Cliff Lee could take us to the WS

[weams]

If a used car salesman tells you it's a good deal you should be wary of accepting it.

Well, I spent 30 years selling them. In one form or another.

[Can_of_corn]

Well, I spent 30 years selling them. In one form or another.

I know.

[DrungoHazewood]

Or what happens with Ala Carte cable pricing comes into vogue and everyone that doesn't care for baseball realizes they can cut the bill by 3 bucks a month...

That almost has to happen at some point. If everyone had an itemized bill and all the non-baseball fans realized they were paying $10+ a month for baseball there'd be an insurrection. If I could drop the fees I'm sure I'm paying for NBA and NFL content (not to mention the Oprah network and Lifetime and the Gospel Music channel and MTV and VH1) I'd do it in a second.

[backwardsk]

If I'm philly, and I decide to trade Lee (I don't think they do it this summer) I'd be looking at a top hitting prospect as opposed to pitching. I don't think we match up well. Bundy may be viewed as too risky and Schoop has had back issues. I'm a big fan of both, but if I were a Philly fan, I'd be disappointed.

[Tx Oriole]

Don't want to give up either Gausman or Bundy. And Angelos has shown ZERO willingness to up payroll 25% for one player, much less 35%+ for two.

I agree with you.

[Tx Oriole]

Duquette's the one that broke the mold by trading for Pedro and signing Ramirez. If any Orioles GM is going to do it or convince Angelos to do it, he's the guy...

He may be JTrea. Good to see you back.

[TonySoprano]

Millwood was paid 9 by the Orioles.

My bad. Millwood was paid $12M in 2010, with $3M of that from Texas. In the trade with Texas, they also took Chris Ray's $975K salary off our books, making the net effect of adding Millwood $8.025M.

Good catch, gents.

[weams]

If you are a team like the Royals (small market, limited resources, longtime loser) you NEVER trade one of the game’s best prospects just as he is about to come to the major leagues. Never.

And if you do … well, no, you don’t don’t do it. Not ever.

http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-regrettable-trade.html

Substitute Orioles for Royals, Small market for small to mid market, Limited to limited by budget, Long time loser to long time loser until last season.

[weams]

So, like I say, it has worked about as well as the Royals could have honestly expected. And? And it was still a disastrous trade. This is because the Royals are almost certainly not going to get that second wildcard. They might or might not get to .500, but there won’t be any parades either way. Shields will have one year left on his deal and he will turn 32 years old.

Meanwhile, Wil Myers already looks like the star that so many people expected him to become over time. Just 31 games into his big league career he’s hitting .325/.353/.492 in the heart of the Tampa Bay lineup. The Rays are a ridiculous 22-9 since he arrived and have jolted into first place. He’s 22 yeas old, he has tremendous power, he has great bat speed, he’s a gloriously natural hitter just like the Royals kept saying when he belonged to them. The Rays now have him for the next six years, and probably longer if they sign him up. He’s become one of the more valuable properties in the game.

It is possible -- likely even -- that he will be a better hitter than anybody in he Kansas City Royals organization.

And the Royals traded him away in a moment of weakness, a moment when they decided that they had to DO SOMETHING. That urge to just DO SOMETHING is overpowering, and it is almost always harmful in pretty much all walks of life. It is something poker players do when they have a bad run of cards and grow tired of sitting out hand after hand -- they go in with a nine-jack and kind of hope for the best.

http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-regrettable-trade.html

[tntoriole]

If you are a team like the Royals (small market, limited resources, longtime loser) you NEVER trade one of the game’s best prospects just as he is about to come to the major leagues. Never.

And if you do … well, no, you don’t don’t do it. Not ever.

http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-regrettable-trade.html

Substitute Orioles for Royals, Small market for small to mid market, Limited to limited by budget, Long time loser to long time loser until last season.

I agree with this completely. Teams like ours have to hit the lottery position by position with younger players (as we have with Machado). As the Rays did, so must we do. The trickier part is when you develop a really good part, like a James Shields, then you must be willing to pull the trigger to get the next better prospect. This is what the Orioles did with Bedard and they hit the jackpot. And it is why we shouldn't trade Bundy or Gausman or Schoop (or even Matusz when he looked all world in the minors) until we see what we have when they get to the majors.

[Can_of_corn]

Wow great post weams. You don't often write big posts but this was a good one.

That wasn't Weams.

[Can_of_corn]

Who was it? I didn't see a link posted.

Posnanski, Weams had linked to it in the prior post.

[bluehens45]

I would be ok with trading for Utley as long as it did not cost a "A" prospect. I think it's a given that Utley resigns with the Phils or returns home to SoCal with a insane offer from the Dodgers. From the radio chatter in Philly its seems like the Phils cant decide what to do buy or sell. I think losing 6 straight has given them their answer. I think they end up trading Paplebon and Michael Young. The only way they trade Lee is if its a stunnning offer which I dont see happening. Personally I think we should be on the horn with the White Sox about a couple players Gordon Beckham being a great buy low talent. His numbers stink but the talent is there. He could really benefit from a change of scenery. I would also ask about Adam Dunn. We could use his pop in the lineup and I think if we eat his salary he would not cost as much as people think. I would also ask about Alexei Ramirez as well play him at 2B. Peavy and Reed are worth a look as well. A deal of Beckham or Ramirez and Dunn would really help us shore up our offense issues.

[weams]

Who was it? I didn't see a link posted.

Up above it. It was a continuation of Joe Blogs.

[TonySoprano]

Hammel, $6.75M, is the highest paid pitcher in 2013.

2012 - Hammel was the highest paid starter at $4.75M. Gregg topped the pitchers salary list at $5.2M.

2011 - Guthrie's $5.75M was the highest for a starter. Gonzalez topped the pitchers salary list at $6M.

2010 - Millwood was the highest paid starter, followed by Guthie at $3M. Koji, $6M, and Gonzalez, $5M, made more than Guthrie.

2009 - Baez $7.17M, Koji $5M, Walker $4.5M, Sherrill $2.75M, Hendrickson $1.5M, Ray $850K. Guthrie, $650K, was the second highest paid starter after Koji. Koji made more than the entire 2008 rotation. Bergesen, Berken, and Hernandez each made the ML minimum ($400K), and Hill was paid $445K. Therefore, the five starters after Koji made a total salary of $2.3M, or less than half of his salary. Baez alone almost made as much as the entire rotation.

2008 - Baez $6.17M, Walker $4.5M, Bradford $3.67M. Cabrera, $2.9M, was the highest paid starter followed by Trachsel at $1.5M. Cabrera made more than the other 4 starters combined. The rotation of Guthrie ($770K) ? Cabrera -Olson ($390K) -Burres ($395K) and Liz ($390K) combined ($4.83M) made less than Baez and a little more than Walker. The Yankees had 5 pitchers who each made more than the entire Orioles rotation. Mussina alone made 2.3X the salary of our starting five.