Rosenthal: O's more willing to deal Baez and Sherrill

[NewMarketSean]

Baez will get you at most, a marginal AA player. He will essentially be a salary dump.

Sherrill could get us back something decent. I would trade him but I dont think the O's will, as they value effective players who are under control for years and cheap.

Plus I dont think guys like Mickolio, Miller, Ray or anyone else like that could come here and be as effective. I know we're a losing team either way but I just dont see the bullpen depth that others see.

[Lucky Jim]

I have no idea if Miller, Mickolio, or McCrory will turn into anything special. However, look where George Sherrill was a few years ago. Give these guys a chance and chances are that one of them will step up to be a decent reliever. In the long run is George Sherrill much more than a decent reliever? Mickolio has the most potential but I'm still not sure about him. It seemed like he was dominating at AAA but lately he's been just ok again. I think Berken might be an option in the pen. He looks like he might be able to pump his fastball into the mid 90's in short appearances. I'm just not sure if he's got that second pitch but his slider has a chance. Hernandez deserves a chance in the rotation but he has closer written all over him if that doesn't work out.

I think Baez has more value than a marginal AA player. I think he gets you a real prospect. Not someone's top 5 but someone with a legitimate ML future.

Yeah, his last ten games have been highly mediocre:

Date OPP W L ERA SV IP H ER BB SO

May 23 ROC 1 0 0.00 0 1.0 0 0 1 2

May 25 @TOL 0 0 0.00 0 2.0 1 0 0 3

May 27 @TOL 0 1 6.75 0 1.1 3 1 0 3

May 31 @COL 0 0 0.00 0 1.0 0 0 0 1

Jun 01 @COL 0 0 0.00 0 1.1 0 0 0 1

Jun 03 BUF 1 0 9.00 0 1.0 4 1 0 0

Jun 07 TOL 0 0 0.00 0 1.0 1 0 0 1

Jun 09 TOL 0 0 0.00 0 1.0 0 0 1 0

Jun 13 @IND 0 0 0.00 0 1.0 0 0 0 1

Jun 14 @IND 0 0 0.00 0 1.0 0 0 1 0

Totals 2 1 1.54 0 11.2 9 2 3 12

[O'sWhyNot52]

OsWhyNot52, I'm talking about trading for a prospect or two who could close, not an established closer. You're right about that.

Ok--well I guess I can agree more with that scenario. I have no problem with adding more young pitching, but I also hope that we can actually develop a nice surplus of ML ready pitching talent which could force some guys into bullpen roles making the staff stronger as a whole.

[O'sWhyNot52]

Baez will get you at most, a marginal AA player. He will essentially be a salary dump.

Sherrill could get us back something decent. I would trade him but I dont think the O's will, as they value effective players who are under control for years and cheap.

I guess we just disagree on this point. I do not think that he will just be shipped off to save a few bucks this year. Reports already are hyping him as a targeted bullpen arm by multiple teams. I think we may even pair Baez with another player ( Guthrie? Huff?) to bring back a valuable haul.

[Frobby]

Baez will get you at most, a marginal AA player. He will essentially be a salary dump.

If we eat some salary we might get a lot more than you think for Baez. There are a lot of teams looking for relief help.

[Aglets]

OsWhyNot52, I'm talking about trading for a prospect or two who could close, not an established closer. You're right about that.

I don't know about trading good relievers for young guys who may turn into good relievers. I guess with Baez it makes a little more sense since he is gone after 2009, but still eh. I'd much rather see some trades made that help us to fill some needs (top prospect at any IF position that's not 2B for example).

[WebLink21]

I am more interested in this blurb for the article. I really would love Hardy at SS. I know he is not having a great year, but he is the perfect SS for this Team IMO.

"The Brewers' depth at shortstop increases the team's trade options. J.J. Hardy is in a 1-for-33 slump, dropping his batting average to 207. But he still should be attractive to teams in need of a shortstop."

