Prince Fielder

The Orioles are interested in Brewers free agent slugger Prince Fielder, but new general manager Dan Duquette said that he “doesn’t want to get the fans’ hopes up,” according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com.

Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman tweets that the team’s interest is owner Peter Angelos‘ secret mandate. Heyman adds that manager Buck Showalter likes Fielder, and Duquette isn’t afraid of big stars or big contracts.

Other teams rumored to be interested in Fielder are the Nationals, Cubs, Mariners, Rangers, Blue Jays and Brewers.

Dan Duquette (above) has a big supporter in Lee Thomas. (AP)

Onetime Red Sox assistant general manager Lee Thomas was hired Sunday as a special assistant to the Orioles’ executive vice president of baseball operations, reuniting him with new O’s GM Dan Duquette.

Thomas, 75, most recently was a pro scout for the Brewers from 2004-06, following a six-year stint with the Sox.

“Lee is good at a lot of things I’m not so good at, so we are a real effective complement to one another,” Duquette said. “I’m absolutely thrilled he is here to help. He will particularly help us with communication with other clubs and on the trade market.”

Thomas, 75, said he was bored the last couple of years after leaving the game, and he started paying closer attention to the Orioles.

“I guess the last year or two I have, and especially since Buck [Showalter] came over and now even more since Dan came over,” he said. “I don’t think people know how good Dan Duquette is. I really don’t. I think there is a lot of people out there that missed the boat on him. He and Buck, I think, are going to work great together and if Dan gets him the right players, I think you will see great things happen. I really do believe that.”

Added Thomas: “I’ve missed [working in baseball]. I really have. It was OK the first couple of years, I guess I’ve been out about four years. I really did miss it. I’d go to see the Cardinals once in a while, I was involved with one of their camps. I was bored and when [Duquette] called me, I told him I was bored.

“He and I always kind of kept in touch. As soon as I knew he was involved [with the Orioles], I was getting more excited. I felt like he was going to call me. I didn’t know he interviewed for the Angels job. Apparently, he did pretty well there.”

Duquette noted that Thomas signed Johnny Damon to the Red Sox in December 2001, despite a scene in the movie “Moneyball” that implies otherwise.

“That was one of the last contracts we did, and Lee did that contract directly with Scott Boras,” Duquette said. “That scene in ‘Moneyball,’ where Boras said, ‘I just got off the phone with Dan,’ that’s not true.”

Former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette, during a conversation on “Sports Buzz” with Butch Stearns (view the interview here), said that he expects more information to come out linking Roger Clemens to performance-enhancing drugs.

Asked if Clemens ever will be welcomed back in Boston, Duquette said: “There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since Clemens left town, and I think there’s more information that will come out here before we’re done with this current saga in Roger’s professional life.”

Added Duquette: “Let’s let it play out a little bit more. I think there is more information and evidence that will show that Roger used performance-enhancing drugs in a significant way.”

Clemens, who has been in a legal battle with former trainer Brian McNamee, has denied McNamee’s accusations that the pitcher used performance-enhancing drugs, but he is the subject of a grand jury inquiry to determine whether he lied when he testified as such under oath to Congress in 2008.

Duquette was the Red Sox general manager in 1996 when the team decided to let Clemens go to free agency following four  seasons with 11 wins or less. Clemens went to Toronto and resurrected his career, winning two straight Cy Young Awards before moving to New York and winning two World Series titles with the Yankees. He won another Cy Young in 2001 in New York and his seventh and final Cy Young in 2004 with the Astros.

Former Red Sox G.M. Dan Duquette — the man who brought Pedro Martinez to Boston following the 1997 season — will drop by the Virtual Press Box on Thursday, Nov. 5, at noon to take questions in the fourth installment of WEEI.com’s Thursday baseball chat series.

Duquette was the G.M. of the Red Sox for eight seasons, from 1994-2001, following two years in the same role with the Montreal Expos. He traded for Martinez both when he was with the Expos (in exchange for Delino DeShields) and again as the G.M. of the Sox (for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr.). Other notable deals that he made in Boston included trading reliever Heathcliff Slocumb for Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe, and signing Tim Wakefield. The Sox made the playoffs three times under Duquette’s stewardship, once as the A.L. East winners, and twice more as the wild card team. During his Boston tenure, the Sox went 656-574 while setting numerous attendance records.

Duquette is now the President of the Dan Duquette Sports Academy, a sports training center for boys and girls ages 8-18 who are interested in learning baseball, softball, basketball and life skills from distinguished high school, college and professional coaches. This summer, the Academy will host its first-ever All-Girls session, led by Justine Siegal who is the first women to coach a men’s professional baseball team.

