Are these the dog days of spring training already?
The excitement of the early games is starting to wear off as we all realize there is a long way to go - almost a month - before the fun of a new season will be here.
When you see a baseball team with a record of 7-2-1 like the Orioles, you quickly realize it must be spring training or that you clicked on the NHL standings by mistake.
While the game results are not very important right now, it has been fun to track the early mashing at the...
The agent for Angels star Mike Trout was not happy over the weekend when the team renewed the contract for its star center fielder. Trout was given a salary of $510,000 - just $20,000 over the big league minimum - for the 2013 season.
"During the process, on behalf of Mike, I asked only that the Angels compensate Mike fairly for his historic 2012 season, given his service time," agent Craig Landis said in a statement. "This contract falls well short of a 'fair' contract and I have voiced...
It was the ninth inning of an insignificant spring training game last Wednesday night. The Orioles would go on to beat Boston 5-3 and, in that ninth frame, Pedro Strop struck out three batters.
Sure they were against players ticketed for the minors and not Dustin Pedroia or Jacoby Ellsbury, but it was the dominant pitches Strop was throwing, or at least it sure appeared that way during the MASN telecast.
Strop looked to have his usual mid-90s, or better, heat that game, but also a dominant...
Today I present the third edition of 10 questions for O's fans. I'll once again throw out some questions and topics and hope you answer and respond to any or all of them. If you number your answers it will be easier to follow the responses.
Now on with the latest edition:
1. Is Brian Matusz better suited to be a starter or reliever?
2. Who do you rate as the Orioles' best defensive outfielder?
3. What will Wei-Yin Chen's stats look like in his second season as an Oriole?
4. Which is...
MLB Network this week completed its countdown of the top 100 players in Major League Baseball right now. Their list is, of course, subjective and yours may be different.
They ranked the Angels' Mike Trout as the game's No. 1 player followed by Detroit's Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera second and third with the Dodgers' Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw fourth and fifth.
Four Orioles made the list with Adam Jones at No. 23, Matt Wieters No. 48, J.J. Hardy No. 66 and Jim Johnson at No....
From A to Z, here is a lengthy list of players reporting to the Orioles' minor league spring training camp this weekend at Twin Lakes Park in Sarasota, Fla.
I count 83 pitchers, 19 catchers, 32 infielders and utility players and 28 outfielders on the list for a total of 162 players. Also note some players playing in the World Baseball Classic are not on this list, like Jonathan Schoop. Any player on the current major league camp roster is not on this list.
Pitchers:
RHP - Baker, David
RHP -...
Finally, a national reporter that took a close look at the Orioles. OK, I'm exaggerating a bit, but it does seem many of the national analysts that have panned the club's quiet offseason didn't ask the club's management or players to get it their take.
ESPN's Jayson Stark did. He wrote this piece on Wednesday.
Here is an excerpt:
Did you know that 32 of those 52 players this team used last season had never played for the Orioles before? Or that this outfit needed to rip through 178...
Here is a baseball topic worth discussion: How and when did the sport become so obsessed with a pitcher's velocity? I include myself in this and, it seems in the game today, when discussing a pitcher, we focus on it, almost at the exclusion of other aspects of pitching that are important too.
I can remember a day last summer when I had a conversation with someone about this and we both agreed reporters, fans and even the scouts can become too focused on this. A few minutes later I remember...
I can understand that some fans are disappointed that Brian Roberts has not been able to contribute much to the Orioles over the last few seasons. I can get that some fans doubt he can return to the form he once showed or even close to it. I can get that some fans don't think he can come back at all.
But I don't get some of the almost nasty comments I see from time to time on various message boards.
I can assure those fans, a seemingly small but vocal segment, that Roberts didn't get hurt...
If you are one of the lucky people today, you are either off work, off work during the day or maybe have access to a television at the workplace and you are among the MASN viewers getting their first look at the 2013 Orioles today.
The game doesn't count of course, but it's still exciting to get that first look from spring training and the Orioles are sending out a mostly A-team lineup.
During the game, feel free to leave some comments and/or questions here and I'll answer any that are...
