Josh Land

Anthony Amobi: Orioles flying high and in control of their destiny

Anthony Amobi: Orioles flying high and in control of their destiny
The Baltimore Orioles have been on quite a run this week, taking two of three from the Detroit Tigers and before that, taking three of four from the rival Boston Red Sox. In the offseason, a lot of experts doubted that the Orioles could repeat what they did in 2012 this season. So far, they have proven the naysayers wrong. As of this morning, 73 games into the 2013 season, the Orioles are 11 games over .500 and their record stands at 42-31. Baltimore trails Boston in the American League East...
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Josh Land

Rachel Levitin: Desmond solidifying his status as Nats' leader

Rachel Levitin: Desmond solidifying his status as Nats' leader
In the early days of his career with the Nationals, shortstop Ian Desmond racked up more errors than web gems. Presently, he's solidifying himself as a leader in the Nats clubhouse. It's a role that seems to suit him now that he's growing into himself as a player and maturing as an adult. With the heart of the Washington batting order not doing its job on a consistent basis and the Nats struggling to find a stream of positive momentum, Desmond is leading this team. Fresh off an 11th-inning...
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Josh Land

Neal Shaffer: All-Star voting indicates O's gaining national prominence

Neal Shaffer: All-Star voting indicates O's gaining national prominence
Of all of the positive developments we've witnessed in Birdland over the past 18 months or so, the best one (outside of the playoffs) might be this year's All-Star voting results. As of Monday, four Orioles - Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Chris Davis, and J.J. Hardy - were in position to start the All-Star Game. Not just make the team. Start. One more player - Manny Machado - is a near lock to be selected even if he isn't voted a starter (he's currently second behind Miguel Cabrera at third...
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Josh Land

David Huzzard: No surprise contributions a problem for Nats

David Huzzard: No surprise contributions a problem for Nats
Of the Nationals' current healthy lineup, only Ian Desmond is performing above his career average OPS of .744 at .791, and Ryan Zimmerman is the only Nat with an OPS over .800 at .808. Everyone else is either on the disabled list or underperforming their career averages, some to a comical degree. One of the largest problems with the Nationals is that their best player is currently on the DL and with no timetable for the return of Bryce Harper, the rapid descent into the depth of the NL...
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Josh Land

Ted Leavengood: It's going to be a long and bumpy ride

Ted Leavengood: It's going to be a long and bumpy ride
Chad Tracy could be a poster child for this season. He has been down so long, that any kind of up looks awfully good. One wonders if the high expectations for a team still lost in the desert, are weighing this whole enterprise down. Would that Tracy home run have been enough last season? Tracy took out Jonathan Papelbon, which is no mean feat. It was Papelbon's first blown save of the season. But only scoring two runs against John Lannan, that is a mean feat. It is hard to watch Lannan...
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Josh Land

Zach Wilt: I'd rather not see Chris Davis in the Home Run Derby

Zach Wilt: I'd rather not see Chris Davis in the Home Run Derby
We've seen Chris Davis hit home runs with a broken bat and with one hand. He's pulled them over the right field wall and flicked them the opposite way. He's launched towering fly balls out of the yard and hit screaming line drives just over the top of outfield fences. We've seen 101 home runs come off Davis' bat in his six years in the big leagues and they have come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Baseball's league leader in the longball category has obviously been a topic of...
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Josh Land

Domenic Vadala: Are Orioles the best team in AL East?

Domenic Vadala: Are Orioles the best team in AL East?
I spoke last night with a friend of mine who's one of these people who takes and analyzes everything literally. I might also throw in that this guy is not in any way, shape or form, a baseball person. His opinion of baseball is that the pitcher throws, and the batter hits and runs. According to him it's that simple. Luckily we all know better. In fairness, when this person mentioned that he watched yesterday's series finale with Boston, he said that he was impressed with the Orioles. I...
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Josh Land

Marty Niland: "Can't anybody here play this game?"

Marty Niland: "Can't anybody here play this game?"
As the Nationals struggled again to bring runners home in their 2-0 loss in Cleveland on Sunday, their fans must have been fuming. With apologies to Casey Stengel, or whoever initiated the quote that became the title of Jimmy Breslin's book chronicling the 1962 Mets, the question, "Can't anybody here play this game?" comes to mind. Eleven times, Washington hitters came to bat with at least one runner in scoring position, and eleven times, they failed to get the runner home. Four of...
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Josh Land

Patrick Reddington: All eyes again on Strasburg in Cleveland

Patrick Reddington: All eyes again on Strasburg in Cleveland
Stephen Strasburg's second major league start took place in Cleveland's Progressive Field on June 13, 2010. After a dazzling 14-strikeout major league debut at Nationals Park, the Nats and Strasburg took the show on the road. The game between a 31-33 Nationals team and a 25-37 Indians team was picked up on a national broadcast solely because Strasburg was going to be on the mound. In the first two games of that three-game weekend set, the Indians drew 22,041 Friday night and 19,484 Saturday...
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Josh Land

Anthony Amobi: Can Strop figure it out?

