And Then There Were Four

It is being reported in the Baltimore Sun today that the center piece of the Miguel Tejada deal, Troy Patton, will miss the entire 2008 season with a torn labrum in his shoulder. There were five players traded for Tejada, (the best player the O's had for the last 3 seasons) two of which were supposed to be Major League ready. Luke Scott, the gun toting left fielder was expected to improve an aging outfield and Patton was supposed to compete for a spot in the rotation. At 22 he had already proven himself in the Astros organization and seemed to be heading toward a bright future. He's young and he's a lefty which all but assured him a good contract and steady career. Now the O's get to pay him to sit on the bench and rehab all year and hope that he can come back to form for 2009.

Andy McPhail, the architect of this trade is quoted as not being concerned with this injury. After all, the guy is young and the O's are going to compete with Tampa for the cellar this year anyway. McPhail, also says he knew about a possible shoulder injury when the trade was made but felt like it was worth the gamble. I have a lot of respect for Andy McPhail, he's accomplished a lot helping other teams rebuild but I wonder if he knows the history of the Orioles and making trades.

I know I obsessively refer to the infamous Glen Davis trade that sent Curt Schilling and Steve Finley among others to the Astros for a has been first basemen. We also traded John Maene for a guy who only played half a season and then got hurt and couldn't play the next year either (Kris Benson). Now Maine is a star for the Mets and we have nothing to show for it other than wasted money. I could go on for days on this but I'll digress, it's just frustrating to see another deal for a quality player appear to go south. Maybe McPhail will be right, Patton will have his surgery come back strong next year and be a key contributor for the O's for the next 5 or 6 years assuming we are smart enough to lock him up to a long term deal. Another sore subject being as the O's have to be one of the worst teams in history at retaining free agents.

So as I await the start of what will likely be a 62-100 season I won't miss having Tejada and all the steroid/perjury talk in the paper every day but I will wonder if we got the right players in a deal that should have made this team better for the future.