Orioles Buzz

Anthony Amobi: Gausman to the rescue?

2013-05-23T12:58:22Z

Tonight will be quite an event for the Orioles and their fans as Kevin Gausman - one of the organization's top pitching prospects - takes the mound against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The fans have wanted him called up for a while, and they have gotten their wish.

As of early last week, executive vice president Dan Duquette noted to the media that Gausman would not be in line for a promotion to the majors soon; however, considering the precarious state of the starting rotation, the Orioles may not have had a choice.

They need arms, and dominant ones that can pitch with some consistency.

The Orioles - who have a 25-21 record as of this morning - have struggled to get their starting pitching deeper into games.

Right now, with southpaw Wei-Yin Chen on the disabled list and an inconsistent starting rotation, they know that they have to retool and improve that part of the roster in order to compete this season.

Gausman may be a small but vital part of it.

Yes, the Orioles won two in a row against the rival Yankees and the starting pitching was much improved, but Duquette and manager Buck Showalter know their organization.

They know that the big league team needs help in the starting rotation and also perhaps a game-changer.

It is too soon for Gausman?

Who knows?

At this point, the team needs a lift - and don't forget they took a chance on Manny Machado last summer to fill a void at third base.

We all know how that has turned out so far for the Orioles.

Gausman - a Louisiana State University product and the fourth overall pick in the lsat year's draft - showed a lot of promise before his promotion.

He is a 22-year-old right-handed hurler who has been in professional baseball less than a year, but from the moment he signed with the organization, most predicted a fast track to the majors.

Despite his 2-4 record and 3.11 ERA in 64 1/3 innings with Double-A Bowie, FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal says, "the Orioles are comfortable with the move because of Gausman's ability to throw three pitches for strikes as evidenced by his otherworldly ratio of 49 strikeouts to five walks."

I'm sure that Duquette, Showalter and the front office will watch Gausman closely. I would not worry about him being overworked and not ready for the challenge. But there is always a chance of injury.

Alas, it is the nature of the business.

The Orioles are in it to win now. There is no time like the present to promote talent that could help them to achieve that goal.

Hopefully, Gausman is ready for the next level.

It is quite a jump from Double-A Bowie to the majors.

Anthony Amobi blogs about the Orioles at Oriole Post. His observations about the O's appear as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.

Neal Shaffer: Was O's frustrating skid a necessary evil?

2013-05-22T12:57:02Z

Now that it's over, thanks to Nate McLouth and his walk-off 10th-inning heroics, I feel comfortable stating the less-than-obvious: Thank goodness for that six-game losing streak.

Perhaps that sounds odd at best, a little stupid at worst. It should. But dig a little deeper with me and I think you'll see what I mean.

It was just a week ago in this space that I declared the O's a good team and talked about how strange it was to adjust to the idea that they're no longer a band of losers. So, of course, they went out and spent the intervening days doing nothing but just that - losing. Back up the truck, right? I spoke too soon?

Not at all.

What the Orioles just experienced - and for all we know may still be experiencing, since one game is just one game - was a slump. What is a slump? It's a period of time when the moving pieces of effort and success fail to sync. It's a downturn in the cycle. It's a bout with frustration.

It's also a necessary thing.

Slumps, though it's hard to imagine this when you or your team are in the midst of one, are deceptively productive. Not so much while they're happening, but on the long timeline, they're essential ingredients of success. They represent opportunities to reset and reassess, to measure effort against goals, and to understand what's good and what's bad way down at the core.

Now, ideally, the successful team or individual has such processes baked into his/her/their regular routine. Truth is, though, that there's no worse time to assess progress and address weaknesses than when things are going well.

Assessment requires failure. Not epic meltdown failure, but something more than an occasional miss. Six games might be a little long for our liking but it's perfectly functional in that regard.

What the Orioles should understand now is that Jim Johnson is not invincible. They should understand that there's a need to reinforce the overall strength of the pitching staff, most likely through a midseason trade but possibly through the addition of Kevin Gausman. They should understand that it might not be a bad idea to bring in a true DH.

On the flip side, they should understand, as well, that they're a team capable of weathering adversity. That they're not the same dowdy bunch of three or four years ago that would fold up the sails at the first sign of rough seas. That they are, in fact, talented and positioned to contend.

These are a handful of the things visible to outsiders. In the clubhouse, the assessments no doubt run much deeper and serve even more purpose. That's the nature of a slump when you do it right. And make no mistake: a team managed by Buck Showalter will do it right.

In other words, expect this slump to pay dividends. The next one will, too. Because there's always a next one.

Neal Shaffer regularly blogs about the Orioles at The Loss Column, and his work appears here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.

Help the Orioles and Baltimore youth win with a simple #whiff

2013-05-22T04:23:02Z

Over the course of this young season, the Orioles have recorded 303 strikeouts. While that number is not near league-leading, it has allowed fans the chance to give support to the Baltimore chapter of the RBI League 303 times. Whenever the O's record a strikeout, you have the power to rally round Baltimore's RBI League.

