It's being reported by the Baltimore Sun, MASN, and Jeremy Guthrie himself on Twitter: our defacto ace and fan favorite Jeremy Guthrie has been traded to the Colorado Rockies for pitchers Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom.

Ok, so the first thing is that I understand the front office doesn't have the luxury of thinking like a fan when it comes to making trades. As a fan, I'm sad that Jeremy Guthrie is gone. He's a good baseball player and a nicer human, and he's been good to the city of Baltimore in his time here. But even I know that he most likely wasn't going to be on the next good Orioles team, so if a good deal could be made for him, it should have been.

The question is: is this a good deal?

Jason Hammel is 29 years old and started his career with the Devil Rays, but has spent the last three seasons in Colorado. He's pitched about 170 innings in each of the last three seasons, and in 2009 and 2010 was pretty good, putting up an fWAR of 3.9 in each of the years. His ERA was inflated quite a bit over his FIP in those years, but took an opposite turn in 2011. After a poor showing in the rotation, Hammel was demoted to the bullpen on August 20th and made seven appearances for the rest of the season.

Hammel isn't a horrible pitcher, that's for certain. He'll be getting out of Coors Field which could help him, and he could conceivably be productive for the Orioles this year. Will he be as productive as Guthrie? Sure, maybe, if he can pitch like he did a few seasons ago. And he won't be a free agent until 2014 so there's an extra year than the O's would get from Guthrie.

The other piece of the trade is Matt Lindstrom. When the season begins, Lindstrom will be 32 years old. He is a serviceable bullpen arm and nothing more. His current contract has a $4M option for 2013, or else he'll be a free agent after this season.

So, is it a good deal? I think as far as strict exchange of talent goes, it's not awful. But that's not what the Orioles need. If this deal ends up making the Orioles a better team, it will only be a marginal difference and it will be short term. The Orioles need to make changes that will help them down the road, not maybe for this season. I have no way of knowing if a Guthrie trade could bring back something that would help the Orioles long term, but if it's determined that the best you can do for him is this deal right here, then I wish they would have just let Guthrie stay an Oriole.

We don't have much as Orioles fans, but we have a few players we love to root for. Guthrie is one of them, and getting rid of him for this return just doesn't feel right.

In a surprise move late Monday, the Orioles inked supersub Wilson Betemit. On Monday, it was announced that Betemit's contract was a guaranteed two year deal for $2.75 million total with a vesting option for a third year worth $3.25 million on its own. According to the AP, the third year vests with 700 plate appearances over the first two years of the contract. To create the roster space for Betemit, the Orioles parted ways with the Dutch flyball artist VandenHurk over whom no ink has been spilled as of yet.

Continue reading this post »

From Dan Connolly:

#Orioles have agreed to terms, pending physical, with INF Wilson Betemit, on a 1-year, big-lg deal, acdng to an indstry srce.

Wilson Betemit is a thirty-year old infielder who has spent time with Braves, Dodgers, Yankees, White Sox, Royals, and Tigers. He's mostly a third baseman but can play any infield position. He's not an abysmal hitter, but doesn't have the bat of an everyday player.

Betemit is now thrown into the mix of utility-type infielders that already includes Robert Andino, Matt Antonelli, Ryan Flaherty, and Ryan Adams. Of course that's not including presumed starters Mark Reynolds, Chris Davis, J.J. Hardy, and the injured Brian Roberts.

Weird signing.

UPDATE:

Dan Connolly is now reporting that this is a two-year deal with an option for a third year. What?

Noon central time today was the deadline for figures to be exchanged for players who are eligible for arbitration. The Orioles have four arbitration-eligible players who did not settle for contracts before this deadline. They are Jeremy Guthrie, Adam Jones, Brad Bergesen and Robert Andino.

For Guthrie, it's his third year of arbitration and final year before free agency, meaning he is in line for the biggest one-year payday after a $5.75M salary in 2011. Guthrie has asked for $10.25M while the O's countered with $7.25M, so they are $3 million apart.

Jones is in his second year of arbitration, due for a raise from his $3.25M 2011 contract. The team filed for $5M and Jones filed for $7.4M, leaving a difference of $2.4M.

Bergesen is eligible for arbitration for the first time, meaning he's not going to get a substantial increase over the major league minimum. He has requested $1.2M and the Orioles offered $800,000. These sides are only $400k apart.

Andino is also entering his first arbitration season, asking for a $1.6M salary where the Orioles believe he is worth $1M.

These salary figures were first reported by either Jon Heyman of CBS or Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun. Players and teams may settle at any time up until the beginning of the arbitration hearing, each of which will be scheduled some time next month. In an arbitration hearing, the player's representative and the team each have one hour to argue the case for why the player deserves the requested salary, typically using comparisons to other players who performed at a similar level with a similar amount of service time. After the arguments, the three-person arbitration panel can only select one figure or the other.

