cut that mess off and keep asking him what he was doing out there.

Andrew's points sum it up nicely. I feel for the O's fans that never saw the agony of losing the '79 Series to Pittsburgh (again, also 1971) or the thrill of the '83 Series win over Philly. I think that the most anger dwells within the fan base that hasn't seen them hoist the trophy. The Baltimore Orioles are three time World Champions and will be again.

Nats are 5 games below the O's and the Nats Run Dif is 10 behind the O's

Look at the O's schedule

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/schedule?team=bal

The O's will be lucky to win 10 more games. Pitt and the NAts are going to have a showdown for the #1

"The club has significantly weakened its offensive attack"

Pete, have you studied the numbers the past several weeks? For example, since July 1, Huff was batting .213 with an OPS of .600. That's offensive, but not in the sense of the word you intended.

good trade. Huff wasn't going to get us 2 compensatory draft picks since he was going to accept arbitration.

O's lost a 1B with only days left, and got 4th round draft pick from last year.

sounds good to me. The O's got something for Huff, got room for others to move into 1B, and lost what...

This deal needed to be made. Andrew and others are right McPhail has this team headed in the right direction for the first time in years. Reloading this team with younger talent and trying Scott out at first base are sound decisions. I look forward to seeing McPhail's next move.

Gotta love Trembley taking advantage of the Huff situation in the post game :) Did anyone see Vlad crush that 1st homer… HOLY F***! I cant believe that Trembley wouldn’t admit walking Abreu to get to Vlad was a bad idea LOL just man up and admit you made the wrong call.

Thanks Huff,, enjoyed watching you play. good luck in the playoffs.....

Burt,
You don't have to watch it. You could just turn it off.

A shame Huff couldn't put up a better season, so that the Orioles could have gotten 2 draft picks for him when he signed elsewhere, rather than one A-ball reliever with little chance of making the big leagues (in my uneducated view.)

But since he was awful this year, I guess it had to be done. No sane team would have offered him arbitration, and I'm glad the Orioles didn't. He's likely to decline quickly (age 33, slow, poor fielder, not in great physical shape), but I hope he doesn't. He seemed like a great guy. I hope he goes out and gets himself a ring, and the Yanks sign him for a zillion dollars in the offseason (and that he stinks again next year.)

For those upset that Andy, didn't trade Huff in July of 2008, it was because no one wanted him. No one wanted him before this year's deadline either so the O's are lucky to get rid of him now, save some cash and pick up a prospect.

Looking at the market and what Huff would've been offered in arbitration, it's not out of the question to think that he would've taken the offer and the O's would be stuck with another year of Huff, but at a much higher price.

I am very interested to see if Luke, will be more consistent at the plate now that he will be playing in the field. This will answer the O's question on whether Luke, can or can't play 1B. If he can play 1B, the O's might be able to concentrate on a 3B and DH, plus it might increase his trade value. In my opinion, if Luke could be consistent at the plate, he could be an all star, but if he just does it in spurts, like the 2-3 week hot streaks, followed by 2-3 week draughts, what we see now, is what we will get from Luke.

Huff is gone, finally. Now AM can go to work on Wigginton, Pie, Andino, Baez, Bass, and Albers. Did I leave out anyone?

This franchise is one serious messed up work of fiction. How the F can you trade a guy that was last seasons DH Player of the Year for an A ball water boy?
Y'all better hope this turns into a trade like xO Doyle Alexander for a punk named Smoltz...ironically also made with the Tigers.
Chances are this kid never gets out of AA ball & Huff does for the Tigers what Conine did for the Marlins...win a ring!
O's suck & MaFail is overated by a lusting for hope media. Long live the only true to himself manager in O's history...this ones for you Earl!

Hey Huff was OK but we did not win with him. So they can move on, Huff can move on. The Orioles were not going to sign him back for the option. So we got a body.

Except for the 6-2 start, this season has gone exactly as I thought it would. With nearly half of the games remaining being against TB, NY and BOS, my 58-win prediction may be off by four.

What worries me is I also expected a bump in 2010. However, many of the prospects-soon-to-be-saviors are already "up" and the free agent market doesn't look too promising.

Speaking of promises, Peter the Grate said (with paraphrasing) if the Orioles were within sniffing distance of being good, he would open up his wallet. With 100 losses still a very real possibility, I guess our owner will hunker down some more protecting his vault.

