By Zach Wilt, on May 16th, 2012  Try to argue against fan interference on this one... While DC has ignited their Natitude initiative to clean their ballpark of Phillies fans, Baltimore is still working on their own evil scheme.
Last night a Yankees fan spoiled a shutout for Wei-Yin Chen by interfering with a ball in play at the wall in left field. As rookie Xavier Avery leaped to make the catch on a Curtis Granderson fly ball, a fan snatched it from him. ”Hell yeah I had a shot,” Avery told reporters after the game. ”But they had that tenth man out there helping them out.”
Avery was clearly upset with the fan. ”I think (the fan) raised up his beer can or something to taunt me a little bit and I just turned around, went back to playing,” Avery said.
The Twitterverse exploded with Jeffrey Maier memories and many questioned why Buck Showalter didn’t argue the home run or request a review.
“I knew what the answer was going to be,” Showalter said according to MASNSports.com’s Roch Kubatko. ”I don’t know if it was somebody in midnight blue or black and orange there. I’ve got an educated guess, so our goal was to play well enough so they can’t get a ticket.”
By Zach Wilt, on May 16th, 2012 The Orioles finally cracked CC Sabathia. Last night Baltimore put up four runs on the Yankees ace and cruised to victory behind a dominant seven inning performance by 26-year-old Taiwanese stud Wei-Yin Chen.
The performance was not only enough to make Chen the AT&T Player of the Game (take that to arbitration), but it earned him a shaving cream pie from his teammates.
 A "pie" is baked...  Jim Johnson watches as his teammates torture Chen  My eyes burn just looking at this picture READ MORE >>>
By Matt Sadler, on May 16th, 2012  Last night, while listening to the radio broadcast, play by play announcer, Fred Manfra, made reference to the Orioles fans booing Mark Teixeira every time he made a plate appearance.
I know, I know. The guy betrayed Baltimore. He said he wanted to play closer to his home, and was allegedly offered a fairly lucrative deal to play for the Birds. He ended up taking the money ($30 million more) and the winning tradition in New York and betrayed his childhood team. We know it was a business decision, but then he had the nerve to talk about his love for the Yankees as a kid.
But really? That was over 3 years ago. Aren’t we bigger than this? Can’t we enjoy the Birds success without the hate? Can we just choose to move on?
NO FREAKING WAY! If he can live off the riches of his business decisions, he can face the consequences of being hated by another subset of fans. Keep it up O’s fans!
By Zach Wilt, on May 15th, 2012  Even Wieters knew it was a rocket. Last night Curtis Granderson became the fourth player to hit a home run to Eutaw Street in 2012. Of those four homers, only one has been hit by an Oriole.
Chris Davis’ 418 foot blast on April 28 is the O’s lone Eutaw Street slam of 2012.
Granderson’s homer in the 61st to reach Eutaw Street and he’s the first Yankee to hit one since Nick Swisher in August of 2010.
Shockingly, the Orioles lead all of baseball in home runs with 57, but they have hit 29 of them on the away from Camden Yards.
By Patrick Guthrie, on May 15th, 2012  Did everyone already know Kristen Wiig was this attractive? Am I late to the party? After a life ruining 3 hour 45 minute rain delay on Sunday resulted in a 12 hours of work, I got about two sentences deep into this column Sunday night before my face hit the keyboard. So one day late, with the guy sitting next to me eating a sandwich that smells unspeakably awful (like somebody slathered dirty socks in Sweet Baby Rays. How can he enjoy this? Is it a southern delicacy?), here’s what sports made my brain think.
Oriole Nightmares
If the Orioles were a boxer (and they’re going to be a boxer, because I like boxing), they’d be Cristobal Arreola. Let’s get past the doughy appearance here, and the awesome nickname “The Nightmare” (The only other nightmare who hasn’t eaten himself out of boxing is a Fin named Robert Helenius. Nightmare vs. Nightmare fight, do it before Christmas, Tim Burton special guest judge. It would promote itself if I wasn’t promoting it).
