if I Rod will let the Kid play, let's get him. best defensive catcher ever in my opinion.

Remember when Ivan Rodriguez was in his prime and there was talk of possibly switching him to second base because he was such an outstanding athlete? Sort of like what Craig Biggio did.

Then Ivan became about 1/3 the size of what he used to be. And he no longer had much pop in his swing.

Gregg Zaun makes more sense as the bridge to Matt Weiters. He brings the intangibles and fans will like the Dempsey family connection.

Hey Pete, it seems the free agent options for first basemen are pretty slim. Any trade rumors or speculation involving that position?

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Pete's reply: There's all sorts of stuff going around. Lots of people asking if the O's can make a deal for Swisher. I don't think so, but there are some other possibilities. I'll explore some of them tomorrow.

I like both of them. Gregg and Ivan. Go ahead and sign both.
Ar first base I still like Kevin Millar. He's durable and makes things happen when we play the Yankees and Red Sox and he's a team player.
The other guys I've heard about for first base are injury prone and are questionable.

Pete -- you want entertaining video? Check out this guy:
http://orioles.fandome.com/video/102482/Batting-Stances--Baltimore-Orioles/

Find out who he is and let's get him in the front office in some capacity

Shelley Duncan? Oh, please! I've watched enough of him to be sick of how he behaves like a kid pledging a frat who's willing to do anything to get the attention and love of his brothers.

He loves to do the A's Bash Brothers routine after a home run, a tribute to his affection for Mark McGwire. I say the only way he can join the Birds is if he's willing to do the Albert Belle mini steps on his home run trots.

He can't hit a curve ball. Basically, he can hit his teammates with his arms and take cheap shots at opponents and then tell everyone he believes in playing the game the right way.

I liked his dad Dave as an Oriole and respect the job he has done as an Oakland and St. Louis pitching coach.

But, Shelley? With the cameras focusing on his face in the dugout each night, acting as if he is playing his first game in T-Ball and can't believe he is surrounded by so many other awesome T-Ballers?

Yuck!

Zahn. Why?

He's steady, he always kills the O's. Has enough experience but not the ego to bring along a young catcher. Doesn't need the spotlight.

Kind of the Chris Gomez of catchers.

No question that if we sign Pudge, we wont be getting the same player we tried twice before to get, but he still is one of the all time great catchers and his handling of the Marlins young staff, as well as the Tigers young staff, shows he can handle the ups and downs of young SPs.

Pete, do you personally think Markakis is worth 70 mil? I know the easiest answer is who is? I think he is a very good player with a a chance at being an excellent player, but 10 mil a year, seems like a very fair deal from the O's.

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Pete's reply: I think they need to get him signed and there's probably a number between $60 million and $70 million that would get that done. I predicted $63 million a while back and I'll stick with that. I'm still getting used to the fact that every decent player now seems to be getting $10 million or more a year, so I'm the wrong guy to ask if he's worth that or not. I guess if Mark Teixeira is worth $22.5 million a year, you can make a case that Nick is worth the $11.5 million he wants, but that's not really how you reach that number.

Pete, would you put it beneath McPhail to lowball BRob to have an excuse to trade him? He really doesn't seem all that concerned about extending him.

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Pete's reply: If you consider $10 million per year lowballing him, yes.

nice choice of video clips ;-)

I'd rather see the Orioles sign Pudge but either one will do until Wieters is ready to come up

Zaun? Doesn't really bring much to the table in terms of offensive punch. Someone wrote that he's got the "Dempsey connection". Unfortunately, that's all he has, and that's no stand-alone reason to bring him here. I-Rod still has some pop in his bat even if he's something like forty-nine years old (at least it feels as if he's been around that long!!)

Pudge would be interesting to see on the Orioles, but only if it is clear to him he is just a stop gap and to not expect to be the starter by the end of year. Get him to agree to this and it could work, however he gets tired of losing quick. Rumblings in Detroit (I live outside of Detroit) is that he wasn't a happy camper last year in Detroit, and the year before the Tiger's went to the World Series he angered a lot of his teammates with his me first attitude (however he was going through a rather bitter divorce at the time so take it as you will). Last year the Tiger's starters shook off so many signs in the beginning of the season, and just makes me wonder how much they trusted him at the end.

Pudge just strikes me as the superstar who just won't get it and not realize it's time to walk away.