Orioles Insider, after a run of nearly 4 years, is closing.

If anyone would like to take over this blog and continue the run, please contact me at mward773@gmail.com.

Thanks for all the great support over the years.

The Orioles plan to pursue a closer this offseason, according to manager Dave Trembley. Trembley would prefer to use Jim Johnson and Koji Uehara as setup men instead of in the ninth inning. “If you don’t get a closer, now you come into Spring Training kind of unsettled again and you might have to take a look at JJ there,” said Trembley. “You might have to take a look at what Chris Ray does. But if you go out and get a closer, then I think you can kind of line up the back end of your bullpen.” Uehara has been a starter for his entire career, but health problems could push him to the bullpen.

I hear Big George (photo) is available. FOXSports says that the Dodgers have Sherrill up on the trading block. MSNBC claims that this is a sign that the Dodgers don’t have any money since the team is skittish about giving Sherrill a lot of dough through arbitration. He’s probably going to get a salary worth more than $4 million next year.

The American League Gold Glove winners were announced, with Adam Jones of the Orioles taking home his first award.

Jones, Torii Hunter and Ichiro make up the outfield while Mark Teixeira, Placido Polanco, Derek Jeter, Evan Longoria comprise the infield. Joe Mauer was recognized as the American League’s best receiver while Mark Buehrle captured his first Gold Glove. Longoria is another first-timer. 2009 was the first time Jeter and Teixeira have been recognized with the award since 2006. Jones qualifies as the biggest surprise, as he ranked in the middle of the pack among center fielders with advanced defensive metrics. Franklin Gutierrez of the Mariners has a legitimate gripe here, but these awards aren’t the be-all end-all anyways.

were mathematically eliminated from the AL East division race today.

If you hadn’t already noticed, OI is shutting down for the rest of 2009. This season is another lost one but we will be back next year as it looks to be exciting with all the young talent getting a chance in Baltimore. Wieters, Matusz, Tillman, Jones, Markakis, Reimold… the list is getting long and very good. The Orioles are still a couple or more years away but the future is bright. Hang in there O’s fans… the days of Weaver, Palmer, Murray and Ripken are ready to be relived. OI will post any news of significance the rest of the way and over the offseason, mostly on player movement or trades. Have a fun winter and we’ll see you next year.

Continue to look for updates on Twitter.

Brian Roberts hit a go-ahead two-run home run in the eighth inning and had a solo shot in the third, leading the Orioles to a 5-1 win over the White Sox on Friday night. Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie (8-12), who lost his previous four decisions, allowed just one run on six hits in seven innings to record his first victory since July 19, when he held the White Sox to two runs in eight innings.

Content courtesy of ESPN.

The Detroit Tigers bolstered their offense for a pennant drive by obtaining first baseman Aubrey Huff from the Baltimore Orioles on Monday for a minor leaguer.

“I’ve been in last place basically my whole career, so this is an exciting time for me,” Huff said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

The Tigers began Monday leading the Chicago White Sox by 2½ games in the AL Central. The last-place Orioles obtained pitcher Brett Jacobson from Detroit and assigned the right-hander to Class A Frederick.

Huff is batting .253 with 13 homers and 72 RBIs. He recently hit his 200th career homer and should fit nicely in a Detroit lineup that ranks 11th in the AL in runs and seventh in home runs.

“He adds another left-handed bat to our ballclub and is a middle-of-the-lineup type hitter,” Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski said. “We’ve worked on trying to get a bat for a while.”

Huff’s contract with Baltimore expires after this season, so Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail decided it was the right time to deal the 32-year-old veteran to a contender.

“I think it has more to do with the status that he’s going to be a free agent in six weeks,” MacPhail said. “First, you put the player in a situation where he goes to a first-place team in a potential pennant drive. From a purely self-interest standpoint, this is probably the time where you can get a prospect from a club.”

With the non-waiver trading deadline passed and little talk of a deal, Huff expected to finish the season in Baltimore.

When he was summoned to manager Dave Trembley’s office Monday afternoon, Huff figured it was for a pep talk. Then Huff saw MacPhail in the room and suspected something was up.

“This one kind of hit me out of left field,” said Huff, who had mixed feelings about leaving a team finally reaping the benefits of rebuilding through youth.

“This is probably the best young talent I’ve been around and I’ve been around some young talent. … You got an All-Star in Adam Jones, and a superstar in Nick Markakis that nobody knows about,” he said. “[Brian] Matusz, [Chris] Tillman, all these young guys coming up. It’s a very exciting time here, and Baltimore should have a lot to look forward to.”

Huff will be missed in the Orioles lineup, and his teammates will miss his leadership in the clubhouse.

“Huff was well liked by the young players,” Trembley said. “He gets to go play in a pennant race and maybe rejuvenate himself offensively, make himself even more attractive in the offseason because he’s a free agent. On the other hand, you take a veteran guy like that out of the clubhouse … there’s a lot of young kids in there that he had a very good rapport with.”

