Orioles Rumors

Odds and Ends: Wieters, Varitek, Ohman

By Tim Dierkes | February 3, 2009 at 12:54pm CDT

Links for Tuesday…

Chat today, 2pm CST.
RotoAuthority explains why Matt Wieters is a good fantasy pick even if he doesn’t debut with the Orioles til mid-May.
Baseball America’s Jim Callis has the updated ’09 June draft order.
Cristian Guzman was wise to sign a two-year, $16MM extension when he did, his agent tells MLB.com’s Bill Ladson.
An agreement to sell the Padres to Jeff Moorad could be done by mid-month, says Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Jason Varitek doesn’t need to worry about regaining Type A status, says Rob Bradford of WEEI.
Nothing appears imminent with the Phillies and Will Ohman, David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News writes.

Blue Jays Make Offer To Kevin Millar

By Tim Dierkes | February 2, 2009 at 1:56pm CDT

MONDAY: Schmuck mentioned this on Thursday; J.P. Ricciardi confirmed it today: the Blue Jays have a minor league offer out to Millar currently.

THURSDAY: Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun talked to free agent first baseman Kevin Millar, who will not be offered a contract from the Orioles for ’09. Millar is surprised and frustrated by their lack of interest, saying:

"Yeah, the bottom line is, obviously, they want to go in a different direction. Now, what that means, I don’t know. Are they going to win games this year? No. Obviously we know that going in. You’ve got to be realistic."

True, the team isn’t quite ready to contend, but it’s rare to hear a player say it so bluntly. Millar has drawn interest from the Blue Jays and Giants so far this winter. He hit .234/.323/.394 in 610 plate appearances in ’08.

Orioles Acquire Rich Hill

By Tim Dierkes | February 2, 2009 at 10:36am CDT

10:36am: According to a press release from the Cubs, they’ve traded Hill to the Orioles for a player to be named later. A sensible low-risk move for the Orioles, who can afford to let Hill take his lumps at the big league level. The AL East may not be the ideal environment for him, but it’s worth a shot.

Roch Kubatko says Brian Burres was designated for assignment to make room for Hill.

10:16am: We learned yesterday from Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun that the Orioles are close to acquiring pitcher Rich Hill from the Cubs for a player to be named later. The deal is not done, but it could be completed early this week. Today Roch Kubatko of MASN adds that the player to be named later the Cubs receive would likely be a "low-level minor leaguer." The Orioles could add Hill and still sign Braden Looper for additional rotation depth.

Orioles Close To Deal With Cubs For Hill

By Ben Jones | February 1, 2009 at 9:41pm CDT

9:41pm: Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun has more on the Orioles trading for Cubs pitcher Rich Hill.

The deal would be for a player to be named later, Zrebiec writes, and it could be announced as early as Monday.

Hill will be reunited with pitching coach Rick Kranitz and bullpen coach Alan Dunn, who worked with him in the Cubs’ organization, Zrebiec notes.

Hill is out of options, so he’ll have to make the Orioles’ Opening Day roster or they could lose him. … Hill will be given an opportunity to win a spot in the rotation, which currently has three vacancies behind Jeremy Guthrie and Koji Uehara.

6:12pm: Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun believes the Baltimore Orioles will complete a trade for Cubs left-handed pitcher Rich Hill by Tuesday — if the Orioles will do the deal at all.

Schmuck writes that now other organizations are aware that Hill could be made available, additional teams — including the Royals and Mariners — could make an offer.

Orioles general manager Andy MacPhail might be waiting to see if he can sign free agent right-handed pitcher Braden Looper, Schmuck adds.

They might be willing to acquire both pitchers, but there is the small matter of moving players off the 40-man roster to make room, so maybe Andy is just going to take one or the other.

Hill, 29 in March, is 18-17 in 57 starts with a 4.37 ERA during a short four-season career. He spend much of 2008 in Triple-A.

Looper, 34, went 12-14 in 33 starts with a 4.16 ERA with the St. Louis Cardinals last season.

Perrotto’s Latest: Position Battles, Roberts, Pudge

By Steve Adams | February 1, 2009 at 1:50pm CDT

John Perrotto’s Every Given Sunday column is up over at Baseball Prospectus. This week, he takes a look at some of the position battles teams will face entering Spring Training. And, as always, there’s some interesting items in his Rumors & Rumblings section. Let’s take a look:

Some of the more interesting position battles mentioned: 1B/DH/RF in Oakland (Daric Barton, Jack Cust, Jason Giambi, Aaron Cunningham, and Travis Buck all in the mix), Tampa’s closer if Troy Percival gets hurt or falters (Dan Wheeler, J.P. Howell, Grant Balfour), and the White Sox rotation behind John Danks, Mark Buerhle, and Gavin Floyd (Clayton Richard, Aaron Poreda, Bartolo Colon, Jeff Marquez).
Brian Roberts still wants a four-year deal before Spring Training starts up, or he’ll cut off negotiations. Does Roberts make more sense as a cornerstone in Baltimore or as a trade chip?
Perrotto feels Tom Glavine will inevitably re-sign with the Braves.
The White Sox have minor interest in signing Ivan Rodriguez as a backup for A.J. Pierzynski. I’m sure Pudge would prefer a starting gig, but at this point, it’s tough to be picky.
We’ve heard a lot about the Orioles having interest in Rich Hill lately, but Perrotto reminds us that the Mariners are interested in the 28-year-old lefty as well.

