Earl Weaver Rules

The Orioles reinked fan favorite Kevin Millar to a one year, $2.75 million deal.  Millar was okay in 2006 and never lived him to his declining reputation but for this price, I like the deal.  Millar can play first and he’ll find some time at DH.  He can take a pitch and draw a walk and that probably makes up for his power decline lately.  As far as a bargain, I think this is a good one.  We’re spending not a lot of money and if Millar can break out a bit and maybe even revert back to what he did in 2004, it means it’s money well spent.

The Orioles signed two more relievers in what’s been pretty much a complete revamp of the bullpen.  Chad Bradford (best known for his part in the book Moneyball) signed a three year, $10.5 million deal and the injury prone Scott Williamson got a one year, $900k deal.

As far as value, I like these signings a lot better then I did the Baez and Walker signings.  Regardless, the Orioles should have a very solid pen next year.  Chris Ray, Jamie Walker, Danys Baez, Chad Bradford and Scott Williamson is a formidable bullpen.

The Orioles signed right handed relief pitcher Danys Baez to a three year, $19 million deal yesterday.  Baez is 29 and he’s a good but not great relief pitcher so once like Jamie Walker, I think the Orioles really overpaid for Baez.  Then again, this is a very strange year.  I guess the “former closer” tag is worth a lot more these days.  Baez has 111 career saves, for what’s that worth, to his name.

Baez got off to a hot start in 2006 and he had eight saves and a 1.32 ERA in the month of April.  He had a 6.60 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP in the second half though and that really roughed up his numbers.

It looks like Baez will set up Chris Ray in 2007.  $6+ million for a set up man.  This stuff is crazy.

It looks like Angelos is opening up the pocketbook again.  Although in this case, I think we’re throwing money around a little too freely.  Jamie Walker is a quality left handed reliever, but to pay him almost $4 million a year for three years is a bit much for a situational lefty.  I like the signing because we get a reliable arm (Walker has put together four straight solid seasons) but he has never thrown more then 79 innings in any given year, and he hasn’t thrown more then 50 since 2004.

The Orioles also signed Josh Phelps to a minor league contract.  Phelps hasn’t done much since he had an okay season in 2003.  This is pretty low risk and if he doesn’t make the big league club, we won’t be on the hook for much.

On the one hand, we’re giving up a only a decent (but young) reliever and in exchange we’re getting a former 15 game winner.  Unfortunately those 15 games are three seasons removed but we’ll see how Jaret Wright does now that he’s reunited with the pitching coach that got that good season out of him.  Hopefully Leo Mazzone can start working his magic again.

We’ll only have to pay Wright $3 million and for a back of the rotation, even okay starter, that’s not a bad price.  Best case scenario, Wright finds some of his 2003 magic and we get a good  season out of him.

Chris Britton had a decent rookie year but as a right handed reliever, he’s easily replaceable.  Not that I wanted to see him go, I’d just rather take a chance on a potentially good starter then have someone who’s coming out of the pen.

Nolan Reimhold, who’s being billed as one of the best of a crop of Orioles prospects, has been lighting up the Arizona Fall League.  You can check up on him and all of the Orioles prospects who are playing winter ball in this MLB.com column.

Man it’s been quiet so far for the Orioles. I know it’s early in the hot stove, but with all of the awards being announced, the Orioles haven’t walked away with any of them.  No surprise though seeing as how bad this team played this year.

I thought Miguel Tejada might be going to Detroit, but the Tigers just dealt some arms for Gary Sheffield.  Not that it’s still out of the question.  Maybe the White Sox will be interested in him but we have to make sure we get some good value for him.

No big surprises here.  Kevin Millar is a great guy but he never lived up to his better years in Boston even with a solid second half in 2006.  Bruce Chen has been on breakout player lists for the last few seasons and he has yet to live up to his billings.  And LaTroy Hawkins had a decent but not great year.  If they make a priority out of any of these three guys, I say they go after Hawkins.

These three join Chris Gomez, Russ Ortis and Chris Widger as Orioles who have filed for free agency.  Gomez is nice to have on the bench because he can play anywhere in the infield but despite a solid September, he’s a pretty weak hitter.  Again, there’s nobody in there that I see who’s a must have.