Huff spoke briefly with Detroit manager Jim Leyland by telephone Monday and said he expects to join the Tigers on Tuesday, when they open a three-game home series against Seattle.

“He can play first, he can play a game at third, he could DH some, and he could play left field some,” Dombrowski said. “That’ll be something for Jim to decide on a daily basis.”

Jacobson was 1-3 with six saves and a 3.74 ERA in 35 games with Class A Lakeland this season.

“He’s a hard thrower. We’ve seen him this year [throw] as hard as 96, but obviously he doesn’t stay there,” MacPhail said. “We get to add a young player to our inventory that we had interest in and we get Aubrey in a competitive situation. It’s just one of those things that made sense to all parties.”

Said Dombrowski: “The deepest part of our organization is bullpen, so we were able to deal from depth.”

The Orioles didn’t immediately replace Huff on their 25-man roster and were prepared to play a man short against the Los Angeles Angels on Monday. With Huff gone, Baltimore will give left fielder-designated hitter Luke Scott an extended look at first base and use up-and-coming Felix Pie more often in left.

During the offseason, the Orioles might decide to keep Scott at first. Or they could re-sign Huff, or go outside the organization for a first baseman.

“That’s one of the things that we’ll find out over the next six weeks,” MacPhail said. “Really, a lot of this stuff is not rocket science. The way you find out is you let them play and the answers become self-evident, not just to us but to everybody — the fans, the media, our coaching staff, the players. That’s one of the beauties of this deal. You may not like what you find out, but at least you’re going to know.”

Hard to stay excited… looking forward to 2010 already.

Jeremy Guthrie was hit hard for seven runs on 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings versus the Angels on Sunday. Guthrie walked two, struck out two, and gave up four doubles and a homer. He has just three quality starts in 13 outings since the start of June, and his ERA is a career-worst 5.66.

Nick Markakis belted a solo homer but the Orioles fell to the Angels in extra innings. The homer was Markakis’ 14th, putting him right on pace to match last year’s 20 long balls. It certainly won’t go down as a bad year for Markakis, but that he currently has 60 less walks than he finished with in 2008 is something of a disappointment. Since he also hasn’t shown any progress in power or batting average, there’s no apparent trade-off in aggressiveness.

1B Rhyne Hughes was acquired from the Rays to complete the Gregg Zaun trade. A pretty nice catch considering the Orioles parted with a backup catcher. The 25-year-old Hughes isn’t considered a top prospect but he has slugged 22 homers in 440 at-bats between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham this season.

Felix Pie hit for the cycle in a win over the Angels on Friday night. Pie is the seventh player to hit for the cycle this season. He got there with an RBI double in the first, a solo home run in the third, an infield single in the seventh, and then, a triple to the right-center field gap in the ninth. He scored three times in the blowout win. It was the first career four-hit game by Pie. Nights like this prove that he oozes talent, but we’re still left waiting for him to put it together.

Chris Tillman earned his first major league win, allowing four runs — three earned — over 6 2/3 innings on Friday night. It was also the first start where he allowed more groundballs than flyballs. To his credit, he hung in there after giving up two runs in a shaky first inning. All told, he scattered seven hits while walking two and whiffing three. The six homers in 24 innings are a bit alarming, but Tillman has looked progressively stronger with each outing. He’ll get the Rays next week.

The Orioles will go with a six-man rotation in September. This basically means that Brad Bergesen will not nudge a youngster, like Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman or David Hernandez, out of the rotation when he returns from injury. “I think we’ve got that much pretty much written out,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. “I think there’s three days off early in September, and the off-day on Thursday pushes Tillman back an extra day. Obviously, we’ve talked about going to a six-man rotation in September, and we’ll monitor that closely. We’ll look at innings pitched and projected innings pitched for this year based upon what they did last year. We’ll be very careful about it.”

The Orioles have withdrawn a contract offer to second-round draft pick Mychal Givens. “This is all on me,” Orioles scouting director Joe Jordan said. “This is my call. I just don’t feel good about this and we are moving on to Plan B. We were working on info from the weeks leading up to the draft and some of that changed draft day.” Givens, a high school shortstop from Florida, increased his asking price on draft day, straining negotiations from the start. He is a toolsy shortstop with decent power potential and a raw approach at the plate who will head to Oklahoma State.

Jason Berken fell to 2-10 by allowing four runs — three earned — in five innings Thursday against the A’s. Berken snapped a nine-game losing streak in his last start, but is back on the wrong side of the ledger again. While the Orioles seem committed to keeping him in the rotation, Berken has been flat out awful with a 6.63 ERA and 41/29 K/BB ratio in 74 2/3 innings and doesn’t really have the minor league track record to suggest that he’s capable of a whole lot better.