"The Orioles have agreed in principle with former Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins executive Andy MacPhail to be the club's next chief operating officer, a baseball official confirmed today," reports the Baltimore Sun. The position appears to be similar to the president's position MacPhail held with the Cubs for twelve years. MacPhail was not able to build a consistent winner on the north side of Chicago. Now, it appears, he will have the opportunity in Baltimore. The Orioles are working on their tenth straight sub-.500 season. Joe Girardi could be the new Orioles' manager. Camden Chat has more.

Phil Rogers weighs in on with his speculation on who will be the next Cubs manager: "My guess is the job is [Lou] Piniella's if he wants it, and he probably does."

There's no indication that Rogers has any inside information. Outside of his three years in Tampa Bay, Piniella does have a good -- though not great -- track record.

I do think that Rogers is right about one thing for sure:

This MLB.com article writes commenting on sources in Florida:
Girardi has "zero" chance of returning for a second season.
I'm a Dusty fan, but I say goodbye to Baker and hello to Girardi.

Ruz at The Cub Reporter has an insightful interview with Miami Herald columnist Dan LeBatard on Joe Girardi. Ruz comes away from the interview endorsing Jim Hendry making a move for Girardi, if he becomes available -- LeBatard says he will -- in the offseason.

A couple of LeBatard's responses make me leary of going after Girardi:

Tracy Ringolsby of the Rocky Mountain News reports that Joe Girardi was in fact briefly fired on Sunday by Florida owner Jeffrey Loria, but Loria quickly recanted. (HT: Baseball Primer Newsblog.) However, some in the Marlins organization do not like Girardi's micromanaging. Meanwhile, "Girardi has had friends making it known in Chicago that he would like the Cubs job. The Cubs, however, aren't interested."

The Florida Marlins had a team meeting after being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend, and owner Jeffrey Loria was in the clubhouse. There has apparently been speculation that manager Joe Girardi and Loria argued. Girardi responded today with these comments, as reported by the AP: "If you come and see me after we lose a game, you're going to have tension with me. . . . If there was tension between Jeffrey and I, he wouldn't be here."

"People like to speculate that I am going to Chicago. If I was going to Chicago, I wouldn't have sold my house. ...