Last week the Orioles finally traded Erik Bedard to the Mariners. While it hurts to watch the hapless O’s trade their first homegrown ace since Mike Mussina, it was the necessary move to make. Talks about trading Bedard have been going on since December and have dragged on with the Seattle Mariners for over a month, everyday speculation had it that the trade was finally going to go through. Many people blame Peter Angelos for holding the deal up because he felt threatened or pushed into a deal when Seattle’s Adam Jones told the media he was on his way to Baltimore to take his physical for the trade to pass, which delayed the trade further.
The Mariners have been seeking an ace all winter long. They also were reportedly interested in Johan Santana who ended up with the Mets, but Bedard was their preference due to the fact that he was two years away from free agency instead of one, and would command a much lighter contract in comparison to Santana’s. The Mariners wanted add another top pitcher to their rotation to be paired with 21 year old phenom Felix Hernandez. They believe their a playoff team and that Bedard could help get them deep into the playoffs, plus they felt the need to get better to compete with the 2007 AL West Champions, the L.A. Angels who added Tori Hunter and Jon Garland who can only improve the team during the off-season.
If this were any other team I’d be excited about the Orioles making a move to help them get better in the future, but the Orioles have hurt me too many times to believe that today is the day where everything changes. I hate how baseball works in the form of trades. Rarely are team’s superstars traded for each other, generally players are traded for minor league prospects. Essentially your trading someone who you know is good for the possibility of someone who is going to be good usually a number of years later. It’s hard to trade a given for the unknown, the unknown which has a good chance to fail as well. In this particular trade, I think the Orioles got a very good haul, despite not getting Carlos Triunfel, a young short stop, or Brandon Morrow, a good young right handed pitcher.
In the previous months we’ve seen perhaps the best pitcher in MLB over the last few years, John Santana essentially get traded for an average group of prospects and a couple magic beans thrown in by the New York Mets. Another prized pitcher, Dan Haren, was traded to the Diamondbacks for a group of prospects where it seemed to be quantity over quality. Billy Beane is a genius, and usually sees what most do not, so I’m not gonna knock that trade yet. He’ll probably find something in nothing, catch lightning in a bottle with at least one or two of the players, and watch them walk in free agency for big dollars like the A’s have for a decade now. Consensus opinion is that the Orioles got a very good package for their former ace though. As a result, the Orioles seem to have found their center fielder of the future, in 22 year old, Adam Jones. He’s been described as a “monster” by many analysts and prospect graders, and has drawn comparisons to Tori Hunter and Mike Cameron. If he pans out, the Orioles should have a very good outfield in the future that would consist of Jones, and budding star right fielder, Nick Markakis.
The deal also includes George Sherrill, who unfortunately is 30 years old, but he’s a very good left-handed closer who will probably draw attention from other teams this season who are in need of a closer if the O’s choose to move him. Dave Trembley has been very concerned about who will finish games out of the bullpen for him this season, since Chris Ray will miss all of this year as a result of Tommy John Surgery, Sherill will undoubtedly be that guy barring injury.
The most interesting part of this trade, is the Orioles got three pitchers who are over six feet tall. Chris Tillman, a 19-year-old right hander, he’s 6'5, and is projected as a future number two starter in the league. Tony Butler, a 20-year-old left hander, he’s 6'7, and is projected as a future number three starter in the league. Kam Mickolio, a right-hander, he’s 6'9, and is projected to join the major leagues sooner rather than later as a very good closer. These pitchers will add to an already impressive group of young pitchers the Orioles have in their farm system to go along with Matt Albers, Troy Patton, Garrett Olson, Brian Burres, Hayden Penn, and Radhames Liz. Jeremy Guthrie and Adam Loewen progressed last year to show that they will be mainstays in the Orioles rotation for years to come. Unfortunately, adding three hard throwing guys who are really tall may not turn out, those traits seem to describe Daniel Cabrera very well, and we’re still waiting for him to pan out?
The Orioles did the right thing for the first time in a long time though. Let’s think about it, Bedard has begun to emerge over the last two seasons as one of baseball’s best left-handers, which makes it all the more difficult, because great lefties are hard to come by. But really, the he guy can’t stay healthy though, he’s already had Tommy John Surgery, he’s yet to throw 200 innings in a season, and he turns 29 next month so as he gets older I like his chances to stay healthy even less. Also when he hits free agency, or if he does, his new contract will surely be at an upwards of at least 100 million due to what pitchers are getting these days. And he may pan out, but the Orioles are guaranteed to suck for at least another two years (if not forever) with him, and I doubt he’s interested in staying with a team who has lost for 10 straight seasons if they have improved by the time he hits free agency. Then we watch him walk to New York or Boston with us getting nothing for him, just like Mussina did during the 90's. So getting anything for him, much less this impressive package, is a victory in itself for the struggling franchise.
The unfortunate part of this trade, is the Orioles still look like and are one of the worst franchises in baseball at the moment. It took over a month to get a trade done that had pretty much already been hammered out, and will continue to make other teams hesitant to deal with the Orioles because of their perceived slowness and difficulty to deal with. Most people love what the Orioles were able to do in getting an excellent package of talent for Bedard, this was a good chance to work towards making the Oriole name look good again, but their chances of improving that name by going back and forth and Peter Angelos insinuating that he was being pushed into a trade ruined any chance of that. That’s a ridiculous assertion on Angelos’s part, I can’t remember the last time a general manager was under fire for holding a gun to someone’s head to send them a group of highend prospects, so to even say that was a PR nightmare for the team around the league.
While I like this trade and think it will improve the team for years to come, I wonder if Peter Angelos will do what it takes to compete in the A.L. East? Let’s assume the Orioles take all the young talent they have stockpiled in the last few years, and it pans out, will they pay the big dollars to keep Adam Jones in town if he turns out to be as good as Tori Hunter, or will they let him go up north to Boston or New York? Also, like with any team, most are built through their farm system and key additions via free agency. If the Orioles start to find themselves able to compete, will Angelos give away any 100 million dollar plus contracts to players who could take his team to the next level? For cryin’ out loud, on top of being one of the most successful lawyers and owning one of the most successful law firms monetarily of all-time, he collects a huge check since his team “loses” revenue for having the Washington Nationals play in their market, so there is no excuse to say he can’t compete with Boston and New York money-wise.
After watching the Orioles look like a poorly ran Babe Ruth League-level team for 10 seasons, let’s hope the owner is tired of losing, and this is a step in the right direction toward restoring a once great franchise to prominence.
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