Offseason Rumblings and Cy Young Award Announced Later Today...

        As predicted, the hot stove has been more like a rare stake: warm on the outside but cool in the center. I'm not falling for it though, because there are a lot of teams that need to plug gaps. With the economy the way it is, teams may go the extra mile in a trade to get a guy that will draw fans in the coming summer. Looks like the teams that blew their farm systems for major league level busts will be missing out. I bet Arizona wishes they had Carlos Quentin back, and boy would he look good in the middle of that lineup with Mark Reynolds and Justin Upton.

Got this from Buster Olney's blog on ESPN.com:

The other day I spoke with an NL GM who is greatly impressed with what the Orioles are putting together.


"They have a chance to be the Rays [of 2008] in 2011," said the GM. "They've got a lot of talent."

I e-mailed Dave Trembley, the Orioles' manager, and asked him about the specific adjustments that players like Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, Chris Tillman and others will need to make, going forward. His reply: "I was in Sarasota over the weekend for Orioles' fanfest, which was very well received. Jones, Nolan Reimold and Brad Bergesen were among those who attended.

"All the young pitchers need to command their fastball and locate their pitches, especially when behind in the count. I would expect to see significant improvement in these areas going forward.

"I like the outfield of [Nick] Markakis, Jones, Reimold and [Felix] Pie (who really played well the 2nd half of the season). Jones might have gotten somewhat home run conscious, and will get back to using the whole field and letting the pitchers walk him instead of chasing pitches out of the strike zone. He is a tremendous talent.

"I would expect Wieters to show us what he did the last month of the season, at the plate and in the way he threw and handled himself behind the plate. He threw out Carl Crawford in one game on back-to-back attempts, and hit over .300 the last month of the season. I can only imagine how fast the game must have been for him, learning the league, calling a game, working with a young staff and still getting four at-bats every night. He never showed any panic; he is a special player. He will benefit, as did Jones from his first year, and I would expect him to put up some very good offensive numbers next season. He had to learn how to adjust to being pitched to by major league guys night after night."

        I couldn't agree more that the Orioles are on the right track. They better be, because their fans have stuck by them through some tough times. They have what every small market teams envy, young talented players all rising at the same time. It's one thing to stockpile talent, but to have them all coming up at the same time is a little bit of luck and a lot of smart decisions by the Baltimore front office. If everything goes right with these players, watch out AL East. As if that division needs to get any tougher.

         If I were a free agent starting pitcher, the AL East would be the last place I would want to go if I wanted to get another big deal. But if the Orioles are going to do what it looks like they can do, they will have to do exactly that: add a veteran bat to the lineup who can lead these young guys to success. They have holes at all the infield positions aside from 2B where Brian Roberts continues to provide excellent production both defensively and offensively. Only time will tell, but don't be surprised if you see Baltimore making a surge to become a seriousl playoff contender sooner than later.

        Another hot topic has been left handed power threat Adrian Gonzalez and not if, but when he will land with another club. There are those out there who don't feel like San Diego will deal Gonzo but I would be shocked if they didn't move him this offseason. He is the best offensive player available, and plays pretty solid defense. If you make a trade for him you can probably lock him up at a relatively affordable price and avoid getting locked into an older, less talented player like the Matt Holliday's and Jason Bay's will cost you.
        
          The other thing to consider, and im sure other GM's are also thinking this is that San Diego basically went "all-in" on their rebuilding phase by trading Jake Peavy. There is no reason to keep Gonzalez and let him go for draft picks when there is a slim chance you will be competing within the next two years, because that is when his contract will be up and he will command big dollars if he hits the open market. With that in mind, San Diego basically has to trade Gonzalez at his prime value and that time is now. The amazing thing is that he may be too good in the eyes of a lot of teams, so they may go above and beyond to try and snag him before another team does.
         
          It would be scary to think of Gonzalez in the middle of a talented lineup like the Boston Red Sox, but any team seriously interested (and there will be plenty) is going to have to give up a whole lot. I would be shocked if the Red Sox picked up Gonzalez now that Jed Hoyer is in San Diego. They already gave up some premier talent when they dealt for Victor Martinez and I don't see Theo Epstein leaving himself so vulnerable.

Four days until free agents are available to sign to any club, and there are still some arbitration elligible players left out there.

Zack Greinke should win the Cy Young, it will be announced later today. Don't be surprised if he wins a few more after this if he can continue to stay healthy. He has the best stuff in the game when he's on, it's borderline silly and certainly unhittable.

I was a little surprised to see Andrew Bailey win the AL ROY Award. His numbers were great, and he was pretty dominant in the time he was in the majors, but I think Rick Porcello should have won. Porcello was thrown into the fire without much warning on a playoff contender and was very good. Consider the fact that he was only 20 years old and was on a very limited pitch count and I think you can make a strong case in his favor. Going forward Porcello is going to be a very effective pitcher for a long time with that nasty 2-seamer.