Koji Uehara passed his physical today and signed a one-year contract with a vesting option for 2012. Uehara will receive a base salary of $3 million, with incentives that could raise the deal to $5 million. President of baseball operations Andy MacPhail didn't declare Uehara the closer during the winter meetings. He said the reliever's role would depend on manager Buck Showalter. If the Orioles sign Kevin Gregg, Uehara could slip into a setup role, though his pinpoint control makes him my...

I had a conversation recently with Lee MacPhail, the Orioles' director of pro scouting, who was heavily involved with the club's preparations for the Rule 5 draft, among other projects. Click here to see his take on Adrian Rosario, the 21-year-old righty the club took with the fourth pick in the Rule 5 draft at the Winter Meetings. Here is what MacPhail said about the club's prep and plans going into that Rule 5 draft: "We discussed some strategies going into the draft and we put...

When the Orioles took 21-year-old pitcher Adrian Rosario in last week's Rule 5 draft, they selected a pitcher with a good arm, but very little experience. The youngster from the Dominican has thrown only 183 career innings, most in rookie ball. When he pitched 32 innings for Wisconsin of the Single-A Midwest League last summer, those were his first career innings above rookie-ball level. The odds are against any Rule 5 player sticking with his new big league club all season. Rosario, with...

The long-awaited debut of Owen Wilson as a Nationals reliever in "How Do You Know" has finally arrived. The film opens Friday, but some Nationals season ticket holders will be invited to screen the movie on Wednesday evening in Washington, D.C. The team will host a red carpet VIP event to promote the film. In Los Angeles, the real red carpet for the film begins tonight at 9:30 p.m. Fans can watch at http://youtube.com/HowDoYouKnowMovie. You might also want to tune in to Owen Wilson's...

When the topic is Matt Hobgood the Orioles' first-round pick in 2009, the discussion among fans often turns to whether or not he was taken as signability pick by the club. Fans also talk about his conditioning, or lack thereof. I recently interviewed O's minor league pitcher coordinator Dave Schmidt, who detailed improvements Hobgood is looking to make. All of that is well and good, but here is perhaps the biggest issue with Hobgood moving forward: Will he get his fastball back? At Norco...

I woke up this morning to a massive spam attack on my e-mail account and a video of Miley Cyrus taking a bong hit. It's going to be one of those days. My BlackBerry refused to accept anymore e-mails from my account after about 30 "undeliverable messages." Now that's a smart phone. Meanwhile, my laptop held about 1,850 of them, plus another 241 in my spam basket. Had to change my password to log on, and I'm still receiving them and, apparently, sending them out to the innocent...

After managing the last three seasons at Double-A Bowie, Brad Komminsk will work in a new role for the Orioles during the 2011 season: hitting coach for Triple-A Norfolk. What will be some keys for him in this role? "I think egos and stuff and getting guys to trust you," Komminsk said. "Hitters can be fragile and they have everybody in their ear. Every player is a hitting coach and every parent is a coach, every fan they have to deal with so much.They hear a lot of stuff from a lot of...

He may not have hit for a high average in the Arizona Fall League, but O's outfield prospect Xavier Avery felt like he made progress with his game in his time with the Scottsdale Scorpions of the AFL. The lefty hitter, who turns 21 on New Year's Day, batted .188-0-5 in 21 games with six steals. "I went in there to focus on just getting better," said Avery, the Orioles' second-round pick in 2008. "I felt like I accomplished that, but my numbers at the plate don't show it. I had a talk...

How do the Orioles compete in the AL East? It is a fair question. If the Orioles added Mark Reynolds and J.J Hardy, while Boston added Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, haven't the Orioles lost ground to Boston? The answer is almost certainly yes. I can't imagine anyone figured the O's to make a move or moves to top the two Boston made. That is life in the AL East. It seems the Orioles might sometimes have a better chance versus Boston and New York on the field than they do in the...

A few days ago, I wrote about outfielder Nolan Reimold's workouts with former Oriole Brady Anderson. You also can include third baseman Mark Reynolds on the list of Anderson's clients. In an interesting coincidence, Reynolds contacted Anderson before the Orioles traded for him at the winter meetings. "It was a nice circumstance that he's with the Orioles now," Anderson said. Anderson had a lot of favorable comments about Reynolds. "Reynolds is a stud," Anderson said. "I've...