And still no mionor league free agents.

[bigbird]

I know I'm beating a dead drum here but we lost over 30 minor league free agents this year and have resigned only a hand full. Who fills out the minor league rosters? Do we bump people up a level just to field teams or do we continue to so with the same low level talents that already make up out AAA and AA rosters.

[Sports Guy]

I really believe that, other than the rule 5 draft, the only things the Orioles have even been paying attention to is trading Bedard, Tejada and to a lesser extent, BRob.

[SteveA]

I really believe that, other than the rule 5 draft, the only things the Orioles have even been paying attention to is trading Bedard, Tejada and to a lesser extent, BRob.

It does seem that way. We haven't heard a murmur of a rumor about any attempts to deal Payton, Huff, Hernandez, a reliever, etc. (I won't even mention Gibbons, there isn't a team in the majors dumb enough to consider taking him off our hands).

But hey, we did get that Quizno's guy to be our backup catcher! And the guy whose name sounds like a character in Asimov's Foundation Trilogy for our bullpen!

[blueberryale77]

Aren't there some junior level employees who wouldn't get anywhere near trade negotiations for major league stars but could be empowered to go out and sign fillers for the minor league rosters?

[Gurgi]

Me thinks BigBird has some kind of personal problem with MacPhail. His opinion seems to be tainted animosity. (Wasnt Duquette his man?)

[Fan4Life]

Do we have an idea of any FA minor leaguers would should have interest in?

[bigbird]

Me thinks BigBird has some kind of personal problem with MacPhail. His opinion seems to be tainted animosity. (Wasnt Duquette his man?)

I have a problem with things not getting done. That goes for MacPhail, my employees, my kids and even myself. If you have a list of 10 things to do you can't have tunnel vision and focus only on 1 or 2 of the tasks. MacPhail also painted himself into a corner by announcing he was going to hire a "right hand man". Where is he????? He could have had Duquette working with him and by the way Duquette is as equally respected in baseball circles as MacPhail is.

Things need to be done and done now.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out the next few weeks.

[Fan4Life]

Does anyone have a feel for how the other teams have done in signing FA minor leaguers? Not much in the media or on other forums about it. Here is the list of players:

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=644

About half the League has 20 or more....

[Mackus]

I don't really care about filling out the minor leagues, but MacPhail should have somebody beneath him in charge of this. He's right to be focusing on the big trades, but you're right that there should be somebody in charge of finding some filler for the minor league teams.

[Oriolelion]

I love how so many on here are upset that we haven't made a major trade yet. Would you rather we just take an inferior deal, just so we can do something? We did that back in 2000 and, outside of MelMo, not much return came back. Of course I would love to have had some deals done -- but they have to be the right ones for us. If they aren't seemingly fair or better value, then we don't make the deal.

[Mackus]

I love how so many on here are upset that we haven't made a major trade yet. Would you rather we just take an inferior deal, just so we can do something? We did that back in 2000 and, outside of MelMo, not much return came back. Of course I would love to have had some deals done -- but they have to be the right ones for us. If they aren't seemingly fair or better value, then we don't make the deal.

Nobody is talking about major trades. We're talking about minor league FAs, the small day to day stuff that should be taken care of fairly routinely.

[JayGibbons31]

Well we took 4 players in the minor league portion of the rule 5 draft to fill some holes. It seems to me that minor league FA would be something Stockstill would have a hand in. I don't see why McPhail would play a big part in it.

[Fan4Life]

Nobody is talking about major trades. We're talking about minor league FAs, the small day to day stuff that should be taken care of fairly routinely.

Well it would be nice if we could compare our apparent inactivity in this area to other teams around the league. The only thing I could find is the Nats appear to have signed 19 MiLB FA's.

[Oriolelion]

But that is the undercurrent of what's being said. Yeah, it would be great if 20 things got done at once, but I for one, would rather have most of our attention focused on the big pieces.

[bigbird]

But that is the undercurrent of what's being said. Yeah, it would be great if 20 things got done at once, but I for one, would rather have most of our attention focused on the big pieces.

And what if the big pieces never happen?