Erik Bedard is seemingly moving closer to becoming a Seattle Mariner, but who will become a Baltimore Oriole?
Adam Jones we know, and most reports seem pretty certain about George Sherrill, Chris Tillman and Tony Butler. Kameron Mickolio has also wiggled into several reports as part of the proposed 5-for-1.
GM Bill Bavasi reportedly sent a final offer to Baltimore a while back, and the names included were Jones, Tillman and Sherrill. Now the offer includes those three, plus Butler and Mickolio. Could this simply be a counter offer, or did Butler and Mickolio replace Sherrill in the deal?
Sherrill is at the Mariners complex in Peoria right now, from what I gather, and now says he hasn't been asked to take a physical or anything like that, despite earlier reports that he was telling teammates that he was to take a physical in Baltimore.
Then there is Brian Roberts. Some have speculated that if Roberts is added to the deal Carlos Triunfel and Jose Lopez will be heading to Baltimore as well.
Time to get involved. Predict who will be involved in the final trade.
There is no such thing as an educated guess here. The rumors and speculation have mutated into a monster that no one can tame, so you'll have to refer to your gut for this one.
I'll add my prediction once you all get it started. Of course this would turn out to be a pretty pointless post should we wake up tomorrow to an official announcement. Get your guesses in before it happens! If you're correct, prizes could be involved! It depends on how many guesses we get.
There could be other unknown factors. Simply put, no one has concrete answers, but most of the baseball world thinks this trade is going to happen. I too have taken this stance.
I believe that the Seattle offer is too lucrative for the Orioles to turn down. These type of deals are the ones that Baltimore needs to make in order to avoid another decade of irrelevance. Adam Jones, whether you think he'll be great or not, is the type of player you want to center your rebuilding efforts around.
Do I believe that he'll live up to the hype and fulfill his potential as a Mariner? Absolutely not.
The Orioles are willing to trade their ace and a Cy Young hopeful to find out how good Jones will be. They will also be getting one of the most reliable relievers in the MLB in George Sherrill, a potential front of the rotation pitcher in Chris Tillman, along with unknown 4th and/or 5th prospects.
This deal is a must for the rebuilding Orioles, and the Mariners need this deal to go down in order to acquire a proven ace. Bedard has proven he can carry the title of ace, and can win ball games. He could win on a terrible Orioles team, so just think about how good he can be in Safeco (the SafeCave), and with offensive and defensive upgrades. Bedard can be a Cy Young pitcher on the Mariners, assuming he goes through the year healthy.
As I have stated before, I do not believe Jones will be the player USS Mariner thinks he will be, and do not see him as the "savior of the franchise." Sherrill, I believe, came into his own way too late, and is already fairly advanced as far as the lifespan of relief pitchers go. Yes, I know he's relatively new to the MLB, but age is age. We have no idea how good Tillman will be, because he is two or three years away from scratching the surface of the MLB.
To sum it up, I believe this deal is too good for either side to pass up. Both teams have gotten too far into it. The deal is 99% done. All that is needed is the necessary "stamp of approval" from Angelos and Bedard is a Mariner. I believe that Erik Bedard will be pitching for Seattle on Opening Day.
Patrick Whealton: At this point in time, we are all aware of the tumult over the last few days about a possible trade to bring Erik Bedard to Seattle. While many reporters as well as my fellow bloggers here at BBT believe that a deal will be finalized and announced by the end of this week, I have something that I must admit to you. Since the beginning of the off-season, I’ve had the gut feeling that Erik Bedard will be the Orioles starter on opening day 2008.
Despite the developments this week, my gut feeling has not changed. Of course, I hope that I am wrong, but new evidence seems to suggest that the deal that was supposedly done just a couple days ago continues to fall apart at the seams. Since the beginning of the week, we have, in essence, seen a trade work backwards from the point where it was completed, onto finalizing the players involved, onto having the general framework of the deal in question by O’s team owner Peter Angelos, and now finally to the point where the Orioles will explore their other possibilities. This process is completely backwards and to think that it will magically work itself out in a day or two, while possible, seems a little unrealistic to me.
So what other possibilities do the Orioles have? Well, it seems as if other teams including the Reds and possibly the Indians may be back in on the Bedard talks. "General Manager" Andy MacPhail said the other day that other teams are now “chiming in.” However, Bedard to any other team besides the Mariners seems out of the question at this point, especially with the Reds refusing to give up prospect Jay Bruce.
Apparently, there is now another option on the table that was previously didn’t seem to be viable; for the Orioles to sign Bedard to an extension. In the past, the Orioles were under the impression that Bedard and his agent only wanted to discuss contract extensions on a year-by-year basis. Now, based on recent quotes by Erik Bedard, it looks like he is willing to discuss a long-term deal with the club. This development, coupled with the fact that Peter Angelos loves Bedard because he puts butts in seats at Camden Yards, points towards a contract extension or at least a few more roadblocks before a deal with the Mariners is made.
Once again, I am completely for a trade for Bedard and I really hope that it happens, but the window for being able to do that may have just closed.
Jon Shields: I was going to write a long entry like Dustin and Patrick, but I don't feel it's necessary at this point. We've been reporting mostly everything to you, so it's down to gut feelings.
This deal was done. Adam Jones said he was traded to Baltimore. The deal was done, and then there was some sort of wrinkle that needed to be ironed out. That may have been a quick check to see if Erik Bedard could be re-signed, it could have been Baltimore trying to squeeze out some more talent from Seattle, it could have been anything. I don't think there was anything so significant that took us back to square one.
There are too many people with too many sources that are way too confident that this will happen sooner than later. Pair that with anyone who's anyone around baseball saying this deal needs to get done for the Orioles to ever become relevant again, and how can you dispute it?
This deal is announced as early as Thursday morning, late as Monday afternoon. I don't see this falling apart.
Question to the readers: Will this deal go through? If so, when? If not, why not?
While Bucco Blog continues to spit out outrageous demands for Pittsburgh Pirates young starter Ian Snell, other unbias sites seem to be thinking more clearly.
MLBTR:
While some Mariner fans would continue to wince at the thought of this trade, it is much more realistic than the Santana/Bedard-esque asking price Bucco Blog has been throwing out there.If Neal Huntington can get Adam Jones for him straight up, I think he should pull the trigger.
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