Tim Dierkes from MLBtraderumors.com did a nice review of the Orioles offseason.. and hey look, it's actually somewhat positive... of course it's not like "hey they're going to win 130 games this season," but it sums up what the team was able to accomplish, which was actually quite a bit.  It didn't seem like it, but MacPhail and company did a good job in my opinion, and the future looks bright... All of the subtractions are like additions by subtractions.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that John Parrish, former O's great and likely hall of famer will be returning to the Orioles, and not the Tigers.  The Tigers were apparently trying to sign him, and I didn't know the Orioles were even trying... As a matter of fact, I didn't know the Orioles were trying to sign Wigginton, what's up with all of this free agency signing without effort? Anyways Parrish was 1-1 with a 4.04 e.r.a. in 13 appearances, 6 starts and had a decent time in AAA going 10-1 with a 2.97 e.r.a... and no word on Looper except he prefers the NL.. This just gives us another person trying to get into the rotation if we are not able to sign Looper.

Per Ken Rosenthal,

The Orioles have signed Ty Wigginton to a two-year deal. I'm trying to figure out how the lineup is going to look, I'm assuming that he'll platoon with Luuuke at DH and take some time from Huff at first.

The lineup has a ton of versatility now, so who knows, who will be playing what position each day, I guess that will be something fun to look forward to. I guess it works. Wigginton is 31 and he hit .285 with 23 hrs, and 58 RBIs. Welcome to the team.

Update by SC: The deal is for six million dollars total.

Well, it's official...

he won't be coming back no mo'

So, i guess we can all start crying now..

"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."

Atleast, we won't have that huge average at first base holding us down. Mr. Weregoingtotheworldseriesthisyear.  Maybe you'll become an ESPN analyst...

via misterirrelevant.com

Per Ken Rosenthal, looks like we have someone to start in left while Luke is at DH and Huff plays first. Well someone other than Ryan Freel, I guess..  I'm not in love with Pie (the player) at all really, I figured Olson might have figured it out this season but who knows now.  I'm getting a little confused, are we following the Nationals way of having a baseball team with 50 outfielders?

Update: The trade has been officially acknowledged by the Orioles. See the article at orioles.com here. [Note by Stacey, 01/18/09 3:40 PM EST ]

http://masnsports.com/2009/01/zaun-update-and-the-ravens.html

via www.aking.missingsaddle.com

As roch says, he's going to take a one year deal, and we're in control of the situation.. And could be signed sometime next week, so looks like we have stopgap (if it is us that big Z chooses us), and hell he's the nephew of a legend, so man wieters is in good hands.. in an unfortunate chain of events we missed out on kenshin kawakami (the braves got him, they needed a break anyway), i hope i don't annoy you guys with all of these updates, i just want to keep my finger on the pulse of birdland. Hopefully Zaun will bring his flash skills and computer website making skills to birdland and we'll have a team full of awesome websites.  I like the idea of adding him as long as we don't pay him an assload of money, how about you guys?

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-orioles109,0,556566.story

Chris Gomez is back with baltimore, it's not a major signing, but I always liked him he seems like a good guy. Also seems we're still after Kawakami even though we signed Kujo, so there are some positives here i guess, right? we seem to be in stiff competition with the braves who have lost out on a number of free agents as well, including their own john smoltz to the red sox, exciting times.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-orioles1211,0,3171091.story?track=rss

in the article there's mention of jeremy guthrie switching agents, we need more players like him, he's not in it for the money, sure maybe he cares about that, but he wants to have a good career.. way to take control, hats off guts. maybe we'll  be able to resign him for a good deal and long term... i mean we did give him his first shot.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/12/ramon-hernandez.html

The link says the o's are trying to swap hernandez's contract for another utility player or something like that.. the article directly mentions ryan freel.. also says that the reds would throw in another prospect and the o's would have to eat part ramon's contract... on freel, i only remember him as an outfielder but he might be able to play ss? i could see them putting Luke Scott at DH and putting freel in the outfield.. I don't remember too much about ryan freel except he made a lot of crazy outfield plays... what do you guys think about bring freel in for hernandez? and would greg zaun be brought in for a year to give wieters some time in AAA?

Today the Orioles signed Brand Hennessey, who's e.r.a. with the giants was over 7 in 40 innings, i don't know what we're trying to do with all of these 'minor' type signings except maybe sure up some triple A depth, but here's the link, i know it's too good to be true. I don't know if you all heard, but sometime last week the o's signed Donnie Murphy who was a utility man for the a's, who had a pretty weak batting average, but could be a candidate for our SS gap.

 http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/11/orioles-sign-he.html

I know he's not the best pitcher on the market, but it's official, per ken rosenthal, Burnett is on the market, here's the link...

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8756808/Burnett-opts-out-of-deal,-will-become-free-agent 

To me, it would be silly to waste a whole bunch of money on him, but i'll always trust the judgement of MacPhail. Another inning eater? I don't know if my heart can take it anymore, what do you guys think?

John clayton reports, that the Detroit Lions and Daunte Culpepper have agreed to a 2 year deal. Although culpepper retired earlier this season, i guess if the right team came along, he would sign with them.. unfortunately for him and he's probably the first person to ever say this, but the lions were the right team.. what's everyone's opinion on this?

Here's the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3676865

According to Judd Zuglad of the Star Tribune the Vikings practice squad has been set, and the eight players are

• DE Martail Burnett, DE, rookie, Utah
• G Brian Daniels, G, first year, Colorado
• Leger Douzable, DT, rookie, Central Florida
• Jaymar Johnson, WR, rookie, Jackson State
• Tim Mattran, C, rookie, Stanford
• Darius Reynaud, WR, West Virginia
• Marcus Walker, CB, rookie, Oklahoma
• Albert Young RB, rookie, Iowa

What are your thoughts? Not many surprises.. Also in another piece of vikings related news the 49ers cut Dontarrius Thomas in order to pick up Ahmad Brooks...

http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080820&content_id=3339696&vkey=news_bal&fext=.jsp&c_id=bal

looks like olson got optioned and liz will make the start against mussina on friday night. it seems that liz had a good stint in the minors since being sent down, does anyone think he'll  be able to beat the yankees.. and who in your opinion should start the game that olson would have started? which would be monday against the white sox.