In recent years, the Orioles have tended to settle before having a hearing. This is advantageous for both sides as the arbitration process can be a cause of future contention: the player is in the room when the team is enumerating the player's faults as reasons for why he is deserving of less money. However, this will be the first time for the process in the Dan Duquette era, and he may have a different philosophy than some of his predecessors with regard to arbitration hearings.

Can anything be gleaned from Duquette's history with the Boston Red Sox for this purpose? In this article, Maureen Mullen of CSN New England notes that the last time the Red Sox went to arbitration was in Duquette's tenure, when they were unable to reach an agreement with RHP Rolando Arrojo. A starter who was traded to Boston in 2000, Arrojo worked mostly in relief for the Sox for two seasons. When his arbitration came up in 2002, he filed for $2.8 million and Boston filed for $1.9 million. So, we know that a decade ago, Duquette was at the helm and could not settle a difference of $900,000.

Considering the difference in 2002 dollars may not be the best comparison, because salaries have inflated in the past decade. For instance, in 2002 the minimum salary in MLB was $300,000 and in 2011 the minimum was $414,000. In that time, the average MLB salary has also increased, from about $2.3 million to about $3.3 million. On the other hand, Arrojo asked for nearly 50% more than Boston offered. Put in those terms, the O's arbitration offers look this way: Andino's asking price is 60% more than offered, Bergesen's is 50% more than offered, Jones' is 48% more, and Guthrie's is 41% more.

Does any of this matter at all? Maybe not. Duquette's been out of the game for nearly a decade, and the game done changed. Or maybe the game's the same: just got more fierce.

From the press release:

The Orioles today announced that they have named RAY POITEVINT as Executive Director, International Baseball.

"I am delighted to have Ray Poitevint return to the Orioles where he began his career and to have his veteran baseball leadership as part of our global recruiting and marketing efforts," said Orioles Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations DAN DUQUETTE.

Now entering his sixth decade working in baseball, Poitevint began his career as an Associate Scout with the Orioles in the early 1960s. He was promoted to Area Scout and then Supervisor over the course of his 12 years with the Orioles, where he recommended and signed Hall of Fame 1B EDDIE MURRAY and RHP DENNIS MARTINEZ, among others.

Poitevint was an original member of the "Dalton Gang" who worked with former Orioles GM HARRY DALTON in Baltimore, California and Milwaukee. After a brief stint as Farm and Development Director with the Angels, he joined the Brewers in 1978, serving as Scouting and Farm Director and eventually Vice President of International Operations in 15 years with Milwaukee. CA BJ SURHOFF and LHPs TED HIGUERA and JUAN NIEVES were among his notable signings with the Brewers.

He spent over nine years with the Red Sox as the Executive Director of International Operations beginning in 1992. Poitevint recommended and signed RHPs HIDEO NOMO as a major league free agent and TOMO OHKA from Japan. He was also instrumental in acquiring SUN WOO KIM and JIN HO CHO from Korea in his time working with Duquette in Boston.

Poitevint also worked with the MLB Scouting Bureau for two years in the mid-70s and has placed over 50 players from American baseball clubs on Japanese teams.

I don't know anything about Ray Poitevint, but I did a little googling, just for you. He played two seasons of minor league baseball in 1949 and 1950, which makes him at least 80 years old. I'm not bashing old people, I'm just saying that's how old it makes him. He was also involved in that awesome reality show where two Indian pitchers won the right to play in the minors for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Before becoming a scout for the Orioles, he fought in the Korean War and played baseball in Japan.

The results of this year's Hall of Fame voting were announced by the BBWAA at 3pm this afternoon. To be elected, a player must be named on 75% of returned ballots. The only player who will be inducted based on this year's vote is former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin, who was named on 86% of ballots. This year was Larkin's third on the ballot; he went from being named on 51.6% of ballots in 2010, when the BBWAA elected only Andre Dawson, to 62.1% of ballots in 2011, when the BBWAA elected Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven. Among Larkin's other merits as a player, across his 19-year career he batted .295/.371/.444. That spans a little over 9000 plate appearances. The Orioles, for instance, have not had any players with higher than a .371 OBP in any one year since the 2008 season.

Former O's on the ballot this year were Rafael Palmeiro, Lee Smith, Javy Lopez, and I guess we can count Tim Raines' four-game stint in 2001. Smith was the O's closer in strike-shortened 1994 and apparently came in 5th in Cy Young voting with 33 saves despite a 3.20 ERA. In his tenth year on the ballot, he managed 50.6% of the vote. Raines, whose HOF cause is the poster for those who want the value of OBP to be recognized, received 48.7% in his fifth year. He reached base at a .385 clip across a 23-year career. Palmeiro went from 11% to 12.6% in his second year. Lopez will not appear on the ballot again, failing to reach the 5% threshold to remain. One person actually gave Lopez a HOF vote.

