Fear and Moaning: Bedard, Angelos, MacPhail & The Mariners...

As the story of why Bedard is still an Oriole & why he's not the left coast continues to become a conspiracy of mass proportions, take a look at Roch's blog this morning. I very much concur with what he says. I hope Bedard could stay with the Orioles and remain the ace, but the fact of the matter is that he's 28, never pitched over 200 innings and has been an injury concern.

I could live with that fact of Bedard staying if he were on a .500 team and signs were pointing upwards; alas, they are not and will not so for a good, long while.

Let's not forget the Angelos angle.

I'll wait and see what happens before I start to unload on the owner, but there seems to be so many stories being spread about, I don't know what to believe. If for some reason there was involvement by Angelos in nixing this deal, the negative view of the franchise already by some in the media will only become that much worse.

From Roch's blog: I assume that it’s going to be a slow news day at the warehouse, though, as team president Andy MacPhail often says, everything can change with one phone call.

There’s plenty of talk that owner Peter Angelos vetoed the Erik Bedard trade to the Mariners, one theory being that he read comments from the left-hander that ran in Saturday’s edition of The Sun and became convinced that a long-term deal was still in the cards. For that to be true, Angelos would have needed to skip the part where Bedard indicated that he didn’t want to be part of a rebuilding project.

You won’t have a hard time finding “sources” who point the finger at the owner, but it’s necessary for Angelos, MacPhail or someone from the Mariners to confirm it. And for fans of both teams to know if talks are dead – which I don’t believe they are – or if a trade still can be finalized.

Sign Bedard to an extension, and the Orioles still will be rebuilding instead of contending. Acquire four or five players from the Mariners in exchange for Bedard, and the Orioles will be rebuilding, but also moving forward in their attempts to contend within the next few years.

This trade needs to get done. Bedard’s value could plummet the longer he stays here, either because of injury, ineffectiveness or his pending free agency. And from what we know, the Mariners currently have the most enticing package of prospects on the table because the Reds aren’t giving up Jay Bruce – who just happens to be on the cover of the Baseball America Prospect Handbook that I received in the mail yesterday.

Wait until the July 31 non-waiver deadline to trade Bedard, and certain players may no longer be available.

If the Mariners are in contention and Jones is having a breakout season, are they still going to make him the centerpiece in a trade with the Orioles, or will they choose instead to pick up a veteran who won’t cost them as much to make that final push for a division title?

And how will Bedard feel about staying with the Orioles if he’s been made available all winter, knows a trade nearly went down this week and then is told to report with the pitchers and catchers on Feb. 13? It’s a business, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it. And trust me, he won’t like it.

Enough said. Again, let's wait, as this potential move could be crucial to the future of the organization down the road.

Like I told a few of my baseball buddies the other day, being a Baltimore fan is like a 40 year old, fat, bald guy with bad teeth wishing to be Brad Pitt. No matter what he eats, does for a workout or whatever, he'll never be him. He can just hope.

Again, let's wait and see what happens.