So Gibbons is cut. It's serious rebuilding time for those who still had some doubts. It should be interesting to see what deals they pull off at the trade deadline. This team may not be recognizable by the end of the year.

thank god. Jay Gibbons is finished in baseball. I have a better chance of getting a date with amber theoharis than jay chances of getting picked up by a big league club.

Is that fifth behind Payton when he gets back, or fifth behind a 4th outfielder who's currently healthy?

Happy to see the O's bite the bullet. Fans now have 11.9 million reasons to believe that the O's are committed to rebuilding.

What a gutsy move from MacPhail and Trembley. It is the right move of course, but it takes cajones to look $11.9 million in the face and wave it goodbye.

Way to step up MacPhail, way to do the right thing! Once again, he proves to the naysayers that the Orioles are serious about pursuing their total reconstruction to the fullest.

Roch - if another team picks up Gibbons, are the O's still on the hook for the full $11.9 million? Or does the new team pick up some of that?

Gibbons is gone. Baltimore rejoices. Now we await the trade of Roberts(good guy, wish we could keep him around when we finally turn things around). Hopefully, we could trade Mora by the all star break, finally be done with Payton, Huff, Millar, etc. It is refreshing to see Angelos finally allowing his GM to do the job that he is paying him to do. Question: If Angelos allowed Pat Gillick to do his job in 95-97, would we have gone through 10+ years of losing?

Well i guess this offically brings in a new era in Oriole baseball. I must admit that iwas one of the people that didn't believe that Andy had full authority to do what he needed to fix the orioles. But after releasing jay gibbons today my confidence in andy has risen 100%. I give Mr angelo's credit for giving him his blessing in eating all that salary. But it does finally indicate that there will be one and only one person making decisions that will affect this ball club in the years to come. Will they be any better no but i can now live with the rebuilding process and put my trust and hope that he will be doing the right things.Lets only hope that they have enough pride in themselves to play hard every day and i will support them to the end.

Great move! This is clearly a sign that MacPhail has full reign in running this organization. Hard to believe that the owner is willing to swallow that contract.

I will be at opening day and will be rooting for the Orioles to win so they can spend a day in first place.

Let me be the first to post that although a number of us (if not all) are waiting for proverbial the other shoe to drop with regards to the Angelos McPhail relationship. I'm crossing my fingers, dodging bolts of lightning and hoping that I'm not jinxing the whole thing while I type this, but if we take a step back and look at what Mr. Angelos has done these past couple of months (dare I say years), Loewen, McPhail, Weiters, Tejada, Bedard, Gibbons - these have all been what most consider to be good baseball deals that have not been allowed to fail due to a certain owner's micromanagement (as is so often alleged). We are all very quick to criticize when Angelos acts as if he's a baseball guy (and we conveniently overlook the fact that it's his money & team and he is free to do as he pleases), and I think that we should be equally quick to say "Thank You Mr. Angelos." He is probably still too involved in the day to day decision making as ar as I'm concerned, but these series of transactions indicate to me that this is a franchise that is headed in the right direction. Again, thank you Mr. Angelos for making the right baseball decision, even if it is an implicit admission of a previous bad decision and a tough financial pill to swallow. It takes a big man to admit when he was wrong and an even bigger one to put $12M where his mouth is, right behind a rebuilding project. Here's hoping this continues (zap, bing, boom,... damn lightning).

L is for Loss Leader

Amazing news. Surprised but very happy. Sanity trumps money. Never would have thought PA would go for dumping a big contract like that.

Justice is done!

I will probably be alone in saying that I will miss Jay Gibbons. He was always a class act, till the very end.

His last few years have been bad, and I understand the decision. It still hurts to break ties this way. I wish that he was healthy the last few years. Guess its a "you'll never know" kind of situation.

I wish him luck in his future. I hope that he somehow manages to break back into baseball.

Gibbons release is a move that had to made for the development of the team. I didn't think that the O's management would have the will to absorb his salary. I have more respect for what they are trying to accomplish. Let's hope the starting pitching can develope into something or it will be a long haul.

Good news about Gibbons' release! It shows that maybe the O's are serious about the 'rebuild' . Eating that big contract couldn't have been easy for King Peter but it shows us that McPhail may have the decision-making authority to turn this around.
In the big scheme of things, he wasn't going to play much anyway but at least it gives a roster spot to a younger, better player.

Glad to see Gibby go, for a few reasons
1. He needs a fresh start
2. Scott Moore NEEDS to be on this team. He can play anywhere, and hits better than Gibby at this point.
3. This is a signal to the fans. This shows that King Peter might actually be getting the point. Young and cheap at this point is better than old and expensive.

This is what the fans want to see.

O is for "Stop yelling during the national anthem!"
GO O's

Bill in Elkton - your question:
"Does anyone know what all these terms mean;
A) Sent to AAA
B) Reassigned to AAA
c) Outrighted to AAA
D) Optioned to AAA"

Sent and Optioned are all different ways of saying the same thing. A player with options can be movfed up and down between the bigs and the minors as many times during a season as a team wishes (with some minor restrictions).

Reassigned can mean this, too. Or it can be another way of saying "outrighted."

Outrighted means the player was on the teams 40 man roster but was removed from the 40 man and sent to the minors. This is different from a release in that the team wants to keep the player but just not on the 40 man (maybe they want to add a player or make a trade).

A player who was outrighted has to pass through waivers and could be calimed by another team.

A lot of times the team will make conditional deals with other teams - "you don't claim our guy and we won't block a move you want to make with a claim" for instance - to get a guy through waivers.

Roch - do you forsee any waiver moves today or tomorrow?

Its almost gametime....lets get it on !!!!

Roch, how about suggesting to one of the sportswriters that they should do the following story...

"Where are they now? Tracking Down and Catching up with each member of the 1989 "Why Not?" Team that Accomplished the most Remarkable Turnaround in Franchise History"

I for one would like to read about where all of these guys are now, what they've been up to since leaving the big leagues, and what they took away from that near-miracle season.

Considering how bad the club is supposed to be in 2008, it'd be nice to read some positive stories about this franchise for a change.

So glad to see the HGH Gibbons move , The best thing to come out of it is to see the power Andy yields , now , if Peter the Great will pay top dollar for pitchers to play every five days we will have something,,,,,,,,,,,,,as for Gibbons , maybe he can get a job at the local drugstore.........

Randor's choice of lucky 51 for his uniform celebrates the 51 moons that orbit his home planet Rodnar.

Welcome to the Birds--and the Milky Way Galaxy--Randor!

Well, Roch, as I have said from the very beginning of Spring Training, Scott Moore is the future of the Orioles. His versaltility in playing so many positions shows his talent. Before midway of this season he will work his way into the lineup with his bat. Power doesn't lie.

I will definately be sad to Jay go....Cut Payton before Gibbons I always thought. Its not like he was the worst player on the team (cough*Mora and Huff*cough)

Take care Jay!!!! I'll miss ya in Orange and White!!!!!!