Our new away jerseys will be revealed on November 12th at the Gallery in Harborplace at noon.  "Baltimore" will take it's rightful place on the away grays.  Here's a sneak peek:

via i4.photobucket.com

In addition, the BALTIMORE Orioles are ditching the all-black hat they currently wear with the away uni in favor of the home hat with orange bill.  The "O's" hat will remain the Friday alternate... unfortunately.

Interesting to note that the invitation for the unveiling has the full team name as opposed to the Angelos-pushed regional "Orioles" only moniker. Seems they're finally returning to their base.  Good move!

UPDATE: The team will unveil new BP jerseys this year as well.  A Maryland state flag patch will adorn the sleeves of game jerseys.  And the bird has been "updated".

via images.tsn.ca

Per the Orioles:

 

Third baseman Melvin Mora of the Baltimore Orioles has been named the Sharp Presents the American League Player of the Month for August. This marks his second career monthly award honor (previous: May 2004).

In 24 games last month, Mora batted .418 (41-for-98) with eight home runs and a Major League-high 32 RBI. The 36-year-old infielder posted a .765 slugging percentage and a .455 on-base percentage. The Venezuela native collected 17 extra-base hits, including eight doubles. Mora notched 13 multi-hit games in August and assembled an eight-game hitting streak from August 1st-10th.

Roch Kubatko:

I'll go in more depth later, but Adam Loewen is done as a pitcher. He's going to reinvent himself as an outfielder/first baseman, perhaps as early as the fall instructional league.

Another surgery on his elbow would have sidelined him for an estimated 1 1/2 years, and he wasn't willing to go down that path.

"I'm always going to be a pitcher," he said. "I've been doing it since I was 9 years old. It's going to be hard to let it go, but God has a plan for me."

Also, the Orioles acquired shortstop Juan Castro from Triple-A Colorado Springs for Triple-A Norfolk infielder Mike McCoy. Castro was added to the 25-man roster, and the Orioles outrighted Freddie Bynum to Triple-A. Bynum has 72 hours to accept the assignment.

Randor Bierd has returned from his injury rehab assignment. He's on his way to the ballpark right now. To make room, the Orioles placed Greg Aquino on the disabled list with a strained hamstring.

More to come.

via media.washingtontimes.com

He's that freaking good.

.345AVG .448OBP .576SLG in 229ABs at single-A Frederick.

.368AVG .449OBP .588SLG in 68ABs at double-A Bowie.

He's actually improved on what everyone agrees was a flat-out domination of single-A ball even as the level of his competition increased.  So do you leave him at Bowie as long as he stayed in Frederick?  Or do you actually try to challenge him prior to bringing him up to the big show?

I don't doubt he could match/beat Ramon's production this year already.  
The question in my mind, honestly, is how quickly will he rival Joe Mauer for the best C in the game?  The similarities are all there - he's got Mauer's potential, with more power.

Per MLB.com:

Last week, Huff hit .345 (10-29) with three doubles, three home runs and nine RBI. The 31-year-old posted a .759 slugging percentage along with a .333 on-base percentage. During a four-game series versus the Kansas City Royals, the seventh-year Major Leaguer went 7-for-17 with three home runs, four runs scored and seven RBI, including a multi-homer game on July 3rd. Huff collected at least RBI in six of his seven games played last week. Born in Ohio and raised in Texas, Huff is batting .281 with 17 home runs and 54 RBI on the season. This marks Aubrey's second career weekly award (previous: 8/1/05 with Tampa Bay). Other nominees considered were Huff's teammate, outfielder Nick Markakis (.387, .613 SLG, 4 2B, 1 HR, 8 RBI); New York Yankees 12-time All-Star third baseman Alex Rodriguez (.333, .750 SLG, 1 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI); and Toronto Blue Jays five-time All-Star right-hander Roy Halladay (2-0, 1.13 ERA, 13 SO, 16.0 IP, 1 SHO).

That's some mighty fine competition Audrey Aubrey beat out for the title.

But more importantly, Huff has done what O's fans could have only dreamed: he's resurrected his career when we needed him to be valuable trade bait.  As a suddenly potent DH who can competently man 3B & 1B, his value to us will never be higher.  I don't know when it's gonna go down & I don't know who's gonna dance with us after the Bedard swindle, but Huff should be out of town by August 1st.

Thanks for the memories, HuffNStuff.  You kicked ass when we needed it most - right before the trade deadline.

via bp2.blogger.com - Shawn Chacon during happier, less violent times.

Yahoo! News

HOUSTON (AP)—Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon was suspended indefinitely by the team Wednesday for insubordination after reportedly grabbing general manager Ed Wade by the neck and throwing him to the ground.

Yeah, that's not good.  But Chacon's version of events makes it sound even worse.

