Wednesday Bird Droppings

Recaps of last night's loss can be found at Orioles.com, The Baltimore Sun, and at Detroit Free Press.

Arrieta and Davis | FanGraphs Baseball
It turns out that Jake Arrieta has trouble finishing. Someone should tell him that it's not that common, it doesn't happen to every guy, and it is a big deal. -Stacey

O's consider starter in place of Millwood | orioles.com
It'll be either Chris Tillman or Mark Hendrickson to take Millwood's start on Saturday. Bonus fun fact in this story: Garrett Atkins has officially cleared waivers and is released. -Stacey

Orioles Insider: Digging into Samuel's late-inning pitching decisions
Dan Connolly joins us in questioning some of Juan Samuel's moves. -Stacey

Orioles Insider: A closer look at the Orioles' RISP woes
It gets pretty ugly after Nick Markakis and Corey Patterson. -duck

Peter Schmuck: Even stand-up guy Kevin Millwood has wilted 
"[Kevin] Millwood acknowledged when his effectiveness began to decline in early June that the club's inability to score runs for him was taking a psychological toll and causing him to try too hard, which might have led to soreness and fatigue." Yup, that sounds about right for this club. -duck

Ultimate Team Rankings | ESPN
This is a few days old but I didn't notice it referenced here. ESPN has ranked the teams of the four major sports based on how the franchises "give back to the fans in exchange for all the time, money and emotion the fans invest in them." Out of 122 teams, the Orioles rank 102nd, with the Mets as the only baseball team below them on the list. -Stacey

Baltimore Orioles First Half Grades | Baltimore Sports Report
"How hard is it to grade a team that only won 25 of it's first 81 games?  A team that ranks 28th (out of 30) in MLB in team ERA and 27th in WHIP is clearly not passing." -duck

Power Rankings: Halfway awards to deserving and not-so-much - MLB - CBSSports.com Baseball
"Orioles: It looks like Buck Showalter will get the manager gig. That's the best piece of news for this franchise since ... um, Cal Ripken Jr.'s 26th birthday, maybe?" -duck

The Could-Have-Been 2010 Orioles - 2131 And Beyond
Just because we don't feel bad enough around here today, let's take a look at what first round picks the O's could have had playing for them since 2000. Yes, I know, it's a pointless exercise, but still sort of interesting. -duck

Around baseball...

Walkoff homer caps 9-run, 9th-inning rally for Rockies in 12-9 win - The Denver Post
Seth Smith hit a three run, walk off HR for the Rockies as they scored 9 times in the bottom of the 9th to beat the Cardinals. -Stacey

Santana hits first career homer in Mets' win | LoHud.com
Johan Santana didn't need any help tonight as he pitched a complete game shutout (the 7th of his career) and hit his first major league home run (in a 12 pitch at-bat!) -Stacey

Niemann, Rays bullpen shine in win over Red Sox - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
The Rays beat the the Red Sox for the second straight night to knock the Red Sox down another game in the standings, but couldn't gain ground on the Yankees. Kevin Youkilis joined the Red Sox injured list with a hurt ankle. -Stacey

Fan falls from second deck in Texas, Rangers-Indians game halted - Big League Stew
In a scary moment last night, a fan in Arlington fell from the upper deck trying to catch a foul ball. He appears to be OK, thankfully. -Stacey

Loewen Behold | MASNsports.com - School of Roch
Adam Loewen has an .853 OPS at AA this year, including 10 HR and 22 doubles. He's been selected to play in the Eastern League All-Star Game. -Stacey

Down on the farm...

The Tides lost 9-4, as Zach Britton's 2nd AAA start wasn't as successful as his first. He gave up 4 runs (3 earned) in 4.2 innings. Matt Angle had three hits, Rhyne Hughes had two, and Nolan Reimold had zero. Bowie lost 8-3, but Caleb Joseph hit a home run and a double. The Shorebirds won 3-1 behind 8 innings from Luis Noel and a Kieron Pope home run. The Ironbirds won 6-2 with a franchise high 19 hits. 1B David Anderson hit a home run and 3B Adam Gaylord doubled in the game. Bluefield lost 4-3, despite outhitting Princeton 13 to 6. Only one Oriole didn't reach base in the game and six reached multiple times, including the awesomely named Kyle Hoppy. Frederick was off last night and the GCL Orioles were rained out. 

Hoes still working way back from mono - The Frederick News-Post Online
In the last year, L.J. Hoes' mom has battled cancer, his dad had a stroke, and he's bouncing back from mono. I don't want to hear a thing about your sunburn. -duck

Gonzalez talks about his outing in Aberdeen - MASNsports.com
Apparently, there's not much to do after 11 in Aberdeen, so he met this chick at the bowling alley and ... oh, wait, it's about the game. Yeah, he went 1-2-3 against a bunch of 19-year-old. Whoopty-freakin'-doo. -duck