Not Changing With The Times

I was absolutely livid when I read this.

"Most major-league teams are working to sign their best young players to multi-year deals. But right now, the Orioles' internal philosophy is to wait for at least three years before discussing a multi-year deal with the likes of Adam Jones and Nick Markakis."

I have no words for how mad this makes me. The Orioles current roster is lacking in talent - especially talent that will be contributing to the team's success in the future. The two main exceptions to this are Jones and Markakis. There is approximately zero reasons why they shouldn't lock both guys up (especially Markakis) long-term as soon as is reasonably possible. What do they think is going to happen to Nick? He's shown what kind of player he is, and is he still improving. Of the risk inherent in a contract, I'd say that at this point at least 90% of it is due to injury (which is applicable to all players) and Nick has been healthy through-out his career. If they wait to sign Kakes and it ends up costing them extra money, then I don't really care (as long as it doesn't keep the team from improving elsewhere) - I'd rather the money goes to him than Angelos' pocket. On the other hand, if they either lose out on years of control of his peak (that is, he only stays with the team through age 27 or so) or have to sign him too long (say, $25 million for his age 34 season) then it ends up looking like a horrible decision. Signing one young player long-term is a risk; signing 5 young players long-term diversifies the risk to the point that the team is extremely likely to come out ahead.

Trading Bedard was a good move. If they fail to sign Nick though, I will have to seriously evaluate my feelings towards the team.

[I realize that this is largely an overreaction, but it was my initial response to the situation. Seriously though, they should sign Nick right now. Right now.]