"I sat down to eat and Ed Wade came to me and very sternly said, ‘You need to come with me to the office,"’ Chacon said. "I said, ‘For what?’ I said, ‘I don’t want to go to the office with you and Cooper.’ And I said, ‘You can tell me whatever you got to tell me right here.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, you want me to tell you right here?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ I’m not yelling. I’m calm."

"He started yelling and cussing," Chacon said of Wade, according to a story on the Chronicle’s Web site. "I’m sitting there and I said to him very calmly, ‘Ed, you need to stop yelling at me. Then I stood up and said, ‘You better stop yelling at me.’ I stood up. He continued and was basically yelling."

Chacon said that after Wade told him he needed to "look in the mirror," it got worse.

"So at that point I lost my cool and I grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground. I jumped on top of him," he said. "Words were exchanged."

Moral of the story - you can yell or cuss at Shawn Chacon.  But don't tell him to look in the mirror.  Because he's a 'roid rage freak who will immediately go from calm talking to performing Big Show-type wrestling moves on you, no matter that you're his boss.

(The Big Show was unavailable for comment.)

"Maybe it shouldn’t have happened," Chacon said. "But when you do those things and you’re yelling at somebody and you’re cussing you better know what type of person you’re dealing with..."

MAYBE it shouldn't have happened?!?  Chacon, you're looking at demotion plus suspension plus you now have a seriously tainted rep.  Plus, I'm not sure how to tell you this, but you're not exactly what people call a "good pitcher".

Good luck with that whole finding work thing.

This has nothing to do with anything & I'm not even going to argue for any side.  I just thought this picture from the rally last night was very cool.

So here you go:

Sen. Barack Obama got a rock star's welcome from supporters in College Park and Baltimore yesterday, stirring his supporters into a frenzy on the eve of Maryland's presidential primary.

With trademark themes of hope and change, Obama quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., pledged to end the war in Iraq and applauded young people for their unprecedented turnout in this year's nominating contests.

"I am running because of what Dr. King called the 'fierce urgency of now,'" Obama said to a raucous crowd of about 20,000 at the Comcast Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. "And that hour is upon us." Baltimore Sun

UPDATE #2 (OEutaw): Roch Kubatko offers up the most ambiguous comment of all regarding whether or not Jones was in Baltimore taking a physical on Friday by stating, "Must have been Adam Jones' evil twin." The Orioles are still denying everything. If loose lips sink ships, this trade is clinging to the flotsam & jetsam like Leonardo DiCaprio. Hey MacPhail - don't let go! UPDATE (zk): This story has been debunked by the Seattle Times on Sunday..."(By the way, despite Internet reports, Jones was not in Baltimore for a physical on Friday. As of Saturday, he was still at home.)"

Prospect Insider:

Adam Jones has apparently passed a Friday physical in Baltimore, which leads me to believe that George Sherrill has as well, and this trade is finally going to be announced officially on Monday.

I've been unable to further confirm the players involved in the deal, but that goes both ways as I have yet to hear a player's name that was not mentioned originally.

So much time has passed and anything is possible, so expect the unexpected when the news officially comes out in the next 48-72 hours, but It's likely that Jones and Sherrill will be joined by Chris Tillman, Tony Butler and Kameron Mickolio.

This is the most definitive news on actual progress on this trade in quite a while.  To quote Ella Fitzgerald: how long has this been going on?

At any rate, the 5-for-1 names seem to be consistent over the past week.  Rather pitching heavy, but I suppose we could flip some of this pitching stockpile in the Cubs-Roberts deal & have that one target more positional players...

Seattle Times

Bavasi still expects to get a deal done for a top-of-the-rotation starting pitcher. He never mentions names, but it's clear he was talking about Erik Bedard. It's also clear that Bavasi feels this team is ready to challenge for a playoff spot and is ready to give up Adam Jones and plenty of other names to get a deal done.

"We're in a position now where we have to do our best to make those moves for a top-of-the-rotation guy so we can slot the rest of the rotation where it should be,'' he said. "We feel we have to make a move -- one more move."

Bavasi says he's already put his best offer on the table and that it's now a waiting game. He says there's been a genuine reluctance by some clubs to part with young prospects, but "we're not one of those clubs. We're prepared to move...but there is a limit.''

What would that be?

"I don't think you can give a club its terms and its price,'' he said. "We can move a premier prospect and numbers (of players), but we're not going to move a number of premier prospects."

So, what's going to happen now?

"As I'm sitting here today, I think we will (get a deal done),'' he said. "I think there's a good chance of that."

Odd stance to take - one premier prospect & a bunch of lesser guys but not two premier prospects for an established top-of-the-rotation lefty starter who led the AL in K's before missing the last few games of the season?  And oh, by the way, he's only arby eligible & you control him for at least the next two years??

I like the confidence that this will happen, and it is good news to hear that they've put their best offer up, but I don't get how you can value to premier prospects more than a lefty ace.  Bird in the hand, and all that...

Hope something happens soon.