Dunn signs with the White Sox, O's offer lowball deal

Stop right there, Andy. I will not take $16 million dollars less to come play for the Orioles. Thanks but no thanks.

Left-handed slugger Adam Dunn signed with the White Sox for 4 years, $56 million. $14 million a year for a clean-up hitter who hasn't hit below 38 home runs since 2003 is a very fair deal to me. Plus, Dunn is only 31 years old, so it's not likely that he starts to decline by the end of his contract like most of the other available 1B free agents.

And it should also come as no surprise that Dunn signed with the White Sox, a competitive team that won 88 games a year ago.

But what is surprising -- and embarrassing -- is that the Orioles offered Dunn a deal far below the deal he got from the White Sox.

The Orioles offer? 4 years, $40 million dollars.

That's right -- $16 million dollars below what he got from the White Sox.

Dunn turned down a 3 year, $45 million dollar extension from the Washington Nationals, so what the hell did MacPhail think Dunn was going to do with his offer? Dunn is probably lining his birdcage with the Orioles offer sheet today.

And so it continues. The Orioles keep offering free agents far below their market value. It's like Andy MacPhail is an elderly shopper, refusing to believe that it's 2010. He still believes he should be able to buy stuff for what it cost back in 1976.

With the Orioles having had a great final 2 months to the 2010 season, and Buck Showalter in the manager's seat, MacPhail should be doing all he can to add talent to this roster and shed the image that the Baltimore Orioles are a failure.

But his lowball offers are doing nothing to squash that image. As a matter of fact it's only making that image worse and frustrating the few remaining fans that the Orioles haven't alienated over their 13 year losing run.

Does MacPhail really think that a player of Dunn's stature would accept $16 million less to play on a team that hasn't had a winning record since Dunn was 17 years old?

Or is this just another CYA move so that the Orioles can say "We offered him a deal". I wonder if we'll start to hear "confederate money" being thrown around the warehouse again. The ghost of Sid Thrift lives.

Wake up, Andy. Either make a fair deal or don't offer anything at all. Your cheapskate lowball offers are only embarrassing the Orioles even more.