Orioles Off-Season So Far...

We are right in the middle of football season and basketball season just started, so naturally, nobody is talking about Major League Baseball. There is good reason for people to not talk about baseball too much, but the Hot Stove is still an exciting time in the game. I believe it is interesting to follow player movement, but even I lose track sometimes in the offseason. Therefore, I decided to do the work for you and fill you in on what my team has done to this point.

Let's start with the Orioles and their major league free agents.
2B Alexi Casilla 30
OF Nelson Cruz 34 (Signed 4 year deal with Seattle)
C Nick Hundley 31
2B Kelly Johnson 32
OF Nick Markakis 31 (Signed 4 year deal with Atlanta)
RP Andrew Miller 29 (Signed 4 year deal with New York Y)
SP Johan Santana 35
SP Joe Saunders 33
OF Delmon Young 29

Out of all those players, I believed that Nick Markakis was the most likely to return.

He is a great clubhouse guy and the players on the team love him. Buck loves Markakis too and the Orioles wanted to keep him. The question is what price were the Orioles pay in order to retain Markakis. He is 31 years old, which is still in his prime, and he can still play. I honestly thought he was older because he has been in Baltimore so long. This is a guy that I really wanted the O's to keep because I felt he was underrated for this team. However, he of course didn't stay instead opting to sign with the Braves. Several national outlets seem to be trashing the move, including the one I posted, but I believe Markakis will be a steal for Atlanta.
The Orioles made a qualifying offer to Nelson Cruz and he turned it down.\Cruz is gone after signing a 4 year deal with Seattle. However, the Orioles get a 1st round compensation pick and I didn't really want Cruz last year, but was pleasantly surprised last season with his production. That being said he won't be worth the money he got over the entire term of the contract IMO.
Andrew Miller will be priced out of the Orioles range after an outstanding 2014 campaign. We will miss him, but he is going to make sick closer money elsewhere.
I personally would like to keep Joe Saunders and Delmon Young in the same roles they were in last year, but won't lose any sleep if they move on.
The other players are all expendable and it doesn't really matter if they stay or go. Although I could see one or more returning to Baltimore. Hundley may come back and be needed if Wieters isn't ready to go.
In addition to this list, Buck Britton was signed by the Dodgers.

Who the O's have added to the fold...
11/7 SS Ozzie Martinez (Minor League Deal)
11/18 LHP Frank Gailey (Minor League Deal)
11/18 RHP Oliver Drake
11/18 RHP Tim Gustafson (Minor League Deal)
11/19 3B Michael Almanzar (Minor League Deal)
11/19 RHP Mikey O'Brien (Minor League Deal)
11/19 RHP Kenn Kasparek (Minor League Deal)
11/19 LHP Chris Jones (Minor League Deal)
11/19 2B Derrick Gibson (Minor League Deal)
11/20 SS Paul Jarish (Minor League Deal)
11/20 RHP Terry Doyle (Minor League Deal)
11/20 Promoted RHPs Mike Wright and Tyler Wilson to 40 man roster
11/20 OF Alex Hassan (Waiver Claim via Oakland)
11/22 LHP Ronan Pacheco (Minor League Deal)
11/26 SS Rey Navarro
11/26 LHP Scott Barnes (Trade via Cleveland)
Barnes later claimed off waivers by Texas on 12/8
12/3 RHP Eddie Gamboa

12/8 IF Steve Lombardozzi outrighted to Norfolk
12/8 LHP Pat McCoy outrighted to Norfolk

One very intriguing story from this list is Eddie Gamboa. He became a knuckleballer a few years back while in this Orioles organization. This guy has never pitched in a major league game, but he was in spring training last year and he did become a free agent in the offseason. It seemed that the Orioles really wanted to keep Gamboa.
Other than that, it has been mostly minor league free agent signings that I honestly do not know a tremendous deal about, but these are good depth moves that have worked for Duquette since he has arrived in Baltimore. One of these signings included Michael Almanzar who was last year's rule 5 pick that this organization loves. Getting him on a minor league deal has to be seen as a coup.
Speaking of the Rule 5 draft, Wright and Wilson had to be added to the 40 man to not be selected in that Rule 5 draft. Either one would have been taken by some other team if they were available.

There is still a lot of work to do and the Rumor Mill is churning. Do not be discouraged by the lack of early mega news. Things happen very quickly.
The Orioles have been tied to Torii Hunter and Matt Kemp among others. As a fan, I would certainly love either one of those guys in black and orange. However, that is impossible on at least one of them. That is because Torii Hunter is headed back to Minnesota.

