Dave Nichols: Does Zimmerman's return come at a cost?

Dave Nichols: Does Zimmerman's return come at a cost?
Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg have been generating a lot of hype these days, and rightfully so. Both are exciting young players who should lead the Nationals' attempts at glory for the next 10 years or so. But there's no questioning that the face of the franchise remains third baseman Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman struggled mightily for most of the first three months of the season and the rest of the Nats' offense followed. He got out of the gate cold. He suffered an injury to the A/C...

Will Yoder: Hard to choose the Nats' first-half MVP

Will Yoder: Hard to choose the Nats' first-half MVP
The Nationals are about to wrap up their best first half in franchise history. At 45-32, Washington has the best record in the National League, is 3.5 games ahead of the second place team in the NL East, and is on pace to win 95 games this season. What has been perhaps most impressive about the team's run so far this year is that when former cellar-dwellers come out of nowhere in this fashion, they usually do so on the shoulders of one identifiable superstar. Whether it be a franchise player...

Will Yoder: June swoon may dictate Nats' path at trade deadline

Will Yoder: June swoon may dictate Nats' path at trade deadline
The Nationals may still have the second-best record in the National League at 41-30, but the team is currently in a tailspin. The Nats have lost seven of their past 10 contests and have been outscored 25-34 in that span. The club will be the first to admit it: Their offense is struggling and the team, as a whole, is suffering. Earlier in the year, the team was able to get by game-to-game with one-run victories, but it seems the luck has run out as the edged-out wins just aren't happening....

Heath Bintliff: Back to the future with Chris Tillman

Heath Bintliff: Back to the future with Chris Tillman
After a 328 day absence, it appears that Chris Tillman is returning to the Orioles rotation Thursday. While Tillman's 2010 and 2011 seasons have been difficult and trying, in 2012 he has turned back the clock to 2009. In 2009, the 21-year old phenom dominated the International League for nearly four months (only Braves 22-year old hurler Tommy Hanson was better). That was the last bit of real success Tillman has had until this season. I was present at a few of those Norfolk Tides games...

Olivia Witherite: A true designated hitter for the Orioles at Camden Yards

Olivia Witherite:  A true designated hitter for the Orioles at Camden Yards
About midway through the Saturday afternoon game at Camden Yards, the comment at work was made that the mentions of the Orioles on Twitter were blowing up. Granted, it wasn't for the Birds' game in the least, as they eventually dug their own graves in an 11-5 loss to Cleveland. Instead, attached to every tweet was the name of Jim Thome. A veteran in the truest sense of the word, the 41-year-old is once again on an American League roster and serving as the O's designated hitter. As an...

Ted Leavengood: More All-Stars where these came from

Ted Leavengood: More All-Stars where these came from
Yesterday, Nationals fans saw - for the first time this season, really - the Ryan Zimmerman who has been the most enduring Nationals All-Star since 2006. His two-run double in the first inning off Tim Hudson was the telling blow in an 8-4 win to take another road series against perennial National League contenders, the Atlanta Braves. He had a solo home run as well, his third longball in a week, and another clutch hit in the ninth to help put the game out of reach. He is hitting .378 for the...

Matthew Taylor: In '57, Indians-O's was a critical four-game series

Matthew Taylor: In '57, Indians-O's was a critical four-game series
The Orioles' loss to Cleveland Thursday night continued a recent slide that has fueled pessimism for some fans. At this exact time of year in 1957, as the O's faced the same team on the diamond, the opposite scenario played out during Baltimore's first non-losing season since moving from St. Louis in 1954. Back then, there was plenty of reason for optimism in June, thanks to some remarkable work by the O's pitching staff. The '57 Birds took three of four from the Indians during a series...

Marty Niland: Nats will turn back the clock, recall Washington's glory days

Marty Niland: Nats will turn back the clock, recall Washington's glory days
A visit to Nationals Park will be like a trip back in time for fans attending Thursday night's game between the Nationals and the San Francisco Giants. Turn Back the Clock Night will recall the last (and only) time Washington celebrated a World Series championship: 1924, when the Senators and the then-New York Giants met in a Fall Classic that many historians rate as one of the best. For this game, the curly W won't be in fashion. The centerpiece of the celebration will be the uniforms,...

Anthony Amobi: Can Brian Matusz ever regain what made him so special?

Anthony Amobi: Can Brian Matusz ever regain what made him so special?
Right now, despite the Orioles doing relatively well so far this season, it has been apparent that there's been an issue with the starting pitching outside of Jason Hammel and Wei-Yin Chen. On Tuesday night, southpaw Brian Matusz struggled on the mound again in a loss to the Los Angeles Angels. He gave up five runs in five innings, plus gave up a career-high 13 hits. Matusz's season has been filled with some ups and downs, but fans have to start wondering if the bright young pitcher we...

Dave Nichols: Nats reap benefits of exercising patience with flawed prospect

Dave Nichols: Nats reap benefits of exercising patience with flawed prospect
How 'bout that Tyler Moore? In the last two minor league seasons, Nats rookie Moore has hit a combined 62 home runs - 31 each season - and 202 RBIs. That's an awful lot of pop, enough that he should have received a fair bit of notice in the offseason prospect lists. However, his defensive limitations, and being older than other prospects at each level, have tempered long-range expectations for the Mississippi native. Those tempered expectations may be the only reason he remains property...