[Three Run Homer]

I'm not opposed to trading anyone over 28 on the team if we can get good young talent back. But we shouldn't be kidding ourselves about any "pitching depth" in the organization. If we trade Sherrill and Baez, it's going to hurt in the short run. The last two years have been an object lesson in what happens to a team that runs out of effective bullpen arms at the end of the season. If we trade Sherrill and Baez, we'll probably see the same collapse at the end of the season--I just don't think guys like Miller and McCrory can get major league hitters out on a regular basis, and I think Mickolio and Perez still need polishing before they'll be ready to help much.

[Three Run Homer]

I am more interested in this blurb for the article. I really would love Hardy at SS. I know he is not having a great year, but he is the perfect SS for this Team IMO.

"The Brewers' depth at shortstop increases the team's trade options. J.J. Hardy is in a 1-for-33 slump, dropping his batting average to 207. But he still should be attractive to teams in need of a shortstop."

Yep, I agree. Hardy is a perfect buy-low guy. He's too talented not to come out of this slump.

[mikezpen]

Agree about creating a package. Is there any law that says the Orioles can only trade one player per deal?

You create a package of Huff and Baez and throw in 4-6 million bucks to offset some of the expense, a lot of contenders might find that attractive enough to give you 2-3 of real good double-A/high A prospects, anyway.

However, I think it would be a mistake to insist on Major League ready talent for guys like that. Let's face it, they are only 2-3 month rentals. Insisting on ML-ready talent would probably lessen what you'll get.A good double-A SS or third baseman just mite make the Os out of next year's Spring Training, anyway.

[QBsILLEST1]

We have plenty of bullpen options, as people said, DHernandez, Mickolio, Miller, Berken/Uehara. You could go really outside the box and stick Tillman in a bullpen role to get him acclimated with ML hitters, but I dont really suggest that just ebcause hes working on going deeper into games. But you could bring up arrieta also for some BP time.....we have plenty of options, but its not worth it unless we are getting something back valuable....

[QBsILLEST1]

I am more interested in this blurb for the article. I really would love Hardy at SS. I know he is not having a great year, but he is the perfect SS for this Team IMO.

"The Brewers' depth at shortstop increases the team's trade options. J.J. Hardy is in a 1-for-33 slump, dropping his batting average to 207. But he still should be attractive to teams in need of a shortstop."

Ill bet that AM is already inquiring about this. We need to trade for him, if we were to get him and sign him to an extension, our IF would be almost set. Just in need of our 3B, and dont wanna look at Beltre....

[O'sWhyNot52]

I'm not opposed to trading anyone over 28 on the team if we can get good young talent back. But we shouldn't be kidding ourselves about any "pitching depth" in the organization. If we trade Sherrill and Baez, it's going to hurt in the short run. The last two years have been an object lesson in what happens to a team that runs out of effective bullpen arms at the end of the season. If we trade Sherrill and Baez, we'll probably see the same collapse at the end of the season--I just don't think guys like Miller and McCrory can get major league hitters out on a regular basis, and I think Mickolio and Perez still need polishing before they'll be ready to help much.

But what does the short-run matter when we are focused on the long-run? If we can trade Baez ( who is gone at season's end) and/or Sherrill ( who is a solid loogy but has been playing an imposter role as a closer) and get talent back to help this team the next few years, then does it really matter if we take a few more lumps while these younger bullpen arms get experience at the big league level?

[Redgrape]

I think Johnson could easily close for us

[Three Run Homer]

But what does the short-run matter when we are focused on the long-run? If we can trade Baez ( who is gone at season's end) and/or Sherrill ( who is a solid loogy but has been playing an imposter role as a closer) and get talent back to help this team the next few years' date=' then does it really matter if we take a few more lumps while these younger bullpen arms get experience at the big league level?[/quote']

Not much--like I said, as long as we get good young talent back, I'm happy with trading anybody over 28, even if we take our lumps in the short run.

On the other hand, if we trade people just to dump their salaries and we tank because of it, then I'll be mighty upset.