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View Full Version : Sosa To Baltimore?



Johnny_Blaze_47
01-28-2005, 11:23 PM
According to ESPN.com.

For Jerry Hairston, Jr. and some prospects.

DeJaVu
01-29-2005, 12:19 AM
I wish he would go to a better team though. oh well, where ever he goes i will track him, even though we got wgn cubs game over here.

3rdCoast
01-29-2005, 01:07 AM
yea hes going there

Leo_ARG
01-29-2005, 09:14 PM
Well, I am an Orioles fan and I am not very excited about this.
This guy will be another Albert Bell.

atlfan25
01-30-2005, 12:40 AM
Since this won't turn the Orioles into a playoff contender, they probably did it to boost attendence or something. If they really wanted to improve the team, they'd have traded for a good starting pitcher.

3rdCoast
01-30-2005, 12:58 AM
weezer or tori, you pick

3rdCoast
01-30-2005, 07:56 PM
Since this won't turn the Orioles into a playoff contender, they probably did it to boost attendence or something. If they really wanted to improve the team, they'd have traded for a good starting pitcher.

not so fast son.

Sosa can make lineup thunderous
Addition of OF would make O's downright dangerous

Sammy Sosa is still some paperwork and a physical removed from officially becoming a member of the Baltimore Orioles. When the medics get to the blood pressure portion of his exam, Sosa's presumably will be quite lower than those of some American League pitchers.

The thought of facing an Orioles lineup tricked out with one more loud bat is sure to inspire some high anxiety.

Baltimore is hardly a flawless team. And, at 36, Sosa has his shortcomings, too. Although not nearly as many as his fallout with Chicago, after one off-key and contentious season, would suggest.

But, together, they figure to make beautiful music. And a lot of noise. There will be a whole flock of Birds able to go Yards -- Camden and otherwise.

In fact, in one very monumental regard, the Orioles can now lay claim to a historic lineup that includes two members of the 500-homer club. Sosa (574) and Rafael Palmeiro (551) are the first such set of teammates.

Two other sets of teammates gained eventual initiation in the exclusive club which numbers 20: the Braves' Hank Aaron (755) and Eddie Mathews (512), and the Giants' Willie Mays (660) and Willie McCovey (521). However, in neither case, did they reach 500 homers while still teammates.

This is quite a boast and, in truth, had much to do with the Orioles' efforts to land someone whose bloated contract had shied away the Cubs' other prospective trade partners.

Baltimore could use a big splash both to soothe fans made restless by an inactive offseason and to divert some attention from their new National League neighbors, the Washington Nationals, who, it's worth nothing, had also made a play for Sammy.

But this isn't all about perception. The Orioles could also use another threat from the right side of the plate. Since the start of the 2001 season, they have won only 68 games in 182 decisions against left-handed pitchers.

Maybe a year ago, that trend isn't that alarming. But with Randy Johnson and David Wells now with neighbors in the American League East, you have to think of such things.

Sosa turns the Orioles' lineup from merely solid to scary. Contrary perhaps to some perceptions, the Birds of last year were rather ordinary on offense, ranking sixth in AL scoring and only ninth in homers. Miguel Tejada's continued excellence (.311, 34 home runs, 150 RBIs) and Melvin Mora's continued emergence (.340, 27 home runs, 104 RBIs) distorted the club's overall image.

The Birds' main drawback was inconsistency. They scored nine-plus runs a stunning 32 times, but often went a week without enough guys for a quorom crossing the plate. That's the risk you take when the burden is borne by a few individuals prone to slumps.

Now, pitchers may need ice packs just leaving a meeting to go over the Orioles' scouting reports. Sosa, Tejada, Mora, Javy Lopez, and left-handed hitters Palmeiro, Larry Bigbie and Jay Gibbons could go right-left-right down the order and give manager Lee Mazilli a bullpen-proof lineup. That's a huge consideration in today's game.

So Sosa will help Baltimore a lot.

But Baltimore will also help Sosa. His free-falling out in Wrigleyville was amazingly sudden, and the differences became irreconcilable when he walked out on the Cubs' last game of the season.

It is an action Sosa doubtlessly regrets but which, at the time, he rashly took in reponse to being hammered all season. Beaten down by a back injury, dropped down in the lineup by Dusty Baker ... his woes were nothing to sneeze at -- which, come to think of it, is how he'd thrown out his back.

Throw in 2003's Corkgate, when he drew a 10-game suspension after a broken bat revealed the substance, and Sosa was ready for new scenery that did not include ivy.

