Who's your 2008 SS

[TyCobb]

Tejada via doing nothing.

[orioles119]

Edward Salcedo via slappin' Boras around.

[davearm]

The O's need to take Brandon Wood for Tejada straight up, and just end this soap opera already.

There's your 2008 SS right there.

[Lt Melmo]

The O's need to take Brandon Wood for Tejada straight up, and just end this soap opera already.

There's your 2008 SS right there.

I used to be all for getting him, and I was hopeful he could stay at shortstop... but that uncertainty mixed with his bad year makes me think we could get a lot more for him.

I don't think LAA is the team to trade with.

[Whatever0]

Sports Guy, I think you're being a bit too hard on Jack Wilson. He's no Miguel Tejada, but he is a decent player. Over the last 4 years, he's been 63 runs above average with the glove, and 32 runs below average with the bat. He's a slightly above average player, and a lot better than Luis Hernandez. If Tejada is traded for an outfielder or a first baseman, Wilson would be an acceptable replacement, as long as the Orioles didn't have to give up much in the trade.

Unless the right offer came along, though, I'd rather just keep Tejada.

[Ruzious]

The O's will try for Lillibridge but settle for Cedeno - in a trade for a pitching prospect.

[Leitch]

I'm not sure he has ever been able to completely recover from the Palmeiro stuff a few years ago. It makes me wonder why???

His 2006 was every bit of his 2005 season, perhaps slightly better.

He's not been as good this year, but if he was affected by Raffygate, 2006 surely didn't show it.

[Tx Oriole]

Miggy unless he is traded and i am wondering if he will or if the FO believes it is better to hold on to him.

[UMDTerrapins]

Anyone not named Tejada. Not angry with him, just tired of seeing his mistakes. His numbers will always look better than his net contribution IMHO.

[Dr. FLK]

Trade Tejada AND Payton AND Cash for an offensive left fielder (Jay Bruce?) about the same age as Markakis. Then let LH play.

Yeah, 600 OPS in AAA translates well to ML success. You wouldn't have errors to complain about. But, I'd start a "LH goes 0-3 again and kills Os" thread every night out of spite.

I'd say Miggy is the guy. Unless we can trade for a Lillibridge/Wood type guy, Miggy will be there.

[theobird]

If you had more offense on the field it wouldn't matter much what you got out of the SS position offensively(see Cleveland Indians circa '94-'98). The game is trending towards pitching and defense(have you noticed). There aren't 15 guys hitting 40 homers this year. There will probably be only 3.

Defense counts more in close games and what is the O's record in 1 run games? What would it be if you included the games that were within 1 run in the 7th too?

Brilliant. I second that post as well. The beautiful part of the exposure of the steroid era is just this. We are returning to Baseball, the right way. Only real power hitters will hit 35 + long balls. And there will only be a handful of them. The game is going back to pitching and defense, naturally. As it should be. And I think the Orioles are onto it. Especially Dave Trembley.

[Dr. FLK]

Brilliant. I second that post as well. The beautiful part of the exposure of the steroid era is just this. We are returning to Baseball, the right way. Only real power hitters will hit 35 + long balls. And there will only be a handful of them. The game is going back to pitching and defense, naturally. As it should be. And I think the Orioles are onto it. Especially Dave Trembley.

I'd take "pitching, solid defense, and good hitting" over "pitching, great defense, no hitting".

[DrungoHazewood]

If you had more offense on the field it wouldn't matter much what you got out of the SS position offensively(see Cleveland Indians circa '94-'98). The game is trending towards pitching and defense(have you noticed). There aren't 15 guys hitting 40 homers this year. There will probably be only 3.

This is a ridiculous, indefensible stand. Sorry, don't mean to come off as condescending or something, but the idea that a major league team can play someone as a regular at any position without regard to how terrible their offense is (and still expect to win) is ridiculous.

All of the real, hard evidence we have is that Luis Hernandez is a pretty good defensive shortstop. And a pretty good defensive shortstop might be 15 runs above average, or he might be five. But Hernandez' ceiling is almost certainly a hitter in the class of Paul Bako. He'd be lucky to be as good as Alex Cintron. Given 500 plate appearances that's a 50 run difference between Hernandez and this year's version of Tejada.

You simply can't win ballgames by starting players who can't cut it in AA with their bat. Ok, yea, sure, if you have five or six all star bashers in the rest of the lineup maybe. But it simply doesn't make any sense to dip into the 20 runs below replacement barrel to find a major league starter.

I can't believe I'm still arguing this point.

[Dr. FLK]

This is a ridiculous, indefensible stand. Sorry, don't mean to come off as condescending or something, but the idea that a major league team can play someone as a regular at any position without regard to how terrible their offense is (and still expect to win) is ridiculous.

All of the real, hard evidence we have is that Luis Hernandez is a pretty good defensive shortstop. And a pretty good defensive shortstop might be 15 runs above average, or he might be five. But Hernandez' ceiling is almost certainly a hitter in the class of Paul Bako. He'd be lucky to be as good as Alex Cintron. Given 500 plate appearances that's a 50 run difference between Hernandez and this year's version of Tejada.

You simply can't win ballgames by starting players who can't cut it in AA with their bat. Ok, yea, sure, if you have five or six all star bashers in the rest of the lineup maybe. But it simply doesn't make any sense to dip into the 20 runs below replacement barrel to find a major league starter.

I can't believe I'm still arguing this point.

Well, believe it. People won't let your silly facts get in the way of their Miggy-bashing.

[DrungoHazewood]

Brilliant. I second that post as well. The beautiful part of the exposure of the steroid era is just this. We are returning to Baseball, the right way. Only real power hitters will hit 35 + long balls. And there will only be a handful of them. The game is going back to pitching and defense, naturally. As it should be. And I think the Orioles are onto it. Especially Dave Trembley.

You're letting nostalgia get in the way of common sense and logic. We're most certainly not heading back into the early 80s, where you could lead the league in homers with 35. Ballpark architecture, strategy, bat technology, weight training, and a host of other factors make that an impossibility. Steroids were just a small part of the overall offensive explosion, probably not even the most significant factor in a very long list.

Pitching and defense is great, but teams rarely win without pitching, defense, and offense.