In the unlikely event you haven't heard, the Orioles have signed Miguel Tejada.  They are, according to credible reports, prepared to announce the signings of Vladimir Guerrero and Ivan Rodriguez on Monday.  (By the time you read this, in fact, hopefully, those deals have been officially announced as well.)

Assuming that all of this comes to be, I'm going to suggest that perhaps it's time to lay off the club's two-headed general manager, Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan.  The duo, on the job for barely a year, has accomplished quite a bit.  Let's look at the tally sheet:

1) assuming the aforementioned signings are for real, have dramatically improved the team at three positions.  Deivi Cruz has been replaced by Miguel Tejada; Brook Fordyce, et al--replaced by Ivan Rodriguez; effectively speaking, the DH mess has been replaced by Vladimir Guererro (with Jay Gibbons presumably moving to first base) and defensively, Gibbons has been replaced by Guerrero.  Those are major, major upgrades (offensively and defensively); just offensively, this replacement is probably worth 12-15 wins (based on a very quick and dirty runs created analysis), which is a whole bunch.

2) given the Orioles a legitimately competitive (I didn't say contending, I said competitive) team for the upcoming season; there is every reason to believe that the Orioles have a solid chance to crack .500 despite playing in a division hip-deep in talent...of course the Orioles haven't fielded a .500+ team since 1997.

3) demonstrated, despite the oft-repeated opinions of some, that they understand that the franchise's minor league coffers are thin on position players; again, assuming the deals mentioned above come about, they just went out and spent big money on three proven star-level position players.

4) put Baltimore baseball back on the map in a variety of ways:

    a)    at the fan level--guaranteed, Baltimore baseball fans have been given something to be truly excited about going into a season for the first time in at least six years; one can expect that this move, made before the Christmas holiday, will have a positive and very possibly dramatic effect on ticket sales, particularly season sales, which have been in steady decline for several years, and on the perceived value of the club.

    b)    at the greater baseball level--the Orioles have been a forgotten stepchild in the baseball ranks for a number of seasons now; that just changed...if the deals go through, the Orioles will have knocked the Yankees and Red Sox off the face of the national baseball psyche for at least a day or two...people will be talking about the Orioles for the first time in years...and maybe we'll actually see some Orioles games on ESPN in 2004.

    c)    the problem that "free agents don't want to play in Baltimore" has just been buried in a shallow grave...three big time free agents just landed in Charm City.  Break out the champagne.  No longer will a call from Baltimore to a prospective big name free agent be laughed off.

5) not related directly to the big deals, but the duo also has to be given some credit for the palpable improvement shown at the franchise's minor league affiliates this past year.  After inheriting a moribund minor league system, the Beattie & Flanagan team brought in Doc Rodgers; they at least gave their approval to a much needed house cleaning of the system's professional staff and the results were unmistakable--dramatic improvement on the field, and notable progress by a number of players who had been nothing but disappointing previously.  The system may not be the best in baseball, but for the first time in (seemingly) eons, it's clearly headed in the right direction, and this change was made in the pair's first year at the helm.

6) regained some credibility for the entire organization with its fan base.  Related to point 4a.  Some fans--perhaps many--had reached a stage where they simply didn't believe what Beattie & Flanagan said.  At the beginning of the off-season, when the Orioles announced that they planned to be major players in the free agent market, many scoffed.  The Orioles made similar statements last off-season and were not players, these folks pointed out.  I don't think anyone can deny that the Orioles, at this point, certainly have been major players in this year's market.  What's more, they inked the right guys.  They spent a lot of money, but they did it on players who could move the Orioles to a much higher level now, and several years down the road (particularly with regard to Tejada and Guerrero).  As a result, fans are more likely to give the Orioles the benefit of the doubt, something that had been--justifiably in my view--in rather short supply in recent years.

Let's give credit where it's due.  And let's realistically look forward to the Orioles' 2004 season opener for reasons beyond the mere fact that "baseball's back" for the first time in years.

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