masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgLAKE BUENVA VISTA, Fla. – Jim Duquette was once a key decision maker for the Orioles. Now, he analyzes what the O’s and every other club in baseball does as his role as an analyst for Sirius XM radio.

This morning, during a video interview, he mentioned the O’s interest in free agent reliever Grant Balfour which has much discussed here today.

Duquette said despite not having a move or moves to announce yet, he is hearing the Orioles have been pretty active at these meetings.

“When you…LAKE BUENVA VISTA, Fla. – Jim Duquette was once a key decision maker for the Orioles. Now, he analyzes what the O’s and every other club in baseball does as his role as an analyst for Sirius XM radio.

This morning, during a video interview, he mentioned the O’s interest in free agent reliever Grant Balfour which has much discussed here today.

Duquette said despite not having a move or moves to announce yet, he is hearing the Orioles have been pretty active at these meetings.

“When you talk to most teams and most executives, the Orioles are in on a lot of things,” Duquette said. “You’re hearing them on a lot of potential deals, they just haven’t been able to pull anything off yet.

“Usually that first day, like we saw on Monday, there is a lot of talk and follow up conversations on trade proposals that maybe were going on before you got here and now you start to get a little closer to trying to make a deal.

“But the asking prices are still very high. Especially because with the free agent market, those prices are high and teams now are trying to make trades and the asking price on that is very high too. That is why things are jammed up and we haven’t had much movement yet.”

I asked Duquette how a general manager deals with fan displeasure.

“You keep an eye on it but you can’t make moves just to make them,” Duqeutte said. “A lot of times making below the radar deals, it takes time, it takes patience and you have to kind of do it in a stealth way with a lot of different options.

“Yeah, your fanbase is clamoring for this information, but you don’t want your competition knowing what you are doing. In the end, what you hope for, is you make the right decision and it shows up on the field.

“There are a lot of teams the last couple seasons that tried to win the offseason championship. In the end really, the product on the field is going to matter most.”

Here is the video of the interview with Duquette: