Britton on his award and the call that didn't come

Zach Britton is at Camden Yards tonight. But to get an award and not pitch in a game, like he had hoped. Britton was named the winner today of the O's Jim Palmer award, which goes to their Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Britton went 10-7, 2.70 between Bowie and Norfolk and was hoping he'd pitch for the Orioles this month as a September callup. "This experience of not coming up here in September is going to light a fire under my butt and push me to try and win a spot in spring training. "Me and my agent had a lot of talks with MacPhail. We knew it would come down to a lot of things. I just wanted to have a good year and finish strong and then hopefully my performance would warrant a callup. But unfortunately that didn't happen. "Obviously, I'm not happy with the decision, but you have to respect their choice of who to bring up. I don't hold any hard feelings, this year is over with for me. I forget about it, learn from it and get ready to go into spring training." Before tonight's game, Britton and the O's other minor league award winners will be introduced to the crowd at the Yard. Britton got his honor after a year where he allowed 2 ER or less in 21 of 26 starts. "It means a lot. It means you had a good year and the Orioles thought so, too. Especially with the guys that won in the past. I guess anything with Jim Palmer's name on it is a big honor to receive an award like that. "My goal is to win a spot in spring training. I'm going to do everything this off season to get ready for that. I expect to win a spot, but at the same time I know some things have to happen for that to happen." Later tonight I'll post some quotes from Joe Mahoney on his player of the year honor. Meanwhile, if you somehow missed my post this morning with comments from Bowie manager Brad Komminsk on Britton and Mahoney, click here.