On top of that Felix Pie is out for three months, and Koji Uehara is still unknown from his left hamstring strain. Pie has a ruptured back muscle, and will miss much of the season. It is unknown how well he will recover, and if additional missed time will be at hand. Uehara has been out since March 26th, and is just now beginning to throw regular sessions.

This is dismal news to a team that has not had a winning season in several seasons, and has now started the year 2-12. So much is in the control of an organization, but four early injuries to above average players does not help at all.

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Michael Gonzalez has already blown two saves and has an 0-2 record with an 18.00 ERA in only three appearances.

Orioles manager Dave Trembley had this to say:

“I believe it’s new, because when he came in before the game today, I asked him how long this has been going on.” “And he told me, ‘The last couple days.’ ”

As far as replacing the closer is concerned, the Orioles are considering setup man Jim Johnson. With Brian Roberts and now Michael Gonzalez both on the Disabled List, the Orioles are in a lot of pain to start the season.

Apparently Roberts re-aggravated a herniated disk in his back which required an epidural injection into his spine. He could be out longer than the 15-Days, and it is looking likely that he will. Good news was that an MRI showed no major structural damage to his spine.

Manager Dave Trembley had this to say:

“He will be out the entire 15 days, and then a good possibility it may be longer than the 15 days” “Because he would have to start doing some baseball activities and in the information that was given to me, a rehab stint is possible, and probably likely.”

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This is a huge disappointment to the Orioles who have already started the season 1-6 with no wins at home. Roberts is due $10 million this year, and signed a deal through 2013 in the off-season.

Niemann had this to say:

“I feel good.” “It’s been getting better each day the past few days, and I feel good about it. I’m just eager to get back out there. Hopefully I can stay out there more than 1 1/3.”

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The Rays will face the Orioles at 7:05 PM Eastern Time against Baltimore starter Brian Matusz. The Rays are 4-3 this year and the Orioles are 1-6.

That’s not the only thing he’s hitting. Against the Rays Tejada laced a line drive right off of the shoulder of Jeff Niemann forcing him to leave the game. The Rays had to put in relief pitching for eight innings, although it didn’t seem to make a difference in the game against New York Last night. He ended up with a bruised shoulder and it seems he may not miss a start.

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Tejada is literally hitting everything, even the opposing pitchers. Go to Vegas and place your bets. The power numbers seem to be diminishing, but he’s still getting on base and filling the holes that his teams have been needing.

In the coming weeks we will find out if the Rays are yet again for real, or if their pitching will fade away much like it did in 2009. The bats will stay hot, and the clock is ticking on Tampa keeping a legitimate shot at playoff contention. I say this because stars like Carl Crawford and Tony Pena may or may not be with the relatively small market team next season.

In another AL East showdown, the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays are already underway. Vernon Wells is looking to his his 5th home-run in four games, and the Orioles look to keep their bats hot depspite some poor relief pitching performances thus far. Baltimore is sitting at 1-2, while Toronto is at a cool 2-1 with a great offensive start to the year.

The Red Sox aren’t in a division showdown like the other four teams, they will be taking on the Kansas City Royals at 8:10 PM Eastern. Tim Wakefield is still in the starting rotation throwing his knuckleballs as wicked as ever. Lucky for the Sox, they won’t have to take on Greinke today, but he should get the start tomorrow against Josh Beckett. Beckett did officially get his contract extension for four more years. The Red Sox now have their core rotation locked up through 2014 at least.

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Baltimore Orioles

Key losses- Chris Ray, Danys Baez

Key additions- Kevin Millwood, Garrett Atkins, Mike Gonzalez

Off-season grade- C+

Justification- Kevin Millwood provides some leadership for the Orioles young staff. He’s also very durable and that should keep the young staff from pitching too many innings. Garrett Atkins is a nice low risk/high reward signing. Mike Gonzalez stabilizes the back end of the bullpen.

Boston Red Sox

Key losses- Billy Wagner, Jason Bay, Casey Kotchman

Key additions- Mike Cameron, John Lackey, Adrian Beltre, Jeremy Hermida, Marco Scutaro

Off-season grade- A

Justification- It looks like Theo Epstein set out to improve the defense on this team and this off-season reflects that. They upgraded in center with Cameron. The Cameron signing also allows Jacoby Ellsbury to move to left field, where he is better defensively. Scutaro is an upgrade over Lugo. Boston’s defense could rival Seattle’s this season. The signing of Lackey gives the Red Sox one of the best rotations in baseball.

New York Yankees

Key losses- Melky Cabrera, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Phil Coke, Jerry Hairston

Key additions- Curtis Granderson, Nick Johnson, Javier Vasquez

Off-season grade- A

Justification- They won the World Series so they did not have a lot of holes to fill, but the rich did get richer. Curtis Granderson is an upgrade defensively in center field. Nick Johnson will most likely take over for Matsui at the DH spot and he provides a nice on-base percentage. Javier Vasquez is a nice addition to an already stellar pitching staff.

Tampa Bay Rays

Key losses- Akinori Iwamura,

Key additions- Rafael Soriano

Off-season grade- C+

Justification- They were not very active, but they did upgrade the bullpen, which was a weakness last year.

