Official-Tejada to Houston

[DrungoHazewood]

Why does it matter that he is 29? Isn't his ML clock time more important than his age UNLESS his production is likely to fall due to his age? He has three more years prior to FA. He will be 29, 30, & 31 during those years. I think he is a pretty darn good bet to outperform Tejada in those three years by himself (though less likely if you adjust for positional differences).

Three years to FA is nothing to sneeze at. We've only got Markakis for 4 more years.

It's only a big deal in the sense that he'll probably be in decline by the time he's a free agent, and he's unlikely to get much better. But I'm certainly not complaining about a .800-.900 OPS outfielder at below-market rates for the next three years.

[NoVaO]

Quick, name the last Oriole acquisition who had above-average plate discipline...

Kevin Millar, then before that... ummm... Jack Cust? Before that... Melvin Mora? That's a good one every three or four years, and they just picked up two.

Scott Moore.

So that makes 3 pick-ups with plate discipline from the current regime.

[HoodGuy007]

Exactly! I agree that in 2011, he will likely be declining. But I also don't care because that is three years out. We just added a guy likely produce near Markakis levels for three years at low dollars PLUS four prospects. This is a good deal.

And that has been my point the entire time.

And we didn't just get four prospects. We have a guywho can be inserted in our rotation right now, a ML reliever, and then Another Scott Moore type that can be used in the mionrs to get some extra seasoning. Shake and bake, baby, shake and bake!

[NewMarketSean]

The amusing part to me is that I can now count SEVEN different prominent posters who have gone from insulting the FO about this trade to either even keel or openly praising the FO for this trade. It is amazing how the crowd logic works, isn't it?

HEY, this sucks!!!!! Um, where did everybody go? Oh, they went to the "hey, this makes sense" area! Oops, better get over there fast and hope nobody notices.

I'm not going to call them out by name, but it is funny how little analysis some of us do before making judgments and then how little embarrassment we feel when we switch positions.

I hope you're not including me in with this bunch. I've criticized the previous FO, even questioned AM a bit, but I have never doubted this trade one bit. I actually like it a lot the more and more I look at things.

[PoorMike]

If anybody is out there whining (from an O's fans' perspective), sample some objective opinions. I haven't heard one that thinks this was anything less than a 'win' for us. HOU fans feel like this was a downright raping.

Even if you don't think it was that bad of a deal, you have to wonder why HOU is making it to begin with since they don't seem to be 'a piece or two away' from doing big things.

I'm content and optimistic, but I do like Miggi and wish him the best in HOU.

[NewMarketSean]

If anybody is out there whining (from an O's fans' perspective), sample some objective opinions. I haven't heard one that thinks this was anything less than a 'win' for us. HOU fans feel like this was a downright raping.

Even if you don't think it was that bad of a deal, you have to wonder why HOU is making it to begin with since they don't seem to be 'a piece or two away' from doing big things.

I'm content and optimistic, but I do like Miggi and wish him the best in HOU.

"Raping" Scoreboard...

MacPhail - 2

Everyone Else - 0

[mefogus]

This seems like a good time to start blogging again:

http://www.earthvssoup.com/2007/12/12/tejada-traded-for-spare-change

The summary: not-sexy, nice hitters, meh pitchers, why-no-everett?, fair exchange, nifty Javascript charts...

Ok, that last one is for me.

-m

[Birds08]

By the way, as far as I've seen, AM has not commented yet. Maybe that means he is busy working Bedard/Roberts trades?

[Jimmy Mad]

Ask and you shall receive:

Updated in ESPN's story...

``That's one of the concepts behind, in this position, obtaining five players in exchange for one,'' Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail said. ``Nobody knows for certain how these young players are going to evolve, but if you get five you start playing the percentages, quite honestly.''

[Big O]

Its only been a few hours since the Tejada trade was announced and already people are saying we just got hosed or whatever.

Have we seen any of these guys playing in an Orioles uniform in the AL East yet?

Is it possible we can simply wait to see how these guys pan out?

First we complained that MacPhail was waiting too long to pull the trigger on a trade -- now we complain that we didn't get enough for Tejada.

For the most part no one cared about the Orioles and wasn't likely to trade major talent to us for Tejada or Bedard so far.

The proposed Roberts/Cubs trade seems to be pretty good on paper but we also haven't seen that yet or anything else pan out.

Sure this might not have been a blockbuster trade that makes ESPN stop and shudder... but we are also talking about a trade from a team that most people look at as a colossal joke for a player who has had some personality issues and might be all over a congressional report about steroids.

Try to put things into perspective here.

MSK

I'm pleased with this trade! I mean there third and sixth prospects along with a guy that held his own in 16 major league starts last year and a great arm with 25 K's in 16.2 innings. All under comtrol for at least five more seasons, this is Great in my opinion!

[Leitch]

I'm not thrilled about it. I don't think it's a horrible deal, and the total value is pretty good, but I just was so geared up to get some impact premium talent in this organization and so far I've got Luke Scott and Troy Patton.

Not that Luke Scott and Troy Patton aren't decent, it's just that I thought we could land a Wood or a Pie with Miggy.

[thundercleetz]

That's a fine haul for Baltimore. The Astros pretty much cleaned out their farm system for two years of an average-hitting third baseman. The average NL 3B had an .804 OPS in '07; Tejada was at .799 in the AL. I know some readers think I'm an Astro-hater but that's not the case. I just think they gave up way too much here. Patton was ranked their third best prospect by Baseball America, Costanzo sixth. Scott is a cheap quality regular, and Albers was third on the team's 2007 top prospect list.

If these guys were the third through sixith best prospects for Houston, who the hell are their first and second best prospects, and why didn't we nab them?

[Leitch]

If these guys were the third through sixith best prospects for Houston, who the hell are their first and second best prospects, and why didn't we nab them?

Patton was #1 I think

[oriole_way]

I don't know enough about the players we got back in the deal to really make an educated comment (I've only read Tony's take), but I have felt for some time that Miggy had little trade value for several reasons, and definitely less than what many on this board thought. So, I'm relatively pleased that we got what we did.

[QWJay]

This trade to me was a salary dump..but an important step nonetheless! The emphasis is not so much of what the Orioles got back, but a signal of CHANGE. No more status quo. Truly a new beginning. It's like watching a bulldozer tilling the dirt on a site where a new school is to be built. It doesn't look like much but it will soon enough.