OriolesUberFan

He might be Mr. Finger Blisters....but he also is a World Series MVP! How many of those did Cal Ripken win? Oh, ZERO! Beckett will be aided by being out of the extreme heat of Florida and will contend for the Cy Young Award this season. You only wish the Orioles could have gotten a pitcher like him. You're going to have a hard time staying out of the basement yourselves. If the Marlins traded you Willis AND Cabrera......you still would be no better than the 4th place team you'll probably be anyway. Have fun going 72-90......and least the Marlins will have an excuse.....the O's will have none. To those of you who have defended me for these unwarranted attacks thank you. Also thanks to everyone for the great information regarding Dontrelle. I don't wanna get bogged down in these stupid squabbles, but I would not be an Orioles fan if I let this lunacy stand. Did you just try to compare a very talented but young and injury prone pitcher to a first ballot hall of famer, and one of the most well respected men in the game of baseball? Really intelligent buddy. The same people who berated me for not knowing everything about your team should take a step back and think how ridiculous it looks when I read what you "know" about mine. It sure takes a lot of balls to sit there and preach to the choir, at least I came here and attempted to defend myself. The Orioles are finally heading in the right direction. Angelos has taken his grubby hands off the baseball matters and allowed our new competent GMs to do their job. Our farm system has done a 180 since Jor Jordan took over the scouting/drafting responsibilities. We have 4 prospects in the top 100, only 4 other teams in baseball have more then that. We have our own 2 young talented arms already in the big show in Erik Bedard (lefty with the best numbers in the AL before injuring his knee last year) and Daniel Cabrera (6'8 beast with arguably the best pure stuff in baseball). We added Leo Mazzone, the best pitching coach in baseball to groom these youngsters. Tejada is healthy again and over his bitter stage which extended all the way back into the entire post-all-star season. Javy Lopez is healthy again, and Brian Roberts is on schedule to start opening day. We ditched the contingion of malcontents in Ponson, Kline, Julio, Sosa, Palmeiro, and Surhoff. They've been replaced with character guys in Millar and Niner, and low risk high reward guys in Corey Patterson and Richard Hidalgo. We have no excuse? If playing in the same division as the Yankees and Sox isn't a good excuse then I want some of what you're smoking. My expectations are realistic, but I believe we can finish over .500. But to just claim that we're the same old Orioles as before is unfounded and idiotic.

Beckett was traded because that was the only way we could move the albatross that Mike Lowell became I understand this, it was the rationale for our fan's prediction. Basically you had to package him with one of Beckett/MCab/D-Train to move his silly contract on someone else and still get what you needed back. Of the three, mr. finger blisters was the easy choice.

Thanks for the info everyone. I think the general consensus outside of Florida is that after Beckett went (actually predicted by one of our "ignorant" fans) that no one was untouchable, clearly this is not the case. Best of luck with your youth movement and hopefully your new stadium.

As a number of people have written, giving information to fans of other teams who are speculating about trades to net Miguel Cabrera or Dontrelle Willis is pointless ? at least this year. I think rferry's assessment of the situation with Dontrelle and Miguel is generally correct. These two are the cornerstones of our franchise and the Marlins will keep them as long as they are arbitration eligible. After that, it is hard to say. We shouldn't get too worked up about these ignorant folks, though. I have seen speculation like this about trading to get Miguel and D-Train on a number of different message boards. I am not suprised at all that other fans, not being too familiar with the Marlins current situation, still make these speculations after witnessing this off-season's Fish fry. What started the thread was mlb trade rumors, which mentioned the possibility that MCab was available for the right price. It was a fun idea to explore even though we recognize how improbable, no reason to call anyone ignorant for that. If the offseason isn't a good time to discuss pipe dreams then I don't know when is.

Some of the proposals on that board are ridiculous. Someone wrote, "so if we could trade Penn, Olson/Erbe, and Majewski for him, I'd do that." LOL Like that would even be a discussion starter. lol There are idiots on every board, what can you do? True. Good point. I wish I could say, "I'd trade Gaby Hernandez, Ricky Nolasco, and Brad McCann for David Wright," and actually believe it was possible. We have some posters on the hangout from different team forums, and I think you'll find that everyone overvalues there's own prospects. However we have a fair amount of posters who are intelligent enough to objectively evaluate what we and others have.

Some of the proposals on that board are ridiculous. Someone wrote, "so if we could trade Penn, Olson/Erbe, and Majewski for him, I'd do that." LOL Like that would even be a discussion starter. lol There are idiots on every board, what can you do?

No. Part of the reason the Marlins cleared payroll is to focus on building a profitable and winning club. With Willis and Cabrera's salaries weighed down by service time, they are considered part of this movement for the future. If in three years time, the Marlins don't have financing in place for a new stadium, then maybe the Marlins will consider trading them. And if they do, it will be for a lot more than Penn or Markakis. I completely agree, was just curious. If you're at all interested here's the thread (its pretty long) on our forum, we're not dumb enough to think it would take only Penn or Markakis. http://www.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30618

Why discuss something that's never going to happen? :mischief2 I understand how unlikely this is, but could you guys humor me and comment on whether his career could be on the same line as Hideo Nomo. In other words once batters figure out his crazy delivery he won't be nearly as succesful.

Hey guys I am an Orioles fan and post on our forum orioleshangout.com There's been discussion of potential trades for MCab and Willis and I wanted to hear a Marlins fan's perspective on Dontrelle. I have a concern that much of his success is due to his funky delivery a la Hideo Nomo. Now Nomo got shelled after batters faced him a fair amount and could pick up the ball earlier. Could Dontrelle fall victim to the same type of career? I don't mean to insult your players as I think Willis and MCab are amazing, but I would love to hear some perspective from people who've watched them play a fair amount. Is this a legitimate concern? Thanks guys.