Showalter: "Some of the better deals happen late in the spring."

[Guest]

I like Butler and think he'd do really well at Camden. But unless your trading trash I'd go with Morales.

I agree but both would do well in Camden.

[Guest]

So he is kinda Nick Markakis when healthy?

I think Billy would hit 25 to 30 here.

[Teddy OBP]

How much is his team option?

Eight million is a TON for a DH.

Morales will cost more than that though I'm guessing.

[weams]

I think Billy would hit 25 to 30 here.

When he had a good year he did hit a few.

[Guest]

Buck on 105.7 right now. He loves Jiminez. Sure sounds like we will be getting a full time DH .

[Os84]

Buck on 105.7 right now. He loves Jiminez. Sure sounds like we will be getting a full time DH .

What did he say?

[scOtt]

So did he learn his lesson? I believe he said he liked the flexibility of not having a full time DH in the past. Does anyone else remember it that way?

I def remember it like that. Was very surprised when Buck said that the other day.

[Guest]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Orioles are in a window of opportunity to win, so they add Ubaldo Jimenez -- and more? <a href="http://t.co/CgjbqdbTqq">http://t.co/CgjbqdbTqq</a> Notes/news/links.</p>— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) <a href="

">February 18, 2014</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Anyone got Insider??

[Guest]

Buck mentioned two interesting points:

1. Diaz and the other latin player they signed (blanking on the name at the moment) essentially act as 2 first round picks, so he's not losing sleep over the draft pick ("crap shoot after the 10th round").

2. Money that would be used for the first round pick can be "funneled back into" the money used to acquire players.

Number 2 is when i got happy.

[oriole]

I like the idea of Smoak...switch hitter, I hear he plays a decent first base (if the need ever arises), three more years of team control...I think getting out of Safeco could benefit him. If we could get Nick Franklin from Seattle too, that'd be great.

[Frobby]

"We have resources to extend our payroll. Our payroll is going to be closer to $100 million this year," Duquette said.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-tanaka-signing-effect-0123-20140122,0,2662558.story#ixzz2tgLH3KSX

OK, fair enough. Based on this, I'd say $100 mm is not necessarily a hard ceiling, but we're not going to be in the high 100's, which is where we'd need to be to sign Morales.

[hoosiers]

I agree with BS that there are a lot of possible good deals out there. Teams that have been unable to shed players might take a bigger haircut than originally offered. Free agents start to take less.

I disagree with BS about the value of the pick. In fact, it is difficult to accept folks in the organization playing down the loss of the pick against the excitement of adding Harvey into the fold last year (based on his draft position).

[Larry18]

I like the idea of Smoak...switch hitter, I hear he plays a decent first base (if the need ever arises), three more years of team control...I think getting out of Safeco could benefit him. If we could get Nick Franklin from Seattle too, that'd be great.

That was how he was looked at coming out of college. Now not so much.

[scOtt]

OK, fair enough. Based on this, I'd say $100 mm is not necessarily a hard ceiling, but we're not going to be in the high 100's, which is where we'd need to be to sign Morales.

I think you're correct... but would not be surprised if we did sign KM. Duq talk PA into it.

Please Sir... May I have some more?

[scOtt]

That coupled with Duquette's pretty harsh remarks on both Morales and Cruz would lead me to think we're not really going after these guys. We'll see, though. Duq often says one thing and does another.

What remarks?