Teixeira watch part IX....The final stages?

[Sports Guy]

Right, make an offer and grossly overpay, or give the Red Sox enough incentive to up theirs and keep this going endlessly. If Tex comes back to us when they feel they have gotten their final offer, then he is giving us the hometown discount. If he doesn't, then he didn't want to play for us, and was just using us to get top dollar. AM is playing this the right way IMO.

Well at some point, someone is going to have to do something.

If you are afraid Boston will up their offer, why would you ever do it and why would Tex get signed?

They can play this games for months.

[emmett16]

.... and Burres

I see you noticed I stayed away from O's pitchers. haha... not taking anything away from Guts or Waters v. Angels!

[Mike B]

Yea...At some point this game of cat and mouse needs to end and we need to start being aggressive.

The part that scares me is that I have a feeling aggressive for the Orioles is going to be Greg Zaun (ok), Looper, and Redding. That type of aggressive will improve us all the way to 74 wins.

[bbt8]

If I call you to discuss a certain player and you steer me in the direction of other players whom you're gonna expect me to overpay for, then that's telling me that I just might not be in the running for the player I called you about. So I'm gonna act like I'm interested in those other players and when/if he signs somewhere else I'll tell you... no thank you I've decided to go in another direction. What comes around goes around Mr. Boras.

if you need those other players as well, you'd be biting your nose off to spite your face, if your goal is to simply spite Boras. It's kind of like Schuerholtz (spelling?) saying that he'll never deal with the company again who represents Furcal.

[geschinger]

Well at some point, someone is going to have to do something.

If Boras is willing to drag it out, why not patiently wait it out?

[Sports Guy]

I don't know, if the price wasn't past what makes sense (IMO) I'd be thrilled with the approach MacPhail is taking. Stay on the periphery while other teams battle it out and then step in and take the prize. There is no hurry, there is a lot more time left for dancing if that is how Scotty and Mark want to play it. Patience is right approach.

We don't need to put our best offer out there...But an offer that is right there with Boston should be put out there IMO.

[jcroemer]

We need to improve our offer for Tex.

I am starting to wonder if any of the info Belkast told us is true...The Orioles need to get moving now.

I wish they would get moving now. We know AM is not willing to hurry for anything, so... maybe tonight is the night PA gets on the horn and pulls the strings? I'm sure PA would like to give us all a Merry Tex-mas, considering it will be a positive mark towards the end of his active stewardship of the franchise.

If the O's move quickly, it will be PA to push that button. How 'bout it Pete?

[emmett16]

In playoffs, did Teixeira have zero extra base hits and 1 RBI?

Dude, he had 7 hits...so what if they were singles. Sometimes you can't help that a guy is throwing you away or off speed, you hit it where it's pitched.

[jcroemer]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3786801&name=olney_buster

New Olney piece.

EDIT - Inaccurate - this must have been recycled on the search engine. Nothing new here.

[geschinger]

We don't need to put our best offer out there...But an offer that is right there with Boston should be put out there IMO.

What does that accomplish? As long as the Orioles aren't in danger of being eliminated let other teams panic / move on before succumbing to the pressure.

[OsandRavens787]

The part that scares me is that I have a feeling aggressive for the Orioles is going to be Greg Zaun (ok), Looper, and Redding. That type of aggressive will improve us all the way to 74 wins.

74? Try 68 or less should we fail to sign Tex... imo

[eastonguy]

Well at some point, someone is going to have to do something.

If you are afraid Boston will up their offer, why would you ever do it and why would Tex get signed?

They can play this games for months.

What if Tex is dealing with Baltimore by himself? Is that even possible?

[alexei606]

I guess I'm a little AL biased. Pujols is a great hitter.

Also, a fine defender - the best player in baseball.

[OsandRavens787]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3786801&name=olney_buster

New Olney piece.

SSDD.... nothing new

[Mackus]

In playoffs, did Teixeira have zero extra base hits and 1 RBI?

That's one way of putting it.

Another is that he went 7/15 in the playoffs, good for a .467 average and a 1.017 OPS. Its not his fault if nobody was on base when he was at the plate.

Don't even begin to say that Teixeira's performance in the 2008 playoffs was poor, because it wasn't he hit very well. You'd have to be a complete fool to think otherwise.

But even if he had struggled, 15 at bats don't really mean anything. For example Jeter went 3/17 with 1 RBI and 0 XBH in the 2007 postseason, and has had several very poor postseasons statistically. That doesn't mean he is a terrible player, or even a poor postseason player, just that anything can happen over very short sample sizes.