Orioles Mid-season Update (FINALLY!)

Hey Orioles fans! As you can see, I haven't been quite updating this at all. To be frankly honest, I had such high hopes coming into this season. We had a well-respected manager, some key veteran acquisitions, and one more year of upcoming experience for our young starters.

Things looked great, as we started off well. Soon to follow, the wheels fell off. The pitching staff has been decimated by both injury and ineffectiveness. Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman, and more recently, Zach Britton have all been inconsistent and have split time between the minor and major leagues. As for the rest of the rotation, Jeremy Guthrie and Jake Arrieta have been the two fairly dependable starters. That number is now down to one as Jake Arrieta will be having season-ending surgery.

The non-waiver trade deadline passed on July 31st and the Orioles made a few trades. We lost both reliever Koji Uehara and 1B Derrek Lee. Uehara was shipped off to the Texas Rangers in exchange for 1B/3B/DH Chris Davis and SP Tommy Hunter. I think the Orioles got some great pieces in that trade. Davis can plug right in at 1B (for the departed Lee) and Tommy Hunter slots right into the starting rotation behind de facto ace Jeremy Guthrie. In more of a minor move, Derrek Lee was sent to the at the time potentially playoff bound Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for minor leaguer, Aaron Baker. At the very least, this creates more 1B depth for Baltimore.

Some other moves including releasing pitcher, Justin Duchscherer and adding pitcher, Jo-Jo Reyes.

Some highlights so far this season have been the play of J.J. Hardy and the power numbers put up by new arrival Mark Reynolds. Adam Jones is also having a breakout season, recently surpassing his previous career high of 19 HR's.

There are still lingering question marks for Baltimore. Can they get through the season with this makeshift rotation, including the likes of Chris Jakubauskas and Alfredo Simon? Will Jim Johnson make the move to the rotation? The biggest question...what is in the future for Brian Matusz?

We will just have to wait and see as this season carries on. While the Orioles may not be in playoff contention, they can at least play spoiler for some teams. Stay tuned everybody!

Orioles Update

As of Tuesday morning, the Orioles are 4-0 for the first time since 1997 and have sole possession of first place within the AL East Division. This may be a tad bit early on, but the Orioles have put excitement back in Baltimore baseball.

Our pitching staff has put together an amazing streak of four straight starts allowing only one run. The starters, led by ace pitcher, Jeremy Guthrie, have been nothing short of amazing. There have been a few setbacks with the rotation, led by the injury to number two starter, Brian Matusz. The prognosis on Matusz is that he will miss somewhere between 4-6 weeks. As the news hit after Opening Day, it was decided that stud pitching prospect Zach Britton would get the call to the majors.

That call-up causes Britton to be under the Orioles control for one less year. They now maintain control of him only through 2016 instead of 2017. During spring training Britton looked ready for Major League camp, as he posted the best numbers of the starters. The club brass believed in his skills and rewarded him with this opportunity. Britton certainly lived up to these expectations as he pitched 6 innings, allowing 1 run, and walked 3, with 6 strikeouts.

The latest news out of Baltimore was that Jeremy Guthrie was diagnosed with pneumonia and according to Buck Showalter, he will miss 5-7 games. To fill that void, Brad Bergesen will be called upon to start in the place of Guthrie.

Even with our pieced together rotation, the Orioles are having a fantastic start to the 2011 baseball season. For those of you wondering, I did not forget Chris Tillman's 6 inning no-hit bid or Jake Arrieta's great home opener. Tillman was nothing short of amazing. Unfortunately, he did not get the win since he left in a scoreless game because of a high pitch count. The bullpen kept the Orioles in the game and lead them to victory.

Our offense hasn't come out firing on all cylinders like many have hoped, but we have been getting timely hits. Brian Roberts has supplied all the power thus far, leading the club in HR's with 2. The saying is that during the first few weeks of the season, the pitching is ahead of the hitting anyway, so I am not worried. The hitting will produce, just give it time.

The defense has been great. Nick Markakis had a great catch, Felix Pie cut down a runner at home plate throwing a bullet from LF to Matt Wieters and the new left side of our infield looks good early on.

