Wednesday Bird Droppings

I'd dare say having the 3rd best record in the American League in the 3rd week of June ain't too shabby. And all signs point to the O's being able to maintain, or possibly even improve upon, this positioning over the near future. The offense continues to run as a well-oiled machine. The bullpen continues, on balance, to take on all challangers with aplomb. And they've even gotten some recent rest of late thanks to a number of quite decent starting pitching performances. Huzzah! Meanwhile, the Sox, Yanks, Rays, and Jays have each experienced various setbacks of late. The Sox lose their Ace, Clay Buchholtz, to the D.L. for the next two weeks. The Yanks see Teixeira and Youklis placed on the D.L. again. The Rays have gone 2-8 over their last 10, and got swept in a Double Header by the Sox yesterday while scoring but 2 runs total in spite of the promotion top prospect Wil Myers. And while the Jays have been MLB's hottest team of late, their most consistently decent pitcher, Branden Morrow, experienced a setback in his latest rehab outing. How long can a rotation of Esmil Rogers and Chen Ming Wang fake keeping them rolling along? Guess we'll all find out this weekend when the O's travel up north to smack 'em around a bit.

More on Tuesday night's controversial tag play in the Orioles' 5-2 win over Detroit - baltimoresun.com
You want answers direct from the ump's mouths? Here you go.

School of Roch: Orioles go for series win today, Chen pitches in simulated game
Roch gets a bunch of quotes regarding various rehabbing players from Scotty McGregor. I wonder how closely Scotty and Peterson work together?

Camden Depot: On Miguel Gonzalez, Baltimore's Best Healthy Starter
A look at MiGo's recent success and if it's sustainable.

Patton getting on a roll for Orioles | orioles.com: News
I've felt for a while now that Patton is the lynchpin of this O's bullpen. A southpaw who is capable of getting RHBs and thus give the team more than 1 inning of work on a regular basis is a tremendous weapon. He had a bit of a hiccup earlier in the year, but he seems to be back on track now.

Trending young
Are young players better than they used to be? So asks the Hardball Times.

Manny Machado could make history, and his future could be even better - MLB News | FOX Sports on MSN
Manny getting some national media love. Get used to seeing a lot of this.

Home runs no longer big part of Hunter's game | Comcast SportsNet Baltimore
So...you're saying Tommy no longer go 'Boom'?

The Buck Stops Here - ESPN Video - ESPN
Buck sits down with Tim Kurkjian and discusses various aspects of the rules of the game.

Steve Melewski: Nolan Reimold talks about his night in Bowie

Well, he didn't get injured. So that's a net positive, I suppose.

Baseball Prospectus | The Lineup Card: 8 Potential Buyers at the Trade Deadline

BP takes a look at what the O's could be in line to do as we enter trade season.

The San Jose lawsuit against Major League Baseball should be thrown out of court | HardballTalk

Former practicing lawyer Craig Calc breaks down yesterday's big MLB lawsuit news.

On this date in 1972 the Supreme Court upheld MLB's Anti-Trust exemption when it ruled against Curt Flood's challenge to the Reserve Clause. In 1977 Frank Robinson was fired as Manager of the Cleveland Indians. In 2010 Kevin Millwood notch his first Win as an Oriole! It's the birthday of Bruce Chen and Val Majewski.