I was happy to see the Orioles do SOMETHING before the deadline… but not when I found out that this was the move.

I would have rather seen them trade prospects to get Koji Uehara back honestly… and he’s not even pitching right now due to injury.

Buck needs to stop messing with the line-up, and keep Xavier Avery in there. Hopefully they can keep treading water until the all-star break and Markakis makes it back soon to re-ignite the fire they had earlier in the season.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/ben_reiter/06/25/yankees-designated-hitter-chavez-jones-ibanez-jeter-rodriguez/index.html

One thing I do know is that Jim Thome > Yankees DH right now

I just hate to see Jim on the bench when I think it’d be exciting to still see him hit long balls everyday and pass up some of the juicin’ crew on the HR list.

The Orioles deal does ruin my fantasy of seeing Thome traded to the CWS, then somehow finding himself back in Minnesota. (Thus doing the same 4-team cycle twice!)

He’ll likely be the everyday DH (unless the Orioles want to play him at third base…) and I believe that he will hit well enough in that role to help the club, which is going through a real down stretch offensively right now.

Simon and Lino are fine prospects, and a lot of Orioles fans (the ones who pay attention to the minors) are upset that Lino is going in the deal–he is one of the few international hitting prospects to show any promise for the Orioles in years, maybe decades–but both are in high-A ball and struggling. Simon isn’t striking out enough guys, and Lino is striking out too much. They can both be contributors in the majors, but probably not for at least three or four years.

The Orioles are straggling a bit right now, but they are still in the race. They are in the second wild-card spot and still ahead of Boston and Tampa in the division. They may fade, or outright collapse, the rest of the way and prove a lot of people right, or they could stay in it through the end of the season and if not make the playoffs at least get above .500 for the first time since 1997′s wire-to-wire year. Right now, as long as they aren’t giving up high-level, advanced talent and can find guys to help them keep the team going through the year, they should make some moves.

Anyway, why the heck isn’t Jim going to be a full-time DH with, say, the Rays? What is with this part-time nonsense? This is Big Jim we’re talking about here, he still very much deserves full time work…. right??

Ex-Mets and Twins OF Jason Pridie gets the vacated roster spot. He went .370/.442/.652 in 12 games at AAA between signing early in June and going home to Arizona for the birth of a child a couple days ago.