Anyways, Arreola fights don’t win beauty contests. Neither the man nor the team is light on their feet (Baltimore is dead last in the league in SB’s (10) and SB % (coin flip)). They’re not the embodiment of pugilistic precision (an exceedingly average average of .249, 13th in MLB), and just like Arreola in the Molina fight, the O’s are going to look bad at times because of how much and how hard they swing and miss (277 K’s – 3rd in the AL). Because of all these reasons, opponents can get confident and start racking up some nice numbers in the early going.
But just when the other guy starts to gather some confidence – KABOOM. The word “unloads” is apropos, as Arreola has a particular proclivity for caving in temples like Harrison Ford. When he swings, it actually looks like a guy trying to box with bowling balls glued to his palms. So unsurprisingly, when he hits, he hurts. The same can be said for the Orioles (5th in SLG %, 3rd in XBH, 1st in HR, 1st in Isolated Power). The offense for both is not a beautiful ebb and flow, but rather blunt force trauma. Like getting hit by a chunk of ice falling off of your house.
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By Zach Wilt, on May 14th, 2012  In 2006, Billy Rowell was the 17-year-old slugger selected in the first round by the Orioles who confidently told Baltimore fans he would one day hit the warehouse.
Today he’s the guy the O’s selected ahead of Tim Lincecum who was attempting to convert to pitching and was suspended 50-games for a drug violation.
Rowell finally made it to Double-A Bowie in 2011 after spending six seasons in Blue Field, Aberdeen, Delmarva and Frederick. He hit just.227 with no home runs and 11 RBI with the Baysox.
By Zach Wilt, on May 14th, 2012  Perhaps the best thing that could happen to the Orioles tonight would be if this bad weather holds up and they get a freebie off day. Roch Kubatko at MASNSports.com says that there’s a 90 percent chance of rain this evening, I couldn’t tell you because I literally never check the weather.
I look out the window.
Jake Arrieta’s 3 2/3 innings of work on Sunday certainly didn’t help an already overused bullpen and the O’s next off day isn’t until May 24. Their last off day was May 3.
The Yankees come back to town for a four game series between the 6th-9th of September with an off day on Monday the 10th. Sounds like a perfect time for a makeup game.
While injuries continue to pile up in Baltimore, guys like Jason Hammel (sore right knee), Nolan Reimold (herniated disc), Mark Reynolds (strained oblique) and Matt Lindstrom (right middle finger injury) could all use the rest.
By Ross Gore, on May 14th, 2012 
What’s up with Jake Arrieta? He began the year with improved velocity and through May 2nd he had two outings where he gave up 0 runs and only one disastrous outing (a 4 inning, 5 run outing in LA against the Angels). However, since May 2nd Arrieta appears to have turned into a pumpkin. On May 8th against the Rangers Arrieta gave up 6 runs in 6 and 1/3 innings and yesterday as the O’s appeared poised for a sweep of a hobbled Tampa Bay team, Arrieta was chased in 3 and 2/3 innings after giving up 7 earned runs.
It’s undebatable, right? Arrieta was good, then something happened and now he isn’t good anymore. However, Arrieta’s skills (strikeout rate and walk rate) in his two bad starts appear strong. The factors that are causing Arrieta to look inept (high batting average on balls in play, a high home run to fly ball rate and a low strand rate) are typically considered “random” or “luck-based”. Here we’ll look at Arrieta’s skills (strikeout rate and walk rate) in more detail and explain why Arrieta doesn’t have as much control as you may think he does over the three factors that have doomed his last two starts. Analysis after the jump, all graphs in the posts are courtesy of our friends at Fangraphs.
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By Zach Wilt, on May 14th, 2012  The Sun's Eduardo A. Encina proves that beat writers CAN snap good pictures from their cell phones... and that fans showed up to OPACY on Sunday. Okay, I admit it, I was wrong.
I questioned the loyalty of Orioles fans and they made me look like a fool this weekend.
After 11,938 people showed up on Monday to welcome home the Birds after their 5-1 road trip in New York and Boston I wrote this:
The Ravens will likely get bigger crowds at their practices this summer.
If you want the Orioles to do well, you’ve got to go out and support them when they do. If you want Adam Jones to re-sign in Baltimore, go out to the Yard and cheer him on.
