Let's go through this again

Update: Edited. Because the largest possible font on Angelos was kind of creepy looking.

Still no deal between the Mariners and the Orioles. Why?

Orioles owner has nixed deals before

High-powered attorney Peter Angelos was hailed as a hero when he purchased the Baltimore Orioles in 1993 from the bankruptcy-laden Eli Jacobs, heading a group that spent $173 million to restore local ownership.

Now, to some Baltimore fans, Angelos is a pariah. Under his hands-on ownership — heavy handed, many would say — the Orioles have had a revolving door of managers and general managers. Their front-office operation has been viewed as largely dysfunctional, and they haven't posted a winning season in 10 years.

Angelos, 78 and still feisty enough to put in six-day work weeks at the Baltimore law firm that made him a multimillionaire defending asbestos victims, apparently looms at the crux of the stalled trade talks between the Mariners and Orioles.

With Adam Jones heading home from Venezuela to Phoenix on Tuesday, discussions continued between the two teams. The proposed deal would bring left-handed pitcher Erik Bedard to Seattle for outfielder Jones, reliever George Sherrill and an undetermined number of Seattle minor-leaguers.

However, there was new word Tuesday that the Mariners might not be the only team in the hunt for Bedard.

Geoff Baker's Blog has made for interesting reading over the last few days.

First there was Angelos strikes again

Just when you think it's safe to tell your players they're being traded, the Mariners have seen Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos step back into the fray to remind everyone who's really running things. Today has been one of those days that reminds writers just how frustrating it can be to cover some of the comical personalities in this game. The latest from the Baltimore Sun is that an O's club source confirmed Jones was supposed to be in Baltimore today for a physical, but that's been scuttled.

You know what? This situation is now becoming a circus and Angelos is far from the only clown. Let's look at what Adam Jones, who let the cat out of his equipment bag about the deal in Venezuela on Sunday, is now telling people, as per KOMO 1000 radio reporter Shannon Drayer's blog.

"He says that he said nothing about being traded to the Venezuelan press,'' Drayer writes, relaying details of an email conversation with Jones. "Something may have been lost in translation somewhere."

Ah yes, if all else fails and you've dug yourself a gigantic hole, just cover it up by shovelling a bunch of manure into it and blaming the Spanish-speaking reporter from the South American country. Here's the problem with Jones's first attempt at a media coverup of what he told reporter Augusto Cardenas from Diario Panorama on Sunday. My first language is English and Cardenas, well, he happened to make an audio recording of the conversation with Jones.

I just had the tape played for me over the phone from Venezuela and, yes, Jones definitely said he was off to Baltimore this morning for a physical and that he'd been traded to the Orioles. Talked all about looking forward to meeting his new teammates in Florida this spring. So, nice try. But Jones should stick to baseball and leave the backpedalling to football players.

Anyhow, I don't want to go off on Jones too much. He's just a 22-year-old who probably feels terrible about what's happened and been told to keep his mouth shut from now on. But I don't like it when baseball players and management types try to pass off their mistakes on to the shoulders of reporters from other countries whose language skills make them an easy target.

Then, there was this Jones not the scapegoat

Just got caught up on all my reading from last night and it seems we've had ourselves quite the journalistic debate on this baseball blog. Hey, that's OK. Whatever turns your crank. Let's just make a few things clear this morning, so we can all move forward:

1. The Erik Bedard-Adam Jones deal is not dead
2. Jones is not to be blamed for the deal being hung-up

OK, so it's only a couple of things. About Jones, no I was not happy with him yesterday for implying that Augusto Cardenas of Diario Panorama had lost something in translation and misquoted him about going to Baltimore for a physical. Here is last night's game story by Cardenas from Venezuela. He is a professional reporter -- not some creative writing supermarket tabloid type. The audio of the Jones interview shows it was not off-the-record. It was legit. And as I said, I don't like it when people try to cover mistakes by throwing someone else, and their credibility, to the wolves.

That said, Jones is not a bad person. He was trying to be as helpful as he could to Cardenas and inadvertently set off a chain of events that the Mariners are now unable to stash away from view. Jones is only 22 and, like I said, as a media member, I like that he takes the time to speak to Cardenas honestly and that he emails Shannon Drayer with updates for her blog.

In this case, he made a mistake by talking too soon. He made another one by trying to pass the blame off to Cardenas instead of saying "no comment". And I called him on it. But he is not a "clown" as a person, he's actually fairly mature for his age. Jones comes off looking funny and clown-like in this particular instance, as do the three other main players -- Peter Angelos, Bill Bavasi and Andy MacPhail -- trying to cover-up a trade that was obviously about to happen.

Read both posts in their entirety.

The silence of some of the Mariner blogs...concerns me.