All signs point to major improvements

[Sports Guy]

I don't think that's fair. We made three solid trades last winter.

But we could have done alot more and we certainly could have done alot more over the past 9 years.

We should be focusing on guys like Burrell and Ensberg and maybe Jenkins.

We can get them for very little, upgrade the offense greatly and keep our young guys.

[bigbird]

I hope the Orioles know than another Benson can give you a 5 ERA as easily as he can give you a 4 ERA.

I hope they know not to trade a future Hall of Famer for an unproven minor league 1B and SS to go along with a young pitcher with a 6 era away from home.

[SilentJames]

SG: you want to trade Miggy. The FO doesnt want to do that.

BB said that the FO thinks it doesnt have a lot to trade with. Penn came up here and laid an egg, that doesnt help his trade value. It doesn't matter if it SHOULD hurt his trade value, but it has.

The FO obviously is wary about trading out of the current rotation, as they should be. BB says they want to move gibbons bu tthat will be hard.

Tejada isn't going anywhere and that is the one player that we have that would garner any decent return. Miggy even said it himself: "If this team wants to compete, they won't trade me."

[mweb]

Depends on how much money we have to spend. Can you get by with another Benson if you upgrade the lineup and pen big time?

Any clue how much PA is willing to spend? For the extra 4-5M, I'll take an elite pitcher over a Benson type.

[bigbird]

But we could have done alot more and we certainly could have done alot more over the past 9 years.

We should be focusing on guys like Burrell and Ensberg and maybe Jenkins.

We can get them for very little, upgrade the offense greatly and keep our young guys.

You can't blame the past 9 years on the Flanny/Duq duo. You also have to have a person to deal with. Because you or I draw up something here doesn't mean the other team has any interest in our talent. It's not as easy as you make it out to be some times.

[Sports Guy]

SG: you want to trade Miggy. The FO doesnt want to do that.

BB said that the FO thinks it doesnt have a lot to trade with. Penn came up here and laid an egg, that doesnt help his trade value. It doesn't matter if it SHOULD hurt his trade value, but it has.

The FO obviously is wary about trading out of the current rotation, as they should be. BB says they want to move gibbons bu tthat will be hard.

Tejada isn't going anywhere and that is the one player that we have that would garner any decent return. Miggy even said it himself: "If this team wants to compete, they won't trade me."

Thanks for the recap...Not sure why you bothered to waste your time typing though.

[mweb]

But we could have done alot more and we certainly could have done alot more over the past 9 years.

We should be focusing on guys like Burrell and Ensberg and maybe Jenkins.

We can get them for very little, upgrade the offense greatly and keep our young guys.

In all fairness, they apparently did focus on Burrell and Ensberg this season. Burrell said no and the Ensberg deal fell through.

[Sports Guy]

In all fairness, they apparently did focus on Burrell and Ensberg this season. Burrell said no and the Ensberg deal fell through.

I don't know if they focused on Ensberg. They didn't try and get him by himself in another deal.

You are right about Burrell of course.

They need to revisit that. Philly may basically threaten him with playign time for what i have heard.

[El Gordo]

I hope they know not to trade a future Hall of Famer for an unproven minor league 1B and SS to go along with a young pitcher with a 6 era away from home.

Well said!

[SilentJames]

Depends on how much money we have to spend. Can you get by with another Benson if you upgrade the lineup and pen big time?

Exactly. Two "aces" would be GREAT! HUGE! But, instead of giving an FA ace a 5 year HUGE deal, improve the back end of the rotation with a solid, consistent arm. Improve the bullpen, go with Bedard. This cat should have have been close to 20 wins by now if we had a seviceable bullpen, and that would be on a losing team.

I am comfortable with Bedard takign the ball as our ace next year and spending that ace money on two or three bullpen arms and another backend type guy.

[McLovin]

I don't think that's fair. We made three solid trades last winter.

It doesn't seem like we did, but you're right. Patterson, Hawkins, and Benson were all basically had for nothing. Get a few more solid deals like this going, sign an impact bat, fill a hole or five in the bullpen, and I'll feel a lot better...

[Fairfax Bird]

But we could have done alot more and we certainly could have done alot more over the past 9 years.

We should be focusing on guys like Burrell and Ensberg and maybe Jenkins.

We can get them for very little, upgrade the offense greatly and keep our young guys.

To a certain extent I agree with you. I think you have creative solutions. But, I also think you underestimate the difficulty of making deals. They had a deal in place for Burrell once already. He has to approve the trade. It might happen, but it might not. Ensberg is a good idea. I am not opposed to giving up Benson for him. But, we better have two starters to plug into the rotation. Jenkins also a good back-up idea in LF. Not the 1st option. If we don't sign Sori, if we don't sign Dellucci, then I would trade for Jenkins.

[mweb]

I don't know if they focused on Ensberg. They didn't try and get him by himself in another deal.

You are right about Burrell of course.

They need to revisit that. Philly may basically threaten him with playign time for what i have heard.

Well they apparently agreed to a deal that would have brought him to BMore, so that's pretty good, and after that deal fell through, Houston was probably too upset at us to deal with us even if we wanted to just focus on Ensberg.

[Fairfax Bird]

Thanks for the recap...Not sure why you bothered to waste your time typing though.

Getting defensive.

[Sports Guy]

Getting defensive.

No, not defensive...SJ didn't present any new info to me in the thread. I really didn't even understand why he made that post.