Anthony Amobi: Can Brian Matusz ever regain what made him so special?

Anthony Amobi: Can Brian Matusz ever regain what made him so special?
Right now, despite the Orioles doing relatively well so far this season, it has been apparent that there's been an issue with the starting pitching outside of Jason Hammel and Wei-Yin Chen. On Tuesday night, southpaw Brian Matusz struggled on the mound again in a loss to the Los Angeles Angels. He gave up five runs in five innings, plus gave up a career-high 13 hits. Matusz's season has been filled with some ups and downs, but fans have to start wondering if the bright young pitcher we...
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Dave Nichols: Nats reap benefits of exercising patience with flawed prospect

Dave Nichols: Nats reap benefits of exercising patience with flawed prospect
How 'bout that Tyler Moore? In the last two minor league seasons, Nats rookie Moore has hit a combined 62 home runs - 31 each season - and 202 RBIs. That's an awful lot of pop, enough that he should have received a fair bit of notice in the offseason prospect lists. However, his defensive limitations, and being older than other prospects at each level, have tempered long-range expectations for the Mississippi native. Those tempered expectations may be the only reason he remains property...
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Orioles' #VoteOrange campaign concludes Thursday with Vote Orange T-shirt giveaway

Orioles' #VoteOrange campaign concludes Thursday with Vote Orange T-shirt giveaway
With voting for the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star Game ending tomorrow at 11:59 p.m., the Orioles will conclude their two-month #VoteOrange campaign with Vote Orange T-shirt Thursday. The first 10,000 fans age 15 and over in attendance at tomorrow night's game against the Cleveland Indians will receive a Vote Orange T-shirt. The Orioles' Vote Orange promo team has made numerous appearances in neighborhoods throughout the city and will make one final stop along with the Oriole Bird at...
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Neal Shaffer: The other side of success at Camden Yards

Neal Shaffer: The other side of success at Camden Yards
As fans, we all want the Orioles to win. That's a fair statement, right? In fact, it's probably the only thing we all agree on. Finding common ground can be hard, but there's always the team. We want it to do well and, there, we're actually united. In a lot of ways that's enough. A winning team. It's just sports, after all, right? To some extent, yes, but there's another layer to it, this thing over which we bond. Meaning that when the Orioles win, we in fact are together in a less...
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Rachel Levitin: Nats no longer the new kids in the class

Rachel Levitin: Nats no longer the new kids in the class
When I leave to go out of town on trips, like today for example, my favorite topic of conversation along the way tends to veer toward sports, baseball in particular. Whether I'm listening in on a stats-based debate or checking game scores on one of the many televisions within the terminal, there's always a lesson to be learned from these types of conversations. There's a little more to those conversations than what appears on the surface, though. It's one thing to strike up a sports...
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Zimmerman to receive Lou Gehrig Memorial Award

Zimmerman to receive Lou Gehrig Memorial Award
As I type this, Ryan Zimmerman just reached a career milestone. With a single in the fifth inning in Colorado on Tuesday night, the Nats third baseman collected his 1,000th-career hit, needing only 903 games in which to do so. It's a great accomplishment, particularly for a guy who has battled some nagging injuries in recent memory. And while Zimmerman continues to achieve greatness on the field, it stands to reason things would be the same off the diamond. That certainly rings true, as it...
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Will Yoder: June swoon may dictate Nats' path at trade deadline

Will Yoder: June swoon may dictate Nats' path at trade deadline
The Nationals may still have the second-best record in the National League at 41-30, but the team is currently in a tailspin. The Nats have lost seven of their past 10 contests and have been outscored 25-34 in that span. The club will be the first to admit it: Their offense is struggling and the team, as a whole, is suffering. Earlier in the year, the team was able to get by game-to-game with one-run victories, but it seems the luck has run out as the edged-out wins just aren't happening....
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Heath Bintliff: An appreciation of Troy Patton

Heath Bintliff: An appreciation of Troy Patton
The Orioles are winning and there have been a lot of heroes during this magic stretch of baseball - Adam Jones, Jason Hammel, Jim Johnson, Matt Wieters. The contributions of those players are obvious. But on any winning club, there are always unsung heroes. And my favorite unsung hero this season has been lefty reliever Troy Patton. But this isn't just about 2012. Truth be told, I have always been a Patton fan, ever since December 2007 when the Orioles acquired him from the Houston Astros...
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Ted Leavengood: Pitching to contact

Ted Leavengood: Pitching to contact
The three contests played by the Orioles and Nationals this weekend were more like soccer matches, as fans watched for small shifts in momentum amid long scoreless stretches. Each team had their scoring chances, but it was the sudden, late scoring strike by Matt Wieters on Sunday that tilted the series toward Baltimore. What made it work for the Orioles, however, was how well their three best starters matched up well against the bottom three in the Nationals rotation in a series that was all...
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Olivia Witherite: Orioles dominate after off-days

Olivia Witherite: Orioles dominate after off-days
Off-days are nice for a lot of reasons. For the Orioles today, it means resting Matt Wieters after he caught a day game after a night game and had a big day at the plate. It means a chance for the Birds to rest at home before beginning a tough series against some great pitching, including the arms of C.J. Wilson and Jered Weaver. It allows the 'pen, which has been called on often, a day to recuperate in some measure before having to face rookie sensation Mike Trout and some guy named Albert...
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Orioles to conduct first-ever girls softball clinic with BATS and Y of Central Maryland on Saturday