This team just took five of six from the Yankees and Red Sox. What’s it going to take to put some butts in seats?
Apparently all it took was a battle for first place in the AL East between the O’s and Rays. 26,669 fans attended game one on Friday, 32,862 came to the Yard on Saturday and 29,552 showed up for the Mother’s Day matchup. Well done Orioles fans.
The fans were so ruthless that Rays third baseman Evan Longoria told them to simmer down. Mark Viviano tweeted that Saturday’s crowd was “by far the loudest” of the year even beating out Opening Day.
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By Zach Wilt, on May 14th, 2012 
This gimmick where I take a screenshot of the AL East standings and post it every Monday morning hasn’t gotten old yet. I’m not tired of it and I’m sure you aren’t either.
It could be because the Orioles sit atop baseball’s most difficult division with their 22-13 record. Or maybe because they have the second best record in the entire American League.
Any number of reasons, really. They’re playing damn good baseball right now.
While we’re talking about standings can we mention how soft the AL Central is? The Blue Jays sit in fourth place in the East at 19-16, they would lead the Central by a game over the Indians and two over the Tigers.
Time for a balanced schedule.
AMIRITE?
By Dave Gilmore, on May 14th, 2012  A weekly wrap-up of the best stuff you may have missed on our excellent Tumblr:
By Zach Wilt, on May 13th, 2012  If the Orioles keep winning games at the pace they are on now, I’ll wear my O’s hat Strop Style every day for the rest of my life.
In case you were wondering, the Orioles would finish in the ballpark of 108 wins at their current pace. That would be quite the turn around from 2011.
As the O’s continue to dominate the AL East — yes dominate, they just won three straight series against the Yankees and Red Sox on the road and the Rays at home — many are wondering when reality is going to set in and Baltimore will slide back down to the bottom of the standings.
Stud reliever Pedro Strop doesn’t think it’s going to happen.
“A lot of people are surprised, but we’re not,” Strop told Roch Kubatko. ”We are going to keep winning games.”
I really hope he’s right.
I’m ready to order my hat one size to big.
By BSR Staff, on May 13th, 2012  32,862 people came out to Camden Yards to watch the first place Baltimore Orioles secure a series win against their AL East foe, the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday night.
That ain’t too shabby. For once, I actually won’t complain about the attendance.
Mark Viviano said that crowd was “by far the loudest” of the year tweeting that it was “louder than Opening Day.”
Rays third baseman Evan Longoria even commented on the fans in Baltimore, although his reaction might not go over as well. ”I love all these Os fans now diggin themselves too,” Longoria tweeted. ”Just don’t get too obnoxious, it can sometimes be a bit excessive.”
I’m a bit confused by the first part of the tweet.
I also have to imagine that obnoxious Baltimore fans couldn’t hold a candle to the hecklers Longoria is used to in the Bronx or Fenway.
To be fair to Longoria, his team continues to finish on top of the division and has become a proven winner, but the fans in Tampa Bay don’t come out to support the Rays at Tropicana Field. I would imagine that Camden Yards had been a comfy slice of home for the Rays until the Baltimore fans started showing up to support the first place O’s.
By Zach Wilt, on May 12th, 2012 The Orioles Mother’s Day giveaway hat was too pretty for Gary Thorne to pass up. Thorne put on the hat during last night’s broadcast with Jim Palmer and Liam McCusker tweeted us the outstanding picture you see below.
By Avi Miller, on May 12th, 2012  …over Mitch Atkins. And Rick VandenHurk. And Jo-Jo Reyes.
Okay, maybe that last one is a bit of a stretch.
The point is, Dana Eveland got the spot start for the Orioles last night with Jason Hammel being skipped for his start this week due to a sire right knee; and he performed just as a spot starter should. His stat line of three earned runs over six innings is a bit deceiving considering he let up five hits, walked five, hit two batters, and only struck out three. His changeup and curveball were hanging up in the zone all night, and his fastball was quite unimpressive in my opinion, topping out around 89-90 MPH.
But getting back to the subject at hand.
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