Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and survived Black Friday — assuming you participated in it.
There’s not a whole lot going on with the Orioles after the Thanksgiving holiday; however, during the last week, they did get their entire coaching staff in place.
The final hire, Willie Randolph said all the right things when he spoke to the media, noting that he’s “an Oriole” now. Although his Mets’ managerial stint of sort crashed and burned, he should be a good voice to Showalter as his bench coach.
It seems that the Orioles will have one of the most experienced coaching staffs in baseball. Hopefully, that will play a small role in turning tide with the organization.
The only thing I’m lamenting that there isn’t a former Oriole on the staff; however, after watching 13 years of losing baseball, hiring an experienced staff – and the best out there – was the thing to do.
Other than that, it looks like some are dismayed that the Orioles didn’t sign Victor Martinez and they seemingly missed by a few million. Who knows why Martinez signed with the Tigers – maybe he just wanted to join a team with a chance to win, or just simply catch.
Then again, I see him as a DH with the Tigers, not behind the plate. Rumors are now that the Nationals may be the team charging after Carlos Pena the most right now.
Also, as James noted on Tuesday, the Orioles didn’t offer arbitration to Koji Uehara this week. I’m a little surprised the organization didn’t, but I’m not sure many would have cared for the potential windfall the pitcher could have gotten.
Uehara did show his worth as a closer; however, I’d still be a tad leery of offering him anything long term or without incentives die to his injury history the past two seasons.
Meanwhile, the Orioles are still looking for a shortstop, a first baseman and a big bopper. It’s a damned shame that the team will more than likely have to overpay for any marquee name.
It looks like Japanese shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka could perhaps join the Minnesota Twins in 2011. The Twins won the right to negotiate with the shortstop after it was known that they won the exclusive right to bid on him.
Finally, another pitcher who I wish the Orioles would have taken a chance on – Jon Garland – has signed a one-year contract with the Dodgers for $5 million.