Every time the Birds record a K, you can tweet with the @Orioles' Twitter handle and the hashtag #whiff. With each tweet, you'll record a vote for the Baltimore RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) League. At the end of each month, the team with the most votes will receive $10,000 for its local chapter of the RBI League.

The organization's goal is to "increase participation and interest in baseball and softball among underserved youth," and its graduates include the Dodgers' Carl Crawford, the Yankees' CC Sabathia and the Braves' Justin Upton.

P&G's Head & Shoulders is heading the campaign, and in addition to the $10,000 prize each month, the company will donate $1 to the RBI League for each strikeout recorded in the majors this season.

The MASN Orioles Twitter account will be joining the initiative to help the Birds fight for the most tweets in the majors and to help increase youth's talent and passion for baseball and softball in the Baltimore region.

Be sure to watch the Orioles on MASN, so you'll be able to know when to update your Twitter with @Orioles and #whiff.

Tweet away, Birdland.

Zach Wilt: Breaking down Jim Johnson's struggles

2013-05-21T13:33:37Z

Last season, Jim Johnson blew three saves in 54 chances, while this year, he's blown three consecutive opportunities. The Orioles closer is scuffling and the team is stuck in a season-worst six-game losing streak. Johnson has allowed eight earned runs in his last three appearances and has watched his ERA jump from 0.95 to 4.22.

Arguably one of the best at his craft a season ago, Johnson is a unique breed of closer. He doesn't overpower hitters or record high strikeout totals; he forces ground balls with hard sinkers and relies on the defense behind him for outs. When he's able to locate his pitches, he can dominate even the strongest lineups in baseball, but when he isn't - well, you've seen what happens.

Johnson has told reporters after all three blown saves that location has been his issue. On Monday, he specifically cited keeping the ball up in the zone. I've seen him struggle to hit the target Matt Wieters sets behind home plate and have watched him elevate his fastball to power hitters.

On Monday night, after throwing eight pitches to retire Robinson Cano, Johnson fell behind Travis Hafner. With a 3-1 count, Hafner hit a 91 mph belt-high fastball on the outer part of the plate 394 feet to left field. Wieters set up for a pitch low and outside.

"That's what happens when you've got to throw a strike to a power hitter," Hall of Famer Jim Palmer said on the MASN telecast. "Boy, the count plays such a big part."

Johnson was visibly frustrated with home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg who called his 2-1 pitch on the outside corner a ball. PITCHf/x data from BrooksBaseball.net reveals it to be right on the black of the plate. He didn't get the call, was forced to throw Hafner something in the zone and missed his spot. The result was a game-tying homer.

In his three blown saves, I've noticed some inconsistencies in Johnson's release point compared to when he's locating all of his pitches. Not surprisingly, Johnson is letting go of the ball at a higher vertical location than he had been earlier this season. This is causing his pitches to stay up in the zone while a more spread out horizontal location is resulting in him missing the target.

Against the Rays on Saturday, Johnson surrendered five earned runs on three hits. Tampa Bay was able to take advantage of some decent pitches, but falling behind in the count hurt Johnson's chances of earning the save. His command issues were again on display as Kelly Johnson turned on a 3-1 fastball in nearly the exact same location as the pitch Johnson threw to Hafner.

The Orioles closer would walk the next two batters on 11 pitches and give up a bases loaded single to Desmond Jennings on a 2-2 count with a letter-high fastball at 94 MPH. Then he took Matt Joyce to a full count and surrendered a two-run double on a well placed fastball low and away.

With Johnson, the margin for error is slim. He can't afford to miss his spots and rely on power because he's more of a finesse pitcher compared to most closers. The baseball world watched Reds closer Aroldis Chapman blow a save Sunday against the Phillies. Chapman would bounce back Monday with a perfect ninth inning against the Mets. The difference is, Chapman can lean on his upper-90s fastball while Johnson is forced to be nearly perfect.

The good news is Johnson has a proven track record. He's a guy who lead the league in saves with his .252 BABIP over 68 percent innings in 2012. If he can find that consistent release point once again and keep the ball down in the zone, there's no reason to think that he won't bounce back.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.

Orange, black and cartoon birds reign in ESPN's "Battle of the Uniforms"

2013-05-20T23:42:35Z

Don't underestimate the black and orange.

More than 147,000 votes were cast in the final round of ESPN's "Battle of the Uniforms." Facing the No. 1 seeded Cardinals, the Orioles emerged as champions after fans voted for the cartoon bird over the Redbirds by a final percentage of 59 to 41.

But it didn't start there. The Orioles entered the competition as a No. 13 seed, which begs the question: "Have you seen the orange alternates?" Regardless, they started off the battle by facing the Astros, taking down Houston in landslide fashion by a final score of 79 percent to 21 percent.

