Five weeks before spring training opens in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the Orioles aren't exactly ready for battle.
They don't have a definite starting center fielder or shortstop, a closer or an innings-eating veteran starter.
Lone All-Star Brian Roberts and ace Erik Bedard are still dangling on an Inner Harbor pier as club president Andy MacPhail decides whether to fish or cut bait in the trade market.
No one - not even MacPhail - knows exactly what this team will look like when pitchers and catchers start tossing around the baseball Feb. 14.
Given the recent past of this organization, maybe that's a good thing. In January, anyway, ambiguity trumps completed mediocrity.
MacPhail deserves credit for not knee-jerking in his rebuilding effort and trading for the sake of trading. Or for signing inadequate quick fixes to multiyear deals, only to regret it come, say, April 1.
But that doesn't make this uncertainty for 2008 and beyond any easier to stomach.
Will fan favorite and community leader Roberts be dealt to the Chicago Cubs? Will Bedard take his sarcastic sneer and blessed left arm to Seattle? Will the Orioles keep both players, and decide to play seven in the field because they don't have enough legitimate big leaguers to fill out a diamond?
With spring training looming, the 69-win Orioles have traded their most heralded player, shortstop Miguel Tejada, for five youngsters while signing an obscure backup catcher and a Rule 5 reliever.
That's it.
Not exactly the refreshing overhaul expected when MacPhail rode into town in June. He has preached patience and a carefully orchestrated plan for improvement. That requires a leap of faith, however, because past administrations seemingly didn't have the roadmap back to respectability. Or the car. Or the road.
This much we know: MacPhail has been around baseball for a long time. He has earned respect within the game, including that of Orioles owner Peter Angelos. And MacPhail has said repeatedly that he has Angelos' blessing to do whatever it takes to make this team relevant again.
We also know this: No conspiracy theories are needed to explain why other major trades haven't been made. There were no last-minute snags, and Angelos hasn't shot down any deals.
Simply put: MacPhail knows what he wants to acquire for Bedard or Roberts, he hasn't received it, and he's not bending in his demands.
