World Champions 1983, 1970, 1966 Champions 1983, 1979, 1971, 1970, 1969, 1966 Division Champions 1997, 1983, 1979, 1974, 1973, 1971, 1970, 1969 American League Wild Card 2012, 1996

Friday, September 12, 2014

Columns:  On brink of AL East title, Orioles could clinch at home for first time in 45 years The Sun 9/11  Major League announces playoff schedule; Orioles could start Oct. 2 The Sun 9/11  Orioles experiment with extra security measures ahead of MLB mandate The Sun 9/11  Remembering a half century after O's debut The Sun 9/11  Joseph making most of long-awaited opportunity MLB.com 9/11  Gausman on the mound for Game 1 MASNsports.com 9/12  Game 1 of ALDS set for Oct. 2 MASNsports.com 9/11  Voting for the Most Valuable Oriole MASNsports.com 9/11  Comparing 2014 to 2012 and ESPN analyst Wedge talks O's and October MASNsports.com 9/12  Is Orioles the 2014 AL Manager of the Year? Press Box Online 9/11  Baseball’s next big competitive edge Fox Sports 9/11

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-yankees-al-east-0912- 20140911,0,1539324.story On brink of AL East title, Orioles could clinch at home for first time in 45 years With magic number at eight heading into 10-game homestand, club could wrap up division by Monday By Dan Connolly / The Sun 6:32 p.m. EDT, September 11, 2014

When the Blue Jays overtook the for second place earlier this week and then won their game Wednesday night, the Blue Jays guaranteed that the Orioles couldn't capture the American League East crown until Monday at the earliest.

That ruined a delicious scenario for the Orioles this weekend, potentially sweeping the Yankees at Camden Yards to clinch their first division title in 17 years. You would have needed a jumbo, battery-charged broom for that one.

As it stands, the most the Orioles can do this weekend is eliminate the Yankees from the divisional race, which, for an organization that has been in the deep shadows of the Bronx Bombers for decades, is a solid consolation prize. At least it is for Orioles fans.

"I've seen the Yankees celebrate a few times in our face, but it's not like a revenge thing. It's a game, it's the sport," Orioles said. "If they were the ones there, trust me, we're going to celebrate on the field. But if it is another team, we are going to do the same thing."

The Orioles begin a 10-game homestand starting with Friday's split doubleheader against the Yankees. They play New York for four games through the weekend, the Blue Jays for three from Monday through Wednesday and then finish up their regular season home schedule with three versus the from Sept. 19-21. The Orioles' season ends with seven games on the road at in New York and Rogers Centre in Toronto.

With a 10-game lead over the Blue Jays and 11 over the Yankees heading into Thursday night with 17 games to play — and the magic number for clinching the division at eight — the Orioles should be in a "when" and not an "if" mode when considering the playoffs.

But don't tell that to manager Buck Showalter. He'll talk about the postseason the day after the Orioles actually clinch, or maybe a day after that. He practically broke out in hives when reporters inquired about clinching scenarios during the most recent road trip in Boston. "If that comes to be the potential for that to happen … that's a long way away," Showalter said in Boston on Wednesday. "I haven't gotten involved in the math. I've gotten into the math of the nine innings we're playing today. I think our club's had that mentality, too. I've kind of fed off their mentality as much as they've probably fed off the junk they have to listen to with me."

Pretty much since he became manager in August 2010, the Orioles have taken their cues from Showalter, the never-take-things-for-granted, eye-on-the-prize skipper. And that's not wavering as they inch toward a title.

"Clinching, a lot of it has to do with how the other teams play, too," closer Zach Britton said. "We've been really good this year at avoiding worrying about what other people are doing and just focusing on winning games. As long as we continue winning games, it's going to eventually happen. So that's our only goal right now."

Throwing out the "if" and "when" leaves one mystery: Where?

There has been just one "clinching" celebration in Camden Yards' 23-season history, after the Orioles beat and the in Game 4 of the 1997 American League Division Series to advance to the AL Championship Series.

When the club broke its 14-year losing skid by making the playoffs in 2012, the team received word while sitting on a plane in Jacksonville, Fla., after an unexpected landing and delay due to a minor malfunction aboard the charter plane. The subsequent jaunt from Jacksonville to St. Petersburg, Fla., didn't exactly resemble Times Square on New Year's Eve.

"The plane was rocking," Showalter joked. "Up at 30,000 feet, you don't push the envelope too much."

The Orioles did get to pop champagne corks in 2012 after beating the in the one- game AL wild-card playoff, but it was in the visiting clubhouse at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The Orioles haven't clinched a division title at home since September 1979, and that was following a loss to the Indians because the Orioles' closest divisional competitor, the , also lost. They haven't clinched a division title with a win at home since 1969.

That could change this week.

"I looked at that, too," Jones said. "We go home for a 10-day stretch that could potentially springboard us into the playoffs already and let us align ourselves for the playoffs accordingly."

How much pleasure would the Orioles take in clinching at home? Well, it sort of depends on who you ask.