Moving on, the O's faced a tough opponent in the clean, classic Detroit uniforms, which were ranked the No. 1 seed in the American League. However, the Cinderella story continued for the Birds, as they earned six percent more of the votes than the Tigers.

Then it came down to a battle in the East: the black-and-orange alternates and the classic white uniforms with orange script versus none other than New York pinstripes.

Ranked No. 2, the Yankees proved no match to the O's, falling with just 41 percent of the vote. Finally, the Orioles proved in decisive fashion that they had the best uniforms in baseball by topping St. Louis.

So Orioles fans, represent your team with pride. You sure do look the best doing so.

Domenic Vadala: Do the Orioles need to trade for a top starting pitcher?

2013-05-20T16:50:21Z

Orioles pitching has been the elephant in the room all season long, and to a certain degree, it came to a bit of a head last week and this weekend. First off, while starters going deep into games has been an issue all season, I'm also a firm believer in not letting one bad start get you down. While Jason Hammel has struggled through his last few starts, he never struggled as much as he did Friday night against Tampa Bay. However, he can't allow that to seep into his mind, otherwise he won't find his way back to where he was last year.

The same goes for everyone who follows the ballclub as well; let's not kid ourselves into thinking that Hammel (or any of the staters) is never going to throw another strike, record another out, etc. But it's obvious that the pitching staff contains a few holes, not all of which are related to in-game effectiveness. While Miguel Gonzalez is coming off the DL this week, the loss of Gonzalez and Wei-Yin Chen has definitely taken its toll. But what are the Orioles to do? Obviously, we'll continue to see Jair Jurrjens with the O's, and I suspect we'll probably before long see the likes of Zach Britton, and/or Steve Johnson back, as well.

If you believe MLBTradeRumors.com, the Orioles are in the hunt for a top-of-the-rotation starter via trade. This isn't major breaking news, as they've been searching for quite some time. However, as has been stated several times, teams seem to want to squeeze the Orioles. Unless Dylan Bundy and/or Kevin Gausman are included, there's no deal. Before we get into that, who exactly might the Orioles be able to get? Here's an interesting proposition: Might the likes of perhaps Ricky Nolasco potentially be available? If Miami sputters through the All-Star break, might the Marlins be looking to get some younger players into their system?

The question is whether the Orioles have the guns to pull off a trade like that. Nolasco is a guy that could be a potential trade target because he's a veteran and his contract is up after the season. So one might argue that his trade value won't be higher than this summer in that sense. But again, what would it take to get a guy like Nolasco or perhaps another pitcher that a team might look to move?

I think the bigger question is whether or not Dan Duquette could do a sell job on his own players to obtain a pitcher of that caliber. Granted, I'm no scout or coach, but if the Orioles had the option of sending the likes of Jake Arrieta, Britton and maybe even someone such as Pedro Strop or Brian Matusz, I would suggest they take that trade. Again, only Duquette and Buck Showalter know what their long-term vision is for the organization, so for all I know none of that meets what they have in mind. Then again, I don't know if using 10 different starting pitchers at this point in the season was what they had in mind either.

There are other names that have been thrown around, including R.A. Dickey and even former Tampa Bay Ray Matt Garza (even though he's been injured). It's really a matter of which teams are looking to part with pitching, and which are willing to take what the Orioles would try to send them in return. Quite frankly there are a number of underachieving teams with whom the Orioles might be able to partner.

As I said above, it really just boils down to how good of a salesman Duquette can be. We know that the Birds won't give up Bundy or Gausman, and justifiably so. But it's not going to be as simple as saying, "Take Britton, Arrieta, and Strop and we'll take Nolasco/Garza/Dickey." Trade partners are going to say, "But we want Bundy/Gausman."

In my opinion, I think the Orioles would be better served by trading for a starting pitcher. If that means giving up a couple of guys here and there, I think it's worth the risk. The American League East appears that it's going to be much tighter this year, and they may need a top-of-the-line starter to remain in contention. If sports are about who makes the best adjustments, then the Orioles need to be sure they make the right ones during the season.

Domenic Vadala blogs about the Orioles at Birds Watcher, and his opinions appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.

Birds battling St. Louis for title of best uniforms in baseball

2013-05-17T18:54:41Z

Duking it out against the Cardinals, the Orioles are looking for their fans to rally behind them and support their push to the top. But this is not a battle of who's best on the diamond. Rather, it's a debate of who looks best on the field in ESPN's "Battle of the Uniforms."

Mimicking their wearers' 2012 season, the Orioles' uniforms have played the role of an underdog, scrapping their way into the final round of the battle as a No. 13 seed. Defeating the other orange uniforms, the fourth-seeded Astros, in the first round, the Orioles moved on to eliminate the top-seeded Tigers and then squeezed by the division-rival Yankees and their pinstripes.

