Uehara signs with Orioles

A 2 year deal with details still to be hammered out. He’ll likely be their No.2 starter since the Orioles only have Gutherie in their vacant rotation.

Two industry sources have confirmed that the Orioles have agreed in principle on a two-year deal with Japanese right-hander Koji Uehara.

The deal is pending specific contract language and a physical, which is expected to occur possibly later this week, though an appointment in Baltimore has not been scheduled.

Uehara gets the starting job that he wanted, and the Orioles get their foot in the door in the Japanese market (though only superstars seem to matter in this regard, don’t see many Rays, Phillies, or Astros apparel around Tokyo.)

Lohse’s 1 year 4.75 mil contract

Kyle Lohse signs a 1 year 4.25 million dollar (with 500k in performance bonus) contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. Similarly replacement level pitchers like Carlos Silva and Jeff Suppan have been getting something like 4 year $40m contracts in recent off seasons, but something changed. Maybe a critical mass of major league teams have finally realized the value of replacement level performance, as suggested in the timely USS Mariner article (via EWC). Also it’s probably ironic that the ever rising salaries of free agents brought on this shift in player valuations sooner than later (though, it’s the future replacement level free agents that will miss out on free money, the current batch have already laughed their way to the bank at least once).