Honestly the only thing that has me worried about this offseason is the report of Duquette being offered the job as Toronto's president. If he truly wants that position it could be a major issue for the Orioles whether they can prevent him from taking it or not. Eventually if he really wants it he can force his way into the position and it could get ugly. I hope that nothing happens on this front and that he isn't interested in leaving Baltimore. We will see what happens on this front.

If you want more daily information on the Orioles offseason, you should be following Roch Kubatko and Steve Melewski over on MASN. Both can be followed on Twitter as well.
Here's to the O's making some smart moves!

-Noland

Cal Ripken Jr. Talks JJ Hardy

MASN's Roch Kubatko sat down for an interview with Cal Ripken Jr. on his blog. The interview was great stuff, as is pretty much everything that Roch posts on his blog. I love checking out the School of Roch. This post stood out to me though, because it was a Hall of Famer talking about one of our best players. We O's fans love JJ Hardy because he does all the little things right. I was a huge Hardy fan before he ever came to Baltimore. While he was with Milwaukee, I was on the Hardy bandwagon and wanted us to look into trading for him. Luckily we did and it worked out for everyone. It is great to get a Hall of Famers opinion on any of our players though. Even better to get an opinion of a shortstop from the greatest shortstop of all time...

"He doesn't do it flashy,"
"He knows himself, he gets good jumps on the ball, he gets good reads, he positions himself well. I like all the little fundamental things he does. He gets there early on steal coverages, he makes tags the right way, he's in the right position early on cutoffs and relays. You can tell that he's a thinker. He thinks about the game, he thinks about what his responsibilities are. And he doesn't make the highlight reel because he's not that flashy-type player. He makes the hard plays look much easier than they are."
"If you're in your position early and you're anticipating, not the good hop, but the bad hop, then you're ready for it," Ripken said. "Those are the small, little things he does. Even on a double play throw, one of the most common mistakes that big league players make, and any guys make, is they go to second base anticipating that it's going to be a good throw so they can turn it. But players like J.J. go there thinking, 'OK, this might be a bad throw.' If it's a good throw, it makes it easy. If it is a bad throw, then you're already ready to catch it and at least get the out, or catch it and then finish the foot work that can let you turn the double play.
"To me, it's his approach all around. He's anticipating, he's thinking, he looks at all the possibilities."

Good to see Cal Ripken Jr. agrees with me. I don't need flashy, I want someone that does that job right. We had flashy and bad in Pie. We don't need players like that. We want competent major leaguers. Luckily the O's have a very competent major leaguer in Hardy.

-Noland

Adam Jones Is Here to Stay

If you have been following my twitter feed, you have noticed that I love the Adam Jones deal. I retweeted Roch's tweet following the Jones signing that broke the news. Not only that, but I disputed the ignorant piece that was put up by Cliff Corcoran over at SI. I will go deeper into my piece here. You can read Corcoran's piece here. Don't forget to follow me on twitter @norob55, I recommend following @SimplyAJ10 and @masnRoch as well.

Corcoran starts off talking about how great a year Jones is having and how he would have him 4th in MVP voting. I don't know who he has 2 and 3, but that is for him to say I guess. No way anyone besides Hamilton deserves the MVP more than Jones right now. Just kidding, as I wrote this I decided to look, it was Paul Konerko and Austin Jackson. That should tell you all you need to know about this guy's dislike of Jones, but he goes further.

His first dig says that Andrew McCutchen is a better player that is further from free agency. He says that the Orioles don't a steal like that deal. Look, I like McCutchen, but let's not go overboard here. McCutchen is fantastic and a year younger than Jones. McCutchen is .004 BA points better over his career, but he also plays in the National League Central. Who has better pitching, the AL East or NL Central? How can you even compare that. Jones also has 30 more career home runs in the AL East. This season McCutchen has a higher average, but Jones crushes him in every other category. How can you make an absurd claim like that.

Corcoran then goes on to throw out all these insane stats to try to support his argument and say that it is not age related. Well then what do you make of his McCutchen argument? Andrew McCutchen is a career .282 hitter that is hitting .339 this year. How is he excused from his production bump, but not Jones? Adam Jones learned patience, is working hard, and now has protection in the lineup. Why can't that be here to stay? He is only 26. Ya McCuthen is 25, but if you factor in age for him, than you also have to do it with Adam Jones. Also Adam Jones is the better player. BY FAR.

Now back to my thoughts. I am pumped about this signing. I will admit that I was on the trade Adam Jones bandwagon the last season. I was on that because I thought Adam Jones would never re-sign here. I was told Jones was going west and didn't know any better. I wanted to get something great for him before we lost him for nothing. Then this season happened. We also found out that Jones was willing to come back to Baltimore. One of the best players in the league actually wants to stay here. Of course the Orioles re-signed him. They would have been foolish not to. Put me firmly in the Adam Jones fan club.