Now, it's down to two teams: the Orioles in the American League and the No. 1 seed in the National League, the Cardinals. It's a battle of the Birds, and the Orioles need your help to be crowned owners of the best uniforms in the majors.

Want the Orioles uniforms to take down the top-seeded Cardinals? Click here and cast your vote for orange and black! Voting ends Monday at noon.

#Birdland, we're in the finals of Battle of the Uniforms vs. the Cards! Vote Orange & Black & may the BEST Bird win: atmlb.com/Z1Fb9T
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) May 17, 2013

Matthew Taylor: Some context on Johnson's consecutive saves record

2013-05-17T13:05:09Z

Jim Johnson's consecutive saves streak ended at 35 games Tuesday night in a 3-2 loss to the San Diego Padres. Johnson's streak was one better than Randy Myers' previous Orioles record of 34 and one worse than Mariano Rivera's personal best of 36. Eric Gagne is in a world all his own with his major league record of 84 consecutive saves for the Los Angeles Dodgers. While it's interesting to see how Johnson's run stacks up to those of other great relievers, the more remarkable context is that of his own career.

Pegged as a starter when he was drafted by the Orioles in 2001, Johnson made his debut on July 29, 2006 in a dubious outing against the White Sox: three innings pitched, nine hits, eight earned runs, no strikeouts and three walks. That was his only big league appearance until the following season when he tossed two innings, this time in a relief role, on April 25, 2007. He allowed three hits and two runs, with one strikeout against two walks. Overall, he pitched five innings in two years and allowed 10 earned runs.

Johnson's official rookie season came in 2008, and by then the 25-year-old seemed to have things figured out. Now locked into a relief role, he didn't allow a run in his first 10 games of the 2008 season, a total of 16 1/3 innings, and issued only two free passes. He earned his first big league save during that stretch with 3 1/3 innings of work against the Yankees on April 19. He struggled a bit that May but emerged as the set-up guy to George Sherrill and totaled a 2.37 ERA in 64 2/3 innings pitched by the time Sherrill went down with injury in August. Instead of a potential audition for the closer's role, Johnson soon found himself on the shelf as well due to shoulder soreness.

Still a set-up guy in 2009, Johnson took over the closer's role for the first time in August after Sherrill was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He blew three of 11 chances - he had six blown saves overall on the season - and the Orioles signed Mike Gonzalez during the offseason. Like the music he enters to at Camden Yards, Johnson seemed a pretender to the closer's role.

Johnson acknowledged, "I probably tried to overdo it," as a closer, and manager Dave Trembley agreed: "He did try to do a little more than he should have when he was the closer. I think he'll be better suited for the eighth inning."

Brought up as a starter, he retained a starter's mindset as a closer.

"I thought he tried to adjust too much," then pitching coach Rick Kranitz said. "You started to see too many different pitches in different counts, and it's really not Jim Johnson. He got away from his sinker. He got away from what he loves."

By that time, Johnson had wavered between so many roles in the Orioles organization - starter, middle reliever, set-up man, closer - that he simply declared: "I'm a pitcher."

"I'll be pitching between the second and the eighth innings and sometimes in extras," Johnson said during spring training in 2010. "Just give me the ball whenever."

By May of that season, he was demoted to the minors. Johnson was still in the minors, now on an injury rehab assignment, when Buck Showalter took over the team. Showalter went to see him pitch at Double-A Bowie, but needed help identifying which player was Johnson. He was almost literally a forgotten man.

For six of eight big league seasons, Johnson didn't have the look of a starter, didn't have the look of a closer and was starting to look like he had lost his touch as a reliever and set-up man. In season seven, he established a new Orioles record for saves with 51, and in season eight he set the team record for consecutive saves.

Matthew Taylor blogs about the Orioles at Roar from 34. His ruminations about the Birds appear as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.

Neal Shaffer: Embracing a dilemma at the season's quarter-pole

2013-05-15T12:47:37Z

The 40-game mark, the quarter pole, has traditionally been one of the first real mile markers of the baseball season. It's the point at which we can no longer say, "Yeah, but it's early." By 40 games in, there's a sense of things. A lot will still happen, but the season is no longer a series of maybes.

As the Orioles close in on that mark for 2013, it's safe to say they're off to a hell of a start.

Here they stand at 23-16 with a 14-9 mark away from Camden Yards. They've scored 192 runs and allowed only 162. They've weathered some adversity and remained solidly in contention. Perhaps even more important than the stats, they pass the eyeball test. This doesn't - so far at least - appear to be a team with another shoe hanging over their heads, waiting to drop. It seems like they belong.

And it feels a little weird.

Another way to put it would be to say that I'm starting to realize just how comfortable I had become with losing.

There's that scene in "Road House" - I reference this a lot - when Dalton calls Wade Garrett to ask if he knows a guy named Brad Wesley. Sensing the real issue at hand, Garrett asks Dalton if he's in trouble. "Nothing I'm not used to," Dalton replies, "but it's amazing what you can get used to."

