Tuesday Bird Droppings

Britton, Orioles exchange zeroes with Yankees | orioles.com: News
The Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees got standout pitching Monday night, playing to a 0-0 tie after nine innings at Ed Smith Stadium.

Orioles lose to Red Sox, 6-5 - baltimoresun.com
Fifth starter candidate Chris Tillman gave up three runs in the first inning of his second exhibition start but said afterward that the results were not indicative of the quality of his performance in the Orioles' 6-5 split-squad loss to the Boston Red Sox at City of Palms Park.

Britton throws three shutout innings as Orioles, Yankees play to scoreless tie - baltimoresun.com
The night included a botched national anthem, an appearance by actress Cameron Diaz and an encouraging performance by the Orioles' top pitching prospect. It just didn't include any runs as the Orioles and New York Yankees played to a scoreless tie through nine innings in front of an announced 8,471, a record baseball crowd at Ed Smith Stadium.

Orioles Insider: Showalter meets media after 0-0 tie with New York Yankees
"You would like to have seen strike one a little more, but that will come. He stayed off the sweet spot of the bat, got a lot of groundballs. Good start for him. All of our guys threw the ball well."

Orioles Insider: Britton talks about his outing 
On facing several of the Yankees stars: "Obviously, I heard their names and it was cool to be facing them. But at the same time, I just picked up [catcher Matt Wieters]. And I was like, 'I’m not going to look at those guys.' I am going to focus on Matt and making my pitches."

Tillman pleased with results after adjustment | orioles.com: News
"You know, actually, I felt great that first inning," said Tillman. "That's where I needed to be. We've made some minor adjustments in the side session, and I thought, 'What better time to work on them than now?' I thought that inning was the best I felt. Just the two pitches -- the one to Youkilis and J.D. Drew -- were the only ones that really got away."

School of Roch: Showalter rushes to Jones' defense (updated)
"He is. It's not what he's going to be. He is. Shop him around. We like him and we ain't shopping him around. He's ours and we're glad to have him. We like him the way he is and the way he might be."

School of Roch: VandenHurk not concerned about control
The Orioles lost to the Boston Red Sox, 6-5, in Fort Myers. Yamaico Navarro singled off Mark Worrell to score Oscar Tejada with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.

Markakis Could Improve by Striking Out " Eutaw Street and Beyond
"It would seem that instead of waiting for a pitch to drive and risking a strike out, Markakis was just trying to put the ball in play. In that regard, he was successful. He made contact on 89.9% of pitches he swung at in 2010 (MLB average is around 80%). He led all major league right fielders with that number. However, more contact is not always better."

Battle between Chris Tillman, Zach Britton for Orioles' fifth starter spot a friendly one - baltimoresun.com
By all accounts, the battle for what might be the final slot in the Orioles' starting rotation is a friendly one, especially this early in the exhibition season.

Team Preview: Baltimore Orioles | FanGraphs Baseball
This is pretty much exactly how I feel. Excited for the season thanks to the moves that were made, but wary about the future. -Stacey

Hothead | Disney
Disney has launched a new web page dedicated to Hothead, Cal Ripken's new children's book. Check out videos of Cal, info on the book, and enter to win some autographed Cal Ripken stuff. - Stacey

David Laurila Interviews Ex-Orioles Manager Dave Trembley | SBNation.com
A really fantastic interview with Dave Trembley. - Stacey

http://m.bbref.com is now live " Baseball-Reference Blog
My life is now complete. Well, aside from another Orioles WS win in my lifetime. But I've had two of those, and I even remember one of them.

Dailymotion - Orioles Segment on MLB Network (3/7/11) - a Sports & Extreme video
A package about the Baltimore Orioles that aired during MLB Tonight on the MLB Network on Monday, March 7th, 2011.

Orioles relax facial hair policy - baltimoresun.com
Just another reason why we all love Buck Showalter.

Don't you know who I am? - Yankees Blog - ESPN New York
I'm Derek Jeter's car, doggone it! Posted by EME in last night's post-game. -zk

Veteran catcher Zaun retires after 16 seasons - baltimoresun.com
"The stamina just isn't there," he told reporters. "After three innings yesterday, I was totally gassed. "I owe the Padres more than that. They gave me a great opportunity and I didn't want to leave them hanging."

Orioles Notebook: Scott happy to be in left - Carroll County Times: Orioles
"We can try to predict the future results, but we can't. The only thing you can do is prepare your best and set high goals for the team and yourself and the team to work your tail off to accomplish them, so with the added pieces that we have, it does look good, but there's just a whole lot of work to do," Luke Scott said.

O's fan: Top five reasons the Baltimore Orioles will dominate in 2011 - Yahoo! Sports
Dominate? Sure that's the word you want to use there? Oh, the phone's ringing. Inigo Montoya's on Line One for you, Yahoo! Sports Writer Guy.

It is said that the Dragon Warrior can go for months without eating, surviving on the dew of a single ginko leaf and the energy of the Open Thread.