Orioles to Spend This Winter?

[JohnD]

Sure, I'll buy this idea.... *as Sonny and Cher sing "I Got You Babe" on my alarm clock*

[waroriole]

Does anyone want to wager that on the off-chance Fielder signs here, he completely loses all of his ability. And we are lucky to get one .850+ OPS season out of him?

[bird watcher]

They do not sell Fielders and Pujols at Walmart.

[bird watcher]

Name me a team that needs him more than the Orioles do. The Cubs? The Giants? Not the Dodgers. No one in the A.L. needs him like the Orioles do. No one.

Roy, you could have copied and pasted this comment into any of the Tex threads years ago and it would have fit just fine. We know how that turned out.

[Sports Guy]

Are people really going to fall for this stuff again? LOL

The Orioles may be prepared to go after Fielder...They may even be prepared to offer him a big deal.

But they are not prepared to offer him the contract that it will take for him to sign here. That is always the important caveat.

No chance PA authrizes some 7+ year deal for 22+ million a year for a guy with long term weight concerns unless he has the team already sold and doesn't care anymore.

[Roll Tide]

Are people really going to fall for this stuff again? LOL

The Orioles may be prepared to go after Fielder...They may even be prepared to offer him a big deal.

But they are not prepared to offer him the contract that it will take for him to sign here. That is always the important caveat.

No chance PA authrizes some 7+ year deal for 22+ million a year for a guy with long term weight concerns unless he has the team already sold and doesn't care anymore.

I agree ...Which tells me they arent really serious .... The Orioles love bargain bin shopping and thats why we end up will the on the decline performances year after year.

[HokieOs]

Are people really going to fall for this stuff again? LOL

The Orioles may be prepared to go after Fielder...They may even be prepared to offer him a big deal.

But they are not prepared to offer him the contract that it will take for him to sign here. That is always the important caveat.

No chance PA authrizes some 7+ year deal for 22+ million a year for a guy with long term weight concerns unless he has the team already sold and doesn't care anymore.

Yep.... My guess is that we'll offer Fielder something like 6/125 and he'll end up signing somewhere for 7/165 or something far more than what we offer.

Do Rafael Palmeiro or David Segui want to come back for a third try?

[clapdiddy]

Are people really going to fall for this stuff again? LOL

The Orioles may be prepared to go after Fielder...They may even be prepared to offer him a big deal.

But they are not prepared to offer him the contract that it will take for him to sign here. That is always the important caveat.

No chance PA authrizes some 7+ year deal for 22+ million a year for a guy with long term weight concerns unless he has the team already sold and doesn't care anymore.

I love the idea of Fielder's bat in this lineup. I'm just not sure that Fielder is the right player for us to spend all our money on. Unfortunately, guys with his credentials don't become available very often. I also don't think he will want to come here anyway.

[Sports Guy]

I love the idea of Fielder's bat in this lineup. I'm just not sure that Fielder is the right player for us to spend all our money on. Unfortunately, guys with his credentials don't become available very often. I also don't think he will want to come here anyway.

Boras is his agent and he knows that in 4ish years, he will probably be a DH.

In other words, he is going to the team that gives him the biggest financial committment.

DC, ChiCubs, Texas and maybe Anaheim will be lining up for him...to name a few teams.

We may need him more than everyone else BUT we also may need to spend the most money to do it.

The Orioles acknowledged that Tex was a unique situation. They offered him a contract they normally aren't comfortable offering...and to get Fielder, the Orioles will probably have to offer more than what they offered Tex and by a pretty wide margin.

They are going to tell the fans that we tried, we offered him what would have been the richest contract in franchise history but we just couldn't compete with the bigger numbers.

We all know this is what is going to happen.

The Orioles only hope is that Fielder's weight and poor defense means that teams will not offer him much more than a 4-5 year deal for 20ish million a year.

If that happens, the Orioles may be able to swoop in and get him but that's there only chance and that scenario is very unlikely.

[LookinUp]

Belkast, are you hearing any inside information on this one?

Seriously, though extremely unlikely, the O's could position themselves to make this move pretty easily.

Gonzalez, Lee and Vlad are off the books after this year. That's about $20m in payroll.

Reynolds has only one more guaranteed year, so long term he's not a weight on our payroll.

Scott could be traded, saving a few million more.

Guthrie could be traded, saving yet more.

Depending on who we got back for Scott/Guthrie, we'd need to add a starting pitcher and one of a LF/DH/4th OF, but Schrader, Klein, McCurry, Reimold and Pie could fill in cheaply next year. We could also just keep Guthrie and Scott still create the payroll flexibility to make a move.

The issue is our willingness and ability to make the move. Will AM even be around? Will there be league financial upheaval this winter (I think yes)? Is there any reason to believe the O's would be willing to outbid another motivated suitor?

[Dipper9]

Here's the thing. If MacPhail is still here, there is ZERO chance we sign Fielder. He just doesn't believe in spending that much money on one player. Never has, never will. If MacPhail leaves, there is a small chance that Angelos gives the new GM the old "I'm an old man and want a winner before I meet my Maker" speech, but even then, I'd say our chances are less than 10%.

[MikeAD]

I have no doubt that we offer Fielder a contract, I mean we offered contracts to Martinez and Dunn this off season. No deal we offer will bring anyone in though, it will be low ball city.

If (huge flaming, pile of pooh if) we actually do put out big cash why on earth did we chose this year and not an off-season with a decent FA Class?

[ChaosLex]

Are people really going to fall for this stuff again? LOL

Judging by this thread, no.

[Scrat1]

Judging by this thread, no.

Are people really going to fall for this stuff again? LOL

I think there is a decent chance. And considering I think going after Fielder is a bad idea, and would be against the signing, I'm not "falling" for anything.

[Dipper9]

Judging by this thread, no.