The only free agent that the O's might target and who *will* be offered arbitration is V-Mart. Lee, Berkman, and Pena are not going to be offered arbitration, so the O's won't surrender a pick if they sign them.

I also doubt they'll risk giving Uehara a raise in arbitration now that he's definitely a reliever. Would like to see him back, though.

Don't some type B free agents agree to decline an arbitration offer under the table, since it won't impact their free agency? It's obviously gaming the system, but I seem to recall hearing about it in the past...

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That's certainly frowned upon, but cant say for sure it doesnt happen. Remember, Pena and Berkman are Bs, so it doesnt matter to the Orioles whether they are offered or not draft-pickwise.

not to mention Tejada would have accepted arbitration here and they would have been stuck with him.

The draft picks really only help if you have a big time guy that wants to get a big multi-year deal. Marginal guys like Tejada, Millwood, Berkman, etc would probably latch on for another 5-10 mil arbitration season.

To get those two picks the Orioles would have had to offer Miguel arbitration and had him turn it down. I doubt either of those would have happened.

My opinion is, make Uehara the offer because he has proved to be very reliable when healthy. Another year wouldn't hurt and he is an asset to the bullpen. He's not worth $6 million, but he does bring some value.

Izturis would be a fallback option considering his defense, but his offense was worse than usual in '10. it would work only if the Orioles replace what he lacks in the form of a legit #4 hitter. A

Wiggington, our All-Star lol, had an outstanding first 2 1/2 months. Once he cooled of his numbers went right to where they should've been all along. I like the guy, he's a real gamer, but so are a lot of better players.

Patterson played his role well, but it serves no purpose to bring him back. Unless he wants to sign another minor league deal, no.

Lugo can fall into obscurity where he belongs.

I would really like to see them go after Berkman. If he's healthy, he's productive. He gets on base even when not hitting. The Orioles don't just need power, they need a good hitter who gets on base.

I believe offering Uehara arbitration would be a good move as well.

I HAVE SAID ALL AONG UHARA IS THE PITCHER I WANT BACK.. IF IT WERE MY CHOICE MY FIRST TWO OPTIONS WOULD BE BELTRE AND KONERKO, OR BELTRE AND PENA OR DUNN. AFTER THAT TRADE ONLY HOPE.. MARTINEZ, LEE, AND BERKMAN NOT THE FEARED HITTERS WE NEED TO FILL THE NEED AND I AM CONVINCED NO LESS THAN TWO BATS NEEDED TO PROVIDE THE HELP WE NEED.. STARTING PITCHER AFTER LEE BETTER TO RISK ON A HIGH END INJURED PITCHER COMING BACK.. LIKE WEBB..

The only Type-A players worth it are Dunn and V-Mart.

The only Type-B player worth it is Huff, whom, as we now know, should have been signed last year instead of the illustrious Garrett Atkins.

Everyone else is either old, useless, or would chew on broken glass rather than play for Angelos.

Millwood would probably accept arbitration and his years of service would make him very expensive, even though it would be nice to have him back. Koji might be worth making an arbitration offer because his price might not be too high. Might be a good way to pick up another draft pick

There really, isn't much harm in offering Uehara arbitration. Even if he accepts, they could still negociate a multi-year deal with him. And since he's a typw B, the status doesn't deter other team from pursuing him. Should they offer him arbitration and they end up going to the hearing, I find it hard to believe that he'd get much of a raise based on the number of games he's missing over the last 2 years. But then arbitration process does surprise often.

The O's should definitely offer arbitration to Millwood and Uehara, right? Then they should try to resign Koji, and hope to get a compensation pick for Millwood.

McPhail should have his cross hairs set on Paul Konerko (draft pick or not), but we all know that Derek Lee played with the Cubs......and we know where all the former Cubs go, don't we?

I don't like losing any draft picks but sign Uehara, Dunn, Tejada(1 yr), and the best starting pitcher they can.

With the Free Agent market lacking quality Short Stops, I would have liked the O's to have signed up Izzy for a couple more years. He was ranked as the 2nd best Defensive Short Stop last year in the AL. There are going to be a lot of teams looking for SS's, and keeping Izzy off the market by signing him up would be one less ulcer in the Off Season.

Andy signed Izzy to help protect the young arms. I don't see how that has changed.

Yeah yeah, the O's need bats, but by letting top Defenders go the O's would need even More bats to compensate for the additional hits/runs.

Good defense up the middle is as tantamount to good baseball as power hitting middle of the line-up hitters. Sacrificing one for the other is cutting off your nose despite your face. A lateral move, not forward.

Here's hoping Andy has some genius plan to accommodating both maintaining the defense and up grading the offense.

121 days till pitchers and catchers????

Why are we even talking about this? Andrew is NOT going to bo out and acquire the free agents necessary to win in the AL East.

Instead he will take the cheap cheap cheap option.

I gotta agree with paulie. Until Machado is ready, I'd rather have defensive stability than offense at short, and Izturis would fit the bill perfectly, plus he'd still be cheap because his numbers at the plate are so bad, so he'd fit right into MacPhail's signing demographic.

I would not confuse the Lance Berkman of say, 5 years ago with the one of today. His swing is very long, bat speed has diminished, and he's a below average fielder. Another question some may have is, why wouldn't AM try and trade Sarfate before losing him for zero? He was in the mix for best reliever in AAA, had a great year, & was basically ignored. Very strange for a GM who is supposed to be, all that.