"To celebrate in Baltimore, to celebrate at home, would be awesome," Jones said. "But, for me personally, I honestly love doing things on the road. Like hitting a home on the road because it is all quiet, and it's just you and the stadium that's just quiet. That's awesome. But, obviously, being at home and being able to celebrate with your fans. I'd want to throw a party and invite everybody."

Orioles missed most of September 2012 and the playoffs that year with a broken thumb.

Although he was with the team for its celebration in Texas, it wasn't the same for him; he felt more like a spectator than a participant. So, with all due respect to Orioles fans, he just wants to be in the middle of a team that clinches a playoff spot.

"I don't really care if it is away or at home," Markakis said. "You'd like to do it at home with the fans back home … But we aren't thinking about [where it occurs]."

Jones said his buddy Markakis still can't believe that it is happening, that after all the losses he has endured and his literal and figurative pain at the end of 2012, he may soon be a division champion with a goal much loftier.

"He's kind of still in shock that the opportunity of being in the playoffs is really among us," Jones laughed. "He's still in shock about it right now. He's saying, 'We have a pretty good shot.'"

That's about as cocky as these Orioles are going to get. They'll let the pundits say the division is sewn up. But can they really ignore what the other teams are doing and focus solely on each individual game?

"It's tough. It's really tough. We are human, we're not robots. It's not like we can just go out there and perform," Britton said. "You are always constantly looking and seeing what other people are doing. Maybe you're not fully engaged, 'Oh, my God,' inning to inning.

"But you're looking at scores. Every stadium has a scoreboard, and you're glancing, especially with all the time we have in the bullpen. But it is just exciting that we are playing good baseball and that we have a chance to win a division."

The bottom line is, barring a major collapse, the Orioles soon will be AL East champions. They can eliminate the Yankees with a sweep this weekend and, if they follow that up by winning two of three against Toronto, they would eliminate the Blue Jays, too. In a seven-game period, the Orioles can dismiss two of their rivals without backing into a title and give the home crowd a thrill it hasn't experienced in years.

"To do it in front of your home fans and have them celebrate with you, yeah, awesome." Jones said. "I know they can't run on the field like they used to do, like in the original 'Major League,' (movie), but to celebrate in front of them and have them go nuts for us. That's what sports is all about."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-mlb-announces-playoff-schedule-os-could- start-oct-2-20140911,0,1159007.story announces playoff schedule; Orioles could start Oct. 2 By Dan Connolly / The Baltimore Sun 7:00 p.m. EDT, September 11, 2014

The Orioles haven’t yet clinched a playoff spot or figured out their seeding for the postseason, but assuming they are playing in October, their first game will be Oct. 2 on TBS.

Major League Baseball announced its postseason schedule today, and the playoffs will kick off -- assuming there are no ties -- with the American League wild-card game Sept. 30, with the wild-card game the next day, Oct. 1.

If the current standings hold, the Orioles will get the No. 2 seed in the AL and will host the first two Division Series games at Camden Yards on Oct. 2 and Oct. 3. They’d then travel for games three and four (if necessary) on Oct. 5 and 6, before potentially returning for a Game 5 on Oct. 8.

The best-of-seven AL Championship Series begins with Games 1 and 2 at the highest seed Oct. 10 and Oct. 11. The location shifts to the other park for Games 3 through 5 (Oct. 13, 14 and, if necessary, Oct. 15). The final two games of the ALCS, if needed, will be played at the top remaining seed’s ballpark Oct. 17 and 18. All of those games will be on TBS.

If the Orioles make it to the best-of-seven , they would host their first October Classic game in 31 years Oct. 21. Game 2 would be Oct. 22, and then the series would shift to the NL city for Games 3 through 5 (Oct. 24, 25 and, if necessary, Oct, 26).

If needed, the World Series would go back to the AL city for Game 6 on Oct. 28 and then the potential winner-take-all Game 7 would be Oct. 29 in the AL city. All of the World Series games will be aired on Fox.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-camden-yards-security-0912- 20140911,0,205586.story Orioles experiment with extra security measures ahead of MLB mandate By next season, all 30 clubs must have screening program By Dean Jones Jr. / The Baltimore Sun 6:43 p.m. EDT, September 11, 2014

The Orioles recently joined a growing number of teams to institute additional security procedures to prepare for Major League Baseball's requirements at the beginning of next season.

While the added measures currently are in effect at some entrances to Camden Yards, MLB has mandated that all 30 ballparks develop a screening program before Opening Day in April.

"The safety of our guests is of the utmost importance to the ballclub. As such, the Orioles are cooperating with Major League Baseball's efforts to implement enhanced security measures at all ballparks," Orioles vice president of communications Greg Bader said in a statement. "Such procedures are currently in place at select locations around the ballpark, with the understanding that the program may be expanded to all entrance gates beginning next season."

The directive, which requires that each team begin using handheld or walkthrough metal detectors at its ballpark, is part of the MLB's continuing work with the Department of Homeland Security.

