So during his pregame session with the media today, I had the chance to ask Orioles manager Buck Showalter if there were any players the team would consider taking a closer look at during the rest of the season.
Either someone currently on the roster or someone perhaps now in the minors.
Showalter answered my question with a question back to me.
"Who would you be talking about in the minors, maybe?"
I mentioned that Troy Patton had been doing pretty well lately.
"Troy statistically has...
Jake Arrieta is the next Orioles starter to try and give his team a quality start. He takes the mound tonight at Camden Yards against Cleveland.
The Orioles have had just two of them, one by Jeremy Guthrie and one by Mitch Atkins, in the last 17 games.
At one time, it seemed Arrieta was cranking out quality starts. Over his first nine starts, he went 5-1 with a 4.03 ERA and seven quality starts. But over his past nine outings, he is 4-5 with a 5.87 ERA and four quality starts.
His ERA is...
It was just about 10 p.m on the dot last night and I grabbed the headphones and pulled up to the microphone.
I was about to begin another night of my baseball radio show, talking for two hours about the Orioles on 105.7 FM The Fan in Baltimore. With the team just minutes away from an eighth straight loss, I had to wonder - would this be the night?
Would this be the night that the fans were so beaten down by the recent losing that no one would call in to talk about the Birds?
The show started...
For the Orioles, the second half has started like the first half ended, with a starter having issues and the club falling behind early in a game. Some notes as they try to dig out of a 3-0 hole against Cleveland here tonight and snap a seven-game slide.
* The current Indians roster had a total of just one homer versus Jeremy Guthrie coming into this game, then Asdrubal Cabrera and Carlos Santana homered in a span of three batters in the opening inning as Cleveland took a 3-0 lead. Cabrera was...
Orioles catcher Matt Wieters used words like "exciting" and "cool" to describe his first All-Star experience.
He got into the game as a reserve in the sixth inning and went 0-for-1 at bat and also was charged with a passed ball after not being charged with one all season to that point.
He later found out he was slated, as the third catcher on the American League squad, to possibly only play at all if the game went extra innings. Then New York catcher Russell Martin told AL manager Ron...
Orioles pitchers Kevin Gregg and Michael Gonzalez are appealing their suspensions handed down today by Major League Baseball for their actions in the Boston series.
Gregg was suspended for four games with the suspension scheduled to begin today. Gonzalez was suspended for three games, which was scheduled to begin on Monday, the day the O's begin a series with Boston.
Kevin Gregg and Mike Gonzalez talk about the suspensions they received from MLB
"They handed down the suspension today, I...
The Orioles have promoted right-handed pitcher Oliver Drake from Single-A Frederick to Double-A Bowie and he will start for the Baysox tonight.
Drake, a 43rd-round draft pick in 2008, was 8-3 with a 2.14 ERA for Frederick with a WHIP of 0.99 and groundout-to-flyout ratio of 2.18.
This will be another crack at Double-A for the 24-year-old righty, who allowed 11 runs over four innings in two April starts for the Baysox.
Orioles minor league pitchers Matt Hobgood and Ryan Berry have now joined...
Earlier today, I posted an entry about the Orioles' starting pitching struggles. They have been significant and probably the biggest reason for the club's 6-21 record over the past 27 games.
But the O's inconsistent offense has been just that recently as well.
During that 27-game stretch, the O's are batting just .195 (43-for-221) with runners in scoring position.
The Orioles have had just one game with 10 or more hits over the last seven contests and scored just 33 runs on the 10-game...
Too bad a baseball season is not like a Saturday round of golf with your friends. Maybe the Orioles could take a mulligan on their first half, when they went 36-52.
Over the last few weeks, each time I thought things could not get worse for the team, they did.
That said, I am almost afraid to say that, in losing 12 of 13 to end the first half, that the O's hit rock bottom.
It would be hard to imagine the starting pitching getting worse than it was in recent weeks. Here are some stats.
*...
It is kind of hard to remember the Orioles began this year going 6-1. Or that a month ago they were 30-31 and an out away from getting to .500.
Another season is unraveling daily amidst injuries, poor starting pitching, a lack of clutch hitting and some young players that are failing to make progress.
