Quick Hits: Gibbons, The Winter Meetings, Rundown...

Sorry for the lack of posts today - I have been out and about today and I was up in Baltimore County earlier on WNST with James Baker of Oriole Magic on the Sports with Mark Suchy where we chatted about the Orioles and the Hot Stove.

It was a good time, and even though we were on for more than an hour and time sure went by real fast.

Anyhow, it is a few days after the Jay Gibbons steroid announcement and Oriole Nation more or less wants him gone from the organization. However, it will be easier said than done considering his contract and the time, plus money left on it. I think will he will remain with the team, but he will be role player unless he can hit his way into the every day lineup. As most fans know, Gibbons will be suspended for 15 games.

The Baltimore Examiner has more on the situation.

Despite Gibbons' carefully crafted apology, the Baltimore Sun's Rick Maese has poked a few holes into it and basically rendered it useless in article on Friday. He shows that Gibbons' lied about his drug use and denied it for several years before Friday; therefore, the statements in the article are pretty damning.

The Sun's David Steele wants players to be honest, but considering everything right now in baseball, the players have very little incentive to do so unless major changes occur.

Meanwhile, the O's have said nothing at all about the Gibbons developments, and considering the team's ugly history and the accusations of steroid use, it would be perfectly understandable as why they would not comment.

The other big piece of news in the past week was that the Orioles made no moves during the winter meetings. While the team got a lot of attention, it looked like they were feeling out the deals offered and are going to take their time in making a move. Although MacPhail looked inactive in Nashville, one could assume a deal will be made the end of the year.

The only thing the Orioles dealt with were a whole lot of rumors, talk and speculation.

The Orioles MLB site has more on the Winter Meetings.

As well, fan-favorite Brian Roberts was rumored to be traded to the Chicago Cubs for some young prospects and pitching; however, that remains to be seen. If he is traded, it will be a litmus test in seeing how much power Andy MacPhail has in the organization considering the past history of Peter Angelos in potential deals.

Roch Kubatko has more in his blog, Roch Around the Clock about Roberts and also Jay Gibbons.

Dan Connolly in the Sun has a piece on the winter meetings titled, "MacPhail Only Browses At Quiet Winter Meetings".

However, the Orioles did get right-handed reliever Randor Bierd out of the Detroit Tigers organization with the third selection in the Rule 5 draft as well as four minor leaguers.

Dave Trembley reflected on his first year in being the majors, which was at times was hard and extremely harrowing.

Current resident jackass, Aubrey Huff shows off his vocal talents on a MLB music CD.