The Cold Stove? MacPhail Waiting To Make a Deal...

Well, the Baltimore Orioles after the huge Tejada trade seemingly have not done much in the Hot Stove season besides a few minor moves.

As we are a little more than a month away from pitchers and catchers showing up at camp, I wonder if they’ll be anymore personnel moves made?

Personally, I think there may be moves made --- however, to fill holes. It looks like more and more by the day, Erik Bedard and Brian Roberts, no doubt the big trade chips on the team will still be in Baltimore in 2008.

I think some people are frustrated by the lack of action by Andy MacPhail in respect to Bedard and Roberts; alas, I think he’s trying to get the best offer for his talent available and will not give them away. Will a deal be done? That remains to be seen.

However, the immediate problem is that the team needs a closer, a little more bullpen help, a shortstop, a big bat, perhaps another starting pitcher and another outfielder.

Yikes. The Orioles do have some options at the lower levels, but considering the choices out there right now, there’s not much to jump up and be happy about. As well, if one looks closely, there are very, very slim pickings from the free agent market; thus, fans have the right to be somewhat concerned.

I would have liked more rapid change and an overhaul of the roster, but right now, I am going to wait and see how MacPhail’s plan works out. We still have good young pitching, and a few guys could break out, but I am going to consider ’08 and possibly ’09 as a wash.

I’m willing to be patient, but I also want to hope for upward signs of improvement.

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Rick Mease has a great column on the patience of fans and their insatiable need for news in an instant as evidenced by the Brian Roberts trade talks last week.

The Orioles.com takes a look at the corner positions, and Spencer Fordin has his latest mailbag up.

The out-dated scoreboard in center field at Oriole Park is finally being torn down in place of a super large high-definition scoreboard.