ORIOLES FINALLY TRADE BEDARD, GET ADAM JONES

I have been waiting for this trade to comsummate for almost a month now but damn it is sweet to finally have it materialize. The Baltimore Orioles, aka the worst team in baseball this coming up spring, finally traded their ace, Erik Bedard, to the Seattle Mariners.

It's about damn time.

In return the O's get a potential superstar centerfielder in Adam Jones. Not the degenerate PacMan all the strippers have come to loath these past years. This is the Adam which has been compared favorably to Torii Hunter or at the worst a Mike Cameron. The Orioles also picked up the best lefty reliever in the game in George Sherrill who should be used as a bargaining chip come the trade deadline for some more young players. No doubt the O's are in a rebuilding mode, but finally they are doing it the right way.

New GM Andy MacPhail used his poker hand in Bedard and pulled a royal flush against the Mariners. In picking up Jones you have the first potential stud centerfielder in Baltimore since...hell...forever! I would say Mike Deveraux is the best CF I have seen in an O's uniform. Devo was a good player but we can safely say Baltimore hasn't had a decent centerfielder in a long, long time. Jones has 5 tool stuff. He hits for average and he hits for power. He has a cannon for an arm(drafted as a shortstop)and scouts think he can be a gold glover in centerfield. Make no mistake, Jones will make or break this trade for the O's. Bedard is a guaranteed ace lefty and you don't find many, if any, in the Major Leagues. But unlike the Minnesota Twins the Orioles got a great haul for their value.

Chris Tillman, Seattle's reigning Minor League Pitcher of the Year,is a 19 year old tall righty who has averaged around 10 K's per 9 inning pitched so far in the minor leagues. If Tillman and Jones pan out in the future it is an incredibly great trade for the Orioles. But if both shit the bed, and don't forget these are just prospects and not a known commodity like Bedard, then this trade will further signal the down spiral path of a franchise who hasn't had a winning season in 10 years.

I don't think this is the case. This is the most excited I have been about an Orioles transaction since they signed Miguel Tejada. True, Tejada didn't bring the once proud franchise back to the playoffs, but he was an individual success in Baltimore despite the team sucking ass. Baseball will and always will be a team sport. If you can trade a player for 5 players of real wealth you have to make the trade. The O's made the right trade. The Mariners made the right trade because they can now compete with the Angels now with Bedard and King Felix Hernandez starting at the top of the rotation.

Now all the O's have to do is sign Mark Teixeria next offseason.

Fuck!