Several teams already have taken steps to follow MLB's mandate.

Last year, the , the and the Boston Red Sox were among a handful of teams to experiment with a screening program.

The Seattle Mariners started using metal detectors at the beginning of this season. Recently, the New York Yankees and the Reds were among teams to add extra security measures to prepare for 2015. http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/schmuck-blog/bal-remembering-paul-blair-a-half-century- after-orioles-debut-20140911,0,3492684.story Remembering Paul Blair a half century after O's debut Peter Schmuck / The Baltimore Sun 5:22 p.m. EDT, September 11, 2014

Paul Blair doesn’t have a statue behind center field at Camden Yards, and he wasn’t honored by the Orioles with a uniform patch this season after he passed away last December. But he does have a legion of fans in Baltimore who plan to honor him with signs and cheers when the Orioles and the New York Yankees play a doubleheader at Camden Yards on Friday.

The grassroots tribute to a guy who was arguably the greatest defensive center fielder in club history began earlier in the week when Baltimore City Council Chairman Bernard C. “Jack” Young introduced a resolution honoring Blair, who made his major league debut with the Orioles 50 years ago this past Tuesday. The resolution also officially designated Friday as “Paul Blair Day” in Baltimore.

Blair won eight Gold Gloves and played on six World Series teams — four with the Orioles and two with the Yankees while he was winding down his great career. He was a major component of the great teams that featured , , and , but some fans feel that his accomplishments have not gotten the recognition they deserve.

“Adam Jones is great,’’ said Baltimore writer Rafael Alvarez, “but up to this moment, Blair is the greatest center fielder in the history of the franchise. That might change five years from now, but right now it’s Paul Blair.”

Alvarez said the team missed an opportunity to honor Blair with a uniform patch this year, an omission made more glaring by the fact that the Orioles are wearing the name of the late author and former co-owner Tom Clancy on their sleeves. No one is arguing that Clancy does not deserve a tribute. Just that Blair deserves the same respect.

“The gulf between [no recognition] and the greatest center fielder in team history is huge, and we just want to fill it,’’ said Alvarez, who is encouraging fans to bring signs honoring Blair to both games of the doubleheader.

Blair broke into the major leagues Sept. 9, 1964 as a defensive replacement and got only one at- bat that season. But two years later, his accounted for the only run in Game 3 of the 1966 World Series and was a key moment in the shocking four-game sweep of the .

Though he made stops in New York and Cincinnati after his Orioles career ended in 1976, he spent his retirement in the Baltimore area and was a fixture at a variety of local charity events. The informal celebration at Camden Yards got the blessing of Blair’s widow and actually has a charity component to honor his memory.

Organizers have created a Paul Blair T-Shirt that is available for $20 at G&A Coney Island Hot Dogs on Eastern Avenue in Highlandtown. Proceeds will be donated in Blair’s name to the St. Jude’s Childrens Hospital.

http://m.orioles.mlb.com/news/article/94188298/caleb-joseph Joseph making most of long-awaited opportunity Rookie catcher had set record for career games played at -A Bowie By David Wilson / MLB.com September 11, 2014

BALTIMORE -- Caleb Joseph heard the same criticisms often enough to know what to expect when he went up to the Cape Cod League in 2007: "We'll give him a chance," coaches and scouts often said. "He's OK. He doesn't really do anything great."

It wasn't particularly a surprise to Joseph when the Falmouth Commodores released him before the season. They were waiting for a pair of catchers to be eliminated from the College World Series, and their runs ended sooner than expected.

A few hours before Joseph was ready to get on a train for another league, he received a call from , the father of then-Orioles All-Star and current Yankees infielder . The elder Roberts, who coaches the Cotuit Kettleers in the Cape Cod League, wanted Joseph to try out.

There wasn't much that stood out to Roberts about Joseph, except for a "buggy-whip" swing. It's almost all hands, and [it is] exceptionally rare for a college righty.

Roberts gave Joseph a chance, and he was rewarded with an All-Star season by the catcher. "Pretty much like the story of my life," said Joseph, now 28. "Given a lengthy opportunity, I was going to the All-Star team."

It wasn't the first time Joseph was passed over for flashier prospects, nor would it be the last. Joseph was passed over by programs, only to become a seventh-round Draft choice out of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., by the Orioles in 2008. He watched so many younger players put up lesser numbers and pass him by at Double-A Bowie that he nearly retired, only to finally get his chance in the Majors as a starter this season for a Baltimore club that could play deep into October.

Joseph's opportunity finally came through a mixture of patience and an untimely break for the O's. Thirty-four games into 2014, starting catcher ' season came to an end due to an elbow injury. After six years in the Minors, Joseph finally got called to the Orioles.

Four of those years, Joseph spent in Bowie, where those bound for the Majors separate themselves from fringe prospects. He now admits he grew content with being the latter.

"Looking back, I realized that to make it to the big leagues, you've got to really stand out if you're a guy like me," Joseph said. "When I was in it, I was just satisfied with kind of being pretty good in that league."

Some time before Joseph set the Baysox's record for games played, he knew he had to change something. His record-setting 400th game only proved that.

The occasion was Bull Durham meets Cal Ripken Jr. Play stopped when the game became official after the fifth inning for fireworks. After the game, Joseph was presented a No. 400 jersey.

"That's not the kind of record you want to have," Mark Joseph recalled his son, Caleb, telling him over the phone.

Joseph finished that season with a .299/.346/.494 slash line and 22 home runs while setting Bowie career records for hits and RBIs. But he had already proven he could . Joseph needed to show that he could also catch.

At the insistence of catching coordinator Don Werner, Joseph started mimicking Wieters midway through last season. Like the American League Gold Glover Award winner Wieters, Joseph now sets his feet to throw before he receives the ball.

"It's a totally different kind of style," Joseph said. "What he does is really hard. I'm still trying to figure it out."

This "cheat" has helped Joseph compensate for an admittedly mediocre arm and bump his caught-stealing percentage from 34 percent in the Minors to an AL-leading 43 this season -- a better number than even Wieters has posted.

Baltimore's catchers -- Joseph, along with Nick Hundley -- have filled in adequately for Wieters in the midst of a pennant race.

"It makes it a lot easier to see how they're playing," Wieters said.

And Wieters' cheat made it easier for Joseph to stay in the mix until he had a chance to find his bat.

As of Aug. 1, Joseph was a sub-.200 hitter. The next day, he went 2-for-3 with a home run. Joseph's average jumped to .209. The next game was the same -- 2-for-3, one home run and another spike. Manager Buck Showalter surmised that Joseph had finally grown comfortable enough with his defense to be loose at the plate.

"You don't do the things he did over a long season catching last year," the manager said after Joseph's second homer, "and not have offensive skills."

In each of the next three games, Joseph again launched a home run. His batting average jolted to .228 and has since risen to .236, to go along with nine homers.

Aug. 9 was the day Joseph etched his name in the O's record book with a fifth straight game with a homer -- a club mark for catchers. His buggy-whip hands darted through the zone at the first pitch he saw that day.

As he rounded the bases, Joseph could think back to every opportunity he was denied. His celebration was a bit more pronounced, complete with a yell and emphatic high fives. They finally had to take him seriously now. Joseph had left his mark in the bigs.

"It's just a big whirlwind of emotions," Joseph said, holding back tears after the feat. "You set a record, and maybe seven, eight months ago, I was thinking about hanging it up. Every day in the big leagues is such a blessing."

http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2014/09/gausman-on-the-mound-for-game-1.html Gausman on the mound for Game 1 By Roch Kubatko / MASNsports.com September 12, 2014 5:50 AM

What's better than one game? Try two.

The Yankees can't be thrilled about playing at home last night and flying to Baltimore for today's doubleheader. And there isn't a device small enough to measure the amount of sympathy they're going to receive from the Orioles, who have been abused by the schedule all season.

Last night's walk-off victory moved the Yankees 10 1/2 games behind the Orioles in the American League East. The Blue Jays were idle and remained 10 games back.

The Yankees didn't announce their starters for the four-game series in Baltimore until yesterday, and the Game 2 starter was listed as TBA.

Kevin Gausman will oppose Brandon McCarthy in Game 1. Bud Norris is starting Game 2 for the Orioles.

Miguel Gonzalez opposes Shane Greene on Saturday, and opposes Hiroki Kuroda on Sunday.

We're going to find out whether shortstop J.J. Hardy returns to the Orioles lineup, as we were led to believe, and whether he's going to start both ends of the doubleheader. The MRI on Hardy's back didn't show any structural damage and he received a cortisone injection.

Gausman will make his 18th start of the season and his 10th at home, where he's gone 4-5 with a 4.47 ERA. He earned the win over the Yankees in his only career start against them, posting his first career complete game by allowing one run in a rain-shortened, five-inning game at Camden Yards.

Gausman has made six appearances against the Yankees, going 3-1 with a 2.40 ERA in 15 innings.

The current Yankees are only 5-for-27 (.185) against Gausman.

McCarthy is 6-4 with a 2.79 ERA in 11 starts since the Yankees acquired him from the Diamondbacks on July 6 for Vidal Nuno. He's 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA in eight games (six starts) lifetime against the Orioles, and 1-0 with a 5.54 ERA in three games (two starts) at Camden Yards, with eight runs, 17 hits and eight walks in 13 innings.

Adam Jones is 4-for-11 (.364) with a double against McCarthy. Alejandro De Aza is 3-for-6 with two doubles.

Nelson Cruz is 3-for-19 (.158).

Cruz has eight extra-base hits - three doubles, a and four home runs - in 10 games since the beginning of September. He's batting .366 (15-for-41).

