Center fielder

Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis will undergo surgery at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow morning in Sarasota to remove a broken hamate bone from his right wrist. The procedure will be performed by hand specialist Dr. Brian Schofield. Markakis will be placed on the disabled list for the first time in his career, with a corresponding roster move to be announced later. It's believed that Markakis sustained the original injury while sliding into second base a week to 10 days ago, but the complete break...

Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette will oversee his first draft with the club next week. Duquette, it appears, has taken a more active role in the draft than his predecessor, Andy MacPhail. Duquette has even been scouting some of the amateur players himself in recent weeks. "The draft is important as far as building a good team," Duquette said. "It's important that we have a good process to identify the best players and screen out some of the risk. Then,...

When Michael Morse returns to the Nationals, which should be in mere days, he'll give the team an offensive jolt. This is the guy who led the Nats in batting average (.303), home runs (31) and RBIs (95) last season, a guy whose slugging percentage was 99 points higher than anyone else on the Nationals' roster. When Morse returns to the Nationals, however, he'll also give the team an interesting outfield alignment, one no one could have possibly envisioned the Nats would have in early...

Last night, the Orioles got swept by the Toronto Blue Jays in their three-game series up north in Canada and lost their fifth straight game. We all know that the Birds have had quite an remarkable run during the first two months of the season. To say that they have surprised everyone - fans, the local and national media alike - is an understatement. However, at this point, are the Orioles collapsing, or is this just an extraordinarily lousy stretch? They have gone 2-8 in their last 10...

The Nationals find themselves in an enviable position. Clinging to the National League East lead by a half-game over the Miami Marlins on the last day of May, they expect to get cleanup hitter Michael Morse back as early as Friday when they start a three-game weekend series with the Atlanta Braves. Morse, who is with the high Single-A Potomac Nationals this week on a rehab assignment, went 3-for-6 with a walk and an RBI over two games so far as a designated hitter. He's scheduled to play...

Any time you end up with a winning road trip, you'll take it. It's not easy winning on the road in this league, especially when you're playing in a division where every team has an above-.500 record. But when you start a tough nine-game road trip against division opponents by going 5-1 and then proceed to lose your final three games before heading home, it takes some of the wind out of your sails. It takes even more wind out of said sails when, on that nine-game road trip, you have to put...

Gary Rajsich, who was hired as the Orioles' director of scouting in November, is now days away from his first draft with the O's, who have the fourth pick in round one Monday night. Rajsich has several of his top staff members with him in Baltimore this week in final preparations for next week's draft. While he is not going to volunteer to any reporter which players the Orioles are focusing on with their top pick, he did say he has trimmed the list of players under consideration for that...

The Orioles need to get healthy, and that includes their sickening stretch of futility that's threatening to drop them down the American League East standings as if there's an anchor tied to their waists. If that were actually true, they'd probably end up with strained obliques and intercostals. The Orioles have lost five in a row and eight of their last 10, but the schedule cuts them a break. No game until tomorrow night in St. Petersburg. Left-hander Zach Britton won't be idle tonight....

Five days ago, Chien-Ming Wang jogged out of the bullpen to relieve Ross Detwiler after a mediocre start. Today, the reverse happened. Wang went just four-plus innings in his first start of the season, giving up four runs. He allowed 10 baserunners in that time (seven hits and three walks) and clearly wasn't showing the command that we saw early in spring training when the veteran right-hander was pounding his sinker down in the zone and locating his offspeed stuff for strikes. Detwiler...