MLB.com article on the Wright deal

[Sports Guy]

Or Wright goes 15-10, 3.75, the O's extend him early in the year at a reasonable rate, the young pitching steps it up a notch or two, and the O's add enough other pieces to get into contention.

No one said most likely, just best case...

I actually worry about an extension if he pitches well....Don't you?

[Baltimoron]

Actually, the best outcome is Wright pitches very well and we can deal him at the deadline for a few solid prospects.

Can we discuss the liklihood of this.

The last time the Orioles did this that I can recall is the Ponson deal, which got them Kurt Ainsworth, Damian Moss, and Ryan Hannaman (basically nothing).

Last year they traded Javy after the deadline for Stern.

Do the Orioles have any history of succcess flipping veterans for prospect at the dealines? Do they Os have much goodwill around the league as far as even negotiating trades?

Ignoing the Orioles, is there much deadline flipping even going on these days in baseball? Has the market shifted away from these type of deals?

Assuming the Os could make a deal (a huge leap of faith, IMO), how much can you get for a couple of months of Jaret Wright? More than Britton?

[Three Run Homer]

I see two troubling things about this trade that have not been discussed yet on this thread.

(1) The O's made this trade even though Jaret Wright was almost certain to hit the market as a free agent when the Yankees declined his option. The fact that the O's nevertheless parted with a valuable commodity means that they had no confidence that they could have signed Jaret Wright or a comparable pitcher at a reasonable price. They were willing to part with Chris Britton just for the security blanket of having a player under their control. This suggests that the FO knows that Angelos will tie their hands when it comes to FA signings.

(2) The O's are once again showing blind faith in Leo Mazzone. I'm convinced that they targetted Jaret Wright solely because he had that one good year for Mazzone. Unfortunately, I don't think the O's blind faith in Mazzone served them very well last year. The FO was convinced that Leo Mazzone could magically turn anyone into a decent reliever, so they went into last season with a bullpen full of question marks...and they got burned. The FO was convinced that Leo Mazzone could turn Russ Ortiz around, so they signed him and (I'm guessing) promised either Leo or Russ that he could stay on the team through the end of the season come hell or high water...and they got burned.

Now they've traded a promising, cheap homegrown reliever to get someone whose main calling card is one good season under Leo Mazzone, even though the bullpen was a much bigger problem for the 2006 Orioles than the starting rotation (at least in the 2nd half of the season, once Loewen and Rodrigo settled down).

Are the 2007 Orioles destined to crash and burn once more on the altar of Leo Mazzone's infallibility?

[Baltimoron]

I actually worry about an extension if he pitches well....Don't you?

At least it would demonstrate they are being logical, flawed as their premise may be.

If they are correct that Wright is a better pitcher with Mazzone, we should expect them to want to secure Wright before he goes out next season and pitches well and increases what he can demand on the free agent market.

[Baltimoron]

(1) The O's made this trade even though Jaret Wright was almost certain to hit the market as a free agent when the Yankees declined his option. The fact that the O's nevertheless parted with a valuable commodity means that they had no confidence that they could have signed Jaret Wright or a comparable pitcher at a reasonable price. They were willing to part with Chris Britton just for the security blanket of having a player under their control. This suggests that the FO knows that Angelos will tie their hands when it comes to FA signings.

There is no way they sign a league average starter (which is pretty much what Wright was last year) for 1 year at 3 million on the free agent market.

Are the 2007 Orioles destined to crash and burn once more on the altar of Leo Mazzone's infallibility?

There's a lot more to blame than just Leo. Even if Leo is correct about Wright the team still crashes and burns absent other major changes.

[DrungoHazewood]

I actually worry about an extension if he pitches well....Don't you?

I don't know. If Leo knows how to get him healthy and pitching well in 2007, I guess you could expect that to continue into the future. Maybe?

[Sports Guy]

I don't know. If Leo knows how to get him healthy and pitching well in 2007, I guess you could expect that to continue into the future. Maybe?

Years and years of ineffective or injury prone years or 2 very good years under Leo? Tough to say which is the better track record to go off of.

[cmaff05]

Jaret Wright is an absolute steal compared to what El Duque just got... 2 years 11 million. This pitching market is insane. The Orioles were proactive and took a cheap risk... you'll just have to wait and find out if it works out.

That being said, Jaret Wright has worked out of the bullpen before for us. He has never caused a fuss about it and is a consumate team player. He's never caused a fuss about anything for that matter as a Yankee.

[bird watcher]

I see two troubling things about this trade that have not been discussed yet on this thread.

(1) The O's made this trade even though Jaret Wright was almost certain to hit the market as a free agent when the Yankees declined his option. The fact that the O's nevertheless parted with a valuable commodity means that they had no confidence that they could have signed Jaret Wright or a comparable pitcher at a reasonable price. They were willing to part with Chris Britton just for the security blanket of having a player under their control. This suggests that the FO knows that Angelos will tie their hands when it comes to FA signings.

