Examiner: No deal today

[olehippi]

How exactly is this the Orioles' fault? Jones talked, then everything went crazy. If that hadn't happened, we would have heard basically nothing until both teams were ready to tell us. Instead we get rumors and speculation from every beat writer in Seattle, and suddenly there are a dozen reasons why it hasn't been finished yet, very few having any basis in reality.

For the last several weeks, very little on OH has had a basis in reality either. Tony should start charging a toll for all the OH'ers jumping off the deep end.....

[glorydays]

Show me an example of a trade that had the PR more botched than this one...

A huge factor that cannot be compared to other scenarios is when Jones spoke to the Venezuela reporter. If that doesn't happen, much of the information and speculation that followed would not have happened either. Sure, we would have been sitting around waiting for a trade, but we would have no idea how close it was except through our sources and rumors on other sites.

[RShack]

I bet you wouldn't swear me to secrey on what you offered me. If I told my wife and she happened to tell a few of her friends what a great deal you were giving me and it got back to you, you wouldn't get mad and then yank the offer, consider keeping said item or offering it to somebody else but then reconsider and make the offer to me again. Also when somebody asked you wouldn't tell them you never offered it to me, or better yet say that you are offering it to somebody else, right? If you would, then you would have handled the situation like MacPhail has handled this one. Of course to make the screwed up deal complete I would have to deny knowledge of the offer to my wife's friends if they asked. And I'm sure she wouldn't like that...

Now you see how messed up this is...

Well, I tend to think that AM has been telling the truth the whole time, it's just that nobody wanted to believe it. Everybody's been so busy hatching theories and plots, and reading between the lines, and accusing people of stuff, that they forgot to just listen to his few meager words. Or, if they did listen to his few meager words, they decided he was lying. I bet he hasn't lied about a single thing concerning this. Not one. I think you've gotten so wrapped up in rumors and gossip, and jumping to conclusions based on rumors and gossip, that you completely forgot what words like "facts" and "truth" really mean.

[olehippi]

Well, I tend to think that AM has been telling the truth the whole time, it's just that nobody wanted to believe it. Everybody's been so busy hatching theories and plots, and reading between the lines, and accusing people of stuff, that they forgot to just listen to his few meager words. Or, if they did listen to his few meager words, they decided he was lying. I bet he hasn't lied about a single thing concerning this. Not one. I think you've gotten so wrapped up in rumors and gossip that you forgot what the idea of "truth" really means.

IMO, that sums up the last several weeks quite nicely....

[dkdc]

For those that care any more, George Sherrill flew to Baltimore with Jones:

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/mariners/2008/02/sherrill_in_baltimore.html

In fact, George Sherrill flew out to Baltimore from Phoenix yesterday alongside Adam Jones, the centerpiece of this proposed trade for O's pitcher Erik Bedard. They took their physicals this morning. Sources say that Sherrill is already on a flight back to Arizona.

From what we're hearing, the other players said to be involved in the deal on Seattle's end may not be required by the Orioles to take physicals. The O's are apparently far more worried about the major league guys since they will be expected to help the big club right away. It appears that Bedard has yet to fly to Seattle. Our take on this? The Mariners probably want to get the "all clear" sign from the Orioles before bringing Bedard in for a physical

So, what to conclude? No deal today. Probably no deal tomorrow. We keep hearing it may not go down until mid-week or even later.

[marinoriole]

Well, I tend to think that AM has been telling the truth the whole time, it's just that nobody wanted to believe it. Everybody's been so busy hatching theories and plots, and reading between the lines, and accusing people of stuff, that they forgot to just listen to his few meager words. Or, if they did listen to his few meager words, they decided he was lying. I bet he hasn't lied about a single thing concerning this. Not one. I think you've gotten so wrapped up in rumors and gossip, and jumping to conclusions based on rumors and gossip, that you completely forgot what words like "facts" and "truth" really mean.

Case in point is this quote from AM:

"But it's not necessarily a calendar issue. There is no magic date between Jan. 22 and Feb. 2. The date that probably matters more is Feb. 13."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-sp.orioles24jan24,0,2172145.story

Sounds like he is right on schedule - his own that is.

Question: What is Bedard's health situation? The M's have let things out pending physicals before. If we assume the rules issues were true, then it seems likely that the scenario is PA required physicals before any info is released. The M's are ready to say deal is done pending physicals. Another scenario might be that the primary pieces (Jones/Sherrill) need physicals while the secondary pieces will get theirs prior to final approval. Hard to hide a boat load of guys geting physicals and still claim there is no deal in place.

Edit: Oops, just saw the link posted by dkdc. Guess my thinking was in the right direction.

[waroriole]

http://www.examiner.com/a-1200020~Bedard_still_an_Oriole.html

And the hostage crisis continues...

I'm sorry I don't mean to be confrontational but how do you figure that we are being held hostage. Should McPhail just take the first deal that comes his way to ease the apprehension that some O's fans feel toward the long process that is involved in dealing a player of Bedard's magnitude. I applaud McPhail for the work he has done in squeezing every last drop he can out of the M's, I would want nothing less from the man who is supposed to be turning around our franchise. I guess I just don't understand why we need to be in such a hurry about everything. There's still almost 2 months before the season starts.