No truer words.

We humans are a surprisingly adaptable lot. We have all sorts of biological protection mechanisms baked into our lizard brains. That kind of thing was necessary in the days before we managed to build something resembling civilization. We now live, thankfully, in a somewhat more elegant age. Yet the basic impulses remain.

I'd reached a point - as I suspect many of you had - where I was resigned to possibly never seeing the Orioles succeed again. And I was OK with it. I didn't like it, but I accepted it. When last season went the way it went, I was stoked, but it still felt otherworldly. I knew on an intellectual level that the foundations for continued success were in place. but deep down I was also prepared for the possibility that the whole thing was nothing more than a blip. Habits like that die hard because, well, it's amazing what you can get used to.

This season presents an altogether different challenge: how to get used to them not only not being bad, but actually claiming a seat among the good?

That's harder than it sounds.

When you go a long time without having something good, you start to feel not only like you'll never have it but also like you maybe don't deserve it. It's not a conscious thought, but it happens. Worst part is you only realize it after the fact - after the good comes busting in.

Where it gets dicey is in how you react. If you let that impulse of disbelief remain, you'll never enjoy the good. You'll skip straight to waiting for bad times to return.

The Orioles are good. Legitimately good. I don't know how long they'll stay that way but that's what they are now.

And so, a friendly reminder: given everything we, as fans, went through to get here it would be a crying shame, indeed, to not embrace it.

Neal Shaffer regularly blogs about the Orioles at The Loss Column, and his work appears here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.

Zach Wilt: Has Pedro Strop bounced back?

2013-05-14T13:04:00Z

Coming off a stellar performance in the World Baseball Classic, the Orioles seemed very optimistic about Pedro Strop heading into the 2013 season. Buck Showalter leaned heavily on him through much of 2012, until Strop struggled with pitch location in September and into the postseason.

In Strop's final 11 regular season outings, he surrendered six earned runs over 7 1/3 innings pitched, issued eight walks and struck out seven. Opponents were hitting .371 against him with a .444 BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) and only 60 percent of his pitches were thrown for strikes.

This season seemed to begin right where 2012 left off. In his first seven outings of 2013, Strop surrendered seven earned runs over 5 1/3 innings, opponents hit .320 against him with a .316 BABIP and he threw 60 percent of his pitches for strikes.

Since that time, Showalter made a conscious effort to put Strop in less stressful situations. Over his last nine appearances, Strop has only pitched in two games in which the Orioles had a one-run lead (April 23 and May 5). Five of the nine outings were when the Orioles were trailing (April 21, May 1, May 3, May 9, May 11) and the Birds had a 6-0 lead over Minnesota during Strop's latest relief appearance.

As a result, Strop lowered his ERA from 11.81 on April 20 to 4.50 on May 12. Despite pitching in a mop-up role, Strop has shown some signs of encouragement in May. In the second of three games against the Angels, he relieved Troy Patton in the bottom of the seventh and struck out Albert Pujols looking. He then recorded a perfect frame in the eighth against Mark Trumbo, Josh Hamilton and Howie Kendrick. Over the 1 1/3 innings of work, 11 of Strop's 17 pitches were thrown for strikes. Pitch efficiency seems to have become the trend of late.

Over his last three outings, Strop seems more consistent in his mechanics. He's perfect over his last three innings pitched, has struck out four, walked none and thrown 69 percent of his 36 pitches for strikes. Of the nine outs Strop recorded over that span, only one ball was hit out of the infield.

When he struggled last season, the slider seemed to help him find the strike zone again. However, in his early outings in 2013, the slider would also be thrown for a ball. In looking at the PITCHf/x data, Strop's breaking ball has been particularly effective of late when his fastball creeps out of the zone.

The other important takeaway from the last three outings is that Strop hasn't taken any velocity off his pitches. He's still clocking in between 95-96 mph, but seems to be finding a more consistent release point than he did at the start of the season.

It's interesting how differently pitchers' slumps are viewed compared to hitters and the approaches a manager can take to help them find consistency. You have to credit Showalter for building Strop's confidence in May and hope that this effectiveness will translate when he finds himself and some more stressful situations down the road.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.

Domenic Vadala: Anatomy of a comeback

2013-05-13T13:17:00Z

We all saw what happened Friday night, as the Orioles came back and defeated the Minnesota Twins after being down 6-0. Six runs isn't the greatest comeback of all time, however there's certainly a difference between that and being down by one or two. I think that in all sports there comes a point in a game where a team feels somewhat secure in its lead. In the NFL, I'd say that a 21-point lead is fairly safe, and the same would be true of a 15-point lead in the NBA. Minnesota had the equivalent of those types of leads Friday against the Orioles, but the Birds bucked the trend and came back to win.

How does that happen?