With 11 losses in the last 12 games and a 6-20 record over the last month, it's not a pretty picture right now. With that as a backdrop, today I am taking a look back at what has happened since...
Now, more of my recent conversation with Orioles manager Buck Showalter about the team's minor league system and player development.
Showalter said the minors are where a coach and manager can have a real significant impact on a player.
"It's a fun and gratifying job where you can see a return for your work quicker," Showalter said. "In the minors, you can see day-to-day improvement and such an eagerness to learn. I can get jealous of the impact those guys have, not only in their...
Buck Showalter spent seven seasons in the minor leagues as a player and five as a manger. He helped start the Arizona Diamondbacks franchise from scratch. He knows a little something about player development.
While he has to be most concerned with the players on the Orioles' 25-man roster, he also spends part of his day checking out reports on the club's minor leagues.
That is where hopefully, some future Orioles are currently playing and developing talent in the minors is critical to any...
No runs, not many hits and no hit batters. That was part of the Orioles' scorecard tonight.
At least they didn't give up 10 runs this time.
The Orioles were held to just four hits and shut out for the fourth time on the season.
John Lackey entered his start against the Orioles tonight with an ERA of 7.47 on the year and a batting average against of .304. He had given up six runs or more in six of his 13 starts and gave up seven in his last outing versus Toronto. His home ERA on the year...
The Red Sox have now hit a major league leading 50 batters on the year after John Lackey hit Derrek Lee with two outs and no one on in the Orioles seventh.
It was a pretty obvious purpose pitch and both benches were warned afterwards even though no Boston batters have been hit tonight.
Lackey just left the game to a big ovation. He has mostly been an $82 million bust for the Red Sox with an ERA of 5.17 in two years and 7.47 for Boston this year.
But he left after striking out Mark Reynolds...
For a pitcher making his first big league start of the season tonight, Alfredo Simon has pitched a good game for the Orioles.
The Birds and Boston are 0-0 after four innings at Fenway. Simon has allowed four hits with one walk and strikeout so far, throwing 59 pitches.
David Ortiz is 0-for-2 as he grounded into a double play with the bases loaded in the first and flied out to deep center in the fourth with Adam Jones making a nice running catch near the wall.
The Orioles have just two hits...
There was some early drama in tonight's game as David Ortiz came to bat with the bases loaded and one out in the last of the first against Alfredo Simon.
After he walked to the plate to a rousing ovation, he took the first two pitches to get ahead 2-0 on the count.
But then he bounced one toward second base where Robert Andino fielded it and started a 4-6-3 double play.
No bad blood. No inside pitches. No incidents. Just two outs on one pitch and the Orioles and Boston go to the second...
Well, this game tonight has garnered a little more interest than it would have before Kevin Gregg and David Ortiz went at it last night.
Nothing against Alfredo Simon, but Buck Showalter probably wishes say, Jeremy Guthrie was on the mound tonight. Simon probably doesn't need any extra pressure but now he has some as he takes the mound tonight.
His command isn't the greatest to start with and if he buzzes a Red Sox hitter tonight we may have to wonder if it were on purpose or he just missed...
Ben Badler is a reporter and writer for Baseball America. He covers the minor leagues but also focuses heavily on the international signings front and is among the best at covering that market.
Last week I talked with him at length about the Orioles and their international efforts. Here is that interview.
Ben, what is your take on the Orioles international efforts?
"They seem to be very conservative in the international market, which is understandable given all of the issues involved in...
Earlier today, Part One of an interview with Orioles president Andy MacPhail was published in this space.
It is a two-part interview with MacPhail about the O's signing and scouting of international players since he took over in his current position. Tomorrow, I will feature here an interview with Baseball America's Ben Badler with his analysis of the O's efforts on this front.
Now, Part Two of the MacPhail interview.
Were the O's one of the finalists for Miguel Sano?
"Yeah. What we...
One topic that Orioles fans often ask me about is the club's poor record in signing international players. We all know the team has a poor history, for instance, of producing home-grown Dominican talent and that the Orioles have not been among the teams offering big signing bonuses for international talent in recent years.
It is believed that the Orioles spent somewhere around $1.2 million on international bonuses in 2010. The most they gave one player was the $300,000 to infielder Hector...