Orioles scouting director Joe Jordan said he could not yet give us the names, but that the club has come to terms with some of its draft picks already.
"We have actually come to terms, I'm not going to give the names yet, but we've come to terms with at least two of our top 10 round picks. We are really, really close on a couple of other guys. There are three players in our top 10 still playing, so no work has been done on them. I expect that to happen in the next few days," Jordan said...
This stat snuck up on me, but the Orioles are 9-2 over their last 11 home games. They are 4-2 on the current nine-game homestand which continues this weekend against Tampa Bay. The Orioles are 19-16 at home on the season.
The O's are coming off a three-game sweep of Oakland where the pitching led the way. The Orioles' staff allowed just three earned runs, five walks and 17 hits in that series. The O's bullpen has now pitched to an ERA of 0.55 over the last 10 games and the 'pen pitched 10...
After two starts since returning from the disabled list, Brian Matusz is 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA. Matusz gave up one run in 5 2/3 at Seattle and two runs over 5 1/3 Monday against Oakland.
Matusz said he is certainly not yet in midseason form, but is generally pleased with his progress to this point. Reporters have noted his fastball velocity seems a bit down from where it was last year, but Matusz said he is not concerned about that.
"A lot of people are talking about the fastball velocity,...
Right-hander Dan Klein, one of the Orioles' top pitching prospects, feels his current right shoulder soreness will not turn into a more serious problem.
Klein is on the disabled list at Double-A Bowie and will have a precautionary MRI Monday in Baltimore so doctors can get a better look at his shoulder.
Klein took a red-shirt season in 2009 while at UCLA and had an arthroscopic procedure on that shoulder, but he said the current soreness is not related to that at all.
"No, it's not a...
In the final part of my interview with Jim Callis of Baseball America, I asked him about the upcoming negotiations between the Orioles and their top draft pick, pitcher Dylan Bundy.
Bundy and his representatives have floated crazy numbers like $30 million for his signing bonus. He will get a fraction of that but nothing close to that figure in the end.
Callis fully expects the negotiations to go smoothly and lead to the O's getting Bundy signed.
"They may be looking at it from a standpoint...
If you read the entry I wrote last night with Baseball America's Jim Callis, you know he is pretty high on the Orioles draft. He called it a "very good draft" for the Orioles and said it had the "makings of a terrific draft."
He took some time with me to go over some of the Orioles' picks made after they tabbed Dylan Bundy with the fourth overall selection.
Here are his comments on some of the picks.
2nd-round pick, third baseman Jason Esposito from Vanderbilt:
"Jason Esposito in the...
Even though they won their eighth game in a row on Wednesday night, the Frederick Keys were not in a mood to celebrate much after their game at Potomac.
Two of their key players, first baseman Tyler Townsend and outfielder Trent Mummey both left the game with hamstring injuries within minutes of each other in the fifth inning of a 6-4 win.
Mummey's hamstring appears to be the more serious of the two at this point.
Mummey, playing center field, was running into the gap in right center...
Well, for tonight there will be no talk of the American League catching up to Zach Britton.
The rookie lefty had given up 14 earned runs and 25 hits over 16 2/3 over his past three starts, but he was back to his earlier form tonight, getting his sixth win as the Orioles beat Oakland 3-2.
For the Birds, it's their first three-game home sweep of Oakland since July of 1998.
Britton, who gave up six runs in 5 2/3 against Oakland on May 29, tonight gave up just one run and four hits over 6 1/3...
Mark Reynolds hit another homer tonight, a two-run shot in the 5th to give the Orioles a three-run lead that is now 3-1.
Reynolds' 10th homer of the year, a team-leading figure, traveled 398 feet to left center field. It was his third homer in the last five games and he now has 32 RBIs which ties Adam Jones for the team RBI lead.
It could be said Reynolds has been producing homers at a pace expected of him since May began. He hit just two homers in April but has now hit eight over the last...
Now that the draft is over, how did the Orioles do?
We won't know for sure on that for a few years, but few analysts know the draft better than Baseball America's Jim Callis and he gives the Orioles high marks.
"They got the best pitcher in the draft and depth after that," Callis said. "They got tremendous quality and quantity. There's an expression that every scouting director tells every GM on draft day they had the best draft in baseball. But I think this is a very good draft for the...