[morris]

Well, I tend to think that AM has been telling the truth the whole time, it's just that nobody wanted to believe it. Everybody's been so busy hatching theories and plots, and reading between the lines, and accusing people of stuff, that they forgot to just listen to his few meager words. Or, if they did listen to his few meager words, they decided he was lying. I bet he hasn't lied about a single thing concerning this. Not one. I think you've gotten so wrapped up in rumors and gossip, and jumping to conclusions based on rumors and gossip, that you completely forgot what words like "facts" and "truth" really mean.

Ding Ding Ding we have a winner!!!!

[Tank]

I just want the deal to go down before I leave for my 3 day vacation tomorrow morning/early afternoon. I really don't want to be worrying about this trade when I'm supposed to be relaxing and having a good time on vacation.

[JTrea81]

I'm sorry I don't mean to be confrontational but how do you figure that we are being held hostage. Should McPhail just take the first deal that comes his way to ease the apprehension that some O's fans feel toward the long process that is involved in dealing a player of Bedard's magnitude. I applaud McPhail for the work he has done in squeezing every last drop he can out of the M's, I would want nothing less from the man who is supposed to be turning around our franchise. I guess I just don't understand why we need to be in such a hurry about everything. There's still almost 2 months before the season starts.

Nah no hurry, we've lost out on two situations to trade Millar and Mora, so why not just keep holding onto them until they lower their value enough so we have to just release them?

MacPhail has held the Oriole fans hostage, he has not let the team make any moves until he has traded Bedard. We still have a ton of dreck on our roster and very little time left to move it before pitchers and catchers report, not to mention a hole at SS.

It's been 54 days since we last made a major move for this team, 54 days! That's unacceptable considering what we have to do. Like I have said before, Beane has already made significant progress in rebuilding his team and we are still trying to get past the halfway point with ours, and we only have 9 days to do it before teams pretty much go into ST with what they have. MacPhail could have rebuilt this team significantly and got rid of the dreck on our roster. Instead he chose to be deliberate and is making moves at the last possible second. He's prolonging the rebuilding by taking this strategy IMO...

We'll see which strategy pays off in the end, but I'll bet the A's become competitive before the Orioles do. There was no need to drag out negotiations this long IMO, especially with the rumored return we are getting. As SG pointed out, unless we got Triunfel, Morrow or Clement included in the deal by holding out, we wasted our time...

[GotNitro]

Hello all, I have a question. Why are some people saying that when Jones talked to the reporter, it helped to hold up the deal? I understand if AM or PA got upset that he squacked, but would that actual hold the deal up? That does not make sense to me. Is making this drag on supposed to be some sort of punishment to him or something? I hope that is not the reason for the hold up, because that just seems like us making a bad situation worse and just flat out bad business.

[Insomniac]

Nah no hurry, we've lost out on two situations to trade Millar and Mora, so why not just keep holding onto them until they lower their value enough so we have to just release them?

I haven't been lurking at OH long enough to understand what you mean by this. I'm not saying I don't believe you, I just would like to know the underlying scenarios you are referencing. Which trades of Millar and Mora have we lost out on in the last few weeks?

[Number5]

It just continues to amaze me how the Mets and Twins could pull off the Santana deal in 72 hours (even w/ a contract extension included!!!), and these idiots cannot just finish this thing. Can someone explain this????!!!!

The Mets and Twins were negotiating this trade during the winter meetings and negotiations continued after the meetings straight through until they were finally completed. The 72 hours was the time after the teams agreed to the trade that the Mets had to negotiate an extension with Santana. This was not a Mets stipulation in the trade, but rather the time that Santana had to exercise his no-trade clause, which he stated that he would do if he did not get an extension that satisfied him. The Mets had a pretty good idea what it would take to sign Santana and decided that they would pull the trigger. I'm not even sure that a team can stipulate that they have a window to negotiate a contract extension prior to a trade becoming final. Wouldn't that technically be considered tampering? I'm not sure that you are making a fair comparison. Bedard does not have a no-trade clause.

[clapdiddy]

Hello all, I have a question. Why are some people saying that when Jones talked to the reporter, it helped to hold up the deal? I understand if AM or PA got upset that he squacked, but would that actual hold the deal up? That does not make sense to me. Is making this drag on supposed to be some sort of punishment to him or something? I hope that is not the reason for the hold up, because that just seems like us making a bad situation worse and just flat out bad business.

Agreed. Seems to me we've gotten off on the wrong foot with Mr. Jones and it appears to be starting from the top.

I still don't understand why our front office, and especially the king himself according to the latest Sun updated article, were ticked off about a 23 year old kid talking about getting traded for one of the best pitchers in the game. Plus, he's going to be a starting center fielder on a Major League Baseball team. Gee, I think we should trade him now!

[Dipper9]

I just want the deal to go down before I leave for my 3 day vacation tomorrow morning/early afternoon. I really don't want to be worrying about this trade when I'm supposed to be relaxing and having a good time on vacation.

Tank...PM me your cell number and I'll text ya when the deal is done. That way you can enjoy your vacation and have a few Dipweisers for your friends back here!

Of course, you'll be home loooooooooooong before I would need to text ya!