The orioles officially announced today that they have traded for JJ Hardy and Brendan Harris and sent minor league relievers Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobson. In my opinion this trade is a slam dunk for the orioles they get an above average starting shortstop and a utility infielder for a middle relief prospect and a 27 year old coming off recent surgery and that has had a sky high era in the limited time he has been in the bigs.
Hardy is a good defensive player with a good arm and his UZR ratings are pretty high. He also can hit for an average to above average batting average and has a lot of power.
With Brendan Harris being signed it's highly unlikely now the Caesar Izturis will return to the team with them already have above average starters at second and short with Harris backing them up. Both Harris and Hardy are both used to being trade candidates with the 30 year old Harris being on his 7Th team and Hardy being traded twice within a year.
In my mind we really did not give up anything with Hoey being a triple A pitcher and Jacobson being a middle reliever making him a dime a dozen and easy to replace. It won't be hard for the orioles to find relief help with a myriad of relievers out there and they already have a pretty solid 4 in Koji, Gonzalez, Johnson, and Berken.
The birds really need to focus their attention on getting either Adam Laroche or Derek Lee the two best first baseman options available. They both will probably put up similar numbers Lee might hit for a higher average but Laroche will probably have more home runs.
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