(2) The O's are once again showing blind faith in Leo Mazzone. I'm convinced that they targetted Jaret Wright solely because he had that one good year for Mazzone. Unfortunately, I don't think the O's blind faith in Mazzone served them very well last year. The FO was convinced that Leo Mazzone could magically turn anyone into a decent reliever, so they went into last season with a bullpen full of question marks...and they got burned. The FO was convinced that Leo Mazzone could turn Russ Ortiz around, so they signed him and (I'm guessing) promised either Leo or Russ that he could stay on the team through the end of the season come hell or high water...and they got burned.

Now they've traded a promising, cheap homegrown reliever to get someone whose main calling card is one good season under Leo Mazzone, even though the bullpen was a much bigger problem for the 2006 Orioles than the starting rotation (at least in the 2nd half of the season, once Loewen and Rodrigo settled down).

Are the 2007 Orioles destined to crash and burn once more on the altar of Leo Mazzone's infallibility?

1. You don't know that there weren't other teams willing to trade something to get him.

2. You don't know what he would have cost if he had been a free agent.

3. They went into the season with a bullpen full of question marks because half the bullpen got hurt before the season started.

4. I doubt Mazzone had any say about whether he could help out what was currently with the Orioles pitching staff.

5. I am tired of people using Russ Ortiz and Brower as an example of Mazzone's failures. Talk about a small sample size in comparison to his overall body of work. This is the kind of thinking that has Yankee fans saying Arod stinks.

6. Rant over.

[Sports Guy]

Can we discuss the liklihood of this.

The last time the Orioles did this that I can recall is the Ponson deal, which got them Kurt Ainsworth, Damian Moss, and Ryan Hannaman (basically nothing).

Last year they traded Javy after the deadline for Stern.

Do the Orioles have any history of succcess flipping veterans for prospect at the dealines? Do they Os have much goodwill around the league as far as even negotiating trades?

Ignoing the Orioles, is there much deadline flipping even going on these days in baseball? Has the market shifted away from these type of deals?

Assuming the Os could make a deal (a huge leap of faith, IMO), how much can you get for a couple of months of Jaret Wright? More than Britton?

If Wright pitches well, then yes, we could get more for Britton because he won't be owed any money and pitching carries a premium at the deadline.

Now, will the Orioles do it? Who knows.

[NCRaven]

B-Moron, I'm not spewing anyone's line. Your premise seems to be that because the O's have made bad moves in the past, then every move they make must be bad. I can actually look at each deal individually.

If this is the only deal we make this off season, I'll join you in bashing this move, for that reason alone. But the trade itself makes sense. The team had soured on Britton, who dropped off in the second half of the year. They get a starter with a power arm for a minimal investment in years and money. He buys them time to let their young pitching develop. Look at the market that everyone is now describing as going through the roof, and you'll see that Wright would have cost us more in money and years on the free agent market.

And, middle relievers are generally much easier to find now, during the offseason, than they are during the season when teams are reluctant to give them up. Sure, once the season began and our bullpen faltered, we had a difficult time finding adequate replacements. That was then, during the season when players just aren't available, not now, during the offseason.

Another point to keep in mind is that we were never in contention last season. If we had been, the FO may have made a trade for a reliever from outside the system, but we weren't willing to give up someone in trade if we weren't in contention anyway - another reason we only tried to fill the holes in the pen from within.

Again, if this is our only move, pile on. If it's the first step in an effor to improve the overall talent on the field, it's a decent move.

[Sapper]

Well if its so easy to stock a good bullpen, then what has the Front Office been waiting for in recent years?

I will say this: It is difficult to imagine that they could put together a WORSE bullpen than we had last season so I don't think the bar is set too high as far as "improving" it. But show me the money. Let's see them put together a good pen this winter if its so damned easy.

[Baltimoron]

If Wright pitches well, then yes, we could get more for Britton because he won't be owed any money and pitching carries a premium at the deadline.

Does pitching carry such a premium? We say its true, but is there evidence of it? The O's had B.J. Ryan in a similar spot, but he also more valuable than I think we can hope Wright to be next season, and we got a draft pick.

It seems teams are more conscious that a few months of pitcher x may not equal the value of a prospect. John Smoltz and Jeff Bagwell are the best examples, but they were traded in a different era that I'm not sure still exists, and they are still only 2 examples.

I'm struggling to find recent examples of teams giving away top prospects for rentals at the dealine?

In 2005 the Rox traded Shawn Chacon to the Yankees for Ramon Ramirez, who was a Brittonesque reliever for Colorado last year.

In 2004 the Mets traded Kazmir to the Rays for Zambrano, which is probably the best recent example of this.

In 2003 the Prates traded Suppan for Freddy Sanchez; they also traded K.Benson and Jeff Keppinger for Jose Bautista.

Not to suggest such a deadline trade of Wright is not possible, but it also appears to be something that is quite improbable.

[Just Regular]

Joe Sheehan from Baseball Prospectus addressed this in passing yesterday. I was a bit surprised that he actually came out for the Orioles trying to extend Wright now (albeit very short term, just for 2008) in order to give themselves some "upside" in the event Wright prospers again with Mazzone.

[TonySoprano]

In 2004 the Mets traded Kazmir to the Rays for Zambrano, which is probably the best recent example of this.

The GM that did that is now on our team.