A look back at day one in Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Some impressions from day one of the Winter Meetings: * We saw again yesterday that sometimes where there is smoke, fire is nowhere to be found. Dan Duquette readily refuted a report that the Orioles were in "hard" on free agent first baseman Adam LaRoche last night during this video interview we did in his suite here in Nashville. I saw that some fans on social media were skeptical of that and felt the Orioles might be involved with LaRoche more than Duquette was letting on. I take the man at his word when he said he didn't even talk to anyone from LaRoche's camp yesterday, and more than one club official expressed surprise at those reports yesterday. This doesn't mean something can't change and the O's could get in the hunt for LaRoche later, but right now that is just not a story. * At this point, the Orioles have a certain value on their young pitchers and other clubs have a different value, one source said. Does that mean the Orioles are overvaluing their players. Could be. Could also be just the give and take in trade talks and no one wants to truly tip their hand. You have to figure that the Orioles' desire to get a decent hitter, which seems high, will eventually lead to a deal and they'll find some common ground with another club eventually. * One thing we all need to keep in mind is that this is not a race to build your roster. The Orioles don't have to leave Nashville with anything. If they don't, it simply could mean other moves are coming later. Sometimes a move another team makes or doesn't make will impact the Orioles in what they are trying to do. * The Winter Meetings are always going to generate more rumors than action. Put all these reporters together in one building, throw in some front office staffers willing to float some information and mix in the pressure to report something or get in the first tweet, and you are going to get a lot of material and information and not all of it is totally based in fact. It is just what this time of year is about. A fan asked me last night if it's possible the Orioles will acquire a player or players no one has mentioned. That is very possible. Very possible. It happens all the time. We report and hear various names and some of them - maybe none of them - are the players that actually do wind up on this ballclub. But it's still fun, so stay tuned and drop in a comment here with your impressions of day one and thoughts on what we might see, read and hear from Nashville today.