First off, let's be honest about this: There is just a little bit of luck involved. I don't want to take anything away from what the Orioles did or from what any team in that position does, but at some point along the way you have to catch a break. Keep in mind that catching a break is often contingent upon taking advantage of it. Trevor Plouffe committed an error in the Orioles' three-run seventh inning Friday, scoring Nate McLouth. There's a break for the Orioles; certainly, the Twins could have recorded three outs following that and not truly taken advantage of the break they had been afforded. However, Nick Markakis singled home another run and Chris Davis' RBI double scored Markakis.

The anatomy of a comeback win is more mindset than anything else. These are the Fighting Showalters, right? The mark of this team is that the Orioles just don't give up, and they play to the final out. Even in Saturday's loss in Minnesota, the Orioles continued to fight and scrap once Minnesota took the bull by the horns. Your goal in every at-bat should be to get on base and to do something while you're on. If you think you're going to go up to the plate and look at three pitches so you can sit back down, you aren't going to last long in the big leagues. The Orioles don't have guys who feel that way.

In effect, you have to be headstrong in order to have a chance at coming back like that. I recall several times over the past few years (pre-2012) when the O's would have a lead of that nature and end up losing. Somehow, it seemed that Boston and New York were the usual suspects against whom the Orioles couldn't hold large leads, but that's beside the point. The Orioles always came across as somewhat tentative in that they were almost afraid of their own success. This is where you get into the mechanics of the game moreso than the mindset, but if you're leading 6-0 and you have David Ortiz at the plate with two on and two out, the tendency might be to nibble on the corners a bit. Instead, a pitcher needs to attack the strike zone and try to induce a ground ball in the infield or a pop fly. Often times, the Orioles would end up walking the batter in that situation because the pitcher would be afraid of getting beat, and the next guy would stroke a two-RBI single down the line.

I don't know the Twins well enough to say that they weren't headstrong enough to hold the lead. It seems like they have a great group of players there, so I'm not sure that it's fair to say that they were afraid of their own success. (They were also coming off an 11-game road trip.) However, you always have to play to the final out whether you're winning or losing. If you're up 6-0 with two outs in the ninth inning, you still have to attack the strike zone and play for keeps, just as if you were down. For all you know, the other team could have a seven-run inning before you can record that one out. I think that the odds of that happening are slim, but stranger things have happened. You can't just throw yourself into neutral and coast.

If you're looking for a formula for a comeback win, I'm not sure there is one. However, I suppose that a mixture of being tough-minded, not giving in, sound mechanics and a touch of good luck could go a long way toward helping a team come from behind in a game. And when all else fails, there's always tomorrow!

Domenic Vadala blogs about the Orioles at Birds Watcher, and his opinions appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.

Matthew Taylor: Enjoying the ride

2013-05-10T13:52:48Z

The Orioles enter the weekend with a 21-14 record, in a three-way tie for first place in the American League East with the Red Sox and Yankees. If you've followed baseball long enough, you've likely developed the reserved reflex that is so common to the sport. It's the one that produces programmed responses to good news, led by the many variations of "it's early." We're not supposed to get excited about individual efforts yet because of sample size, and as for teams, well, "It's a marathon, not a sprint."

By and large, this is good advice, but it can lead to statements like this: "The Orioles are currently in first place. But by the end of a 162-game season they won't be" ... "It's never easy to watch the Orioles tumble toward the bottom of the standings as the season progresses." I wrote those words on April 20 last year and struggled to alter that pessimistic attitude for too long during the season. Thanks in large part to 2005, I had a nagging sense that the bottom would drop out on the Birds at any moment.

If 14 consecutive losing seasons taught me anything, it should have been to enjoy the positive moments whenever they happened and for however how long they lasted. The good times in 2012 lasted right up into October, but there's no reason to wait that long to appreciate the team's success.

So here's why 21 wins and a first-place tie in May are worth celebrating:

* Since the worst start in team history in 1988, the Orioles have had 20 or more wins by May 10 only three times before now: in 1992, 1997 and 2005. This is therefore the fourth time in 25 years that the Orioles have done this well to start a season.

* During that same time period, the Orioles have never had consecutive seasons with 19 or more wins by May 10 before now. This time last year the Orioles were 19-11, tied with Tampa Bay for first place in the AL East. There hasn't been a two-year run of early-season success like this in the past 25 years.

* Since 1988, the Orioles have had fewer than 10 wins on May 10 on four separate occasions. They were 9-23 in 2010, 5-7 in strike-shortened 1995, 9-16 in 1991 and 4-16 in 1988. Think about that. We're only three seasons removed from the Orioles having a 9-23 record at this point in the season. It was over before it started.

* The Orioles have had losing records on May 10 13 different times since 1988. A losing record in early May certainly doesn't doom a season. After all, the "Why Not?" Orioles were 13-17 on May 10, and the wild card Orioles team of 1996 barely had its collective head above water at 17-16. But 21 wins feels a heck of a lot better, doesn't it?

Toward the end of last season, the Orioles told us to "BUCKle Up." This year, I'm determined to enjoy the ride from the very start.