Looper A Fit For Baltimore?

By Alex Walsh | January 31, 2009 at 3:35pm CDT

3:35pm: Roch Kubatko chimes in on the Looper rumors: "[W]hile I still expect Braden Looper to sign elsewhere, the Orioles retain serious interest in him."

1:18pm: Peter Schmuck at the Baltimore Sun has a guess at the Orioles’ likely 25-man roster for Opening Day 2009. Most of the names are hard to argue, but one jumps out as an interesting pick. Schmuck thinks the Orioles stand a chance at signing free agent starting pitcher Braden Looper.

Says Schmuck, "I think the likelihood of Braden Looper signing here is maybe 40 percent, but that’s probably more likely than Rich Hill coming over and solving his command problems."

While recent reports have made a Rich Hill-to-Baltimore deal sound more likely than 40 percent, Schmuck is comparing a Looper signing to the combined probability of not only acquiring Hill, but also having him pitch effectively.

Rosenthal’s Latest: Mariners, Young, Shouse

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | January 31, 2009 at 9:11am CDT

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports compiles a number of rumors from around the majors:

The Mariners need to free up money, but to do so, they’d likely have to trade one of Adrian Beltre, Jarrod Washburn or Miguel Batista. All three will be free agents after the season, but moving one of them would be "extremely difficult."
The Mariners and Yankees considered a Hideki Matsui-Washburn swap, but Matsui’s contract ($13MM) pays him more than Washburn’s ($10.35MM) so they didn’t find a match.
The Twins are looking to move Delmon Young.
They showed interest in Washburn last year, but only some of Rosenthal’s sources believe he and Delmon Young could be the foundation for a larger deal.
Rosenthal has a source who says the Yankees are not currently pursuing Juan Cruz. Yesterday, we had a discussion about the rules regarding free agent quotas.
The Yanks like their bullpen, but they could try to add an arm if they trade Xavier Nady or Nick Swisher.
The Rays are making a strong run at Brian Shouse.
The Orioles would not likely have to give up much more than a low-level prospect to deal for Rich Hill.

O’s, Cubs Talking Deal For Rich Hill

By | January 30, 2009 at 11:53pm CDT

FRIDAY: A small update from Roch Kubatko: nothing is imminent with the Orioles and Hill. He says not to expect an announcement before next week, if the two teams are to hammer out a deal.

THURSDAY: Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun reports that the Orioles are looking to acquire Cubs lefty Rich Hill. Hill is out of options, limiting his value. Zrebiec notes that Hill could benefit from a reunion with Rick Kranitz, his former Triple A pitching coach.

An industry source told Zrebiec that it’s a "strong possibility" that Hill will end up with the Orioles. Apparently the Cubs would receive a player to be named later in return, the value of whom would hinge on Hill’s success in Baltimore. The Mariners have also shown interest, but the O’s are believed to be in the lead at this point. Hill, 28, walked 18 in 19.2 innings last year before his demotion to the minors. He had a nice run for the Cubs in 2006-07.

Odds and Ends: Boras, Manny, Heilman

By Tim Dierkes | January 30, 2009 at 3:06pm CDT

Links for Friday…

ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick examines Scott Boras’ work so far this winter, as well as his remaining clients.
RotoAuthority has first baseman rankings for fantasy leagues.
Matthew Cerrone suggests the Mets might want to publicly rule out Manny Ramirez.
Interesting WHIFF profile on Aaron Heilman.
Patrick Newman introduces us to Norichika Aoki, perhaps the best hitter in Japan. Aoki may end up in MLB, but it probably won’t be anytime soon.
The Orioles agreed to a split contract with pitcher Brian Burres, says Troy Renck.

Odds and Ends: Kotsay, Redding

By Tim Dierkes | January 29, 2009 at 3:30pm CDT

Links for Thursday…

RotoAuthority ranks the catchers for fantasy baseball.
Dave Cameron reminds us that talented minor leaguers often have delayed success in the bigs.
MLB.com’s Mychael Urban talked to Mark Kotsay, who did not enjoy the free agent experience.
MetsBlog’s Matthew Cerrone transcribes a Tim Redding MLB Network interview, where it was revealed that the Rockies, Pirates, and Orioles had interest before the pitcher signed with the Mets.

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