O's Continue To Upgrade - That is the most important aspect of signing Miguel Tejada: He is an upgrade. When the Baltimore Orioles signed Tejada, they upgraded the infield. They upgraded the lineup. They upgraded the team. It's that simple.

This was a no-brainer. There is no controversy. There are no bad feelings involved. The Orioles released third baseman Melvin Mora because they simply had to. He was dead weight. Mora's bat has drastically declined.

So why shouldn't they have signed Tejada and bring him back to Baltimore?

They only signed him to a one-year deal worth $6 million, a deal that is more than reasonable. He is going to move over and play third base now, the necessary move to make. He hit .313 last year with the Houston Astros and recorded 199 hits. And to top all of that off, his teammates love him.

Brian Roberts, the longest tenured Orioles and the leader of the team, was in support of signing his former teammate. "I don't think you could find anybody who has ever played with him who didn't enjoy him as a teammate," Roberts said.

Tejada only hit 14 home runs last year and he is moving back to the American League East, a division that included pitchers C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Jon Lester, John Lackey, Josh Beckett and so on.

But Tejada doesn't need to be Baltimore's clean up hitter. His power isn't what Baltimore needs from him, which is a good thing because his power is declining. Tejada still has to ability to drive a lot of runs without the long ball. He hit 46 doubles last year in Houston to go along with a 3.40 OBP.

Tejada can be a crucial element to the offense success whether he is closer to the bottom of the batting lineup or the top. But one thing is for certain; the Orioles do not need to have him bat in the fourth spot, especially with the rising power of Adam Jones and Matt Wieters.

This signing also allows the Orioles to move Garret Atkins to first base, finally taking care of the corner infield problems they had going into the offseason. And lets face it; Atkins and Tejada were two of the best players available at this point. They can also provide some much-needed assistance for the talented prospects Baltimore has at the corner infield positions, Brandon Snyder and Josh Bell. There was simply no reason not to sign Tejada.

Not to mention; this signing, along with the potential signing of former Oriole Erik Bedard, makes Andy MacPhail a genius. Two years ago, MacPhail traded Tejada to the Astros, Bedard to the Mariners and acquired 10 players in the process. Now, it is very likely that both Tejada and Bedard will return to Baltimore. This just proved the MacPhail has taken the Baltimore organization in the right direction. -Michael Klopman

For more coverage of the Miguel Tejada signing read: Tejada Returns to Baltimore in Controversial Fashion

Michael, a Penn State Graduate writes for XtraPointFootball.com, AroundtheHornBaseball.com, is a contributor to the Bleacher Report, and works on the sports page at the Huffington Post.

If you haven't voted in our poll on the site yet please do so. We are trying to get a feel for how our readers are looking at the game of MLB so we can write about things they want to hear. The poll question is, "Do you think that MLB should have a salary cap or something similar?" - Please vote.

Have a Fantasy Football or Rotisserie baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship.

Comments (2)

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment