A few tidbits.....

[El Gordo]

SBaseball, your point is very well taken. I guess one point i should ahve made was that we have all read that Andy M. keeps things clse to the vest. BB waass getting info from his source. But waht he said may not be correct. NOthing aginst BB or his source. We just do not know what Andy M. will do. He may talk Angelos into the money to get Tex. It seems like some are getting upset over stuff we don't have all the facts on. I am not totally against signing Tex. He will fill a need.

AM has said a number of times recently that PA has given the go ahead to spend in the FA market. I think the question is weither in AM's judgement it is wise to go after a certain FA or not. I don't think PA has in any way tightened the purse strings. If AM thinks it the right move to go after TEX we will.

[Sports Guy]

I think one thing we all need to remember is that while BB is probably our most accurate Orioles insider, his info isn't nearly as accurate(in terms of the plan) as it was when Duquette was here...BB's source told him last offseason, a number of times, that Bedard wouldn't be dealt.

So, we just have to hope that AM is still being tight lipped and maybe BB's source doesn't know everything...let's hope so at least.

[Elston Gunnn]

Late to the party... I can't believe the Orioles didn't at least give Felipe Lopez a test drive considering the other shortstops they ran out there.

[Sanfran327]

This is really the bottom line. At some point we'll have to pay someone. Why not Teixeira and why not now? This is why I voted for 8 years (last 2 should be options) at 20 mil per year.

Pay this man, resign Roberts and Kakes, get a decent option at ss (now) and 3b (after next year) and let the entire focus of this franchise be on our pitching for the next 5 years. We'd basically be loaded with position players.

Note, we can likely get another Matusz-like pitcher at #5 next year as well.

I agree with this. Angelos sold his way into this mess after the '97 season, now he needs to buy his way back out of it. We over paid for Tejada (at the time), now we need to over pay for Teixiera.

Payton, Ramon, and Gibbons were overpaid, yes, but they also WELL underperformed in regards to what we thought we were getting when we signed their deals. That's a risk in any contract, but with a guy like Teixiera, who has hit and hit well everywhere he's played, there's less risk involved.

[YardBirds13]

I think one thing we all need to remember is that while BB is probably our most accurate Orioles insider, his info isn't nearly as accurate(in terms of the plan) as it was when Duquette was here...BB's source told him last offseason, a number of times, that Bedard wouldn't be dealt.

So, we just have to hope that AM is still being tight lipped and maybe BB's source doesn't know everything...let's hope so at least.

This is important to note, glad someone did.

It's nice to hear the things bb has to give us, but they don't necessarily mean they are 100% accurate. He isn't making them up, but it doesnt mean we cant go another direction.

That said, still don't want to hear some of the stuff his guy is saying.

[YardBirds13]

I agree with this. Angelos sold his way into this mess after the '97 season, now he needs to buy his way back out of it. We over paid for Tejada (at the time), now we need to over pay for Teixiera.

Payton, Ramon, and Gibbons were overpaid, yes, but they also WELL underperformed in regards to what we thought we were getting when we signed their deals. That's a risk in any contract, but with a guy like Teixiera, who has hit and hit well everywhere he's played, there's less risk involved.

That's why you don't give multi-year deals to average players. You spend big money on guys that you are basically positive will be great (Teixeira), or you sign guys to one year deals and make trades and look for younger guys.

Payton, by the way, did exactly what 90% of people on here thought he would do.

[Fan4Life]

I think one thing we all need to remember is that while BB is probably our most accurate Orioles insider, his info isn't nearly as accurate(in terms of the plan) as it was when Duquette was here...BB's source told him last offseason, a number of times, that Bedard wouldn't be dealt.

So, we just have to hope that AM is still being tight lipped and maybe BB's source doesn't know everything...let's hope so at least.

Probably a lot to this.. I see AM as a big propagandist... even if he was willing to pay Teix $20m per season, I don't think he'd consider it a good business practice to be promoting it...

[blueberryale77]

Late to the party... I can't believe the Orioles didn't at least give Felipe Lopez a test drive considering the other shortstops they ran out there.

