Baseball Musings: Orioles Restock

December 12, 2007

Orioles Restock

The Baltimore Orioles send Miguel Tejada to the Astros for five players:

In return for the four-time All-Star, the Orioles will get outfielder Luke Scott, pitchers Matt Albers, Troy Patton and Dennis Sarfate, and third baseman Michael Costanzo.

I'll assume here that the Astros will play Tejada at third base, since they have a defensive wizard at shortstop:

MacPhail met for nearly an hour with Tejada on the final weekend of the 2007 season. During the meeting that both sides described as productive, Tejada told him that his preference was to remain at shortstop, but that wasn't his main goal.
"I want to win," Tejada said of his message to MacPhail. "It's not about changing positions. My point isn't about changing positions. My point is winning. I don't want to play every day just for money. I'm not that kind of person. I play for pride. I don't care about changing positions if we're going to be a winner, and I want to be on a team that is going to compete to win."

This gives the Astros an even stronger middle of the order. Pence, Berkman, Lee and Tejada make up a decently potent lineup. However, given the Astros record last season, I'm not sure Tejada is really going to a winner.

What did the Orioles get? Luke Scott is good, but he was an old rookie. He'll be 30 in 2008. Albers walks a lot of batters and gives up lost of home runs, but he's only 23. Sarfate kicked around the minors a long time, but has shown better control in the majors. It's a pretty small sample size, however. Troy Patton looks like the best pitching prospect. Mike Costanzo had a power surge last season, but he'll be 24 in 2008 and hasn't played above AA. It seems to me the Astros gave up quantity, but not a lot of quality to get Tejada. I think that says something about how far Miguel's stock fell in the last couple of seasons.

Posted by David Pinto at 12:50 PM | Trades | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Wow, the Astros got fleeced on this one. Forgetting for a second that Tejada has rapidly entered his decline phase, and the Astro system is now completely devoid of quality players, Miguel Tejada is almost surely going to be named in the Mitchell Investigation report. Tejada has a history of having his performance tank following something like this (post-Palmerio for example), this isn't going to be pretty for the bottom-feeding "stros.

Posted by: SS at December 12, 2007 01:22 PM

A former MVP for 5 prospects, none of which projecto to being anything but average. Patton may do a bit better than that. Lets face it, besides Pence, the Astros haven't developed much in years.

Posted by: ryan at December 12, 2007 01:34 PM

Well SS, the Astros didn't seem to give up very much, just a bunch of low level prospects. And to think what Baltimore could have gotten a year ago if The Idiot Angelos didn't kill the dea.

Posted by: wph at December 12, 2007 01:53 PM

Now that he quit taking steroids Tejada's numbers have droped off. He doesn't play for pride either. You can see him just going threw the motion's when the O's didin't have a chance at winning.

Posted by: tc at December 12, 2007 02:36 PM

Rosenthal is saying that they expect Tejada to play SS, not 3b.

Posted by: dave at December 12, 2007 03:23 PM

Way to go Uncle D!! The 'stros are their way to becoming a shell of a franchise. That fellow just keeps mortgaging the future in a futile quest to get back on top. At least it will be fun to watch the fireworks in a couple of years when there's nobody left to trade away and his big money free agents begin to demand their own trades.

Posted by: Teekay at December 12, 2007 04:27 PM

I heard that Everett may not have recoverred from his broken leg of last year and the Astros are looking to keep Tejada at SS. There are rumours that the Astros may not even offer Everett a contract. Has anyone else seen anthing to that effect?

Posted by: bsball at December 12, 2007 05:43 PM

Yes, it is expected that Everett will be non-tendered.

I don't know how they could have reached a conclusion on whether Adam could return to his former defensive wizardry. He didn't look like himself late in the season when he came back, but that is to be expected. What could have happened over the offseason that would have furthered that belief?

Posted by: Phil at December 12, 2007 05:50 PM

where is lisa gray's take?

odd move considering they just signed kaz matsui...now where does everett go?

Posted by: tony at December 12, 2007 08:02 PM

everett nontendered...guess that answers that.

Posted by: tony at December 13, 2007 12:42 AM

since they're going to give up runs, the Astros decided they need to score runs. Everett had to go.

Posted by: paperpusher at December 13, 2007 10:00 AM