Picking Splinters

Slammin’ Sammy is coming to Camden and the reaction from around the baseball world seems fairly polarized. Either it was a needed trade that will give the O’s one of the most feared lineups in baseball, benefiting the team at the box office and in the box scores. Or it was a huge mistake, trading a valuable commodity in Jerry Hairston while not addressing the Orioles’ most pressing need — pitching.

It seems to me this will neither be as good or as bad as proponents and detractors have made it out to be from a pure baseball perspective. What it does give the Orioles is a story line, and story lines generate interest from the fans, and interest from the fans generates some cash for Orioles owner Peter Angelos and (theoretically) the franchise.

To this point in the off-season stud players have avoided Baltimore as though the foul lines were made of Anthrax. Seeking to make another splash on the market, the O’s got shut out in their pursuit of Carl Pavano, Richie Sexson and most recently Carlos Delgado. No one is sure precisely why players are so averse to joining the O’s but you don’t have to be Peter Gammons to recognize two deterrents to signing on with Baltimore. First, Camden Yards is a hitters’ ball park, a strike as far as luring pitchers. And second, the Orioles play in the same division as the Yankees and the Red Sox, thus dissuading anyone who holds any realistic dream of making a run at the World Series.

The latter reason, is a piece of a two-part equation that, in my mind, dictates that this is a trade that almost had to be made. With the Yankees and Red Sox dumping nearly $350 million into player salaries, and showing very few signs that they’ll break up their stranglehold on the AL East/Wild Card tandem any time soon, and with a new franchise in Washington, D.C. garnering plenty of attention, the Orioles were in danger of falling into obscurity. And obscurity is a dangerous place when competing for finicky fan dollars.

I personally don’t believe Angelos’ posturing and blustering that the Nationals will destroy his fan base. It will affect it, certainly, but it will not render the stands at Camden desolate. But the competition will require Angelos to get his franchise off the cruise control he had it on before last season. And idleness this off-season is not an option.

To this point, it seemed like Angelos was more than willing to take his foot off the gas pedal again. While negotiating a compensation package (which is taking longer than the Dayton Accords) with Commissioner Bud Selig, Angelos was hesitant to cough up the extra cash to land Pavano, Sexson or Delgado in what has been a free agent market rife with inflated contracts.

I can agree with the O’s front office that the majority of this year’s free agent class is worth far less than they were given and for that reason the deal for Sosa makes a lot of sense. Yes, Sosa has a hefty contract, but the Cubs are paying the vast majority of it anyway. And yes, Sosa has been declining in his production and has injury issues, but he only has one year left on his contract. So should the worst happen and Sosa gets hurt or even if he just flat out stinks, Baltimore won’t be hamstrung by a long-term contract (a la Albert Belle). The only downside is that the O’s still have not addressed their pitching woes (they had the ninth-worst ERA in the Majors last year) and Hairston could have been a nice chip to deal for a starting pitcher. Especially since every year it becomes more and more apparent that the only way the Birds will be able to add to their staff will be through trades.

Will this trade propel Baltimore to the playoffs? Not unless the Yankees or Red Sox are abducted by aliens. Will it help them at all? Yes, but more so at the box office than on the field. But in the financially dominated world of baseball, box office help ain’t such a bad thing. Here are some other thoughts from a busy sports week: