Orioles' Roster should have been 2004 Roster

Greensboro, NC -- That snazzy little summary that follows this blog's name in the top left corner, "... your daily serving of genius" might as well be changed to "your semi-annual serving of genius."  Yes, I know it's been way too long since I've written in this space, but The Less Desirables podcast has completely consumed my free time.  This space should be used for random thoughts, which it will be from now on.  I think, in the past, when I was an active blogger, this space was used to tell a well thought-out story, or something that intrigued me to write something about it.  Let's trim down the length, and just get some thoughts published in this space!

One of my favorite times of the year is the end of March/beginning of April.  The NCAA tournament is wrapping up, the long NHL and NBA seasons are coming to a close, but most importantly, it's the start of baseball!  Thanks to DirecTV's free MLB Extra Innings preview (for the next two weeks), I've been able to check out each team's early season roster.  After scanning the Orioles' roster this season, I had to check my notes from the infamous 2003-2004 offseason.  During that time, the Orioles were able to expunge the expensive Albert Belle contract (5 years/$65M), and finally dip into the free agent pool.  The Orioles signed Miguel Tejada, Rafael Palmeiro, Javy Lopez, and Sidney Ponson to multi-year deals that offseason.  While it appeared to be a major splash at the time, I felt the Orioles didn't make a cannonball-sized splash.  Vladimir Guerrero spurned the Orioles, and took less money from the Angels, while Derrek Lee balked at the O's offer in an exclusive trading window (he was eventually traded to the Cubs) with the Marlins.  Let's check out this season's lineup:

• Brian Roberts, 2B -- On the 2004 team.
• Nick Markakis, RF -- Drafted in 2003; probably could have played on the '04 team due to a lack of prospects in the O's farm system at the time.
• Derrek Lee, 1B -- should have been on the '04 team.
• Vladimir Guerrero, DH -- ditto Lee.
• Luke Scott, LF
• Adam Jones, CF
• Mark Reynolds, 3B
• Matt Wieters, C
• JJ Hardy, SS 

Ok, so the similarities might not be as strong as you think.  However, it's interesting that this team signed two players -- 7 years later -- that they swung and miss the first time around.