PREVIOUS CHATS

Oct. 29 — Red Sox outfielder Jason Bay

Oct. 22 — Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan

Oct. 15 — Red Sox director of amateur scouting Jason McLeod

Dusty Brown was a 35^th round draft pick out of Yavapai Junior College (Curt Schilling’s alma mater) in 2000. The Red Sox made Yavapai’s catcher/closer a draft-and-follow, and signed him in 2001, when he made his pro debut in the Rookie Level Gulf Coast League, on the same team on which Manny Delcarmen started his pro career.

Brown showed early promise in his pro career, but in part due to a succession of injuries, his progress was up-and-down, and his movement up the ladder was thus deliberate. He saw one Sox prospect after another zoom past him on the way to the majors, playing with such talents as Delcarmen, Brandon Moss, Hanley Ramirez, Jon Lester, Dustin Pedroia and Jonathan Papelbon as they marched towards the majors.

There were times of frustration. But nine years into his career as a member of the Red Sox, Brown – who had batted just once since making his big-league debut as a defensive replacement this year – ensured achieved a milestone at the major-league level.

In the bottom of the eighth inning of the Red Sox’ 11-6 win over the Indians on Saturday, Brown crushed a changeup from Indians reliever Mike Gosling. The ball sailed over the Wall and crashed in the last row of the Monster Seats for the 27-year-old’s first career hit and first career homer. The Fenway crowd of 37,562 chanted the catcher’s name – Dus-ty, Dus-ty, Dus-ty – until his teammates pushed him out of the dugout to accept a curtain call.

“It’s unbelievable, man,” said Brown. “Not many guys can say that: at Fenway Park, to get a curtain call from the fans, there’s nothing like it. I’ll remember it forever.”

It has been an unforgettable string of days for Brown, who on Wednesday night pitched an inning in Boston’s blowout loss to the Blue Jays. Though Brown said that the homer was hands-down the cooler moment, he has embraced his week of firsts.

“I’ve been hearing people outside the stadium talking about me pitching, and then to have tonight, get in there when I wasn’t really expecting to play, get my first hit and have it be a home run, a curtain call, it’s good stuff,” he said.

It took time for Brown to have his moment. In all likelihood, he will be the last Red Sox player drafted under former G.M. Dan Duquette to make his major-league debut with the Sox.

Brown’s minor-league career demanded a significant degree of patience. On Saturday, his persistence paid off, as he truly entered the company of his once and future teammates.

“So many guys blew right by me, but some guys have different paths to the big leagues than others,” said Brown. “It’s been weird being in the same organization for so long and watching all these other guys develop into what they are now, knowing that at one time I was right there with them. They’d keep going; I had a couple setbacks. Now that we’re finally here, all together, it’s great.”

Former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette appeared on the Big Show today, which was co-hosted by former Sox infielder Lou Merloni, to discuss Merloni’s description over the weekend of a spring training meeting in which a trainer informed Red Sox players how to administer steroids safely.

Duquette said that the Sox had a club policy of abstinence from steroids, and did not encourage their use, but did want to try to educate players about steroids to minimize the associated health risks. He also said that, in the absence of testing, executives were left to draw conclusions from changes in players’ physiques and jumps in performance (specifically citing Brady Anderson‘s 50-homer season), and suggesting that he was “disappointed” that Roger Clemens‘ performance after leaving Boston so vastly exceeded his final years as a Red Sox, while suggesting that he “will have more to say about (Clemens’ PED use) in another forum.”

Here is a partial transcript (Duquette also writes on the topic here): Read the rest of this entry »

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Former Red Sox G.M. Dan Duquette is in Fort Myers today, having made the trip with the U.S. Military All-Stars, a barnstorming group of U.S. military personnel that plays against pro clubs. The All-Stars are comprised of active-duty personnel (including LT Junior Grade Will Sheehan of Boston and Hoptial Medic 3rd Class Jeff Heriot of Franklin) who are on leave from their assignment, so the roster turnover is immense — last year, Duquette said, the team had 150 players.

While his current team hit in the cages, Duquette was greeted by Sox catcher Jason Varitek. Varitek, of course, was acquired in the epic deadline deal in 1997, when he unloaded Heathcliff Slocumb to the Mariners in exchange for Derek Lowe and the Sox catcher, now in his 12th spring training with the Sox. Aside from Varitek, here are the other Duquette alumni who remain with the Red Sox: Read the rest of this entry »