De Aza is batting .375 (9-for-24) during a six-game that matches his season-high.

http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2014/09/game-1-of-alds-set-for-oct-2.html Game 1 of ALDS set for Oct. 2 By Roch Kubatko / MASNsports.com September 11, 2014 5:41 PM

Major League Baseball announced its postseason schedule today, including the date for the opening game of the American League Division Series.

That one may especially interest you.

The AL Wild Card game is scheduled for Sept. 30 on TBS, followed by the NL Wild Card game that airs on ESPN on Oct. 1. This is the first time that ESPN will be part of baseball's postseason telecasts since 2006.

Should the Orioles win the AL East, they would host Game 1 of the Division Series on Oct. 2. In fact, both AL Division Series games air that day, with times to be announced. TBS will handle the coverage.

The AL Division Series runs from Oct. 2 through Oct. 8.

The AL Championship Series begins on Friday, Oct. 10 on TBS. The NLCS starts the following day.

A potential Game 7 of the ALCS would be played Saturday, Oct. 18, while the NLCS clincher is scheduled for the following day.

Game 1 of the is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 21, to be hosted by the American League city. This marks the first time that the World Series will start on a day other than Wednesday since 2006.

The World Series hasn't started on a Tuesday since 1990.

MLB also announced that the postseason schedule has been shortened by one day, removing one of the two off days that had been situated between the last potential LCS game and the first game of the World Series.

The Fall Classic will shift to the ballpark of the National League Champions for Game 3 on Friday, October 24. A Game 7, if necessary, would be played on Wednesday, October 29 in the AL city.

FOX Sports will air the World Series for the 17th time. The scheduled off days are Thursday, Oct. 23 and Monday, Oct. 27.

Cal Ripken Jr. will again serve as an analyst on TBS.

http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2014/09/voting-for-the-most-valuable-oriole.html Voting for the Most Valuable Oriole By Roch Kubatko / MASNsports.com September 11, 2014 3:20 PM

I received an e-mail today inviting me to vote for Most Valuable Oriole, and it got me to thinking about how much I'd appreciate the input of my blog readers.

Also, there's no game today and I'd like to file a second entry.

Members of the media who cover the team make three selections, with the first-place finisher receiving five votes, second place three and third place one. The winner will be announced at the conclusion of the homestand.

Chris Davis was the easy choice last season. One voter deprived him of being a unanimous selection.

Five candidates come to mind this season: Nelson Cruz and Adam Jones, starter Wei-Yin Chen and relievers Zach Britton and Darren O'Day. Cruz is batting .263/.331/.529 with 27 doubles, one triple, 39 home runs and 101 RBIs in 143 games. He ranks first in the majors in homers and fourth in RBIs.

If there's an award for Best Free-Agent Bargain, Cruz might rank as the favorite after signing a one-year, $8 million contract in .

Jones is batting .286/.318/.468/ with 28 doubles, two triples, 25 home runs and 85 RBIs in 145 games. He was chosen as MVO in 2011 and 2012, making him the seventh Oriole to win it in consecutive seasons.

Chen is 15-4 with a 3.59 ERA in 28 starts. His 15 wins rank second to Max Scherzer and Jered Weaver - who both have 16 - in the American League.

Britton is 3-2 with a 1.79 ERA and 34 saves in 38 opportunities over 65 appearances in his first season as a closer. He's allowed 43 hits in 70 1/3 innings.

O'Day may come across as a dark horse candidates because he's a set-up guy, but his ERA was below 1.00 from Aug. 15 to Sept. 2. One , to the Reds' , can soil the numbers.

O'Day is 4-1 with a 1.32 ERA and three saves in 61 games, with 38 hits allowed and 65 strikeouts in 61 1/3 innings. He posted a 0.30 ERA over 27 innings from June 17 to Aug. 30, and the grand slam halted his streak of 12 consecutive scoreless appearances.

I've already turned in my ballot, but I won't reveal it until the winner is announced.

Feel free to share your top three and whether there's another candidate who deserves consideration.

http://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2014/09/comparing-2012-and-2014-and-an-- alalyst-talks-os-and-october.html Comparing 2014 to 2012 and ESPN analyst Wedge talks O's and October By Steve Melewski / MASNsports.com September 12, 2014 8:02 AM

With Wednesday's win at Boston, the Orioles came up with their 86th win of the season. That is one more than the 2013 Orioles squad that went 85-77. The 2012 Orioles that advanced to the playoffs as a wild card went 93-69 in the regular season. This year's team can top that wins total by going 8-9 or better the rest of the way. A 14-3 finish would produce a 100-win season.

Soon the Orioles will officially be a playoff team as they were two years ago. But there are sure some differences between the two seasons. This club will enter the postseason as a division winner and get three days off before the American League Division Series begins on Oct. 2.

This time, the O's and their fans are not just happy to be there. This team didn't end any long postseason drought. Playing as well as they are right now brings higher expectations for a deeper playoff run.

This team will also likely get to celebrate with the hometown fans when they wrap up the American League East. The 2012 team never had that chance, and had its one and only celebration in Texas after winning the wild card game.

The O's and their fans are set up for one special homestand that begins today with a day-night doubleheader against the Yankees.

Yesterday, I interviewed former major league manager , who now works as an analyst for ESPN's "." The Orioles will be on ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" this weekend.

Wedge managed the Indians and Mariners, leading the 2007 Indians to the American League Championship Series.

He feels the Orioles are plenty good enough to make a deep playoff run. He said the key to their October success will simply be to keep doing what they've been doing.

"I think they just need to keep a status quo," Wedge said. "They don't need to try to do anything different. They need to trust that they are a well-rounded ballclub.

"What they don't want to have happen is different individuals feel like they have to do more. They just need to keep doing what they've been doing. They've been very steady.

"In a lot of respects they've kind of flown under the radar with how good they've been. The postseason is a bigger stage, but they don't need to do anything else other than rely on each other and trust themselves as a good ballclub." http://www.pressboxonline.com/2014/09/11/is-orioles-manager-buck-showalter-the-2014-al- manager-of-the-year Is Orioles Manager Buck Showalter the 2014 AL Manager of the Year? By Stan ‘The Fan’ Charles / Press Box Online September 11, 2014 Could No. 4 be Buck Showalter's lucky number? It's kind of a fitting question for an Orioles manager, considering won 1,480 games for the Orioles -- not to mention four pennants and one World Series title -- with No. 4 on his back.

In 1994, Showalter won MLB's American League manager of the year award while leading the New York Yankees to a 70-43 record and the AL East division title.

In 2004, Showalter won his second AL manager of the year award while leading the Texas Rangers to an 89-73 record, an 18-win improvement from the previous season.

During the 2014 season, Showalter has led the to a runaway lead in the AL East that once again stamps him as one of the contenders to win this year's manager of the year award. Showalter has also faced and overcome several challenges during the course of the season.

All-Star catcher Matt Wieters played 26 games before undergoing season-ending surgery. Third baseman missed the first month of the season while recovering from the knee injury he suffered at the end of 2013, and he was then lost for the remainder of the 2014 season after suffering another knee injury Aug. 11.

Offseason free-agent pickup Ubaldo Jimenez, who was given the largest pitching contract in team history, has struggled, leaving the Orioles without a true No. 1 starter. And the club has also suffered a drop-off in production from 2013 Orioles MVP , although that has been rendered more or less with the addition of /designated hitter Nelson Cruz.

As with any major league team, there have been all sorts of other smaller bumps in the road. But where Showalter has really shined in 2014 has been with his feel for the ups and downs of his role players, and his ability to know when enough is enough. He has turned to the hot hand, whether that is Steve Pearce, , Caleb Joseph, Nick Hundley or even Ryan Flaherty, and then tweaked his lineup again as the hot hand grows cooler. That same approach has carried over to his use and development of a strong bullpen. Showalter has also been aided by pitching coach 's work with the starting staff, and by executive vice president of baseball operations 's moves to acquire reliever Andrew Miller, outfielder Alejandro De Aza and left-handed hitting infielder Kelly Johnson.

With less than three weeks remaining in the regular season, Showalter's two biggest competitors for AL manager of the Year are Kansas City's and Seattle's Lloyd McClendon. Up until a few weeks ago, Oakland's looked almost like a lock to win the award, but the A's collapse will likely take him out of contention unless they can seriously turn things around.

Not to discredit what Angels manager is doing in Los Angeles, but voters might downplay the role he has played in the team's success because of the club's loaded lineup, which features , and .

Ultimately, I think Showalter will take home the AL manager of the year award, bringing the honor back to Baltimore for the first time since won in 1997.

While each of the candidates has had their share of challenges, I think the level of the challenges in Baltimore, and the way Showalter has navigated through them, will be the difference.

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/new-competitive-edge-in-baseball-091114 Baseball’s next big competitive edge By / Fox Sports September 11, 2014

Everything a front office or MLB GM does comes down to one mandate: gain a competitive edge over the other 29 teams. This has been explored from multiple angles since baseball’s inception. Most recently, the introduction of advanced metrics, from predictive stats to the monetary value of a win, has changed the way we analyze the game.

However, we are now more than a decade past the publication of Moneyball, and, to put it bluntly, the days of simply adding an analytical genius to the front office and expecting him to tip the scales are over. There’s simply too much information-sharing in today’s world for any club to gain a lasting structural informational edge over their competitors. Proprietary information is becoming harder and harder to come by. While there are certainly frontiers of data not yet fully explored, I believe the next real advantage will come not from which team can acquire the most information, but from which team can best put that information into practice. How efficiently and successfully information is shared with managers, coaches and players will equal wins now and going forward.

Herein lies one of the great challenges of implementing winning, but unconventional, techniques. Players are resistant to change; managers are disinclined to upset habits. Think about the eye- rolls whenever a team says, “We’re going closer by committee.” A slightly more extreme example came up in conversation last night. Former first-round pick and MLB veteran C.J. Nitkowski alerted me to a piece written by our FanGraphs colleague, Eno Sarris. I had not yet read the article and asked C.J. for an overview.

“Essentially, Eno thinks we should be moving guys around in the outfield during the game based on defensive strength. Crazy! Can you imagine how the weaker outfielder would feel?”

C.J.’s half right. I can think of two dozen major-league outfielders who might have bruised egos, but I can also think of a dozen who’d be cool with it. The difference isn’t (just) player makeup, its institutional buy-in.

To prepare a major-league club for something truly unorthodox – like switching outfielders on a batter-by-batter basis to minimize the impact of weak arms, poor jumps, or lack of range – the practice should begin at the very lowest levels of the organization. By implementing new ideas in rookie ball, players are less likely to balk when they’re asked to do something different in the name of capitalizing on every bit of leverage they can during an MLB game.

I think Eno’s thesis is an interesting idea that deserves discussion, but C.J. initially thought it was too radical. Our dichotomy of thought is understandable, given our drastically different breeding grounds. Regardless of the merits of this specific idea, baseball careers should begin by emphasizing and celebrating flexibility of thought instead of intractable habits. In the piece, Sarris acknowledges that “the small defensive upgrade would be negated by the unfamiliarity with the other outfield corner.”

If a club is unable to capitalize on a competitive advantage because of a solvable problem, it behooves them to fix the issue. In this case, what if our rookie ball outfielders switched positions during the games on a regular basis? Meeting unfamiliar challenges with levelheadedness and rational thought would become a default mindset. Change is difficult for all human beings and is especially challenging for men not often asked to do so. Instead of allowing this fear to control us, why not change the culture? Recent psychological studies on the value of mental flexibility (or ego resiliency) show additional benefits:

“By ego-resiliency, we meant…a dynamic ability to temporarily change from modal reaction or perceptual tendencies to reactions and percepts responsive to the immediately pressing situation and, more generally, to the inevitably fluctuating situational demands of life. In particular, the ego-resiliency construct entailed the ability to, within personal limits, situationally reduce behavioral control as well as to situationally increase behavioral control, to expand attention as well as to narrow attention …The relatively unresilient or vulnerable individual displayed little adaptive flexibility, was disquieted by the new and altered, was perseverative or diffuse in responding to the changed or strange, was made anxious before competing demands, and had difficulty in recouping from the traumatic.”

Simply by emphasizing flexibility and adaptation to new information, clubs could maximize their performance on field. Players would likely see reduced anxiety, improved performance and increased confidence. Weathering the inevitable highs and lows of the baseball season is a challenge, particularly for a young player. Helping them to become more mentally resilient will pay dividends on and off the field. Encouraging patterns of thought that encourage behavioral control will help young players to mature in the often tumultuous transition to life.

Think about C.J.’s reaction from earlier. He, like most players, thought the idea was risky. Most players would be defensive if asked to do something outside the box. From the Clinical Psychology Review journal:

More recently, research wed to the empirically-based theoretical model of psychopathology known as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes et al., 1999) extends the concept of ego-resilience. In the ACT model, flexibility is about being aware of thoughts and feelings that unfold in the present moment without needless defense, and depending on what the situation affords, persisting or changing behavior to pursue central interests and goals… experimental studies [show] that when induced with physical pain via a cold pressor task, people with greater flexibility show greater endurance, pain tolerance, and a more rapid rate of recovery to baseline distress levels (Feldner et al., 2006).

An organization reducing days and dollars lost to DL stints will inherently have an edge on the competition.

The benefits of infusing a mindset of flexibility and adaptability are obvious. The only way to reap those benefits is if players, coaches and managers buy in. By starting at the lowest levels, these men will have multiple years to learn and develop this flexibility before arriving onto the major league field.

Starting at the bottom simply isn’t enough, however. Baseball fans will never be content to hear “sure, we’re terrible now, but if you wait five or six years, we have a plan for success then.” Teams need to be able to respond and adapt to front office data now, with the MLB talent they have on the field. The current situation often plays out with a great idea being discussed in a front office. Perhaps it’s around lineup construction. It’s backed by in-depth analysis and delivered to the manager. He pushes back.

“This player would never go for it. He’s hit in the 3-hole his whole career. We will lose him.”

What happens? Often, the front office backs off, giving up on an idea that would otherwise give them an edge because one player isn’t comfortable. When the front office pushes the issue, it’s sometimes carried out grudgingly. The manager reluctantly makes a lineup change, doesn’t have the tools to explain it to the player and secretly hopes the move doesn’t work so he can go back to his comfort zone. “He belongs in the three hole, that’s why he’s not hitting.” Doing things the way they’ve always been done is easier than venturing into uncharted territory.

The player doesn’t like it and may or may not have the courage to speak up and pose questions. He walks up to the plate believing that this is a bad idea and will never work. He may be uncomfortable and tense, and it translates into his performance. He goes 0 for 16, and the idea is scrapped for good based on an unreasonably small sample. He expresses his annoyance to his teammates. “I hate the two hole.”

This scenario doesn’t benefit anyone. The front office, manager, coaches and players are all working towards the same goal. They must work together like a band of brothers, not fighting battles on opposite sides. The key responsibility for a manager is continual and effective communication. This requires knowing his players in depth and understanding the best way to present information. It also entails being able to accurately depict conversations with players back to the front office.

Let’s look at a real time example.

Adam Jones is an elite-level talent and one of the game’s most exciting players. His 115 wRC+ suggests he’s an above-average hitter. But Jones is far from perfect; his walk rate is abysmal. Jones has drawn walks in just 3.1 percent of his plate appearances this season, second-lowest in all of baseball. It wasn’t always this way. In the minors and in his first few seasons in the majors, Jones walked twice as often as he does now. If he had simply maintained that walk rate, Jones would be one of the best players in baseball. Clearly, there is nothing inherent to his game that leads to a low walk percentage, so it stands to reason that there is an adjustment in a specific count or counts Jones could make. His overall offensive production would skyrocket to a level he’s never seen. Suppose that piece of data is discovered? How does an organization deliver the information? If successfully implemented, you might be able to turn Adam Jones into Mike Trout.

Professional athletes are übercompetitive by nature. They inherently want to outplay their counterparts. Riffing off this concept is a prudent management style. But we can guess that just walking up to Adam Jones with a spreadsheet and lists of numbers isn’t likely to do much good. In fact, it may actively make him worse. Here’s how it might happen without care:

“Adam, you swing at nearly 11 percent more balls out of the strike zone than the average hitter. You make contact nearly 7 percent less. If you're going to swing at more pitches out of the zone, you'd better be good at hitting bad pitches. However, our data says you're not. Because you're not having a ton of success at swinging at pitches out of the zone while up in the count, you need to take those pitches. Instead of making an out on a bad pitch, work the count."

With all that in mind, Adam, now go get Chris Sale tonight.

Psychology studies have shown that forcing our brains to process information in an unnatural way can lead to poor physical performance. Can Jones really process this information naturally?

Indeed, dozens of studies now support the intriguing notion that substantial self-control efforts on one task disrupt our ability to control some aspect of the self, even in a completed unrelated subsequent activity. For instance, trying to suppress disgust when watching a violent film led to less physical endurance during a hand grip task afterwards (Muraven, Tice, & Baumeister, 1998); completing a Stroop color-word task led people to share far too few or far too many personal details about themselves when meeting a stranger (Vohs et al., 2005); and ignoring irrelevant word streams while watching a person being interviewed led people to perform worse on measures of analytical intelligence (Schmeichel, Vohs, & Baumeister, 2003).

This is where a manager truly manages his players. A successful manager starts in spring training, discussing the organizational philosophy openly with his players from day 1. This truly is a conversation, with a back-and-forth flow and plenty of questions.

When Jones is on a hot streak, his manager watches carefully, commenting on what he’s doing well and building Adam’s confidence. Jones is more likely to be comfortable being approached midseason with a foundation of trust supporting his weight. Inevitably though, hot streaks end. Every hitter gets sick. When he’s in the midst of a struggle is the time to strike, psychologically. At that point we want to know what Jones needs to stop feeling ill and play on that wish.

The best managers or hitting coaches will swoop in at that time, delivering the evidence as medicine. Jones won’t be able to get the spoon in his mouth fast enough. Coaches and managers who know how and when to deliver the message are the most valuable tools a front office has. By the time a change needs to be made, the player trusts the organization to have his best interests at heart. If a message is being relayed from a unified front, executives and field staff standing shoulder to shoulder, there is less chance of taking sides or resisting.

I always envisioned myself as a three-hole hitter until my weaknesses were exploited at the major-league level. When I went to the Rays, hit me everywhere from first to ninth. I remember the days I hit in the middle of the lineup. I was flattered and, frankly, surprised. But after a few months of comfort in the organization, I felt more certainty about where I was slotted. I knew that wherever I was in the lineup, I’d be in a position to succeed. I understood that my perceived weaknesses were negated by solid matchups on a day that I hit fourth. I knew that if I was called upon to pinch run or play D, it was because I gave the club the best chance to win that game. It didn’t happen overnight. I trusted our data and I trusted Joe Maddon. He’d earned said trust, because he and others spent the time explaining the organization’s philosophy to me when I was “toasty” (as Joe called it) and when I was worthless.

The trust was invaluable when they came to propose tweaks to my game. They showed me evidence that I hammered the pitch down in the zone and scuffled on the pitch up. I assumed the opposite throughout my entire career. The delivery of the information was not in one dose, but sooner rather than later, I began to recognize the validity of this information. I tried to lay off the pitch up more often. It was effective, not always, but enough to make a difference.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to ideal communication within an organization. Trial and will be required every step of the way. These questions can no longer be set aside, however. The data is there for the taking and the playing field is evening out. Extra wins will be tallied in the column for the team that best disseminates their goods.

The hills are flush with gold and everyone knows about it. Go.