FanHouse TroyPatton

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Part 1
Part 2

As I've said before, the Orioles have always been MY BOYS so I'm trying desperately to do that rosey goggles thing and see them for what they are in a positive light: The Bad News Bears if you replaced all the children with goofy looking white teenagers and Hispanic guys. I'm hoping for some karmic retribution for that 69 World Series loss in the form of a Miracle Season where the Orioles win a hundred games out of nowhere and make it deep into the playoffs.

I will settle for Albers and Sarfate being adopted by a homeless guy. This is Birdland~! after the jump.

The Tejada-Patton trade between the Astros and Orioles went through less than four months ago, but the O's have already suffered a bust on their end of the deal.

The O's knew they were taking a risk in signing Troy Patton, who experienced tendinitis in his left bicep (his throwing arm) last year and had to stop pitching in September, but since they are in their well-advised rebuilding phase they were happy to score a promising youngster in return for the 32-year-old Miguel Tejada. Patton, who is only 22, had a stellar four seasons in the Astros' minor league system, pitching to the tune of a 3.01 ERA, and was called up late last year, where he struck out eight and allowed five earned runs in 12.7 innings pitched.

Unfortunately for both him and the O's, his first season with his new team is over before it even started. That sore bicep he was nursing at the end of the 2007 season never got better, and he showed up to camp hurting. After consulting with a doc, it was determined that he had a torn labrum and would have to undergo surgery that will put him out of commission for the entire year.

I'm sure both parties are disappointed, but, like the similar bad news about closer Chris Ray's Tommy John surgery, the Orioles shouldn't be too dismayed. The Orioles should still be happy that they acquired another promising youngster, and by the time they and all the prospects they've been hoarding are ready to contend in a few years (they hope, anyway), he will be long healed and more experienced -- and who doesn't want to see another team in AL East finally keep up with the Yanks and Sox in a playoff race?

Hold on, I'm going to change into my Sports Writing pants for a second.

How dare you, Miguel Tejada. How dare you treat the citizens of this great state of America with such disregard, such painful abandon, such un-sincerity. How dare you point your cold, skeletal finger at our government and say, "I did not have sexual relations with that steroid." How dare you, Miguel Tejada. How dare you indeed!

/takes off pants

I hope we find out that Miggy is 100% clean, that he only stuffed creatine up his butthole to keep his iron up or something, and that we find out how big of a jackass any sportswriter is who'd vilify a sports celebrity for something like this. After the jump, I kind of condescend on people who aren't from America in a secondhand, found art sort of way, and then rats attack!

I've been an Orioles fan since birth. I watched them win a World Series when I was three. I collected Cal Ripken, Jr. and Eddie Murray cards from the back of boxes of macaroni and cheese. I put stickers of guys like Larry Sheets into sticker books even when they couldn't use the logos and everybody wore solid color hats. In the last few years I grew up, moved to Cleveland, and discovered that practically everybody who has ever been an Oriole snorted weed off of Jose Canseco's rippling abdominals and hates me.

Maybe it's just Peter Angelos. Maybe he knows some deep, dark secrets about the bubbling potential of Matt Albers that I don't know, but I don't think he does. I think he wanted to unload a guy who was mailing it in anyway. Yeah, that's fine. I'm glad we got 5 Houston Astros jobbers instead of Manny Ramirez and Matt Clement. We should've gone even farther and just gotten five players to be named later. Players that aren't even born yet. Let the Astros sit on it for a while, see how they like their All-Star shortstop for several seasons of divisional contention.

I like my Orioles like I like my Dugouts: with overwhelming apologies to Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.

Just before the 2006 trade deadline rumors abounded that Miguel Tejada would be traded to the Houston Astros in exchange for Roy Oswalt. The deadline passed, though, but Houston never lost a taste for Tejada. They traded five players to Baltimore today to acquire the four-time All Star.

Tejada, 31, isn't coming off his best season. He hit 18 homers, drove in 81 RBI and posted a 799 OPS in a season interrupted by his first career trip to the disabled list. That OPS was his lowest since his first full season, however, and it isn't as if the Astros got much production from Adam Everett at shortstop. There was talk of moving him to third because of glove issues but he'll likely stay there for now. That's good as his offense isn't all that special from a third baseman.

The Orioles did very well in return. They pick up outfielder Luke Scott, third baseman Michael Costanzo and pitchers Matt Albers, Troy Patton and Dennis Sarfate. Patton ranks third on Baseball America's list of top Astros prospects while Costanzo ranks sixth. Albers ranked third, behind Patton, on last year's list. Scott posted an 855 OPS in 369 at-bats this season and should provide the Orioles with cheap power in a corner outfield spot.

For a team that's short on young players, the Astros dealt a lot of them for two years of Tejada. Everyone knew that the Orioles were desperate to move Tejada's salary. To get so much in return for a player coming off a down year is a feather in the cap of Andy MacPhail.