Quick Hits: MacPhail & The Winter Meetings, Jose Guillen, Fan Fest, Mark Prior & The Rundown...

Well, not much is going on in the world of the Orioles; however, I expect with the winter meetings upon us, business will about to pick up. Right now, MacPhail has not done much; however, it looks like he's taking his time and seeing how the market is right now for both free agents and the trade market.

The Orioles.com has more on MacPhail and the upcoming winter meetings as does Allen McCallum of Press Box Online.

Both B and I have looked at particular deals and scenarios, so feel feel to delve through the blog for those.

First and foremost, I reported yesterday that the Orioles might be interested in Jose Guillen. That report kind of surprised me considering the state of the team and their goals; however, according to Roch Kubatko, the organization is not interested in him. Like I said, a deal with Guillen, despite he being a fine player, would not make sense for Baltimore right now.

As well, in Roch's piece & in also by Jeff Zrebeic, they both look at Melvin Mora and his situation now with the team. He reported at the moment, Melvin is playing winter ball in Venezuela (his native country) in order to learn the outfield once again (he played left field for both the Mets and the Orioles; however, he's not played the position since 2003). I don't know if it means that Mora is opening himself up to being a multiple-position man with the team, or if he's trying to make himself more marketable, but he deciding on this course of action could only help him.

Roch predicts Mora will be gone from the team; alas, I would not surprised if this move happened myself.

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Drew Forrester of WNST rants about the Orioles' marketing and the team holding FanFest at Camden Yards, two days before the season starts. I agree with him about the date of FanFest, as it should be done a lot earlier and kept in January.

The blog will have more about the opinions of last year's FanFest, but for now it is scheduled for March 29th.

Meanwhile, Casey Willett of WNST thinks the Orioles should go after Mark Prior as the Cubs are now dangling him on the trade market. Personally, I think if he could be had for the right price, Prior might be worth it if he can regain some of his brilliance before the injuries took a toll.

The acquisition of Prior would be a low-risk, high-reward type of move. He's still young enough to make an impact for someone, and he can make a comeback, fans here would be pleasantly surprised.

Of course, it's assuming the Cubs and the Orioles make another one of their annual deals.

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Also, in the Sun, the Orioles have now agreed to an extended lease on a new baseball academy in the Dominican Republic. The move is obviously an important one as most young players who come through the major league pipeline these days are from that portion of the world.

Whether we like it or not for whatever reasons, that area is stocked with young, fertile, and yes, very cheap talent.

Mike Gibbons, who is part of the Babe Ruth Museum, has a great piece on Juila Ruth Stevens, who is the daughter of Babe Ruth in Press Box.

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Although Babe Ruth is best known as a Yankee, he grew up in Baltimore, and still has a presence here with the Babe Ruth Museum only blocks away from Oriole Park at Camden Yards.