Rumor: D. Lee agrees to 1 year deal with O's pending physical

[Dr. FLK]

So you think that if the Orioles sign Lee, that they will keep looking for a long term 1b this offseason?

Nope. But to be fair, I didn't expect them to find their long term solution to 1B this offseason even if they didn't sign Lee.

I just don't see many realistic solutions for the long term. But, I certainly don't think signing Lee would preclude them from making a move for a long term 1B should one present itself.

[Moose Milligan]

Nope. But to be fair, I didn't expect them to find their long term solution to 1B this offseason even if they didn't sign Lee.

I just don't see many realistic solutions for the long term. But, I certainly don't think signing Lee would preclude them from making a move for a long term 1B should one present itself.

I don't understand why more people don't understand this.

[AgentOrange]

I don't understand why more people don't understand this.

When examples do you have of the orioles picking up a long term solution to a position when they just signed a short term one?

[Moose Milligan]

When examples do you have of the orioles picking up a long term solution to a position when they just signed a short term one?

Josh Bell?

[AgentOrange]

Josh Bell?

Poor example. He wasn't even ready for the majors last year and we had to pick up Reynolds because of his performance last year. If we get a 1b that is equivalent to Josh Bell, I don't think people would be satisfied, would you?

[Moose Milligan]

Poor example. He wasn't even ready for the majors last year and we had to pick up Reynolds because of his performance last year. If we get a 1b that is equivalent to Josh Bell, I don't think people would be satisfied, would you?

No, but at the time we picked him up, Bell was being looked at as a possible long term 3rd base solution, was he not?

[AgentOrange]

No, but at the time we picked him up, Bell was being looked at as a possible long term 3rd base solution, was he not?

He sure was, but he was also a couple years away from reaching that level. The people that wanted a long term solution at first are lookinat guys who are ready for the majors now but are blocked by their current organization. Josh Bell was not that type of player. We can argue if here are actually LT options even available at first, but that is a different topic. I just don't think you will see us look for a ML ready player at first if we sign Lee to a one year deal. That is why I think people who don't like the move are complaining about. I personally hope we sign Lee.

[DrungoHazewood]

Poor example. He wasn't even ready for the majors last year and we had to pick up Reynolds because of his performance last year. If we get a 1b that is equivalent to Josh Bell, I don't think people would be satisfied, would you?

I think a lot of folks, me included, would be pretty satisfied with a 1-year deal with Lee coupled with the acquisition of a Grade B first base prospect coming off a good year in AA at 22.

[Moose Milligan]

He sure was, but he was also a couple years away from reaching that level. The people that wanted a long term solution at first are lookinat guys who are ready for the majors now but are blocked by their current organization. Josh Bell was not that type of player. We can argue if here are actually LT options even available at first, but that is a different topic. I just don't think you will see us look for a ML ready player at first if we sign Lee to a one year deal. That is why I think people who don't like the move are complaining about. I personally hope we sign Lee.

I'm not sure how you can say he was a couple years away from reaching that level. In 94 games at the LAD AA team, he was OPSing .883. In 33 games at Bowie he was OPSing .917. Now there have been quite a few players that have made the jump from AA to the bigs...I'm willing to bet (without looking, I gotta run here soon) that there have been players who have made that jump with lesser stats than Bell had.

Yes, he flat out sucked when he got here. Absolutely no denying that. However, his minor league stats didn't indicate that he needed two more years in the minors before being ready at the time we acquired him and at the time we called him up from Bowie.

I kinda see where you're coming from though. I hope we sign DLee but I think MacPhail will understand that he's gotta get a long term first baseman. Whether he decides to do it during the season or this time in December 2011 and how that comes across to us O's fans, remains to be seen.

[Eddie_Ripken]

He sure was, but he was also a couple years away from reaching that level. The people that wanted a long term solution at first are lookinat guys who are ready for the majors now but are blocked by their current organization. Josh Bell was not that type of player. We can argue if here are actually LT options even available at first, but that is a different topic. I just don't think you will see us look for a ML ready player at first if we sign Lee to a one year deal. That is why I think people who don't like the move are complaining about. I personally hope we sign Lee.

But to be fair I don't think many other teams are able to acquire long term solutions at positions easily either. I mean how many examples are there of teams trading for a prospect who is ready to step right in and make an impact, and they acquire said prospect w/o putting a serious dent in their farm talent? We just don't have the depth in the minors yet to do this. Period. We don't. Is it better than 3 or 4 years ago, yes. Are we the Red Sux? No.

I'm for signing Lee as well, and if a LT solution comes up I think AM will do it. I just don't see any realistic possibilities out there.

[DrungoHazewood]

I kinda see where you're coming from though. I hope we sign DLee but I think MacPhail will understand that he's gotta get a long term first baseman. Whether he decides to do it during the season or this time in December 2011 and how that comes across to us O's fans, remains to be seen.

You know, you don't have to have an established, long-term solution at every position. Every year there are LaRoche, Lee types available on 1/10 kind of deals. I think it's legitimate to just plan on picking up someone like that every offseason until you can acquire or grow a young first baseman at a reasonable cost.

[wildcard]

I think a lot of folks, me included, would be pretty satisfied with a 1-year deal with Lee coupled with the acquisition of a Grade B first base prospect coming off a good year in AA at 22.

Snyder? Mahoney?

[LookinUp]

1. I don't believe the information in the OP. I hope it's true, but I don't believe it.

2. I too miss bigbird, though I thought his source was with an agent.

3. bigbird's opinions of our front office would likely be better received now than they were back in the day. The frustration level, even with what appears to be a pretty successful offseason, remains high.

4. Josh Bell/Tejada is a situation where we seemingly had a long term solution in house and got a stop gap while he got ready. You could argue that we did the exact same thing with pitching. With that being said, I think our timing of acquisitions has more to do with value than with there being a short term solution in the fold. If a guy like Alonso comes available at a relatively cheap price, I find it very hard to believe that AM won't pull the trigger. He does want great value though...which is something that causes hand-wringing on this board.

[raypetty]

Another tidbit from this "insider"

12/31/2009

http://talk.baltimoresun.com/showthread.php?p=5658076#post5658076

Dreaming that the insider tidbit is correct. Sign Beltre to play 3rd move Reynolds over to 1st base and what an offseason it's been.

[Agent0]

I don't know what posters you are referring to, but bigbird was definitely "legit." Not every tidbit he posted proved out, but his info was confirmed often enough that I'm 100 percent sure he had a source inside the Warehouse. Plus, his posts about his opinions on the team were insightful even if I didn't always agree. I'm still ticked off that snarky comments eventually caused him to stop posting. And the fact that bigbird liked Duquette and came to feel that MacPhail wasn't doing enough doesn't mean he wasn't "legit.". He was one of the best posters on this board and I'm really sorry he's gone.

I thought that he stopped posting because his posts were getting deleted (and that because he couldn't confirm to the satisfaction of OH staff that his source was still as viable as it once was).

It may have been both, but I remember his posts were definitely getting deleted toward the end.