The Teixeira Watch: Part IV

[Mackus]

Why the heck would the insiders get false information to give to OH?

Why get the fanbase's hopes up just to crush them? That would just get everybody angry and turn more people away from the Orioles.

If we are out of the Tex race, you would hear MacPhail say we were out.

How many posts and threads have we already seen saying "Well, regardless of how this works out, you've gotta give credit to the Orioles and the FO for at least giving it their best shot."

That's why they might have some incentive to make it look like we went balls to the wall for Tex when they really didn't.

What actually is going on is anybody's guess. But people are wildly inconsistent in choosing which reports they want to believe and which they choose to ignore. Anything giving good news is almost immediately considered as plain fact, and anything giving bad news is written off as nonsense or coming from a journalist with an agenda against the Orioles.

[BillySmith]

First post, long time reader just realized i had to register with a non-yahoo/gmail ish email address. This whole Tex ordeal is quite funny. Rumors/speculations, he said she said. In the end it would be great if we get Tex but isn't a bigger issue our starting pitching or lack there of. Yes if we get Tex we would score a few extra runs and have a killer lineup but in the end I'm more concerned with locking up B Rob and Markakis and getting a SP other than Redding and Pavano.

It is good to keep in mind that pitching is what is most important. Until we can trot out some top of the league quality starting pitching, we won't be a true competitor.

All the same, I can't wait to hear from Belkast again.

[SilentJames]

Awesome summary. I just hope this doesn't drag out all the way to Xmas. The discrepancies in the reports are mind-boggling.

Thats just it, there are so many conflicting reports. Remember when the LA Times blog hit and everyone got all excited? We weren't even in the national media for a solid couple of weeks.

Wasn't it ESPN that reported that every team has upped their offer, but now only the Orioles have remained stable?

I think Olney and Ravech have different guys, and depending on which end of the food chain they are at can play a big role.

[Enjoy Terror]

This guy says Olney's report is shady:

http://www.examiner.com/x-436-Baltimore-Orioles-Examiner~y2008m12d17-ESPN-now-reporting-Os-are-nearly-out-of-Teixeira-bidding

I love Jay Trucker dearly, he's a good friend of mine, but I have to call him out on this:

I know that O's owner Peter Angelos is known for being stingy

I simply don't buy that Angelos has ever been stingy. He has certainly mismanaged this ballclub for the past 11 years, but he's never been shy to shell out money for players. He's just been signing and trading for all the wrong players, all while having horrible draft picks. That's Angelos' problem.

[JTrea81]

There is a lot of truth to what is being said here.

Well they can't alienate their Red Sux viewership, so they've got to give them a little bit of hope by saying the Orioles are out... :laughlol:

[Mirko Crocop]

Let me check how this works....

National media guy hints there may be a chance Tex is considering the Orioles.....he speaks the truth, has good sources and we love him.

National media guy shoots down our chances......he's bogus, out of touch and/or lacking in intelligence, plus we never really liked him anyway.

Right....got it, I'm good to go!!

In fairness, there was quite a lot of attention paid to the fact that Ravech is merely a host, not a reporter or "insider."

[Sports Guy]

Awesome summary. I just hope this doesn't drag out all the way to Xmas. The discrepancies in the reports are mind-boggling.

Which is either very good or very bad.

AM is very good at keeping things to himself and sending out misleading signals...but AM is not a liar.

So, who really knows? I am not sure what to believe...I tend to side with our insiders because I think it is very coincidental that the media is all hearing the same thing and the media is the exact group of people AM would want to mislead...especially in a negotiation like this...with a Boras client.

[biggsy]

This guy says Olney's report is shady:

http://www.examiner.com/x-436-Baltimore-Orioles-Examiner~y2008m12d17-ESPN-now-reporting-Os-are-nearly-out-of-Teixeira-bidding

Exactly how I feel. Seriously, ESPN is a joke when it comes to this kind of stuff. They simply report every angle possible, and when one of the angles reported is right they pound they're chest and talk about how they're right and everyone else was wrong, despite the fact that they were also wrong on 6 of they're different angles.

If they miss on all of they're angles, then they report that it was a suprise that no one could see coming, even if someone else had been reporting it the whole time.

When you have two reports in less then 24 hours that are that conflicting, something is going on. A team doesn't go from the front runner to completely dropping out THAT quickly. You don't offer a ton of money then just say, oh, well nevermind that quick.

[wickedwitch]

MacPhail would not announce if we were out of it. He'd want to try to drive the price up for other teams.

[Mirko Crocop]

Yeah but I thought the ESPN report said we arent willing to up our offer since being outbid by everyone else. I take that as our wow offer has been beat.

ESPN said we never upped our initial 7/150ish offer.

[winudi]

I can only believe that Belkast was predicting a postive O's turn in this amazing journey.

Now I'm not saying that I believe we are out or that we've signed him.

I just think that is what he meant.

That was the initial impression I got as well, but he didn't say one way or the other what they would be saying. Just that the national media would be picking up on the Tex thing soon.

[Skeletor]

I can't see them going after Dunn if this is over. One turn down by a premier free agent is enough in one off season.

Make Huff the full-time 1B. We could do, and have done, a lot worse.

[Dipper9]

The latest Buster Olney report doesn't jive with anything our insiders have said. We have yet to see the media report the O's "wow" offer. So with that said, I'm having a hard time believing what I'm hearing from the media. And remember, the national media just yesterday picked up on the O's importance in the Tex discussion.

If the O's are going to be able to sign Tex, their offers need to come under the radar. Having the negotiations reported to Roch, Gammons, Rosenthal, Olney, et al. is not going to help AM and PA's cause. Just look at the tactics that Boston is taking. We haven't heard or see an official offer from them.

You (and most of us) are missing the main point. This is Scott Boras we are talking about. It would not benefit the Orioles to make our offer known, but Boras would be running to the other teams letting THEM know what the Orioles offered. The fact that NO ONE is reporting an Orioles offer is very troubling considering Boras is involved. It does HIM no good to keep the Orioles interest a secret, unless for one scenario. That ONE scenario is that Tex has decided to play for Baltimore, and is just using ALL the other interested teams to drive is final signing price up, then take that final number back here. That's the only way this is a positive thing. Otherwise, the media would have to know of our involvement due to Boras!

[Orioles18]

ESPN said we never upped our initial 7/150ish offer.

ESPN reported just the other day that all teams upped their offers. I agree with the other PP's, ESPN is just reporting all angles of this so they can say they got it right. I also agree with the other PP who said there's no way a team goes from front runner to out of the race in just 24 hours.

[jerios55]

There is a lot of truth to what is being said here.

Yeah, especially this part...

Why would Tex and Boras keep coming back to the table with the O's if the response is always, "sorry, we're sticking with the offer we made 10 days ago"? I know that O's owner Peter Angelos is known for being stingy, but Olney's story seems suspect. With Olney's report, ESPN is now claiming that the O's have not increased their offer in over a week, and this report comes less than 24 hours after they stated that Tex was at the table with his hometown team. Can both be true?