Matthew Taylor blogs about the Orioles at Roar from 34. His ruminations about the Birds appear as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.

Anthony Amobi: O's took a chance and gamble with Machado has paid off

2013-05-09T13:28:46Z

In August 2012, the Orioles were in the wild card hunt and desperate to solve a problem - third base. Former Oriole Mark Reynolds, despite his power, was struggling at the hot corner, and executive vice president Dan Duquette, the front office, along with manager Buck Showalter were looking for a solution.

In the middle of that month, the Orioles did something bold and head-scratching at the same time. They promoted Manny Machado from Double-A Bowie to the majors.

At first, I was bewildered at the news. I wondered why they would promote a 20-year-old who was only hitting .266 with 11 home runs in 400 or so at-bats at Bowie,

Furthermore, the organization announced Machado would play third base - a position he manned only twice in the minors. When I heard that, I too shook my head; however, if Machado could play much better than Reynolds at third, then why not?

I was a little concerned that the organization would rush the youngster and perhaps impede his development.

Obviously, Duquette and Showalter knew their personnel very well and took a roll of the dice with the youngster. As FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal revealed this week, the Orioles were doing their best to get Machado acclimated to the position throughout last summer.

Machado was the team's first-round draft pick in 2010, and seemed to be from a good pedigree. The Baltimore front office and Showalter figured he could handle the pressure of third base, the rigors of the majors and play a role in a pennant race.

The Orioles succeeded all expectations - and then some - in 2012.

So did Machado.

His promotion was a gamble that paid off then and is reaping benefits now.

Not only did Machado shored up third base last season and become a mainstay at the position, but he has become an integral part of the offense. Machado is currently batting second in the Baltimore lineup and has a .313 batting average with five home runs and 22 RBIs.

Of course, his defense at third base - not his bat - seems to command most of the attention.

The young man is a small, but very critical part as to why the Orioles are 21-13 and tied with the Boston Red Sox for first place in the American League East this morning. It is still early, but Machado and the Orioles are flying high so far.

Although other young stars such as Mike Trout for the Los Angeles Angels and Bryce Harper, who plays down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway for the Nationals, seem to get the majority of the baseball world's attention, that is quickly changing for Machado. Jerry Crasnick has a wonderful piece about him this week on ESPN's Web site, as did Rosenthal, who I have already mentioned.

Machado has become a fan favorite and beloved by everyone. However, you forget that he is not even old enough to step into a bar and legally have a drink. With all that being said, he looks like a veteran.

I've remarked to several people that Machado plays like a guy who has been in the majors 10 years, not just 85 games as of this morning.

When I first saw him on the field at Oriole Park at Camden Yards last summer, I was amazed at how tall Machado was (at 6-foot-3) and his build. I certainly knew about him, but I took a second glance and muttered to a friend, "Boy, Manny looks like a young A-Rod."

The question for fans now is this: Does he stay at third base throughout his career, or do the Orioles eventually move him to shortstop when J.J. Hardy's contract expires - or earlier?

Will he be mentioned in the future in the same breath as Brooks Robinson - or Cal Ripken Jr.?

Of course, it is too early to compare him to two future Hall of Famers. However, this much is certain: Machado is here to stay and is very much part of the team's core for the near future.

Anthony Amobi blogs about the Orioles at Oriole Post. His observations about the O's appear as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.

Zach Wilt: A full season of Manny Machado

2013-05-07T10:56:16Z

Seven wins on an 11-game west coast road trip are enough to turn even the Orioles' fiercest doubter into a believer in 2013. For the first time this season, I stopped comparing this year's team to its surprising playoff roster from a year ago and instead just enjoyed watching the O's starters pitch a 3.76 ERA, the bullpen to a 3.60 mark and cheered as the offense totaled 5.27 runs per game against the A's, Mariners and Angels.

It took just over a month for me to stop making that comparison and to instead just believe in the talent on this year's roster. I suppose a lot of that has to do with the Orioles slow offseason. However, a closer examination of Dan Duquette's strategy will reveal quite a few differences between the current roster and the one from a season ago.

For starters, the Orioles are hoping they won't be without Nick Markakis for 58 games like they were last year. The Birds' right fielder played in the fewest games of his eight-year career, but still managed to hit .298/.363/.471 with 13 home runs and 54 RBIs in 471 plate appearances. The O's also had Nate McLouth for only 55 games in 2012. His incredible start to the 2013 season (.313/.411/.490 with 10 RBIs and nine stolen bases) is reason enough to nullify comparisons between this year's team and 2012.

But it's Manny Machado who really makes this Orioles team unique. The Birds were without their young third baseman for 111 games last season and he's made a dramatic impact on the state of the club in 2013. On the Orioles' recent road trip, the 20-year-old recorded 18 hits (six of which were doubles, three were homers) and drove in seven. He recorded a 1.077 OPS and scored 11 of the team's 58 runs.