Yet he is hardly someone crawling to the doorstep of the Hall of Fame. Limited to 126 games by the back injury, last season he ended a streak of nine straight years with 30-plus homers and 100-plus RBIs. Even while missing 36 games last season, he produced 35 homers and 80 RBIs.

So he doesn't have much to come back from. Still, landing in Baltimore, an outstanding baseball city whose passion for a winner is unmatched, and in a ballpark that favors hitters, Sosa could spring back to life.

The Orioles, of course, became serious about working this out after losing out on Carlos Delgado. One of the little ironies here is that Delgado, a thoughtful human being who deserves far better than superficial condemnation for it, nonetheless has gained some notoriety as the "Man Who Does Not Stand for 'God Bless America'".

So Baltimore instead hopes to welcome a man who for years has run out to his position in right field waving a miniature American flag. That won't hurt Sammy's popularity in the shadow of the nation's capital.

Of course, a few home runs will help even more. Sammy, hop to it.

Tom Singer is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_perspectives.jsp?ymd=20050130&content_id=937041&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp (http://)

atlfan25
01-30-2005, 11:21 PM
Since this won't turn the Orioles into a playoff contender, they probably did it to boost attendence or something. If they really wanted to improve the team, they'd have traded for a good starting pitcher.

3rdCoast
01-31-2005, 12:09 AM
The Birds' main drawback was inconsistency. They scored nine-plus runs a stunning 32 times, but often went a week without enough guys for a quorom crossing the plate. That's the risk you take when the burden is borne by a few individuals prone to slumps.

the experts say otherwise. i guess we will see.

atlfan25
01-31-2005, 12:12 AM
perhaps you could give your opinion as to why baltimore is now good enough to beat out the likes of new york and boston.

3rdCoast
01-31-2005, 12:15 AM
I did not express that as my personal opinion. I just stated that as an opinion from the experts.

atlfan25
01-31-2005, 12:15 AM
i know you didn't, it's why i asked.

atlfan25
01-31-2005, 12:19 AM
btw, i agree with Tom Singer, Sosa gives Baltimore a fantastic lineup. Yet Still not good enough to overtake either Boston or New York. Which Tom didn't say would happen in his article either. So i don't see any experts disagreeing with me.

3rdCoast
01-31-2005, 12:19 AM
i think they can beat new york cuz they will choke like they did last year and the year before.

as for them beating boston, i dont know....................

atlfan25
01-31-2005, 12:20 AM
Doesn't seem to me Baltimore will make it to the playoffs to allow the Yankees to choke.

FromWayDowntown
02-02-2005, 04:54 PM
Had they gotten Sosa a couple of years ago, I (as an Orioles fan) would have been very happy with the deal. The fact that they got Sosa for Jerry Hairston and a couple of minor leaguers is pretty telling of Sosa's current value. He'll hit some tapemeasure home runs and run at full speed into right field, but I can't see how Sammy will make any real difference for the Orioles in terms of wins and losses. Sosa strikes out too much in a lineup that has its fair share of big-time whiffers. The Orioles are likely to be baseball's best buzzkill -- I'd be willing to be that several times this season, they'll get fans hyped up by juicing the bases with nobody out, only to record 3 straight strikeouts to end the inning.

Had they gotten Hudson and/or Pavano AND added Sosa, I'd feel better about their chances; but Sosa alone is unlikely to do much.

IceColdBrewski
02-02-2005, 08:47 PM
As a Cubs fan, I'm not all that sad to see him go. Dude dove hard into a major slump last year. The kind of slump that some never recover from. I wish him well. But I'm more excited about the minor league prospects than the thought of Sammy returning for another year.

FromWayDowntown
02-02-2005, 09:30 PM
I guess that whottt can now start considering where Sammy Sosa falls on the Frank Robinson/Rafael Palmiero Hall-of-Fame scale. (since all will have been Orioles by retirement).

atlfan25
02-02-2005, 11:44 PM
I have learned from my sources that the Orioles are trying to land Javier Vazquez, but the Diamondbacks do not seem willing.

This is a good sign that they are trying to land some good starting pitching and really better the team. I think they should offer up Sosa for a top notch starter.

Leo_ARG
02-03-2005, 12:37 AM
http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news.jsp?ymd=20050202&content_id=938463&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp

There is Castillo and Tejada talking about him in a video.

OMG! How come the dominican's speak english that badly! They work in the USA and they have trouble speaking.
I realize now how well Manu speaks.