Hitting on some Monday topics, as we now have some actual boxscores to look at and we all look forward to today's first MASN telecast, when the Orioles play the Yankees at 1 p.m with a rebroadcast set for 7 p.m. tonight.
The slim wins: There is no truth to the rumor that the Orioles were answering some of their critics by winning their first one-run game of the exhibition season yesterday. Yes, they won again by one run.
We all know, barring something that would be historic, the Orioles...
When it comes to baseball prospects, do you want quantity or quality? Do you want stars or depth?
These questions were raised again this week when the Orioles had just two players ranked in the Baseball America top 100 prospects list, with Dylan Bundy at No. 2 and Kevin Gausman at No. 26.
Of the American League East teams, Tampa Bay and Boston had five players in the top 100, New York had four and Toronto joined the Orioles with just two.
But it's not just how many are ranked, but where...
In the 2000 season, the New York Yankees won the American League East with 87 victories. Every year since then - all 12 of them, starting in 2001 - the East champ won at least 95 games. The East champ won 97 or more in seven of those seasons.
Since 2001, the AL East winner has averaged 98 wins.
But will that change this season? Could this be a year when the East champ, due to the balance in a division where five teams all could be pretty good, wins fewer than 90 games again?
It seems...
In talking about the Orioles' starting rotation for this year, manager Buck Showalter told ESPN's Jayson Stark this week that, "I can pencil in four. I can pen in two."
It's pretty safe to assume he has Jason Hammel and Wei-Yin Chen written with the pen while using the pencil for Miguel Gonzalez and Chris Tillman. Four spots seem pretty set although Gonzalez and Tillman likely have a less firm grip on a spot than the the first two at this point.
So that leaves as many as 10 others that...
Another top 100 prospects list was published yesterday and, for the third time in three lists, Orioles top pitching prospect Dylan Bundy was ranked among the best prospects in the sport.
Baseball America ranked Bundy No. 2 on its list behind only Texas infielder Jurickson Profar. Bundy was also ranked No. 2 by MLB.com and No. 3 by ESPN's Keith Law.
Bundy went 9-3 with a 2.08 ERA in 23 starts this past season at three minor league levels and then pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in two major...
The Orioles' Single-A Delmarva affiliate will certainly have an experienced manager this year when Luis Pujols skippers the Shorebirds in his first season in the O's organization.
A native of the Dominican Republic, the 57-year-old Pujols has spent 13 seasons with Detroit and San Francisco as a major league coach, and in 2002 he was named interim manager of the Tigers six games into the season after Phil Garner was fired. A young Tigers squad, with 13 players making their big league debuts,...
If there is one thing that stirs up Baltimore sports fans, it is a diss or perceived diss of the Ravens or Orioles by someone with a national forum. I guess over-under odds for the season fits that bill, especially one that sets the number for the Orioles at 76.5.
Those of you not familiar with these numbers, they are set by casinos and sports books that can legally take sports bets for a club's wins total for the season. Bettors wager on whether they feel the club will have a wins total over...
What makes someone a great Orioles fan?
This is clearly a question with no right or wrong answer. It's not a math equation with only one correct answer. But it is an interesting topic to ponder and I would love to read your responses about this during the weekend.
This all is very subjective, but two big aspects of a good fan of any team for me are loyalty and longevity.
A good fan must be loyal and stick with his or her team through thick and thin. The Orioles have had a lot of thin with...
For a few seasons, he was the only Bundy in the Orioles organization. But last summer, he watched his younger brother Dylan blaze a trail through the O's minor league system while his own career was going in another direction, eventually hitting brick wall.
The Orioles drafted Bobby Bundy in the eighth round out of Sperry High in Oklahoma in June 2008. He worked his way to Single-A Frederick, where he had a breakout season in 2011. But a year later, trying to show his stuff at Double-A Bowie,...
Orioles pitching prospect Kevin Gausman officially reported this week to the club's major league camp in Sarasota to prep for his first full season in the organization.
The fourth overall pick in the First-Year Player Draft last June by the Orioles out of LSU, the right-hander was signed by the club just minutes before the deadline last July 13. Gausman's bonus of $4.32 million is one of the largest ever handed out by the club.
Gausman, who turned 22 in January, then went 0-1 with a 3.60...