-Noland

Orioles Beat Red Sox in 13

Last night, the Orioles played the Red Sox in a wild 13 inning game. However, the Orioles did score 2 in the 13th to win 6-4. The Orioles had a big lineup shuffle last night to accompany the victory. Robert Andino led off the game and went 1 for 4. Andino's average now sits at .337 which is best on the team. Wieters went 2 for 4 as the DH and managed to hit a triple. The ball must have been hit really hard for Wieters to leg out a triple. The normal Orioles catcher also scored 2 runs. Wilson Betemit was in left last night and hit 6th. He got a hit, drove in one, scored once, and walked 3 times. Chris Davis hit in his normal spot and went 2 for 6.

None of those stories are the biggest at the plate though. Mark Reynolds had by far his best game hitting. Reynolds finally hit his first home run. Reynolds also went 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs. Unfortunately, for the Orioles he also had a costly error that helped put them in extras. I say once again, hitting only for Reynolds.

Wei Yin Chen did not have his best pitching performance, but the bullpen was spectacular. Lindstrom, Strop, Ayala, Patton, and Johnson each pitched at least a perfect inning. Strop, Ayala, and Patton each went two innings perfect. Patton ended up getting the win and Jim Johnson picked up his 8th save on the season. What a tremendous job the bullpen has done thus far. An amazing change of pace from the O's.

Additional notes: Nolan Reimold was officially placed on the DL which is why Andino led off the game and why Betemit was in left. The Orioles decided to bring up catcher Luis Exposito who played a bit last night. Brian Roberts also appears to be coming along nicely. I recommend you check out the School of Roch for more information on him.

-Noland

Showalter Ejected, but O's Win

Buck Showalter was ejected in the 6th inning and the Orioles responded with a win. The birds won in the 10th inning following the ejection. Guess why Showalter was ejected? He was ejected protecting Nick Markakis who was upset with a strike call. How does Markakis respond? The right fielder ended his RBI drought and got all three Oriole RBIs for the game. That'll do, that'll do. Nick Markakis is up to 8 RBIs on the young season.

Wei Yei Chen was brillant on the bump today for the O's, but ended up with a no decision. Chen gave up 1 run in 6 1/3 innings. Only giving up one run in six innings to that lineup is a job well done. Darren O'Day had another great outing and is looking like a better pickup by the day. O'Day lowered his ERA to 1.17 today, not bad for a guy we got for free.

The amazing pitching didn't end with Chen and O'Day either. After Strop gave up a run, Jim Johnson came in and did what Jim Johnson does. Johnson saved his seventh game. He is now 7 for 7 on save attempts. If he keeps this up the O's will have multiple all-stars for the first time in a long time.

There are a few more interesting notes from this game. Nolan Reimold had to sit out again with neck spasms. Endy Chavez had his best game of the young season today and scored a key run while playing fantastic defense in Reimold's place. Check out Roch's piece on Chavez. Ronny Paulino got the start for Wieters as the best catcher in baseball got the day off, or so we thought. Wieters pinch hit for Paulino and got a key hit at a crucial time in the game. Robert Andino also had another fantastic game, going 2 for 3 and scoring 2 runs. One of the runs Andino scored was the winning run and he is now hitting .316. Time to smile O's fans.

-Noland

Orioles vs. Yankees

In their typical fashion the Orioles have started the season good. Usually, it does not end so well, but it is spring and let's hope this is finally the year we compete. The Orioles are currently 3-0, but they beat the lowly Twins this weekend. Meanwhile the Yankees are 0-3 and got roughed up by the dominant Tampa Bay Rays and their incredible starting pitching.
Here is the Orioles lineup courtesy of Roch Kubatko.

Nolan Reimold LF
J.J. Hardy SS
Nick Markakis RF
Adam Jones CF
Matt Wieters C
Mark Reynolds 3B
Wilson Betemit DH
Chris Davis 1B
Robert Andino 2B
Brian Matusz LHP

This is basically what the birds sent out against the Twins with a few changes each day. I like Reimold at the top of the order and Markakis looks good in the three hole this season, let's hope he continues his hot start. Of course, the biggest key like always is the starting pitching. Let's hope Matusz pitches like end of 2010 season Matusz and not 2011 season Matusz. The guy has so much potential, but I am worried. Go Orioles!
Let's also hope Verizon Wireless still has free MLB Extra Innings Preview so I can actually watch the game.

Btw, I thought this little tidbit was interesting.
"The last time that the Yankees and Red Sox started out 0-3 was 1966.
 Anyone know how the Orioles finished that year?" - Roch Kubatko

Well wouldn't that be nice, the Orioles of course were World Champs in '66. I'm not getting my hopes up too much after starting 6-1 last year and then becoming the Orioles, but it is nice to have a little hope.

-Noland