Birdwatch 12/10/2009

Today is the last day of the Winter Meetings in Indianapolis.

Earlier today in the Rule V Draft, the Orioles did some bookkeeping, selecting LHP Benjamin Snyder from the San Francisco Giants with the third pick and sending him right over to the Texas Rangers as the PTBNL tacked on at the end of the Kevin Millwood deal.

Then they lost RHP Steve Johnson to those same Giants, who took him with the 23rd pick. He most likely will be headed back to the Orioles at some point in the season, as he's never pitched above AA and the Giants would have to keep him on their 25 man roster the entire year.

In the minor league round of the draft, the Orioles took Jose Duran from the Houston system, and lost Rodolfo Cardona to the Pirates.

Roch Kubatko thinks the Orioles are done at the Winter Meetings, but will be sticking around anyway because he remembers being suckered out of breaking the Miguel Tejada signing a couple years back.


Around the League:


Jon Morosi reports that the Seattle Mariners are once again going after San Diego Padres 1B Adrian Gonzalez, one of the best (though perhaps no longer underrated) hitters in baseball.

RHP Brandon Lyon gets a three-year, $15 million contract from Ed Wade and the Houston Astros; astute commentators will note that making this type of signing is concerning, because it could easily be a sign of creeping dementia, or more likely, an early symptom of rabies.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed C Sidney Crosby to a-- what's that? Bobby Crosby? Well, are they related? ...No? Nothing to see here, then.

RHP Rafael Soriano will be heading to the Tampa Bay Rays from the Atlanta Braves once the medical side of things have been straightened out; Atlanta gets former Pittsburgh reliever Jesse Chavez, who looks like nothing special, and will pay all Soriano's salary. The deal was contingent on Tampa Bay signing Soriano to an extension, which they've done: 1 year, $7 million.

The Philly blogosphere continues to reasonably discuss and/or salivate over the prospect of trading for and extending Toronto ace Roy Halladay, thereby guaranteeing three or four more years of getting edged out of a championship in six by the Yankees.

Former Padres GM Kevin Towers, described by one reporter as "Brian Cashman's BFF" and another as "probably a better pitcher than Josh," will most likely end up with the Yankees as some sort of consultant. Fantastic.

The Royals have released 3B Mike Jacobs and LHP John Bale, possibly creating space for prospect Kila Ka'aihue to make the major league roster. This is the first good move GM Dayton Moore has made in, oh, longer than I care to remember, and while it's very good news for the long-suffering Royals fan-base, I was hoping that perhaps MacPhail would try to get a deal done for him and plug him in at third. Ka'aihue had a "down year" last year, where he set the AAA record for walks in a single season with 102 while suffering a BAbip freeze-out of .277 in 2009 -- down from .300 in 2008 -- even though he saw his LD% and other peripheral hitting numbers get better.

More later if, in fact, there is more later.