via weblogs.baltimoresun.com

Per the Sun:

Orioles center fielder Adam Jones became the first Oriole to win a Rawlings Gold Glove in 10 years when he was named today as one of three American League outfielders to be awarded the annual prize for outstanding defense.

Jones, 24, is just the second Orioles outfielder to ever win the award, joining eight-time recipient Paul Blair, who won his final one in 1975.

Blair captured his first when he was 23.

Jones is the 13th Oriole to win a Gold Glove and the first since pitcher Mike Mussina did it in 1999. The last Orioles position players to win the award were second baseman Roberto Alomar and first baseman Rafael Palmeiro in 1998.

The Orioles entered 2009 tied with the New York Yankees for the most in the American League with 58 Gold Gloves.

Per the Sun, the Orioles have declined Mora's $8M option for 2010.

The Orioles announced today that they won't exercise third baseman Melvin Mora's $8 million contract option for the 2010 season, an expected move that likely ends the tenure of one of their most productive and popular players over the last decade.

In a series of roster moves today, the Orioles also declined the $850,000 option on catcher Chad Moeller, who hit .258 with two homers and 10 RBIs in 30 games while serving as rookie Matt Wieters' backup; and outrighted outfielder Jeff Fiorentino, pitchers Chris Lambert and Jim Miller and catcher Guillermo Rodriguez after each cleared waivers.

Reliever Sean Henn, who appeared in six games for the Orioles late in the season, was claimed off waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Per the Sun,

It appears that the Brian Matusz era in Baltimore will start far earlier than anyone expected.

The Orioles are giving heavy consideration to promoting the 22-year-old Double-A pitcher and having him start on Tuesday against the Detroit Tigers in Brad Bergesen's spot in the rotation.

"That is definitely a possibility," Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail said today. "We've canvassed everybody and it's definitely a possibility."

Matusz, who is scheduled to start for Bowie tonight at New Britain, is 7-0 with a 1.59 ERA in seven Double-A starts. In 45 1/3 innings for Bowie, he has allowed just 30 hits and 10 walks while striking out 45. Opponents are hitting just .188 against him.

The left-hander, who the Orioles drafted fourth overall last year out of the University of San Diego, has allowed no runs in four of his seven starts for Bowie. Before his promotion to Double-A, he went 4-2 with a 2.16 ERA in 11 starts for Single-A Frederick.

Matusz is ranked as the Orioles' third-best prospect by Baseball America. The two guys ahead of him -- catcher Matt Wieters and right-hander Chris Tillman -- have already been promoted this season.

MacPhail said several times this season that Matusz would not make his big-league debut this season, but circumstances have changed drastically due to both injuries and ineffectiveness in the Orioles' rotation. Jeremy Guthrie is the only member of the Opening Day rotation that is still a part of the five-man staff, which is currently manned by three rookies (Tillman, Jason Berken and David Hernandez).

My gut reaction to this is that it's too early.  But look at Matusz' stats - he's actually gotten BETTER since moving to Bowie.  (Remind you of anyone?)  More telling is that the people who have MacPhail's ear are telling him it's not too early to bring him up... hopefully this won't be the wrong move.  I'm a little gun shy, myself. Maybe this is another one of those times where it's best to trust MacPhail to do the right thing.

(FP'd by duck with editing for layout)

via espndeportes-akamai.espn.go.com

Per Roch, the Orioles have traded Oscar Salazar to the San Diego Padres.  Who we get in return is something of a mystery at the moment - not only because we don't know his name, but also because Roch says he'll stick on the 25 man roster, which doesn't solve our roster crunch for recalling Hernandez in time for his scheduled start tomorrow night vs. the Y*nkees in New York.

via www.baseball-reference.com

Per Roch, Melvin Mora has been lowered in tonight's lineup to the 7-hole.  This should have happened much earlier, but it's good to see that Trembley isn't completely blind to the level of suckitude Melvin's been contributing lately.

Brian Roberts - 2B
Adam Jones - CF
Nick Markakis - RF
Aubrey Huff - 1B
Nolan Reimold - LF
Luke Scott - DH
Melvin Mora - 3B
Matt Wieters - C
Robert Andino - SS

via weblogs.baltimoresun.com

Roch: Norfolk's Rotation Just Became Sick

I'm told that pitchers Troy Patton and Jake Arrieta are, indeed, moving up to Triple-A Norfolk, where they'll join elite prospect Chris Tillman in a beefed-up rotation.

