This has me worried...

[bird watcher]

Not sure how old you are BW, but I remember the good old days when they Yankees would go out and get Steve Kemp, Dave Collins, Ed Whitson, etc. every off-season to solve their problems.

Fact is, the dynastic run they've had which seems to be crumbling was built on the backs of a homegrown nucleus of Derek Jeter-Bernie Williams-Mariano Rivera-Andy Pettitte (at least half of them future HOF's) that hit the bigs at the same time.

The Yankees record of biig-spending when you think about all the Carl Pavanos and Kei Igawas is mixed to say the least. Any Orioles fan worth his or her salt should be intimately familiar with the concept of spending on players unwisely.

You win some and you lose some. You conveniently pick out Pavano and Igawa and leave out Arod, Abreu (trade but they still pay him), Sheffield, Giambi, Damon, Clemens, Petitte (second time), Moose. That is an allstar cast of hired guns.

Of course they have internal success stories but don't make it out that all the success the past 10 years was entirely due to the homegrowns.

My original contention still stands. To say the Yankees spending hasn't led to success is false. What team wouldn't kill to have so many wins every year and make the playoffs?

[gallden]

Not sure if anyone has said this or not I didn't read through the 8 pages but I really really really hope the Yankees sign Manny, this would be make my winter.

[BaltimoreGhost]

Not sure if anyone has said this or not I didn't read through the 8 pages but I really really really hope the Yankees sign Manny, this would be make my winter.

Why? Manny is a monster. He may do all the things you tell kids to do wrong, but the fact is that he flat out clubs the ball and does it in the clutch. I like Manny just where he is.

[Satyr3206]

To think that the Orioles could outbid the Yankees or the Red Sox for any player is pure fantasy. The Yankees have much more money than the Orioles and it is not even close. The Yankees will have a new stadium next year, and they probably could afford a $300 million dollar payroll. With the money that the Yanks have coming off their payroll, the Yankees could afford Sheets, Sabathia, and Teixeira if they really wanted them. Do you really think the Yankees would prefer picking up a 38 year old Jason Giambi's option or signing a 29 year old Mark Teixeira with a higher OPS and gold glove defense?

Even if the Yankees don't bid on Teixeira, there are other large market teams who will. The Angels will bid to keep Teixeira. The Mets probably will. These teams have much more money to spend than the Orioles.

Hometown or not, it would take a miracle for Tex to consider the Orioles seriously. Here are the facts:

• The Orioles will probably finish last in the AL East this season, with no real assurances they will move up anytime soon. Roy has talked to Tex's officials and "Mark does not believe that the Orioles will compete for 3-4 years and maybe not even then. He wants to be on a contending team NEXT year."
• The Orioles rank 19th in revenue in the league, and two of their division rivals rank #1 and number #2 in revenue.
• The Orioles are in the midst of a historic attendance decline, losing over 40 percent of their attendance in ten years.
• The Baltimore area media market is much smaller than any of the top teams, and the Yankees' and Red Sox' television numbers dwarf the Orioles television numbers

Even if the Orioles could outbid any of the top revenue teams for Tex (which I doubt they can), would Teixeira seriously consider a team like this? Honestly, if you were Tex would you seriously consider a similar offer from a team like the Orioles even if it were a bigger offer, but close to an offer from a large market, perennial contending team?

What has that happened since 2000 when the Orioles are bidding against the large market teams? We've lost out on Vladimar Guerrero when the Angels entered the bidding, we lost out on Paul Konerko bidding against the Chicago White Sox, we lost out on Carl Pavano bidding against the Yankees and we lost Mike Mussina to the Yankees.

Contrary to popular opinion, we are closer to a small market team than we are closer to the Yankees or Red Sox. McPhail traded a good reliever in Chad Bradford partially because, according to McPhail himself, "I can use the dough." Does that sound like a large market team to you?

Regardless of what Angelos wants, the odds of Mark Teixeira signing with the Orioles are slim. The way for the Orioles to compete long term is stay out of the free agency market this season for the big budget players, and invest in player development instead. We just cannot go head to head with teams that have huge financial advantages over us and play their game in the free agent market. We are not one player away from competing. One mistake of a bad signing of a free agent over a long term would just kill us for years to come.

It's a damn good thing the O's "lost out" on Pavano and Konerko. The O's never tried to resign Mussina. Read the archived articles.

I agree the way to go is to build through the farm system but the Orioles aren't the paupers you seem to think.

[24fps]

It's a damn good thing the O's "lost out" on Pavano and Konerko. The O's never tried to resign Mussina. Read the archived articles.

I agree the way to go is to build through the farm system but the Orioles aren't the paupers you seem to think.

IIRC we had a pretty big offer on the table for Jason Schmidt at the time he was a FA. Thank God we missed out on that one too. I can see arguments on both sides when is comes to Carlos Delgado.

To me, the one to regret is not going the distance for Vlad. Still bothers me.