News has been expectedly slow in Birdland

This time of year is usually pretty slow in baseball. And with the lockout on top of that, it's been real slow. And things may not speed up for a while, but hopefully it won't be too far into the new year when we get some better news on that front.

Today I want to wish every reader and your family a merry Christmas and happy holidays! I appreciate this community today and every day.

Just a short entry today to look back at a few recent items of news and feel free to leave any comments. But open the presents first!

O's name coaching staff: The lockout did not keep the Orioles from officially setting the major league coaching staff for the 2022 season.

This included the official announcement that was already known; The Orioles would have co-hitting coaches. They announced the promotion of Double-A Bowie hitting coach Ryan Fuller, who also served as the full-season hitting coordinator, and the hiring of Matt Borgschulte from the Minnesota Twins organization. Last year, he served as hitting coach with the Triple-A St. Paul Saints. They replace hitting coach Don Long, who wasn't retained after three seasons.

Yes, it may be a bit outside the box, featuring two coaches that have never worked at the big league level. But Borgschulte has clearly been on the O's radar for a while and Fuller was clearly someone who quickly became well regarded on the O's farm.

In the case of Fuller, not only did he work with players that put up very solid numbers, but those players often spoke of how much they approved of the processes the O's were using with hitters on the farm.

O's add a free agent pitcher: The Orioles beat the lockout buzzer by reaching an agreement for next year with free agent pitcher Jordan Lyles. He got a deal that will pay him $7 million for 2022.

Lyles pitched for the Texas Rangers the last two years. In 32 games and 30 starts last season, he went 10-13 with a 5.15 ERA. Lyles was an innings-eater, throwing 180 innings, 33 1/3 more than John Means, who led the O's in that stat. Lyles' innings total ranked 18th-most in the American League. He posted 1.389 WHIP, allowing 9.7 hits per nine innings and 1.9 homers. He walked 2.8 per nine with 7.3 strikeouts.

No doubt the Orioles will purse more pitching on minor league deals and perhaps even more big league deals as they try to cover a lot of innings in the their rotation while at the same time allowing them to call up prospects, but not until they deem them ready.

Note from Steve: Hope everyone has a great day today and during this holiday season. I will not have a story here for a few days. Nothing is wrong, just taking a couple of days off of writing. See you soon.