I had been fully preparing myself to see Brian in a Red Sox uniform the 2 years before Dustin Pedroia proved that he is legit. Brian is far more valuable than most people give him credit for....incredible signing

great job by the sun staff to chase this story down. Puts the icing on the cake for me for the offseason. Throw in the 5th pick this year and we are in serious business if all goes well. andy macphail is a true genius at this stuff, and anybody who says he isnt shouldnt be a fan. He has done more in 18 months than anyone in 15 years. I knew petey stayed away when andy told him he had to release gibbons. That was a serious sign of how things were going to go!

Great news. Thanks for the scoop and continued updates. It's hard not to believe that the O's have started down the right path with their rebuilding efforts. Good to know that Roberts thinks so.

Even as the team stares down another losing season, the fans now have ample reason to stay tuned. The young, athletic outfield, the impending promotion of Wieters, etc.

I completely agree with ravenos. MacPhail is incredible, he hasn't made a mistake in any of his personell decisions. How is he making this whole rebuilding process look so easy when nobody else could do it for ten years before him?

In three years or so, the Orioles are going to be a really good team. All we need is a few starting pitchers to develop, and we have so many stockpiled that I think it is a safe bet that a few of them will work out.

It will be especially fun seeing Robert's as the veteran leader in a few years when this team is making their run.

It is great to see MacPhail doing this the right way. I can't wait until these young pitchers start arriving in the show and proving that they are legit.

Great signing. Now they should focus on trading some other veterans to give room for young talent. Probably Mora has some value for other teams and we could get a decent prospect or two for him.

I'm a happy fan. Now lets kick some AL East butt.

Mike R.
Agree with everything, except the Birds will start thier run next year. (a winning record, knocking on the door of the playoffs)

The way I look at is that this gives the Birds considerable strength at the field positions, particularly up the middle with B. Rob, Izturis, Adam Jones, and soon-to-be arrving Matt Wieters.

Throw Nick Mak and Pie in there with Huff at 1B and I think the O's are looking good with only 3B to worry about in the immediate future.

But oh, that pitching........

With signings like this and Nick it will be easier to sign others in the future. Good move!

This is a great signing. It shows true comittment to the rebuilding plan that AM has laid out. With a little luck and player development I can see this team compete for a playoff position in the next 2 - 3 years.

Now, let's get Huff signed to a new 3 year contract. No one has better DH numbers, and he can play of,IB,and 3B,and is only 32 years old and in his prime. We need him in the mix in our rebuilding effort.
Pete: What do you think is the chances of him getting a 2 or 3 year contract extension?

We just got an early Spring. The O's re-signed their best player and, for me, this makes for a great season no matter what happens with our starters. The position players for this year seems to be set, except for backups which I hope will include LouM and a longshot (Nolan R).Saw your film on Koji. Hope it wasn't spread over to long a time. Anyway I think we're going to have some fun this year

No doubt, probably the best deal (paired with the Markakis extension) of the off-season.

It seems like it should have been a no-brainer to lock these guys up. But it hasn't been easy for the Orioles to keep their young talent, partly because they always seemed to wait too long and partly because our own players weren't convinced they'd ever win anything here.

Make no mistake, the message these two signings conveys is that our own players believe in what the AM and the front office is doing. Even more importantly, it appears Mr. Angelos may really believe too.

If that's true, then it's only a matter of time before other players considering coming here start noticing as well.

It's looking pretty much unanimous so far and I'll join the chorous, great signing! I breathed a big sigh of relief reading it. The nucleus of a good defense and batting order seems to be in place. Perhaps some of our pitchers will step it up a notch this season too.

I'm getting excited for 2010.

If Huff has good first half, I would think a 1 or 2 year extension would make sense.

The last one standing in LF of Pie, Montanez and Scott will get it in 2010.

I'm going to assume two of the four new starters will prove quality (I'm hoping Uehara and Hill).

We could be ending 2009 looking for 3B and a couple starters. That the least number of question marks/obvious deficiencies in years.

This is a great day for the Orioles and O's fans. This team is finally doing things right, showing loyalty to players that deserve it, and focusing on the fundamentals that will produce a winner. I am now going online to buy tickets.

Good signing because it's not my money, but i think they may end up regretting the last year or two of the contract. See Melivn Mora.

Come on Peter, 40 million dollars? Dont you read Jack's posts? No way Angelos committed to that much money. First you pull our leg with the Markakis long term contract gag and now this. What kind of fools do you take us for? I can read Jack's posts as well as you can guy.

THANKS PA & AM!

Hate to burst anyone's bubble, but what if he flunks the physical?Then what? Ever think of that?...Kidding!

This shows that Angelos is willing to learn and allow Andy to make the right decisions. I haven't followed cl;osely whats been going on with our minor league system, but I know I have heard about upgrades. I just hope that we have pitching coaches that concentrate earlier on about having pitchers that pitch strikes with location and not blowing out their arms. It seems to me that our minor eleague pitchers have been brought up without the ability to throw strikes. In fact, we have promoted pitchers that we have gotten from other organizations because for many many years we brought noone up. I know in the past we have signed highschool pitchers and that is a major major screw-up. If you ever draft a highschool pitcher that person should be immediately fired. We had about the most screwed player selection and development of any team in the major leagues. With all these young good arms, I hope we have a team and a plan to get them to the majot league. We have sure had a lot of bad arms and I think it is the way we teach.

Anonymous; Go to the MLB stat page. Mora had the third highest slugging percentage for AL 3rd baseman with any signifigant playing time.

Brian Roberts is NOT Mr. Grumpy Mora.....Great signing

This is a great signing on so many levels. Peter laid it out quite eloquently in his colume a few days ago. If we can get a break or two this spring with regard to starting pitching, we could really surprise people this year. Let's just say that Patton and Albers are healthy or one of Pauley, Hennessey or Penn come through, we could have a formidable team even without the great young pitchers in our organization being ready.