Earl Weaver Rules

The Orioles made another addition to their staff and they signed oft injured Justin Duchscherer to a one year, incentive laden deal.  His base salary is $700,000 but he could earn up to as much as $4.5 million if he pitches well all year.  Duchscherer is a solid arm, he just hasn’t been able to stay out on the mound.  He’s also been shuffled back and forth between a starter and a reliever but he’s done well at both spots.

It’ll be interesting what the right hander will show us this spring.  Making the team will be the first big hurdle and it would be nice to see him finally come back from those hip surgeries.

The Orioles are supposedly close to signing Vlad Guerrero to one year deal.  No details on how much money he’d make, but he’d make a nice addition to the lineup that already has Derrek Lee in the mix so this would be another nice, low risk (one year only) signing.

Vlad had a huge comeback season with the Rangers last year and he belted 29 home runs and drove in 115.  He’ll primarily be the designated hitter so the Orioles lose some flexibility but if he hits anywhere close to like he did last year, this will be a nice signing.  I really like what the Orioles are doing.  They have some nice low risk, short term signings that should help them improve in 2011 and hopefully we’ll be able to bring in a top notch free agent that we lost out on next year.

Having two options at closer is a good thing and the Orioles have just that problem because they finished up a two year, $10 million deal with Blue Jays closer Kevin Gregg today.  Gregg is one of those weird closers who are good enough to get those last three outs in the ninth, but always manage to get beat up once in a while, hence his career 4.03 ERA.  He’s never had a dominating season but he strikes out close to a batter an inning and he’s had at least 23 saves in the past four seasons (with three different teams).

Gregg will compete with Koji Uehera for the closer spot with the other probably setting up.  I like the situation because we’ll have a nice 1-2 punch in the eighth and ninth innings.

The Orioles didn’t land any of the big name free agents they were after but I like the moves they’ve made during this offseason.  The latest is they signed Derrek Lee to a one year deal (pending a physical). Lee was looking for $8-$10 million so that’s what we have to work with so far.  The oft injured Lee had a huge resurgence in 2009 but saw his numbers drop in 2010.  Still, 19 home runs and 80 RBIs is nothing to scoff at considering he had the bad thumb.

When you combine Lee with Mark Reynolds and Luke Scott, the Orioles have a formidable middle of the order.  I don’t think 2011 is going to be the Orioles break out season, but they’re definitely putting some pieces in place that should allow them to improve this year.  I really like our chances a few years out assuming the team stays the course.