Anthony Amobi: Can Strop figure it out?
Wednesday afternoon was a case study in frustration if you are an Orioles fan. The Orioles faced the Los Angeles Angels and were hoping a series sweep. Despite their talent level, the Angels have been lackluster this season, but they took advantage a Baltimore pitcher during the top of the seventh inning. The pitcher on the mound for the Orioles: Pedro Strop. That name has caused fans to react with occasional outbursts of anger all season long. When Strop came into the game, the Orioles...
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Josh Land

Rachel Levitin: Time to focus on the 2013 Nationals' positives over negatives

Rachel Levitin: Time to focus on the 2013 Nationals' positives over negatives
With a win against the Colorado Rockies last night, the Nationals are back at .500 with a 32-32 record and are six games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves in the NL East. There's been a lot of talk about expectations for the 2013 Nationals and how they're not living up to the alleged hype. Instead of getting bogged down in that, it may be best to realign expectations moving forward for the rest of the season. It's time to focus on what is working as opposed to what's not. Ian...
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Josh Land

David Huzzard: Jordan Zimmermann's great start makes waiting on long-term deal a smart move

David Huzzard: Jordan Zimmermann's great start makes waiting on long-term deal a smart move
Before the start of the 2013 baseball season, the Washington Nationals and Jordan Zimmermann were at a crossroads. The Nationals would have liked to have extended him in the same manner they did Gio Gonzalez before his 21-win season. If Zimmermann had been paying attention to that and to the money that right-handed aces such as Zack Greinke, Matt Cain, Felix Hernandez, and Justin Verlander were commanding, then he was smart to turn aside the Nationals' advances to commit to a long-term...
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Josh Land

Neal Shaffer: Is it easier to talk O's baseball now than when team was losing?

Neal Shaffer: Is it easier to talk O's baseball now than when team was losing?
There's only one item on the agenda today and it's a pretty simple one. It takes the form of a question: Is it harder to talk about the Orioles now than it was when they were losing? It is, a little bit, for me. When they were losing, I loved digging in on what ifs and maybes because the rest of the world treated Birdland as an afterthought or a joke. I loved uncovering new angles. I loved placing long bets and playing the long game. I didn't love the baseball a lot of the time, but I...
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Josh Land

Ted Leavengood: The third No. 1 truly arrives

Ted Leavengood: The third No. 1 truly arrives
Anthony Rendon leapt high into the air to snare a line drive during Sunday's game. It was not until the slow motion replay was available that the athletic nature of the play could be appreciated. Rendon was easily three feet or more off the ground when the ball settled into his outstretched mitt. His standing leap was one that most basketball players would covet. It was the kind of play that Danny Espinosa has been making routinely at second base for the past three seasons. When Rendon made...
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Josh Land

Zach Wilt: Chris Davis and the adjustment period

Zach Wilt: Chris Davis and the adjustment period
Baseball is a game of constant adjustments. This offseason, Chris Davis worked on fixing the holes in his swing and the adjustment resulted in a league-leading 20 home runs in his first 52 games. Now the rest of baseball has adjusted to Davis and it's his job to take back that advantage and start crushing baseballs over the fences of ballparks across the country again. Davis, the leading vote-getter at first base for the American League for the All-Star Game, hasn't homered since May 29 and...
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Josh Land

Marty Niland: Werth the straw that stirs Nats' drink

Marty Niland: Werth the straw that stirs Nats' drink
The Nationals have been hit hard in recent weeks by injuries to key players like Bryce Harper, Wilson Ramos, Ross Detwiler and Stephen Strasburg. But perhaps the most important injury to hit the Nats this season was the hamstring injury that kept Jayson Werth out of the lineup from May 3 until last Tuesday's game against the Mets. The Nats missed not only his talent on the field, but his leadership in the clubhouse. Now it's apparent by the team's improved intensity that they're reaping the...
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Josh Land

Domenic Vadala: The relative unfairness of the AL East

Domenic Vadala: The relative unfairness of the AL East
I've said numerous times on Birds Watcher that the birth of the current Orioles came on Sept. 28, 2011, when the O's beat Boston on the final day of the season. We all know the story: Robert Andino's RBI double, combined with Evan Longoria's walk-off homer, knocked Boston out of the playoffs that year. The Orioles followed that up with an impromptu playoff birth in 2012, and withstanding this past weekend's series in Tampa, the Orioles are in the hunt again this year. In fact, going into...
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Josh Land

Patrick Reddington: Looking at the Nats' new double play combination

Patrick Reddington: Looking at the Nats' new double play combination
Before the decision was made to place him on the disabled list, the questions about Danny Espinosa's injured wrist and shoulder and lack of production at the plate distracted from the fact that he wasn't the only Nationals middle infielder struggling offensively. Over at short, Ian Desmond, who started the month of May at .299/.315/.542 saw his line drop to .261/.295/.448 as a result of a .220/.273/.370 month of May in which he hit six doubles and three home runs while striking out 25 times...
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Josh Land

Matthew Taylor: How a second wild card might have rewritten O's history

Matthew Taylor: How a second wild card might have rewritten O's history
It's June, and I'm scoreboard watching. I've actually been doing so since early May. It's not the best way to weather periodic losing streaks, blown saves or even a rival's hot streaks. Nevertheless, I do it all the same. The process is made more enjoyable by the realization that for much of the recent past there was no reason to scoreboard watch at any point in the season for us Orioles fans. Scoreboard watching, regardless of when it takes place, has become a little less stressful with...
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Josh Land

Anthony Amobi: O's will need a consistent Chris Tillman if they're going to win

Anthony Amobi: O's will need a consistent Chris Tillman if they're going to win
For the past several seasons, Chris Tillman has been a very promising young arm for the Baltimore Orioles. However, from time to time, he is inconsistent, confounding and frustrating to watch on the mound. On Tuesday night, the Orioles defeated the Houston Astros 4-1, and Tillman was excellent, only allowing one run in seven innings of work. The Astros - universally predicted to be awful this season - were flying high and had won six straight games before facing Tillman and the Orioles. I...
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