Can Aubrey huff, puff his way into the post-season?

"Dress for the job you want, not the job you have." Ahem.

From his purple checkered pants to his red thong, former Oriole Aubrey Huff certainly doesn't dress for the job he has; whether he's in fact dressing for the job he wants is anybody's best guess.

Huff did not return a request for comment prior to the Roar from 34 deadline. [Note: I didn't actually contact Aubrey Huff.]

Sartorial savvy aside, Huff is making news these days for things that actually have to do with the game of baseball. As fans in Baltimore well know, that's not a taken-for-granted type thing.

Here are a few tidbits about Huff's chase for the post-season, his big numbers on bad teams, and his prospects for next season.

-Turns out that Huff was the losingest player of the 2000s. Playing for the Orioles will do that to a guy. Washington Post

Huff has played in 1,470 regular season games, which means he trails only Texas's Michael Young and St. Louis's Randy Winn among active players who have appeared in the most games without a playoff appearance. But neither Young nor Winn has suffered quite as acutely as Huff. He was the losingest player of the 2000s, which he spent primarily with the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles, appearing in 776 losses. (Winn was second, at 771.)

When I asked Huff if he has allowed himself to imagine that moment when the Giants clinch a playoff berth he said, "Oh, God, absolutely. How could you not? All that hard work, the mental grind, the misery, finally paying off? There's still a long way to go here, and there could still be a bad ending, but hopefully this is the year for me."

-Rays third baseman Evan Longoria recently became the fourth player in franchise history to tally consecutive 100 RBI seasons. The others: Fred McGriff (1999-00), Carlos Pena (2007-08-09) and Aubrey Huff (2003-04). MLB.com

-Like the Orioles, the Cubs need a first baseman for the 2011 season. The Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan raises Huff's name as a possibility. Chicago Tribune

Paul, what are the chances that the Cubs resign Xavier Nady as their first basemen, instead of wasting money on Adam Dunn? Do they try to go value with Nady at first, if it would allow them to splurge on Carl Crawford? -- Chad, Kansas City. Mo.

Nady's agent, Scott Boras, is probably working on a 20-page mission statement regarding the value Nady has provided with his strong finish since Derrek Lee was traded and he got regular time at first. I like Nady, but his slow start while recovering from Tommy John surgery was one of the problems early on in 2010. The Cubs need a power hitting first baseman, preferably a left-handed hitter. If not Dunn, then perhaps a short-term, one-year fix like Aubrey Huff until they get more payroll flexibility in 2012.

-Finally, here's a USA Today profile from last week about Huff considering the prospects of playoff baseball.

-30-

Baltimore Orioles