The Orioles Off-Season, To Date

If I was going to grade the franchise's off-season so far (we're sitting at January 4th, 2011), I would give the Orioles a solid B-minus. In my book, that's above-average. They didn't pull off anything earth-shattering, like the Brewers (Greinke), Red Sox (Crawford & AGone) or Nats (Werth) did, but with a couple of shrewd moves they completely re-vamped an infield that was the team's achilles in 2010. Nicely done, Mr MacPhail.

If I was going to pull out highlights, these are the aspects that what I would focus on (in sort of semi-chronological order):

• The Mark Reynolds Deal (12/6) - I love this trade, strikeouts and all. The Orioles acquired 27 year-old Mark Reynolds from the Diamondbacks; Reynolds is a 3rd baseman who crushed 76 HR over the last two seasons, and is only now entereing his prime years, physically. They got him on the cheap because of an off-year last season; it cost them just two relievers, one of whom almost ended up in AAA several times last year (David Hernandez), and another who posted a 5.80 ERA in the minors (Kam Mickolio). I'm not crying about losing either.
• The Luke Scott / Barak Obama Love-Fest (12/7) - ok, so this didn't do much to change the team's chances one way or another for 2011, but it caused a hell of a media frenzy, for more than a week. The Tweets alone were worth the price of admission. Luke is always good for a sound-byte, and this was no exception.
• Re-Signing Koji the Closer (12/9) - great deal, which has been largely over-looked; small money ($3 million base, incentive laden) for a guy (Koji Uehara) that showed late last season that he could be "the guy" at the back-end of the bullpen, but doesn't have to be. The relief corps was looking depleted, and this helped solidify things quite a bit; there were rumored to be 6 different teams looking at Uehara, at one point - I didn't think they'd get him to re-sign.
• The JJ Hardy Trade (12/9) - a few years back when he was playing for the Brewers, JJ Hardy was one of the hottest young shortstops in baseball. He's decent defensively, has 20+ HR pop, and the chicks really dig him (or so I hear). The O's acquired both Hardy and INF Brendan Harris for veteran minor-league pitcher (and frequent Disabled List Contributor) Jim Hoey (29), along with a decent High-A prospect in Brett Jacobsen (24), who isn't even close to the majors at this point. The team didn't have to part with a high-end prospect, and obtained a starting shortstop... an absolute no-brainer.
• The LaRoche Deal That Wasn't (the REST of December) - It seems like I spent the better part of December 2010 reading rumors about how the team and free-agent 1B Adam LaRoche were "close", that they "expected a decision before the holidays", etc, etc... but it just never happened. LaRoche obviously didn't want to sign here, and probably overplayed his hand a bit. His contract filibuster really made the fanbase crazy, at one point - generated tons of message-board fodder.
• Inking Derrek Lee (12/31) - Derrek Lee is a veteran, a clubhouse leader, a good defender, and the kind of player capable of hitting .300 with 30+ HR, like he did just two seasons ago, in 2009. They only had to commit to him for 1 year, and even at last year's discounted production level, he's a solid buy at about $8 million. My opinion? He's looking for one more contract, and is still more than able to be a factor in the middle of a decent lineup.
• The Alfredo Simon Situation (1/1) - I'm not sure whether he shot his gun in the air and hit someone on accident (twice?), or if he aimed at those guys and fired, but either way, it's bad news - he could very realistically be held for one year, without bail, as he awaits trial in the Dominican. My guess is he's probably done as a major league pitcher.