Erik Bedard Trade: Pull the Trigger, Peter Angelos

As any remaining O's fan must know, the Orioles appear to be on the cusp of trading Erik Bedard to Seattle for a packaged headlined by Adam Jones, Chris Tillman, and George Sherrill.

It appears that the hold-up, legitimate or not, is coming for the Orioles end. There are so many reasons to jump on this deal that it's driving me crazy:

1. As great a pitcher as Bedard is developing into, he's in his late 20's and has never thrown 200 innings in a season.

2. He's about to get really expensive (in a non Johan kind of way); his agent is throwing around seven years, $ 100 million.

With that out of the way, I think it's fair to assume that Bedard is not signing a long term extension with the O's. He wants to be paid for his talent; the team wants to pay for his (limited) production.

With that said, let's look at the Orioles situation:

1. Unless you're into lying to yourself, the Orioles have no chance at making the playoffs in 2008. Nick Markakis may be the only everyday player who could start for the Yankees, and they might not even be the best team in the division.

2. Even if Bedard throws 250 innings with a 1.00 ERA, they STILL WON'T MAKE THE PLAYOFFS

So if we can't sign him long term and we can't win with him, why not make a move that could help us contend in the future?

Andy McPhail seems like a bright guy; if he thinks this is the best we can do for Bedard (note to Angelos, the Reds aren’t dealing Jay Bruce), than it's time to make the move. Let's all hope Peter Angelos finally accepts the fact that there's no prize for finishing fourth in the AL East.

If they Orioles want to do what's best for the franchise, they need to be fully committed to rebuilding.