The Koji decision

I'll begin my morning with my annual rant about how this business has changed for the worse, and how it becomes most evident this time of the year. Multiple reports state that the Yankees made an offer to free-agent Cliff Lee. Someone else tweets that it's not true. One person can't confirm it, but still runs with it. Someone else tweets that it's not true. I remember the days when you had to be 100 percent positive or you couldn't print it. Editors would have climbed your butt like a flight of stairs if you published a report that wasn't confirmed. But not anymore. Everyone is in a race to be the first to tweet, as if they'll be granted eternal life or a date with a Kardashian sister. Makes me want to turn in my laptop and go to bartending school. Before I start making Long Island Iced Teas, I'll pass along comments from manager Buck Showalter later this morning concerning his new coaching staff. That's the plan unless something comes up, like all the Rob Roys that I'll be sampling as I enter the next phase of my professional life. Please let me add that the Orioles haven't given up on re-signing Koji Uehara. I know there's a lot of angst out there after they declined to offer him arbitration. I can feel it from here, and I completely understand. It's pretty clear that they don't want to pay whatever he would earn in arbitration. He made $5 million in 2010. He would get a pretty nice raise, as they all do, and the Orioles are still scarred from all the health issues that accompanied him through that open door in the Asian market. Yes, I'm aware that those injuries were sustained while he was a starter, but the hamstring always barks in spring training. Would it only happen if he's in the rotation? He's also gone on the disabled list with elbow pain. Let's face it, the guy is soft. He once canceled a scheduled running session in spring training because of his allergies. He gets winded putting on a shirt. But he was an excellent closer, one who absolutely refused to walk batters. You have to love a strike-thrower in the ninth inning. I'm on record as saying that they should have offered arbitration and either kept him for another year or received the draft pick. But I also want to point out that the ship hasn't sailed. They can negotiate with him. If a team offers a multi-year deal and the Orioles back off, we can most definitely return to the arbitration argument. I have a feeling we will be returning to the arbitration argument. The Orioles must feel like they can still re-sign Uehara without giving him a significant raise. Perhaps they got that sense while talking to his agent. We don't know everything that went on behind the scene, but on the surface, this decision has left a lot of people scratching their heads. Anyway, who needs a refill?