Overall, as a lifelong Orioles fan, I am quite excited about the potential and early returns on this season. Baltimore's fan base longs for a return to the glory days of this franchise. By all accounts, that may not be so far away. Keep it up Orioles!

Guthrie Avoids Arbitration

UPDATE: Contract is one year at $5.75 million.

The second player to settle in just as many days, Jeremy Guthrie avoided arbitration agreeing to a one year contract with the Orioles. Updates will come as more information is provided.

Luke Scott and Orioles Avoid Arbitration

The Orioles avoided arbitration with slugging LF Luke Scott, agreeing to a $6.4 million deal for 2011. Scott will most likely be playing everyday this year in the outfield with the acquisition of DH Vladimir Guerrero. His 27 homeruns last year led the club. The Orioles put forth a figure of $5.7 million while Scott countered with $6.85 million. If an agreement would not have been reached by the deadline, the case would have gone to an arbiter who would make the decision.

Now that Scott's case was settled, Jeremy Guthrie is the only other Oriole that is arbitration eligible. Guthrie will be offered a contract for 2011, but figures have yet to be exchanged between to two teams. An update will come when more details are released.

What Could Have Been...Michael Young, An Oriole?

I was watching Hot Stove on MLB tonight. They opened the show discussing the soap opera going on with Michael Young in Arlington. Not only did the Rangers sign Adrian Beltre; but they traded for C/DH Mike Napoli. Michael Young has been nothing but a team player throughout his days in Texas. He shifted over from 2B to SS when Ian Kinsler got promoted to the big leagues. When Texas acquire SS Elvis Andrus, Young again shifted; this time from SS over to 3B. Once Beltre was signed, Young agreed without hesitation to move to DH. Once Napoli was added, Young had enough. He would not accept a diminished role as a part time player and has requested a trade. As the situation currently stands, Young has 22 teams on his no-trade list. Out of the 8 remaining, one is the Colorado Rockies, which was said to be one of the main suitors looking to trade for Young.

Everyone may be wondering; this is an Orioles blog, so why feature Michael Young news? Well here is the answer to that question. As I found out earlier tonight thanks to some digging, Michael Young was almost an Oriole. Back in the year 1994, Young was finishing his senior season at Bishop Amat Memorial High School in La Puente, Califonia. Our Baltimore Orioles had selected Young in the 25th round of that year's amateur draft. Young elected not to sign and went on to college at University of California, Santa Barbara. He was drafted three years later in the 5th round by the Toronto Blue Jays. He signed with the Jays and was later traded to the Texas Rangers along with pitcher Darwin Cubillan in exchange for Esteban Loaiza.

Since that trade, Michael Young has become the all-time Rangers hits leader and is 3rd on the all-time games played list in Ranger history. The question that will be asked now is, will he remain with Texas to set more Ranger records?

Orioles Add More Relief

Just as many of us thought the Orioles were done adding pieces for the upcoming year, one more pitcher was signed for the bullpen. David Riske, the right hander, agreed to a minor league contract with the O's. Riske has bounced around a bit during his major league career, having stops in Cleveland, Boston, Chicago (AL), Kansas City, and most recently, Milwaukee. He was released in the middle of a three year contract by Milwaukee in August of 2010.

Notable Former Oriole Transactions

As the offseason came together, there were some surprising signings; both major and minor league. I always find interest in seeing where former Orioles players end up for the upcoming season. I referenced Ty Wigginton, Jayson Werth, and Melvin Mora signing with new teams in earlier entries. Out of those three, Werth by a wide margin signed the most lucrative deal, with our beltway neighbor Washington Nationals.

A bunch of other former Orioles find themselves with a change of scenery for the 2011 season. One former Oriole, Kris Benson, decided to call it a career and chose to retire. Another pitcher, Brian Burres, is currently out there on the free agent market after being non-tendered by the Pirates. Anybody remember Bruce Chen? He seems to have found a home in Kansas City with the Royals as he resigned for another year with the franchise.

This hitter, may not even be remembered because of his short two year stint with the team; but the Orioles at one point had Jack Cust. More recently, Cust had a home with Oakland where he was the DH. At the conclusion of the 2010 season, Oakland cut ties with Cust; allowing him to sign with west coast and division rival, Seattle. Willie Harris, who was with the Orioles briefly (one year), has caught on with a NL team for the 2011 campaign. After three years being a defensive replacement/pinch hitter for the Nationals, Harris stayed in the NL East, agreeing to a deal with the New York Mets.