Hi Pete,

Of course we all knew when the team broke camp that this was not going to be a good year. Look back, in April I said 69 wins, so our expectations were low.

Macphail himself said that he would would be disapponted if the team suffered another second half collapse, because he thought his moves had made the team deeper. Look back at his own comments that he thought the team could be competitive while rebuilding.

I think you would agree that Andy has now entered into an accelerated phase of tearing it down in order to build it up, and I am on board.

I do think that Andy Macphail realizes that he can't play it halfway, and try to win while rebuilding.

I do also think that he has two more years to start to win. If the team is still losing at the end of 2011,I think we are into the abyss, and the owner will fire him. That would send the franchise back into oblivion, but it is what it is. In my opinion, Macphail has two more years, and he knows it.

Let's be realistic.. they weren't going to get more for Huff.... it was this type of trade or wait six weeks and get nothing for him....

The McPhail sychophants,especially the ones from the Orioles Hangout would clap thier hands like mindless seals no matter what he does.Yeah, I want Pie to pla more so people can finally see what a useless bum he is.I'd rather see Micheal Tucker getting Pies ab's.

You have to give McPhail credit. He is sticking to what he said he was going to do, but for the Orioles to be competitive anytime soon, they have to get a proven first baseman, it is tough to throw guys at first base that do not have experience. Since this year is a wash, maybe over the off season they will address it. The fact is Huff has had a sub par year. Last year if they traded him, they could have gotten a lot for him. So that is where I get confused by the whole plan. If he was not in the long term plan they should have traded him. Who knows maybe they will go back after him in Free Agency. The rest of this season is going to be tough, but it should be entertaining to watch Scott learn first base at the major league level. .

a lot has been said above. Bottom line..should have done it last year..when he was having a career year. Anybody wonder if he was having a little help(chemically). I mean hitting 28 dingers..and batting over .300???
This team has no effective pitching right now. so..scoring a couple of more runs won`t make much difference when your staff leads thr league in HR`s given up. Guthrie is the worst..dump him..he4 can`t get out of the first inning.

God you people complaining about this trade are dilusional. We were absolutely not offering Aubrey Huff arbitration next year because he would have to be an idiot not to take it. Do you really think anyone is going to offer him $8 million a year for a first baseman hitting .250 with a sub .600 OPS?

We traded a piece of garbage for a top 10 prospect from another organization, how can you possibly be upset with that?

So are you telling me we couldn't get Albert Pujols and Roy Halladay for Aubrey Huff? We was robbed!

Another good trade and nothing but complaining. The $2 mil saved went towards a good draft that cost some $8 mil. Huff was not worth $8 million that we would had to have offered him before we would get any draft choices. why not save money?

For the Huff lovers we can probably get him back for $4-$5 next year but I doubt we want to go down that road. Bring up the young guys and see them compete for a job. Bet they will run out balls and show hustle.

Amen to what Drungo Hazewood said.

To all of you complaining about walking Abreu to get to Vlad...

Last Month:
Abreu: .327, 5 homers, 20 rbi
Vlad: .370, 6 homers, 10 rbi

Not everything is black and white. Especially in baseball.

Half of this message board thinks the Orioles are en route to a World Series victory in 2012, the other half thinks we'll be taking our customary place in last place in October.

Looking at Orioles history for the past 14 years, I'd have to side with the latter.

How about this for the message board warriors...if you knew all year you were going to trade Huff, why not trade him earlier in the year when you could have gotten something of value? Every game he played this year reduced his value.

I get real tried of hearing "well they aren't in our future" when we trade away the likes of Sherrill and Huff for the past several years. This team has known nothing but losing because the last 8 weeks of every year we are in a tail spin. Yeah we don't need an All Star closer because we aren't in a position to win. I think McPhail was taken on both of these trades. We got nothing for Huff and we got a 3rd baseman for Sherrill who might be able to hit but is having trouble fielding his position....doesn't sound like much of a 3rd baseman to me. Sherrill should have brought a bounty of players/talent based on what his salary was going to be for the next few years. Mora should have been cut after his comments. When is this team going to show some patience at the plate? Take a pitch or two guys – all this 1st all swinging is driving me nuts but more importantly isn’t putting any guys on base or driving in any runs. I don’t fault Trembley because he has nothing to work with but fundamentally this team stinks. Maybe they should watch the Little League World Series for some base running tips.

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Pete's reply: Well, I guess we'll wait and see if you are right about the two deals, but MacPhail's record trading players has been pretty good so far.

needed here