The Orioles have moved Bowie closer Jose Diaz to Triple-A Norfolk. They officially placed pitcher Dan Klein on the 7-day DL and added Pedro Viola from Baltimore along with pitcher Armando Gabino, who leaves Norfolk and joins Bowie.
Diaz appeared in 25 games for Bowie, going 0-2 with a 1.48 ERA and an Eastern League-leading 17 saves in 19 opportunities. The right-hander struck out 28 batters in 24.1 innings of work.
Klein has appeared in nine games for the Baysox, going 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA...
It is not often a team drafts two players from the same school, but this year not only did the Orioles do that, but they drafted two players from the same Baltimore-area high school.
Yesterday, they took K.J Hockaday from Harford County's John Carroll school in the 14th round and today the O's drafted his teammate, Brendan Butler, in the 50th round with the 1,505th overall pick.
Butler was a corner infielder in high school but was listed as an outfielder when selected today. Butler goes...
The Frederick Keys are one of the hottest teams in minor league baseball right now. The Keys beat Potomac 7-2 last night and that extended the club's win streak to seven games, the Keys' longest since August of 2005.
The Keys have won 12 of their past 13 games and have the Carolina League's best record at 36-22, a .621 winning percentage. They are closing in on the first-half title in their division with a lead of 5 1/2 games with 12 contests to play.
After finishing April a game under...
If you look at the Orioles' draft picks this year through 30 rounds, the O's have certainly grabbed much more college than high school talent with the picks so far.
Of the Orioles' picks through the first 20 rounds, they selected 16 college players. Through 30 rounds, they took 21 college and nine high school players.
Over the last three years of drafts combined, from 2008 to 2010, the Orioles selected 100 college players to 49 from high schools.
After the Orioles took high school pitcher...
Say it quietly, but the Orioles' bullpen continues to throw well, at least it has for the last nine games.
The Orioles 'pen put up four scoreless innings tonight in relief of starter Chris Jakubauskas who got the win in the Birds' 4-0 victory over Oakland.
This was the O's fourth shutout of the season.
But about that 'pen ... Over the last nine games now, the O's 'pen has worked to an ERA of 0.30 allowing just two earned runs over the last 30 innings in that time.
That is some roll...
The Orioles took a Baltimore-area kid among their draft picks today when they selected Kevin "K.J." Hockaday in the 14th round with the 425th overall selection.
Hockaday played high school ball at John Carroll in Harford County and the Joppatowne resident has a college commitment to play at the University of Maryland.
His high school coach, Joe Stetka, is also an Orioles' associate scout. He said it was emotional for him and the Hockaday family today when the hometown kid got drafted by...
Luke Scott is looking forward to his return to the Orioles lineup tonight. He has not played since Friday against Toronto, but he's in there tonight batting seventh in left field.
Scott got a cortisone shot in his ailing right shoulder on Sunday. It seems that shot has worked for him so far.
"It feels the best it's felt in six weeks. That's a positive," he said in the clubhouse a few moments ago.
Then he headed out for batting practice to test the shoulder in the cage for the first time...
The Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds will host the South Atlantic League All-Star game June 21 in Salisbury and the team will be well represented in the game. Manny Machado and four of his teammates have been named All-Stars.
Machado will be the starting shortstop for the Northern Division team and will be joined on the squad by Delmarva's Ty Kelly, Michael Ohlman, Jacob Pettit and David Walters.
The game will feature the top three draft picks from 2010, as Bryce Harper of Hagerstown, the top...
Orioles scouting director Joe Jordan said he "got the guy he wanted" in drafting Dylan Bundy with the fourth pick in the first round last night.
But was Bundy really the guy the Orioles wanted all along?
"This was always the guy we had in our sights and that was going to be in the conversation," Jordan said. "There were just a lot of good players at the top of the draft. We knew coming in he would be in play for us and he didn't do anything to disappoint us. There was no one we had any...
Orioles scouting director Joe Jordan said first-round draft pick Dylan Bundy was "the best guy on our board when our turn came and we took him."
Jordan just finished a conference call with Baltimore reporters and he was asked how quickly Bundy, who was chosen with the fourth overall pick, could move through the minors to get to Baltimore.
"Barring injury, he will be on a good pace, an accelerated pace," he said.
Jordan said Bundy had "one of the best deliveries of any pitcher in the...