Former catcher pre-Wieters, Ramon Hernandez is also going to be in the National League, resigning with the Reds. The Orioles traded Ramon to the Reds for utilityman Ryan Freel back in 2008. Needless to say, Freel had a VERY short tenure here in Baltimore.

In what I would say is a decent move, the World Champion San Francisco Giants retained their first baseman, and former Oriole, Aubrey Huff by extending him with a 2 year $22 million contract. Back to pitching now, former Oriole prospect John Maine is still looking for work, as the Mets non-tendered him. Hopefully he can hook up with a team as a reclamation project, due to injury concerns in recent years. He is still capable of eating innings for a team. A more recent Oriole that finds himself still in the hunt in free agency, is Julio Lugo. Lugo got the job done during his stint here, but more was expected of him when he arrived in Baltimore.

Since the Orioles signed Justin Duchscherer, I think the door is officially on last year's #1 starter, Kevin Millwood, returning to the orange and black. Currently, Millwood still sits in free agency, reportedly being pursued by the Cleveland Indians (where he spent 2005) and the New York Yankees (who seem to be signing just about anyone lately).

Corey Patterson, who had two different stints with the Orioles in his career, will now be suiting up for the AL East rival Toronto Blue Jays. Patterson enjoyed moderate success here in Baltimore but never seemed to recognize the huge potential he showed in the Cubs minor league system. There have been flashes at the major league level. With that said, Patterson has still made a decent career for himself, a former first round pick. Another former outfielder, Jay Payton is still playing as he inked a minor league deal with the Colorado Rockies.

Along with Aubrey Huff, there was one other former Oriole in the World Series. Chris Ray, Baltimore's closer from 2006-2009, was on the Giants for their title run in 2010. Ray was traded to Texas in the deal that landed Millwood in Baltimore. Ray was traded again, mid-season from Texas to the Giants, in exchange for Bengie Molina. The 2011 destination for Ray is none of the aforementioned teams. He will be playing on the west coast once again, this time for the Seattle Mariners.

Former AL MVP, who had two stints with the Orioles is changing zipcodes as well. Miguel Tejada, after being traded to San Diego last year, now calls San Francisco home. He will help fill the void left by Juan Uribe, who signed with the Dodgers, and Edgar Renteria, who is now in Cincinnati.

Last, but certainly not least, is Gregg Zaun. He had two stops in Baltimore in his career. After playing with Milwaukee last year, he signed a minor league deal to play in San Diego.

That's this year's rundown. I wish all the former Orioles the best of luck for the upcoming season and to have lengthy baseball careers.

For Vlad and the Orioles, Second Time is the Charm

After missing out on one of the crown jewels of the 2003 free agent market, the Orioles finally got their man, inking Vladimir Guerrero to a one year $8 million contract. Both parties, a bit older, a bit wiser, were finally able to come to terms after what seemed like months of negotiations.

This move capped off what in my opinion was a great offseason by the Orioles front office. Every real need that they had after the 2010 season ended was filled. They found a number one starter in Duchscherer to provide a veteran presence along with Jeremy Guthrie. Derrek Lee was signed to handle first base, who plays well on both sides of the ball. Trades were made for the whole left side of the infield; bringing in both J.J. Hardy for shortstop and Mark Reynolds for 3B. If anything, the new players are definite upgrades from Garrett Atkins, Miguel Tejada, and Cesar Izturis.

Back to Vlad, the O's finally have that thumper in the middle of the order to protect Markakis. With this signing, Luke Scott gets pushed back to LF. Up and down the lineup, there are players capable of hitting the longball. My one negative with the Vlad signing is Luke Scott. I think Felix Pie deserves a chance to play everyday. He has made strides when the opportunity presents itself. The argument against that is the power of Luke Scott's bat in the lineup. If anything, we will see how it shakes out.

As pitchers and catchers start reporting to spring training, one thing is for sure. One Orioles fan (and I hope many others), are excited to see where this upcoming season goes.