Orioles to conduct first-ever girls softball clinic with BATS and Y of Central Maryland on Saturday
On Saturday, June 23, from 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. the Orioles will partner with The Y of Central Maryland, Baltimore Area Travel Softball (BATS), and the Coppin State University women's softball team to conduct their inaugural youth softball clinic at the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Family Center Y on the Ripken Youth Development field, located on the same site where Memorial Stadium once stood. The participants will consist of 100 girls from BATS and the Y of Central Maryland. BATS is a new...
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Marty Niland: Nationals' transformation mirrors Rays' progression

Marty Niland: Nationals' transformation mirrors Rays' progression
The Nationals have to feel good about taking two of three games form the Tampa Bay Rays this week. Tuesday night's pine tar dust-up aside, the Nats can take pride in bouncing back from a tough series against the Yankees and beating a very good team. If the Nationals could look into a mirror and see themselves in a few years, they might look just like the Rays, but with red jerseys instead of blue. In fact, as an organization, the Rays are everything the Nats want to be. From 2005 to 2007,...
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Matthew Taylor: Is warehouse in Chris Davis' sights?

Matthew Taylor: Is warehouse in Chris Davis' sights?
Can the Orioles' Chris Davis become the first player to hit the B&O Warehouse with a home run during game action? That's the question I've been asking myself since Davis hit a broken-bat homer June 13 against the Pirates. The display of strength by a power-hitting lefty has had me pondering the possibilities ever since. My prediction, equal parts bold and foolish, is that Davis will become the first batter to hit the Warehouse. Oriole Park at Camden Yards has been open for 20 years. There...
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Orioles urge fans to Vote Orange and help send O's players to 2012 MLB All-Star Game

Orioles urge fans to Vote Orange and help send O's players to 2012 MLB All-Star Game
With online voting for the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star Game continuing through June 28 at 11:59 p.m., the Orioles are urging all fans to Vote Orange to send their favorite O's players to the Midsummer Classic. The starting lineup and reserve players will be announced on July 1, while the game itself will be played on July 10 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Orioles OF Adam Jones (1,959,207 votes) has been steadily gaining ground for a starting outfield spot and trails Toronto's...
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Dave Nichols: Managers feuding over interpretations of baseball's unwritten rules

Dave Nichols: Managers feuding over interpretations of baseball's unwritten rules
In Tuesday night's loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Nationals manager Davey Johnson had a simple request of home plate umpire Tim Tschida: Enforce the written rules of baseball. Johnson knew that Rays relief pitcher Joel Peralta "liked a little pine tar" - that is, Peralta hid the sticky stuff in and on his glove in order to help him grip the baseball better and, therefore, have better control over his breaking pitches. Pine tar is one of those classic foreign substances that is specifically...
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Anthony Amobi: O's young arms need to step up - again

Anthony Amobi: O's young arms need to step up - again
It has not been a very good week for the Orioles up in the Big Apple. They did not get beat by the rival Yankees; however, the surprising Mets swept the Birds over a three-game set. Baltimore's offense got stifled by the phenomenal knuckleballer R.A. Dickey and the veteran Johan Santana in the first two games. They made it close in the final contest. As much as the offense struggled, I'm not too worried about that and ready to push the red alert button on that front. Sadly, as fans, we...
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Rachel Levitin: The developing Nats fan base

Rachel Levitin: The developing Nats fan base
So a Red Sox fan, a Yankees fan, a Cubs fan, a Dodgers fan and an Expos fan all walk into a bar ... sounds like the start of a really messed up baseball joke, right? For as odd as it may appear at first glance, that was my Monday night. Only all those fans actually had something in common, they were all Nats fans. too. Some called it cheating, others call it a sweet affair. But at the end of the day, it really all boils down to a love for the game of Major League Baseball by charging their fan...
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Neal Shaffer: No need for debate, O's should be buyers

Neal Shaffer: No need for debate, O's should be buyers
Every year, as the trade deadline approaches, fans who are fortunate enough to find their team in contention get the luxury of engaging in a fun debate: Should our team be buyers? Should they, in other words, make a play for one or more guys who might take a group from pretty good to very good, possibly playoff good? Or should they stick with what they have and hope it's enough? As Orioles fans, we typically sit this out and instead engage in some deadline variation of "sell or do...
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Braves-Nationals game rescheduled

Braves-Nationals game rescheduled
After rain washed out the game between the Braves and Nationals back on June 1, the team today released its plans to move the game to July 21. The two division foes will play a split doubleheader at Nationals Park, with the first game beginning at 1:05 p.m. and first pitch for the second game to follow at 7:05 p.m. The two games against the Braves on July 21 will require separate admission. Season Ticket Holders and Mini Plan Holders with game tickets to the postponed June 1 contest may use...
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Will Yoder: Where is the 2010 Ryan Zimmerman?

Will Yoder: Where is the 2010 Ryan Zimmerman?
If you followed Nationals spring training closely, you may have rightfully believed that Ryan Zimmerman was the best hitter on the planet. The 27-year-old was mashing the ball to all corners of the ballpark, and it looked as if the third baseman who once made his debut in Washington as a 20-year-old kid had finally reached his prime. While Zimmerman has started slowly on the stat sheet this season, everyone who was watching the games knew he was absolutely pounding the ball. On opening day,...
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