With trade rumors swirling this week of the Orioles going to get an arm at the possible expense of Manny Machado, some O’s fans are pleased and others are strongly against it. This season in Double-A Bowie, Machado is hitting a modest .264 in 84 games. He does have an impressive 48 RBI’s, a strong 10 stolen bases and a decent OBP of .347. But are those numbers good enough for the Orioles to still have the utmost confidence in their first round pick of a few seasons ago?

The Baltimore Sun was amongst many media outlets that first reported that the Orioles are shopping around for Zack Greinke, the ace of the Milwaukee Brewers. Greinke was ejected in yesterday’s ballgame against the Astros for spiking a baseball after a call at first base, clearly he’s frustrated with his play in Milwaukee. The Orioles have a very strong need for another starting pitcher to counteract with Tampa and the Yankees. With Hammel and Chen both having outstanding seasons, one more great pitcher would be a huge help. And Greinke who is 9-3 with a 3.17 ERA, would absolutely fit that need. Greinke won the Cy Young while winning 16 games with one of the worst teams in baseball that season. He is a stud on the hill and the Orioles as well as every organization in baseball would be lucky to have him. But the question that Orioles fans are asking; is Machado too much to give up?

JJ Hardy is locked up for another 2 seasons after this season and he has been one of the best shortstops in baseball. With the Orioles competing at the All-Star Break, and getting to the point they are at with some dismal starting pitching of late, I believe it is an obvious move. Machado has been good in the minors, but not great. Matt Wieters was great in the minors and it showed how quickly he was called up. Machado was drafted a year before Dylan Bundy, yet Bundy has gained a significant amount more of attention as far as call-ups go. I understand many Orioles fans will disagree with me, but Greinke is only 28 years old. He has shown no sign of slowing down. The Orioles haven’t made the playoffs in over 15 years and with a legitimate line-up this season, my opinion is you have got to make the move.

A friend of mine made the argument that we wouldn’t win the World Series if we reached the playoffs, but he didn’t quite think that through did he? We would have made the playoffs for the first time in 16 seasons. This city needs a baseball home playoff game. That should be the goal. So in my opinion, make the move Birds.

He has been an Indian, a Phillie (twice), a White Sox, a Twin, a Dodger, and now, we can call Jim Thome a Oriole.  Thome was acquired this afternoon from Philadelphia.  In return, we send RHP Kyle Simon and C Gabriel Lino.  Thome has a hall-of-fame pedigree. 609 Home Runs ties him with (former Oriole) Sammy Sosa for 7th place all time.  He’s a 5 time All-Star, 2 time Man of the Year, and is the All time record holder (modern era) for Walk off Home Runs.

The Orioles have a propensity for adding aging talent to their roster.  We’ve seen before:  names like Vladimir Guerrero, Sammy Sosa, Miguel Tejada, Jamie Moyer, Javy Lopez, Kevin Millar…and that’s just the last few years.  Thome is no different, as he turns 42 years young on August 27th.  Thome does indeed add a Veteran presence , and has a reputation for being a positive impact in the clubhouse.

The Phillies chose to part ways with Thome.  He wasn’t able to be their every day First Baseman, due to back issues.  He struggled this season as a pinch hitter, but during interleauge play, where he was able to be the DH for 9 consecutive games, his stats were fantastic for any power hitter .333/4/14 with a .722 slugging percentage.  The Orioles have completed inter league play, and would  only face a National League team should they advance to World Series play.  As an Oriole,  Thome is an every day player at DH, something the Orioles have lacked this season, with Showalter moving position  players in and out of that role on a day to day basis.

While this trade does not fix our fielding issues, this does add a man with a proven history to put Runs on the board.  The O’s had won many of games this season despite their sloppy defense, they haven’t won game where they couldn’t produce runs.

From the business side of the deal, the Orioles have a win.  While it’s too soon to tell if the a-ball talents Simon or Lino will develop into big name talents, we didn’t deal away any of our key developing prospects to trigger this trade (Bundy, Machado, Schoop, etc).  Financially, Thome has very little impact.  His contract this season is a mere $1.25M, half of which the Phillies will pay.  Comparatively, Mark Reynolds is set to earn $7.5M (and worth every penny, right?).  Perhaps adding a Left Handed Power Bat like Thome make it a bit easier to put Reynolds on the trade block, and not need as much in return.

Most importantly, the front office making a roster move that will seriously keep the club in contention, I see as a huge leap of faith to the fanbase.  Even if Thome doesn’t jump in and begin producing, that fact that the organization wasn’t satisfied to leave well enough alone, well, makes me hopeful that this won’t be the only roster addition before the trade deadline.

Thome is likely to be in the lineup on Sunday, as the Orioles try to split their 4 game series against Thome’s former club, the Cleveland Indians.

@JamesTFinn