I can't get over Machado and I hope Baltimore is enjoying watching this kid play as much as I am. We are getting to watch a star in the making, a player that could lead this offense for years to come. Batting Machado second seemed to be an experiment for Buck Showalter at the start of the season. Not anymore.

Machado's .522 slugging percentage is third in the American League for third baseman. He's behind 2012 Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera and three-time All-Star Evan Longoria. That's pretty good company.

He leads the AL East in RBIs for a third baseman (21) and is five ahead of three-time Silver Slugger Adrian Beltre. With runners in scoring position, Machado is hitting .394/.429/.848 with two doubles, a triple, three home runs and 19 RBIs. He has seven hits in 14 at-bats, with 12 RBIs when runners are in scoring position with two outs. He seems to shine in pressure situations.

Mike Trout often grabs headlines for being the American League's young shining star. The 2012 Rookie of the Year gave the Angels a 4-3 lead in the fourth inning with his fifth home run of the season in Sunday's finale in Anaheim. Machado took that lead right back with his fifth homer in the top of the next inning. The O's third baseman has a higher batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage than Trout, and has one more extra-base hit.

Machado isn't eligible to win Rookie of the Year honors in 2013 after recording 191 at-bats in the big leagues last season. Had he kept that number under 130, he would be the top candidate for this year's award.

The run differential and one-run game comparisons make for interesting baseball banter, but don't offer a fair evaluation of this year's team to the one of a season ago. A full season of Machado is just one of the many reasons the Orioles believe they will be right in the thick of things come October. So far, there's no reason to doubt it.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.

Domenic Vadala: Serving up the youth movement

2013-05-06T13:36:32Z

I'll be as frank and up front as I possibly can in saying this: I'm not a big fan of youth. At 32, some people might ask what I mean by that, given that I'd like to hope that I'm not that old myself. However, when it comes to athletes, I like guys with a bit of experience. I'm not suggesting that the Orioles should nab other teams' good players out from under them as Boston and New York have done for years. What I am saying is that I like players that marinate a bit in the minor leagues and get their share of experience before coming up.

As a general rule, I do believe in bringing home-grown players through your minor league system, which is what the O's did for years (the Oriole Way) and are now starting to do again. With that said, I didn't think that they should have promoted Manny Machado last year. My thought process was that perhaps 2013 would be the year we could expect to see Machado in the show. When he came up last August, Machado had just turned 20; there's no way someone that age had the tools as a player or a person to play at the major league level. I always knew that Machado had the tools to be a potential Hall of Fame-caliber player; I just didn't feel that he had the tools quite yet.

Perhaps more importantly, I didn't think that he had the maturity to be up in the big leagues. Many players, including Jim Palmer, have been in the show at Machado's age. However, I feel that it takes a special person to handle that kind of responsibility, and you never really know whether the person is ready for that until he gets there. I've always suggested that it's not a risk worth taking, especially in the Orioles' case, being in a pennant race last year. However, Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter were willing to run that risk - and they were right to do so. Hands down, the Orioles don't go to the playoffs in 2012 without Machado, nor are they as competitive as they've been in 2013.

At the time, one of my big concerns was that Machado would need more seasoning in the minors (either in terms of skills or maturity) and the Orioles would have already started his big league clock. Luckily, that hasn't been an issue because Machado has handled himself well on the field and off. And I would add that in playing big league baseball at 20, he's probably handling himself better in terms of maturity than a certain writer currently in his early 30s would have done.

The same is true with Mike Trout out in Anaheim and Bryce Harper in Washington. Harper especially concerned me, due to some of his actions on the field such as drawing a line in the dirt in a college game, and blowing a kiss toward a pitcher on a home run trot as a minor leaguer. And again, bringing a player up this early also starts his big league salary arbitration clock. (In Trout's case, he did go up and back down once.) However, that's a risk that the O's, Nats, and Angels took. Lady luck often smiles on daring ones, I suppose.

The play which might well always define Machado will be the fake to first, and throw to third against Tampa Bay last year. One can hope that, moving forward his career, Machado is defined more by winning World series rather than that one play, but I digress. Machado's glove has been unbelievable since he's been in the majors, and he's a shortstop playing third base. Here's some even better news: It appears that things are getting better. His fielding percentage was .967 last year and he's fielding .980 now. Offensively, Machado hit .262 in the majors last year, and he's currently hitting .309. He had an OBP of .294 in 2012, and that's up to .352 in 2013. So the already mature 20- year-old is getting better by the day it seems.

I wasn't wrong about the youth movement with regard to Machado, I was dead wrong. In case you didn't notice, he was pretty clutch for the O's over the weekend in Anaheim. FOX broadcasters, at one point, compared him to Brooks Robinson - high praise for anyone, but especially a third baseman for the Orioles.

Domenic Vadala blogs about the Orioles at Birds Watcher, and his opinions appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.