Duquette hints at possible progress with McLouth, Saunders (with video)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - In an interview earlier this week on MASN's "The Mid-Atlantic Sports Report," Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said contracts talks with free agents Nate McLouth and Joe Saunders were moving at a slow pace. But tonight, when asked during a video interview with MASNsports.com if he sensed any progress in talks with the pair in recent days he said, "Well, I think they're on a good track." "We like both Nate and Joe," he added. "They did a great job for us. If we can bring them back, we'd like to have them come back," he said. Duquette also talked about how busy the Orioles might be during these Winter Meetings which officially start Monday. "We're going to be active and hopefully our activity will include a couple of deals where we bring back ballplayers, but I think the important thing for the fans to know is we have a good, solid established major league pitching staff already on our ballclub," he said. "We may have some depth to that pitching staff that we could utilize to help us land a bat for instance. "We are going to meet with all the teams we think we are legit trade partners with and my estimate is that will be five or six. We'll meet with the agents with the players we are trying to resign and hopefully get something done. It will be at least five or six (with expect to meet with here)."