The State of the Orioles

With Bud Selig giving a State of the Union address tomorrow, I feel it appropriate to address and make suggestions for the floundering Baltimore Orioles.

VP’s of Baseball Operations Jim Duquette and Mike Flanagan said last year that they have put a plan in place to make the Orioles competitive in two to three years. At this rate, that will not happen. We have a solid core of young players (Roberts, Markakis, Guthrie, Bedard), but half of them will probably be in different uniforms in the coming years. Erik Bedard hates it here and his contract is up soon. Andy MacPhail HAS to make a trade this season to calm the wolves, so he’ll have to trade somebody. Hey, you’ve gotta trade talent to get talent, and I’m not necessarily opposed to that. Recently, I had the state of mind that all four of those guys are untouchable, but now I’m beginning to think that the only one who can’t be traded is Jeremy Guthrie (yes, even Nick Markakis).

The Orioles line up is littered with aging veterans who are past their prime, such as Melvin Mora, Aubrey Huff, Miguel Tejada, and Jay Gibbons. I’m beginning to think that Jay Gibbons may have been involved the steroid scandal. Of course, this is purely speculation, but has anyone else noticed that his forearm and bicep size have shrunk (not to mention his batting average and power numbers)? We need to drop these guys like a bad habit and quick…it’s time to clean out the Warehouse and get some value in the process.

With the minor league system being a complete travesty, besides J.R. House and Matt Weiters, and Weiters isn’t even signed yet, the O’s are going to need to make a splash in the free agency market. But is this offseason the time to do it? We’re not going to win next year either, so I say wait until 2009 to make some serious moves in free agency. Look at the available players in ’09…Vlad Guerrero (we should have him anyway), Andruw Jones, John Lackey, Jake Peavy, Brad Penny, Johan Santana, Jason Bay, Adrian Beltre, Miguel Cabrera, Matt Holiday, Magglio Ordonez (maybe…I think he has an option that season), Reed Johnson. Wow…mark my words, the 2009 baseball offseason will be the most interesting few months in sports EVER. Not to mention, the contracts of Tejada, Huff, and Mora (among others) will be up, so that will give us an opportunity to clean house. Obviously, the O’s won’t sweep up all of those guys, but they should make moves to get 3 or 4 young talented free agents in ’09.

In short, the State of the Union is pretty crappy, but it can be fixed, and it SHOULD be fixed because the fans of Baltimore deserve it. Remember, Peter Angelos won’t live forever.

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