So just how important is the closer on a baseball team? The closer may be the most important player on a good team. If you've beaten a team for all or most of eight innings, there is seemingly nothing more devastating than blowing the lead in the ninth. If you've come from behind late to get the lead, you need to seal the deal. But is the closer critical on a losing and/or rebuilding team? Here's my take on the O's and the closer position for the 2010 season.

The question came up on the Wall to Wall baseball show that airs Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. on MASN. Why aren't any Major League Baseball officials concerned about the payroll and competitive disparity in the AL East where the Yankees and Red Sox are on one level and the other three clubs are at another? I guess the biggest reason is because this impacts three clubs and not the other 27 teams. Why should anyone in MLB or a team official from Minnesota or Kansas City or Texas care?

Let's take a look at the O's minor leagues today. I present Melewski's 2009 Orioles minor league All-Star team. I didn't consider a player that made the Majors before August 31, eliminating players like Brian Matusz and Matt Wieters. I didn't consider players that played in fewer than 50 games, eliminating Josh Bell, among others, from consideration. This isn't necessarily a listing of the best prospects, just those that had good years at those positions. For the outfield, I did not...

When the Orioles were consistent winners in the 60's and 70's, they did it with pitching and defense. That's not pitching and homers or pitching and a good on base percentage. That's pitching and defense. If you can standout in those two areas, you will be in a lot of games and probably win your fair share of them.

Dave Trembley mentioned late last season that there was some sentiment in the O's organization and even among the coaching staff, to move Jim Johnson into the starting rotation After all, that was his role throughout his entire time in the minors. But, with spring training now less than three months away, that talk has cooled according to the O's manager.

The Orioles have made their needs pretty clear for this offseason. Now the time to make acquisitions is near with the Winter Meetings starting Monday. O's skipper Dave Trembley expects the Birds to be active in Indianapolis and on into the offseason. "I think the Orioles will be aggressive. But I also think some decisions throughout baseball may go further into the offseason than they have in the past, simply because of the economic situation and [because] the non-tender dates are later...

As baseball's Winter Meetings are set to begin on Monday, some fans are stoked to see what the O's first move will be. There seems to be a segment of fans who just want a move, the bigger the better, to create a little excitement around here. I can understand that, but if the O's make a trade, I hope they don't deal much if any of their young pitching.

As the baseball off season moves on, O's manager Dave Trembley never keeps that legal pad too far away. On it he makes notes about the upcoming season and writes down different possible lineups for his 2010 Orioles. Of course, Trembley is hoping there is player that will be in that lineup that he can add later, a middle of the order type hitter that the club will acquire. The skipper saw rookies Nolan Reimold and Matt Wieters deliver at the plate last year and both should have prominent...

ESPN's Buster Olney recently wrote an article praising the Orioles young base of talent. Baseball America listed Josh Bell as the fifth best prospect in the Arizona Fall League. That same publication listed six Orioles among the best players in their Double-A and Triple-A leagues from 2009. A picture has emerged that some national media think the O's have top young talent to build around. The Orioles are not talking up their own players, others are doing it for them.

There are a mountain of stories you can read on the internet about baseball and each team in the Majors. You can be online all day and still not come close to checking it all out. But the other day, I read an article in the Boston Globe that was very interesting to me. It was written by Sox writer Amalie Benjamin and is filled with quotes from Boston GM Theo Epstein.