The top two players who weren't inducted were Jack Morris, who went from 53.5% of ballots last year to 66.7% this year, and Jeff Bagwell, a cause celebre for those writers who don't feel that it's fair to have vague, unsubstantiated steroid suspicions be the reason to keep a player out of the Hall of Fame. Bagwell got only 41.7% of the vote last year, but went up to 56% in the 2012 voting. The cases for and against both Morris and Bagwell have been hashed out across the entire baseball-focused corner of the Internet. Both are on an upward trajectory and perhaps both will end up being elected in the future. A full list of results can currently be found on the BBWAA website, with a partial list of ballots - 69 of the 573 returned - being located here. No sign of the mystery Javy voter on this list, but a source familiar with the situation can confirm that Camden Chat editor-in-chief Stacey does not have a HOF vote, so we can cross her name off the list of suspects.

Hall of Fame voting starts getting interesting next year as more of the star names from the 1990s and early 2000s, some of whom have had their names linked to PEDs and some have not, work their way onto the ballot. Next year's first time eligibles include Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling and Craig Biggio. Schilling and Sosa are not the only ex-Orioles joining the ballot next year; also eligible will be Steve Finley, Jeff Conine and Tony Batista. I'm not making that up about Batista. He's really going to be on the ballot. Those who vote for many players will have crowded ballots in a hurry, as writers are limited to naming only ten players.

According to some updates that just came across Twitter from Dan Connolly at the Baltimore Sun, Nick Markakis had surgery in Philadelphia yesterday "to repair a torn rectus abdominis muscle". We can all think of at least one person on Camden Chat who was probably unaware that Markakis had a rectus abdominis muscle at all. The muscle is the one that in layman's terms, and with a decent workout program, will form the "six pack" abs.

There was no indication from Connolly how the muscle tear occurred or how long it had been afflicting Markakis. Last we heard about Nick's health was right after he won his Gold Glove a couple of months ago and he told MLB.com's Brittany Ghiroli that he was "75 percent healed" from the bruised pelvis bone that he sustained in mid-September, but there's no mention of a connection between that injury and this surgery. Now, according to Connolly, Markakis is "hopeful he will be ready by Opening Day", and also that he will be having a lighter workload in spring training.

The news of this surgery will be particularly disappointing to those who were hoping that Markakis would be able to work on continuing to develop power during this offseason, because Connolly also reports that Markakis "has not been able to work out this offseason due to injury."

EDIT: Connolly adds that Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals "had the same type of surgery, missed six weeks and wasn't 100% initially". For Markakis, there will be three weeks where he does nothing and six weeks before he resumes baseball activities. That pushes us to mid-February, and no idea how close he will be to 100% at that time.

From the Press Release:

The Orioles today announced that they have acquired OF JAI MILLER from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for cash considerations and have also traded INF BRANDON SNYDER to the Texas Rangers in exchange for cash considerations.

Miller, 26, batted .276/.368/.588 with 32 home runs, 88 RBI and 16 stolen bases without being caught in 110 games for Triple-A Sacramento in 2011. He also appeared in seven games for the A’s, going 3-for-12 with a home run.

Miller has batted .271/.351/.516 with 85 home runs and 253 RBI in 423 games at the Triple-A level in the last four seasons. His major league time also includes 20 games with the Kansas City Royals in 2010, when he batted .236/.300/.345. He made his major league debut in 2008 with the Marlins.

"Jai Miller has the power, speed, base stealing skills and good athletic ability to be an asset in our outfield as he competes for a spot on our ballclub this spring," said Orioles Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations DAN DUQUETTE.

Snyder, 25, batted .261/.312/.406 in 114 games with Triple-A Norfolk in 2011. He also appeared in six games for the Orioles, going 3-for-13.

The Orioles 40-man roster remains full with these moves.

Neither of these moves are earth shakers, but I was always fond of Brandon Snyder. He was picked in the first round of the 2005 draft but could never quite hit enough as a corner infielder to make it work. I still would have liked for him to have been given more of a chance, but that's possibly an emotional response more than a logical one. He grew up in Virginia as an Orioles fan and is fun to read on Twitter, but I guess those aren't the things that make it worth keeping a player around.

There was a brief time many years ago when Brandon Snyder's mom posted on Camden Chat, that was kind of neat. And of course there was his fall league blog that kept us entertained (well, kinda). And there was that time Camden Chatter jobe asked him at FanFest about his favorite meal to cook, and after a brief look of surprise he began talking about salmon. Good times.

Anyway, best of luck to Brandon Snyder.

New Oriole Jai Miller was drafted in the fourth round of the 2003 draft by the Florida Marlins and has a negligible 72 major-league plate appearances. He has spent most of the last four seasons playing in the Pacific Coast League where he's hit quite well, and word on the street is that he's a solid defender. It's not a bad addition to a team whose outfield depth is as woeful as the Orioles, but it probably won't matter much in the long run. At the very least he's a better option as center field back up than Matt Angle.