Toronto Blue Jays

Key losses- Roy Halladay, Marco Scutaro

Key additions- Alex Gonzalez, Brandon Morrow

Off-season grade- C-

Justification- They lost one of the best pitchers in the game and did not get a major league ready pitcher that can fill in in 2010. I did like them getting Kyle Drabek from the Phillies though. They were probably smart in letting Scutaro walk and collecting the draft picks. They did not do much to improve the team in 2010, but they did make some good moves toward the future.

Had a cup of coffee in the bigs last year and showed that he’s going to be the future ace of the staff. Gotta like what he brings to the table from the left side. Is pretty polished for a kid at 22.

2) Chris Tillman-SP

The ying to Matusz’s yang. He could be the perfect compliment to Matusz from the right side. I don’t think he’s going to be a big strike out guy- but his stuff could be really really tough to square up in 2010 if he continues his development.

3) Jake Arrieta SP-

Low to mid 90′s right hander. Can be electric at times, but at other times throws a ton of pitches. I don’t know if he’ll transition to the bigs as a starter and I could see him as more of a reliever.

4) Josh Bell- 3B

Came over in the George Sherril trade last year and has surprising pop. He could be a David Bell type guy at third with 15-20 home run power. He would come as a cheap replacement for Melvin Mora, but don’t expect him to be an all star.

5) Zach Britton- SP

Left hander. Soft Tossing. Sinker ball like action. Gets a ton of ground balls. Hmmm. A Jason Marquis from the left side? Not exactly a bad deal

6) Ryan Adams- 2B

Seeing as he plays second- it’s going to take some time to get a real opportunity at the big league level. I do like him a little bit. He reminds me of a taller David Eckstein. A dirt dog scrappy ball player without a ton of natural talent and relies alot on the fundamentals and doing the little things.

7) Xavier Avery-OF

Ridiculous amount of power….when he makes contact. He has about….16 different kinds of holes in his swing, but the upside is that he can hit a ball 500 feet. It’s going to take some time but that kind of raw power is unteachable.

8) Brandon Snyder-1B

The door is open for Snyder to walk through in terms of being the long term solution at first base. The problem with that is- he’s got hands of stone. He’s just an awful defender and that’s something he has to work hard on if he wants to be more than a DH. He’s got pretty good power and could end up being in the 4 or 5 hole.

9) LJ Hoes-2B

Fast and a good defender. He’s got a long way to go with the bat, but is still real young, so by the time Brian Roberts starts to decline- Hoes has the chance to step in and be the every day guy if he develops the way some think he will. I don’t see it personally, but I’ll take the word of the organization and put him in my top 10.

10) Oliver Drake- SP

He’s got a long way to go, and Baltimore isn’t all that deep in terms of young arms- but he’s someone that could develop into a 3 or a 4. He’s just to young and green to say that with any sort of certainty. He could basically go either way right now.

They traded reliever Chris Ray to Texas for Kevin Millwood. They also got $3 million back in the deal. Although some of his peripherals are not that appealing he should earn the $9 million he is owed this year. All he has to do is have a wins above replacement around 2.2 to be worth his money. He has been above that for his entire career. He’s usually good for around 30 starts, which should lessen the load on their bullpen. It also allows them to protect some of their younger starters. It’s also possible that teams could use a starter like Millwood in the middle of a pennant race and he could bring in a decent return. If the Orioles decide to hold onto him he should at least be a “Type B” free agent next year meaning they would get a compensation pick in the draft should they chose to offer him arbitration. In either scenario the Orioles come out well and all it cost them was Chris Ray.

They signed free agent Mike Gonzales to a 2-year deal worth 12 million dollars. He should help stabilize the back end of the bullpen. He posted a respectable 2.73 K/BB ratio in 2009. He can be prone to walking guys, but he compensates for it by striking out a lot of batters. Considering what closers have gone for in the past they got a pretty good deal for Gonzalez. The Orioles did a good thing by not locking him into a long-term deal.

They also took a chance on former Colorado third baseman Garrett Atkins to a 1 year 4 million dollar deal. He’s not quite the offensive force that he was in 2006 or 2007, but he is certainly worth taking a chance on. When looking at his numbers there is one number that jumped out at me. I realized he was quite unlucky in regards to Batting Average With Balls in Play (BABIP). He had a .247 BABIP and it should have been closer to .290. So taking that into account and assuming all hits are singles he should have had a line similar to .268/. 350/. 384. Not great, but much better than his 2009 numbers. He’s still an average to below average third baseman at this point. He also has the ability to play first base and he allows the team to pursue another infielder if the team chooses to. This is a classic example of a low risk/high reward signing. At worst he should be able to be 1 win above replacement, which would equal the contract he signed, but he has the potential to be a 5 win player like he was in 2006. He is not blocking any minor league players also.

Like I said earlier these moves are not franchise altering, but they should be improved for the 2010 season. At the very least they should be more watchable and may win some new fans. Andy MacPhail has his team headed in the right direction. As a Cubs fan I wish this is the Andy MacPhail the Cubs had during his tenure as president of the team.