There were rumors flying that the O's had inquired about him right before the O's played the Nats this year, but then during that series he visibly didn't hustle and kind of showed up his manager. I think the attitude was deemed to be simply too bad. Cintron can't field, Castro can't hit and Fahey can only sort of do both, but at least they all seem to be pretty polite, stay out of everybody's way and understand that they're lucky to be playing in the majors at all. I think the thought with Lopez was that the improvement in hitting (his fielding is also quite marginal, probably due in great part to laziness) would not be enough to compensate for the almost inevitable disruption to the clubhouse of bringing in someone who made clear in front of the Orioles and their scouts that he had no interest in straightening up and flying right.

[nadecir]

Sorry. Disagree.

Nick Markakis just bought a huge house in Monkton. If he wasn't planning to stay he could've just as easily settled in a nice upscale high rise apartment and cut bait when the lease was up. He's not going anywhere, not for a little while.

Here is an article I posted a while ago about Nick and his home in Baltimore. The article goes a bit into the personal life of Markakis.

He also owns a home in Georgia. Nick seems to be a country person at heart, and he seems to have a connection to his home town of Woodstock, outside of Atlanta. He has a tattoo commemorating his best friend from high school on his right arm.

http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/article.asp?t=1&m=1&c=32&s=570&ai=71781

[El Gordo]

Here is an article I posted a while ago about Nick and his home in Baltimore. The article goes a bit into the personal life of Markakis.

He also owns a home in Georgia. Nick seems to be a country person at heart, and he seems to have a connection to his home town of Woodstock, outside of Atlanta. He has a tattoo commemorating his best friend from high school on his right arm.

http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/article.asp?t=1&m=1&c=32&s=570&ai=71781

Great article .Thanks. Nick doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who would be happy playing for a big market team. So if we show him decent money he might very well extend.

[LookinUp]

Well didn't we overpay Huff? and Herndandez? and Gibbons? and Payton? and Baez? Granted, a little bit of restraint and decent scouting could've avoided those problems... but the Rays don't pay much for their team. Why can't we model our team after them, instead of the Yankees like you are offering here?

Huh? Signing one big money player when other contracts are coming off the books is modeling our team after the Yankees? Ummm, no.

In my ideal world, we'd do a little of both. Draft/develop some players (a la Weiters, Arietta) and find a couple of good guys in unexpected areas (a la Guthrie and Sherrill) and sign one or two guys who can make a big difference (Tex).

I don't want to be run like Tampa or the Yankees. Like most up here, I'd like to incorporate the best of both worlds while eliminating the negative.

[Dipper9]

Great article .Thanks. Nick doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who would be happy playing for a big market team. So if we show him decent money he might very well extend.

Not to bring up a "what should MacPhail do" in this thread, but Markakis and BRob's contracts are EXACTLY what should be getting done right now, so that when free agency opens we know if we have these two locked up for a good while, or if we go into the offseason dangling them as trade bait (more Robets than Kakes). This kind of stuff needs to happen pronto. Its hard enough for MacPhail to walk and chew gum at the same time, much less work on extensions for these two in addition to all the holes that need to be filled.

[Sports Guy]

Not to bring up a "what should MacPhail do" in this thread, but Markakis and BRob's contracts are EXACTLY what should be getting done right now, so that when free agency opens we know if we have these two locked up for a good while, or if we go into the offseason dangling them as trade bait (more Robets than Kakes). This kind of stuff needs to happen pronto. Its hard enough for MacPhail to walk and chew gum at the same time, much less work on extensions for these two in addition to all the holes that need to be filled.

I disagree about BRob but there is absolutely no excuse to not already having Markakis extended, much less getting it done now.

If Markakis doesn't get extended this offseason, AM will have failed in a major way.

[Frobby]

If what BB says about Tex is true, then what the Orioles are doing is to put in a token offer so they can tell their fans they tried. I never thought we'd get Tex, and think so even less now.

[Sports Guy]

If what BB says about Tex is true, then what the Orioles are doing is to put in a token offer so they can tell their fans they tried. I never thought we'd get Tex, and think so even less now.

I hope the fans aren't stupid enough to even remotely fall for that.