The Baltimore Orioles acquired Sammy Sosa for two mediocre prospects and their second best 2nd baseman. They will pay him just $7 million.

Now, I want to say that a lot has to go right for the O’s to contend. But think about it. Isn’t it likely that Luis Matos and Jay Gibbons will each be better than their below-replacement level 2004’s? And isn’t it likely that Sidney Ponson will improve upon his 2004 numbers? And don’t you think Sammy should be able to post an .875ish OPS? So those are kind of the given improvements for the Orioles. They do have some bigtime regression candidates in Melvin Mora and Javy Lopez but let’s just say for shits and giggles that every Oriole replicates his 2004 except for the aforementioned, who all improve.

The Orioles posted an 82-80 Pythag in 2004 but even that doesn’t tell you how unlucky Baltimore was. Their W3% (Clay Davenport of BP’s creation) was 86-76. The slobbering dolts will tell you differently but the real story of this trade is that the Orioles have an outside shot at contention while the Cubs, in letting the wildly overrated Dusty Baker pull the strings, have revealed themselves to be far more poorly run than I ever realized.

What’s worse, being myopic or moronic?