At this point, no matter how much Brian Roberts might or might not help this team, I hope Hendry will take those chips he's offering the O's and look somewhere else. Nobody is gonna want to deal with the Orioles after all this crap.

it's impossible to make a major deal with the Orioles.  Angelos is psychotic.

I agree.  Let's forget about Roberts.

n/t

...has unlimited cell phone minutes, given his line of work.

And for what it's worth, Peter Gammons has said that Roberts will be a Cub within the week.

People need to understand how monumentally screwed up this organization is and has been for a while now. There are layers upon layers, much like the Blackhawks under their old guard. This is all headed by Peter Angelos, who has to have a say in everything. So if you're trying to pinpoint the cause of this all, look at Angelos who has really screwed up one of the sport's great franchises over the past decade.

DmL

...with the Santana derby over, the Red Sox are now making Coco Crisp available. There are rumblings that the Cubs may be interested. All very vague, I know.

Now that The O's have exhausted their only "rube at the state fair" partner by fleecing the Astros, the sledding has gotten a lot tougher. The deal O's made for Tejada was so bad for Houston that it rivals the one that got Purpurra fired from last year (December 12, 2006: Jason Jennings and Miguel Asencio to the Houston Astros for Taylor Buchholz, Jason Hirsh, and Willy Taveras).

Hirsh has a chance to be truly dominant. I saw him in person a couple times in AAA and he was untouchable. I can't imagine how Houston ever thought that was a good deal.

for a couple weeks now but you make your main diary about that very topic?

Did you run out of other topics?

You know you can always bring up the Byrd trade possibilities...yikes!

Jody Davis looks to be right then. He was the one most adamant at Fantasy Camp that Angelos is a nut case and Roberts will never be traded to the Cubs as long as Angelos is around.

He also told a good Mike Fontenot story. He said that last spring, due to a numbers crunch, Fontenot was thisclose to being released. Enough people stuck up for him, he was retained and he ended up being a valuable member of the big club for a while.

that all the non-action talk about the O's is getting pretty old.  But with Johan in the NL, I think it is even more important to snag Bedard if we want to go to or win the Series.  So, while no action is getting old, I welcome that news much more than Bedard to So-and-so.

even Tampa Bay is easier to deal with these days.  And that's saying something!!!

Please assure us that you don't have a loaded pistol in your hand, or any cyanide pills in your desk drawer...

OK, now that I know you're all right...

I agree.  It sounds like Angelos wants to renege on McPhail's handshake -- something that would be unexpected from any source other than Angelos.  

Hendry needs to move on.  He still needs to trade Murton for a RH CF/4th OF.  He probably also intends to jettison Marquis (or Dempster).  The longer he waits, the less choice he's going to have as far as trading partners.  Forget Roberts, get the rest of the shuffling done, then "Play Ball!"

I used to get so tired of hearing the stories about whether Clemens is coming back and where he might play.  This year we finally don't have that problem but instead we have the never-ending Bedard and Roberts stories.

Spring Training cannot start soon enough.      

...that the O's and M's are "close" to giving us some closure.

I swear, this Hot Stove should have come with a copy of "On Death and Dying" so we could brush up on the five stages of grief.

..at least that is the take on this subejct over at

ShysterBall

The good news is Angelos can't buy the Cubs..

until this god awful offseason is over..

he claimed it was actually pictures of recent Cubs conventions.  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=511337&in_page_id=17 70

is going to be on CTL Friday evening. If you want to ask him a question you can ask it by going here...

http://chicago.comcastsportsnet.com/ctl.asp

On mlb.com they have an article about Angelos' attempt to resign, or extend Bedard. Bedard and his agent wanted 100/7 yrs, McPhail wouldnt go past three, so thats why the trade efforts resumed.

Also, the mentioned Jones' hip problem, which is evidently similar to Albert Belle's, which cost Baltimore tens of millions of dollars for no production whatsoever.

So maybe another team can get in on Bedard if they arent interested in Seattles offer and McPhail wont go past 3 years in a new deal with Bedard

This obviously shows that he has NO COMMON OR BASEBALL SENSE whatsoever. Bedard basically told Angelos that he wanted to get out of Baltimore. So does he think he can honestly sign him if he doesn't want to stay there? Other teams can sure as heck give him that plus more (ex. Seattle, Reds, Cubs, etc.). Second, you don't pull out of a nearly completed trade at the last minute by trying to do something he should have done from the start, which was resign him. By having him on the market ever since November, its caused him to feel like Baltimore has betrayed him and he doesn't want to stay. And wasn't McPhail told he would have full control over trades, signings, etc.

Congratulations, the worst owner in all of sports: Mr. Peter Angelos of the Baltimore Orioles  

This is crazy. Wrigely, er, Angelos should understand the responsibilities of the individuals he hires.

Not only is he ruining the opportunity to infuse the club with young talent and cut payroll, he's effectively telling next year's FAs and beyond that Baltimore is a place where a meddling owner will suffocate the responsibilities of his staff and is no place for a player to be free to perform without in-house drama.

Anyway Trembley is part of a "College of Coaches" this year?

...I mean Jerry Jones, I mean Mark Cuban, er, George Steinbrenner, uh,...