Time's a wastin'!

The trade deadline takes place in less than 24 hours and already GM Andy MacPhail has scheduled a press conference for 5 p.m. tomorrow.

Intrigued?

In all seriousness, the Orioles are likely to stand pat. Only George Sherrill has been routinely scouted by other teams and MacPhail is asking for a king's ransom (2 MLB ready prospects) in return.

Meanwhile, the O's best players -- Brian Roberts and Aubrey Huff -- aren't being sought after, which makes it very likely they will finish the season, if not their contracts which expire after 2009, as Orioles.

We can sit and argue over whether MacPhail should make trades until we're blue in the face, but the bottom line is that we don't know what is being offered by other teams.

And making trades for the sake of making trades makes no sense. Remember Larry Bigby for Eric Byrnes? Yeah... that's what I said.

The only chance the O's have of being serious movers before 4 p.m. tomorrow is if the GM of another team gets paranoid and caves in to MacPhail's steep demands.

One thing is for sure, regardless of whether we make trades or not, or whether we should or shouldn't, is that the trade deadline is the most annoying, and stressful time for baseball fans. Especially when your team is losing, like the O's have been.

Fans have somehow been convinced that all of the team's needs and prayers can be answered by making a couple of trades on deadline day. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

For now, let's hope a GM with sweaty palms coughs up those 2 MLB ready prospects for Sherrill or the Yankees realize they can't finish out the season with Jose Molina and Chad Moeller at catcher and give MacPhail what he wants for Ramon Hernandez.

So it all comes down to this: It really depends on other teams whether or not the O's are active tomorrow.

Just remember to keep that in mind when MacPhail comes to the podium at 5 p.m. tomorrow empty handed.