More from Dan Duquette

DALLAS - Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette apologized to reporters today for not having more news. We were willing to take any scraps, but yes, a full meal would have been much more satisfying. Maybe we'll feast tomorrow. I'd settle for soup, which can be a meal. "I wish I had more A stuff today," he said. "We met with a couple more clubs, we advanced a couple different trade proposals, and we made a couple offers to sign players, but we really don't have anything new to report." Are the prospective trades and offers all about pitching? "Mostly pitching," he replied. "We're looking for pitchers. I've told you that. And we've got some trade proposals out there for some pitching and we've got some offers out to sign pitchers." Duquette said he hadn't heard that the Cardinals made pitchers Jake Westbrook and Kyle Lohse available. Duquette also noted that it's taking "a little while for the market to develop." "In the past, all the players wanted to be signed by the holidays, but this market goes a little bit longer now, and that's a fact of the market," he said. "Some of these deals and some of these signings will extend beyond this week. But I thought there would be a few more things that would fall into place today, frankly." Have the last few days made Duquette feel that he doesn't have the necessary personnel to swing a trade? "No, I think we have the wherewithal to make a couple of deals, so we'll keep working on it," he said. "I hope we get something done. We're trying." Would it surprise Duquette if something gets done later tonight? "Probably tomorrow," he replied. As I wrote earlier, the Orioles are looking for major league-ready talent. "We need to fortify our major league team," he said. "There are other teams that have more depth that are trading their depth and fortifying their farm system. We're looking to fortify our major league team." Here's what Duquette said about signing local players after being asked about the added appeal of acquiring Mount St. Joseph graduate Gavin Floyd: "We're going to make it a priority to sign local kids off the amateur free-agent market, so you'll see us sign players like Gavin Floyd. We're going to make that a priority. We've already said that, because I think that's good for fans. They can follow them all through the minor leagues. They can come out and see the stars of tomorrow in the Orioles' farm system, and then follow them all the way to Camden Yards. So, that's a priority for us, and we have a good man in Dean Albany to lead that charge." Also, Orioles manager Buck Showalter and executive director of international recruiting Fred Ferreira will fly to the Dominican Republic this weekend to attend a private workout by Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. I wrote about the Orioles' interest in Cespedes here. MLB.com first reported that the Orioles will watch him work out this weekend. The site also is reporting that the Orioles and Rangers met today to discuss reliever Koji Uehara, who wants to come back to Baltimore.