Orioles News, Notes, and Links

• Kevin Gregg took his physical this week; once the results are back, he and the Orioles will make the contract official. Unless he fails... then things would get awkward.
• Steve Melewski at MASN wrote today that Orioles prospect Cameron Coffey (20), who has missed most of the last two years with injuries (Tommy John and unrelated shoulder tendinitis), is supposedly recovered now, and just hoping for a heathy year in 2011. You have to feel for this guy - I hope he does well this year, and starts to work his way up from the lower minors.
• According to MASN's Roch Kubatko, reliever Jim Johnson is focused and ready for the season, and understands that he needs to re-establish his value to the franchise:

"I think it's pretty much every year that I've got to prove myself all over again... By no means do I feel like I'm established to where I want to be. I think I still need to prove things."

• There was a nice piece posted on Camden Chat that focused on the increasing payroll gap between baseball's haves, and have-nots:

"Of the 15 teams with the highest payrolls, 11 have winning records over the past 12 years. Of the 15 teams with the lowest payrolls, 11 have losing records over the past 12 years. If you want to make the case that it's all about shrewd front offices, then essentially you're indicting a whole lot of GMs (who happen to have less money at their disposal) as incompetent, while lauding a whole lot of GMs (who happen to have more money at their disposal) as the best and the brightest. We can all snicker about the Yankees' abilities to pay Carl Pavano $40M to ride the pine, but when you see the bigger picture, you have to conclude that they're not the only ones who can effortlessly absorb contracts that would bankrupt a club like the Royals or Pirates. This is, quite frankly, an unfair advantage which has nothing to do with being shrewd and everything to do with ability to assume risks."

• Also according to MASN, the Orioles re-signed 5 minor league free-agents over the holidays, including pitchers Jose Diaz, Alberto Castillo and Chris George, and catchers Steven Lerud and Michel Hernandez.
• Alfredo Simon's lawyers stated on Monday that they have several witnesses willing to come forward that will exonerate Simon in the wrongful-death case against him in the Dominican Republic.