Hey Melvin Mora... SHUT UP!

If you're not familiar with the situation, click here and here. I think the first link really sums up this whole enchilada. Melvin Mora sort of sucks, and sort of always has. He had 3 big seasons, from 2003-2005 (ironically when the whole Oriole team was reportedly juicing), and really is a borderline starting 3rd baseman to begin with. He was signed as an amateur free agent in 1991, which makes him no spring chicken, at 38 (might not even be his real age). If you subtract his unusually high batting averages from his 3 best seasons, which in my opinion are suspect, considering the roided up gutter trash he shared a clubhouse with for those 3 years, then his batting average is at least 10 points lower than the .278 career mark he currently carries. I personally wanted him gone at the end of '05, despite the great numbers he was able to post last season. I'm sure there are a lot of O's fans who will disagree with my feelings towards Mora, and I've got no problem with that. The only reason he has looked even remotely decent over the course of the last 10 seasons is because the Orioles system had been so weak for so long that he was about all we had. You put him on a team with a truly deep roster, and he's a 6th or 7th place hitter at best.

I will say in Mora's defense, that he has been loyal to Baltimore through some of it's roughest seasons in recent memory, and has blossomed into a pretty good defensive third baseman in the process. His skills however, are clearly on the decline, and in a way I sort of feel bad for him. The writing has been on the wall for at least 2 seasons now that this is a team going through a bit of a youth movement, and clearly re-building. What makes him think he can bat .256 with 3 home runs and 25 RBIs through 100 games and still be in the starting lineup, batting 5th every day? Get a freaking clue, and shut your damn mouth. Did you not just see the Orioles trade George Sherrill for a 3rd base prospect? How much clearer can we make it Melvin?