A few years ago that notion would have seemed unfathomable. The Orioles have reeled off 11 straight losing seasons and appear headed for a 12th. Frustration grew so high among fans in the Charm City in 2006 that almost 1,000 fans walked out of Camden Yards in late September of that season.
Baltimore was once a proud baseball town. Earl Weaver. Brooks Robinson. Cal Ripken Jr.Jim Palmer. We all know the names. But that glory has faded over the last decade as the team has become an afterthought in the loaded AL East.
Given that his reign as Orioles owner has coincided with one of the darkest periods in the franchise's history on the field, it probably isn't much of a surprise that Sports Illustrated recently named him the worst owner in baseball.
FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Baltimore Orioles.
The Charm City hasn't had much to feel good about when it comes to its baseball team lately. In this case, lately means more than a decade. The last time the Orioles ended the season with a winning record "Honey" by Mariah Carey was the No. 1 song in America and Bill Clinton was in the first year of his second term as president. The year was 1997.
On Wednesday, the Baltimore Orioles unveiled several changes to their uniform and logo, hoping to be like the Tampa Bay Rays, who changed their uniforms and made it to the World Series, and hoping not to be like the Indians, who changed their uniforms and had to bust ass for a month and a half to finish above the Royals.
As someone who grew up an O's fan, I'm overjoyed that every Orioles fan I know can have a slightly happier next-five-months brandishing a physical, existing talking point to make them feel like the Orioles have made progress. "Hey, things are turning around, the O's are trying to sign Teixeira!" Argh, not they aren't. "We've got great prospects in the minor leagues!" Yes, and they will remain great prospects in the minor leagues until they die or are traded away. "We got new uniforms!" Okay, yeah, we did get new uniforms!
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.
Meet the new Rays. Tampa Bay's ascent to the top of the American League has robbed the Eastern division of its perennial doormat, but there's someone new on the block to push around -- the Orioles. It's now been 11 seasons since Baltimore qualified for the playoffs or even had a winning record, and that dubious run will likely be extended in 2009.
But it's not all doom and gloom in the Charm City. In fact, in a little more than a year Andy MacPhail -- seemingly free from the tinkering and meddling of owner Peter Angelos -- finally has the Orioles pointed in the right direction. In any other division, you know one that doesn't have four teams with 80-plus wins already in it, the O's might have even been within shouting distance of the .500 mark this year.
There is little hope of contending in the immediate future in Baltimore, but the organization's recent mistakes have almost all been caused by thinking that there was a quick fix somewhere out there. The Orioles have a rapidly improving farm system and they're not that far from being a real factor, but in order to get there, they're going to need to stay on the track MacPhail has started them down.
The Orioles were rained out in Texas last night yet their remarkable start continued as they gained a half-game on every other team, losers one and all, in the American League East. I'm not sure if that's the reason why Peter Angelos is in such a good mood these days or not. Usually the topic of the Washington Nationals makes him want to sue everybody within earshot.
If you recall, Angelos fought tooth and nail against D.C. getting a franchise because it would interfere with his hegemony in the area. Something must have brightened his mood, though, because he was uncharacteristically semi-ebullient while discussing them with the Baltimore Sun.
"But nonetheless, it is the nation's capital, and the team is there, and it ought to be supported, and hopefully, both franchises will provide successful baseball."
"We definitely want them to succeed"
"There's no law against visiting the other franchise. One's a National League city and one's an American League city."
I'm pretty sure the only reason why he'd like to see the Nats succeed is so that MASN, his cable network which MLB gave $75 million to finally get the move done, makes more money.
It's heartening to find out that he's no longer lobbying the state of Maryland to make attending Nationals game a crime, though. My knowledge of that great state's political system begins and ends with Clay Davis of The Wire but I assume its accurate and therefore easily manipulated by a man of Angelos's wealth.
It's been a few weeks since there's been any talk coming out of Baltimore involving Brian Roberts being traded, but that doesn't mean that the Orioles had decided to keep Roberts around for this season. Now that the team they spent most of their time talking to about Roberts, the Chicago Cubs, starting second baseman Mark DeRosa has been having heart problems this spring, the talks are back on.
The Cubs and Orioles have resumed trade talks involving second baseman Brian Roberts, and one person familiar with the talks indicated discussions were starting to get serious.
In one of the trade proposals being discussed, outfielder Jay Payton would accompany Roberts to Chicago.
This is one of those trades that makes sense for both sides, yet neither side has been able to get it done. Well, actually, they did get it done. It's just that Peter Angelos wasn't ready to give up on the Brian Roberts Shrine he keeps in his office at the time. Apparently he's finally found the inner strength and courage to say goodbye, but with Angelos, you never know the lengths he'll go to to screw the Orioles.
The Orioles are clearly rebuilding, so moving Roberts for a package of young players makes the most sense for the organization. As for the Cubs, adding Roberts to their lineup would finally enable the team to move Alfonso Soriano to the middle of the order, and make one of the NL's best lineups even better.
"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.