Neal Shaffer: The other side of success at Camden Yards

Neal Shaffer: The other side of success at Camden Yards
As fans, we all want the Orioles to win. That's a fair statement, right? In fact, it's probably the only thing we all agree on. Finding common ground can be hard, but there's always the team. We want it to do well and, there, we're actually united. In a lot of ways that's enough. A winning team. It's just sports, after all, right? To some extent, yes, but there's another layer to it, this thing over which we bond. Meaning that when the Orioles win, we in fact are together in a less...

Rachel Levitin: Nats no longer the new kids in the class

Rachel Levitin: Nats no longer the new kids in the class
When I leave to go out of town on trips, like today for example, my favorite topic of conversation along the way tends to veer toward sports, baseball in particular. Whether I'm listening in on a stats-based debate or checking game scores on one of the many televisions within the terminal, there's always a lesson to be learned from these types of conversations. There's a little more to those conversations than what appears on the surface, though. It's one thing to strike up a sports...

Heath Bintliff: An appreciation of Troy Patton

Heath Bintliff: An appreciation of Troy Patton
The Orioles are winning and there have been a lot of heroes during this magic stretch of baseball - Adam Jones, Jason Hammel, Jim Johnson, Matt Wieters. The contributions of those players are obvious. But on any winning club, there are always unsung heroes. And my favorite unsung hero this season has been lefty reliever Troy Patton. But this isn't just about 2012. Truth be told, I have always been a Patton fan, ever since December 2007 when the Orioles acquired him from the Houston Astros...

Ted Leavengood: Pitching to contact

Ted Leavengood: Pitching to contact
The three contests played by the Orioles and Nationals this weekend were more like soccer matches, as fans watched for small shifts in momentum amid long scoreless stretches. Each team had their scoring chances, but it was the sudden, late scoring strike by Matt Wieters on Sunday that tilted the series toward Baltimore. What made it work for the Orioles, however, was how well their three best starters matched up well against the bottom three in the Nationals rotation in a series that was all...

Marty Niland: Nationals' transformation mirrors Rays' progression

Marty Niland: Nationals' transformation mirrors Rays' progression
The Nationals have to feel good about taking two of three games form the Tampa Bay Rays this week. Tuesday night's pine tar dust-up aside, the Nats can take pride in bouncing back from a tough series against the Yankees and beating a very good team. If the Nationals could look into a mirror and see themselves in a few years, they might look just like the Rays, but with red jerseys instead of blue. In fact, as an organization, the Rays are everything the Nats want to be. From 2005 to 2007,...

Matthew Taylor: Is warehouse in Chris Davis' sights?

Matthew Taylor: Is warehouse in Chris Davis' sights?
Can the Orioles' Chris Davis become the first player to hit the B&O Warehouse with a home run during game action? That's the question I've been asking myself since Davis hit a broken-bat homer June 13 against the Pirates. The display of strength by a power-hitting lefty has had me pondering the possibilities ever since. My prediction, equal parts bold and foolish, is that Davis will become the first batter to hit the Warehouse. Oriole Park at Camden Yards has been open for 20 years. There...

Dave Nichols: Managers feuding over interpretations of baseball's unwritten rules

Dave Nichols: Managers feuding over interpretations of baseball's unwritten rules
In Tuesday night's loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Nationals manager Davey Johnson had a simple request of home plate umpire Tim Tschida: Enforce the written rules of baseball. Johnson knew that Rays relief pitcher Joel Peralta "liked a little pine tar" - that is, Peralta hid the sticky stuff in and on his glove in order to help him grip the baseball better and, therefore, have better control over his breaking pitches. Pine tar is one of those classic foreign substances that is specifically...

Anthony Amobi: O's young arms need to step up - again

Anthony Amobi: O's young arms need to step up - again
It has not been a very good week for the Orioles up in the Big Apple. They did not get beat by the rival Yankees; however, the surprising Mets swept the Birds over a three-game set. Baltimore's offense got stifled by the phenomenal knuckleballer R.A. Dickey and the veteran Johan Santana in the first two games. They made it close in the final contest. As much as the offense struggled, I'm not too worried about that and ready to push the red alert button on that front. Sadly, as fans, we...

Heath Bintliff: The Chris Davis breakout

Heath Bintliff: The Chris Davis breakout
Is there anything Chris Davis can't do? Even though I held my breath every time a ball was hit to right field this weekend, Davis has added the job skill of "major league right fielder" to his resume. It has been a remarkable season for Davis, as he continues to do things that he has never done before in the majors. He has played the outfield and pitched in his first major league game, but even more remarkable are the things he is doing at the plate. Davis' OPS+ of 132 is the highest of...

Will Yoder: Where is the 2010 Ryan Zimmerman?

Will Yoder: Where is the 2010 Ryan Zimmerman?
If you followed Nationals spring training closely, you may have rightfully believed that Ryan Zimmerman was the best hitter on the planet. The 27-year-old was mashing the ball to all corners of the ballpark, and it looked as if the third baseman who once made his debut in Washington as a 20-year-old kid had finally reached his prime. While Zimmerman has started slowly on the stat sheet this season, everyone who was watching the games knew he was absolutely pounding the ball. On opening day,...