I guess there's still room for someone else once the Orioles activate Koji Uehara, but it just got a lot more crowded down there.

Time keeps on tickin', tickin', tickin'... into the future.  And it seems to be happening a lot sooner than most people expected.  Can't be long before Matusz is moved up to Bowie, he doesn't have anything left to prove at single-A.  Then it's just a matter of - what, months? - before we're seeing these guys at Camden Yards.

To repeat: 2/3 of the Big Three are now at triple-A.  If you want to start holding your breath, you might actually make it.

OAKLAND, Calif. - Feeling that they could no longer count on Jamie Walker to get left-handed hitters out, the Orioles will announce the release of the struggling reliever today despite still owing him approximately $3 million.

To take his place on the roster, the Orioles will select the contract of left-handed reliever Alberto Castillo, who has a 3.09 ERA in 24 appearances with Triple-A Norfolk this season, holding left-handed hitters to a .209 average. Castillo, 33, pitched in 28 games for the Orioles last year, compiling a 3.81 ERA. Left-handed hitters batted .256 against him with two home runs in 39 at-bats.

Baltimore Sun

Knew this was coming.  Jamie gave us a good first year after leaving Detroit, but they clearly got the best years of his career.  There are times when you can't tell if a pitcher's lost it or is having mechanical/injury issues.  Anyone who's watched Walker pitch this year knows he's lost it.  Still... 10 seasons in the bigs?  Not a bad career.

The Baltimore Sun

The city's largest newspaper, around since 1837, the paper of record, the paper of note has cut 30% of it's newsroom staff in the last 48 hours.  I'm going to speak to this generally, but it applies to sports reporting in this town just as much as to local politics & human interest stories.

Newspapers are regarded to be nearing the end of their useful lives in current form.  I get that.  It's an outdated medium.  Plus, it's hard to get people to buy your print edition when they can get a lot of the same information - updated regularly - online for free.  But, honestly, it didn't have to come to this. 

Since Tribune Co. bought The Baltimore Sun in 1999, they have slashed their staff by 60%.  That's 300 jobs in Baltimore City gone.  That's 300 reporters, photographers, editors, fact checkers, print staff, administrators, and Baltimoreans-by-default NOT talking.  They aren't talking about our city, our politicians, our problems, our assets, our celebrities, our sports teams, our opinions.  They aren't talking about anyone else's either.  The Sun of my youth had award winning writers, dogged investigative reporters, and a sports section that would take you an hour to read.  Today's Sun has oversized graphics, the font you'd expect in a Reader's Digest for the elderly, and scant articles written by Sun staff - many are just AP re-prints.  No more Washington bureau, no more international stories written from a Baltimore perspective.  I imagine it's hard enough to get them to cover even the smallest local stories at this point just due to lack of personnel.

The Examiner folded earlier this year, not surprisingly.  While it was an annoyance to those of us who live in the city (unsolicited papers appearing on the doorstep, daily, are not a blessing but rather LITTER!) it was also another point of view.  Another voice, another resource.  Their Orioles coverage was a breath of fresh air by mere default - these were new observations by new writers.  When The Examiner retreated to online status only, we were left with the old standby in The Sun.  But now The Sun, too, has abbreviated it's comment.

I'm not going to cite Mencken because it's too obvious.  Rather, David Simon:

"If I want to find out what's going on in this city, I've got to go to a f*cking bar and talk to a police lieutenant and take notes on a cocktail napkin." 

It can't be more than a few years before I'll be wishing I had even this shadow of The Sun.  At the very least, I need an answer to the question: to whom am I going to turn for complete Orioles coverage? MASN? School of Roch?

Here's another kick to this whole diatribe: the management told three reporters & a photographer that they were fired yesterday by phone, while they were on assignment covering the Orioles game.  Couldn't have told them before they went down to the ballpark?  The company line is going to be that they're streamlining, repositioning, evolving to succeed in the new market.  But, as moves like this suggest, they're really cutting down to bare bones with no room for sentiment, class, or enough know-how to fire people with tact.

There is a local group organizing that wants to re-take the city paper for the city.  From my keyboard to God's ears: sell, Tribune, sell.