It took a few weeks for him to get there, but Erik Bedard is finally a full-fledged member of the Seattle Mariners. While Erik spent the first part of his career in Baltimore, there really wasn't all that much pressure on him. Sure, he was the ace of the Orioles staff, but nobody ever really expected the Orioles to contend with the Yankees and Red Sox anyway.
Now that he's in Seattle, things have changed.
There's one reason the Mariners wanted Bedard, and that's because they feel it's their only shot to compete with the Los Angeles Angels in the AL West. Whether or not his addition is really enough to help the Mariners get past the Angels is debatable (I say no), but still, those are the expectations.
He hasn't even thrown a single pitch in a Seattle jersey, yet he's already been given the assignment of Opening Day starter over Felix Hernandez.
As if all that wasn't enough pressure on the young Canuck, the Mariners basically sold their future to pry Erik away from Peter Angelos' cold dead hands. If Bedard struggles out of the gate and the Mariners fall behind Los Angeles while Adam Jones feasts on the short porches of Camden Yard and George Sherrill blows hitters away, the brunt of Mariners fans' anger will be directed at Bedard.
Personally I think Bedard is going to do just fine for Seattle. If nothing else the move from hitter friendly Camden Yard to spacious SafeCo Field on it's own. What were once home runs will now become routine fly balls. Still, at the end of the day, I don't think Erik is going to be enough to get Seattle over the hump in 2008.
Let's just hope for his sake, Mariners fans are as reasonable as I am.
Could it be? Could we finally be at the end of the long, strange road that this Erik Bedard-to-the-Mariners trade has lead us down? According to the Baltimore Sun, the answer is "yes," as the star lefty has left his home in Ontario and is in Seattle, finally taking the physical necessary to complete the deal. More details from the Sun:
The physical is expected to extend into Friday, meaning it's possible that the trade, which will send young center fielder Adam Jones, reliever George Sherrill and three pitching prospects to Baltimore, might not be announced until Friday.
Things could change if there are problems with the results of Bedard's physical, but the left-handed ace's arrival on the West Coast is a significant development. It signifies that the Orioles are content with the results of Jones' and Sherrill's physicals, which were taken earlier this week, and the deal is now out of their hands and in the Mariners'.
I can't even begin to speculate on what's happened in the past couple weeks since this is the exact same deal that was rumored to be going down when news first broke on January 27th, but I imagine Peter Angelos was prominently involved. I guess now we can start asking the important questions. Does Bedard put the Mariners on the Angels level in the AL West or make them a viable Wild Card contender? Is Adam Jones a fair return for an ace like Bedard? Does this mean Brian Roberts is next? In all of the furor over whether the trade is going down or not, the baseball aspect of this trade has kind of been lost.
Mark Pieper, who represents Erik Bedard and Brian Roberts and has become a household name around here, just sent out an e-mail to Sun reporter Jeff Zrebiec and a few others, disputing the MLB.com story posted last night that said the Orioles contacted Bedard late Sunday night about signing an extension and learned that the left-hander is seeking a seven-year, $100 million deal.
[...]
"The report that appeared yesterday regarding Erik Bedard on MLB.com is wholly inaccurate and contains nothing factual. Quite honestly, that type of journalism is irresponsible and reckless.
I don't know what else to say except that the Orioles are a disaster right now. Two off-seasons ago their required personality test for all free agents caused them to lose Jeromy Burnitz after he'd practically signed with them. That turned out to be for the best since Burnitz hit .230 in Pittsburgh and hasn't been seen since. I think blowing this trade may hurt them just a bit more in the long run.
So you know the whole "Adam Jones might have a degenerative hip condition" rumor? Forget about it. Neither team has officially commented on it, but they don't have to: enough media types in both Seattle and Baltimore have gone from saying, "huh, I don't know anything about that" to "there's absolutely no truth in it" to suggest that both teams have debunked the rumor off the record. For example, Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times:
Those crazy rumors out of Baltimore yesterday that Adam Jones has a degenerative hip condition? Toss them out the window. Not a touch of truth to it. Both sides are laughing that one off emphatically. Yes, Jones was being brought in for a physical. But it wasn't for a serious type of injury or anything that would be a deal-breaker. So, there's nothing on that front that would impede a trade.
Roch Kubatko of the Baltimore Sun was just as emphatic, saying, "By the way, the next time you see the words 'Jones' and 'hip' in the same sentence, it will pertain to the music he's listening to on his iPod." So what is holding up the trade? Apparently it's more or less just a matter of O's owner Peter Angelos being upset that Jones leaked word of the trade before the Orioles had a chance to announce it, though the general consensus from media outlets in both cities is that the deal will still go through as originally expected.
Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos isn't all bad?
On Wednesday, the 
Footprints in the Snow
The Orioles were rained out in Texas last night yet their remarkable start continued as they gained a half-game on every other team, losers one and all, in the American League East. I'm not sure if that's the reason why 
It's been a few weeks since there's been any talk coming out of Baltimore involving 
"
Could it be? Could we finally be at the end of the long, strange road that this 
Last night, MLB.com reported that the 
So you know the whole "
