Base Hits: 6/24/2009

You don't hear a lot in the Oriole blogosphere/chat rooms/article comments these days about the lack of a "fan-friendly atmosphere" at Camden Yards these days. I expect that it is due to the emphasis the MacPhail regime has put on this aspect of the OPACY experience.

But while we were plenty ready to criticize, we haven't always done a good job at pointing out the efforts the Baltimore Orioles are making now. Like this promotion:

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is located at 333 West Camden Street, but this summer Orioles fans will have the option to reside at 2110 Eutaw Street by taking advantage of a new ticket offer. The Orioles have combined the uniform numbers of two of their best young outfielders, NICK MARKAKIS and ADAM JONES, to re-identify an area of the Eutaw Street Bleachers and give fans the opportunity to take part in a unique promotion.

For a number of pre-selected games beginning with the game on Sunday, July 12 vs. Toronto, fans can purchase a Eutaw Street bleacher seat and a limited edition "I Live at 2110 Eutaw Street" t-shirt for only $21. In addition, Markakis and Jones will toss baseballs into the stands throughout the game, and for every home run hit by Markakis or Jones in that day's game, one lucky fan in the section will receive a bat autographed by the player who hit the homer.

It's fan friendly, community and brand building, creative, gets the players directly involved and may help to sell a few more tickets in the process. This is good and should be encouraged...

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I'm going to keep beating this drum...Last night in Miami, Oscar Salazar gets off the bench in the 8th and gets a hit in the middle of a 2-run rally, then gets up in the 9th with 2 out and 2 on and singles in the tying run.

Give him a shot, Dave!

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Notable minor league stuff: In Aberdeen, SS Tyler Kelly, the 13th round draft selection in the 2009 draft is hitting .333/.333/.389 in his first four games. Of Steven Bumbry is only 1 for 8 but his lone hit was a home run.

Japanese import RP Ryohei Tanaka now has pitched 6 innings for Bowie posting an 0.00 ERA striking out 9 and walking just 1. Interesting guy to watch.

Brandon Snyder has struggled since his promotion to Norfolk. He's only posting a .118/.238/.118 line through five games. He'll be fine but perish any thought of him coming to Baltimore this season.

Chris Tillman: 66.0 IP, 70 Ks, 18 BB, 1.17 WHIP and a 2.59 ERA for Norfolk. Dude's only 21. This guy gets no hype compared to 21-year old Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson but he's doing much the same as Hanson did in the same league.

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I enjoy playing around with Twitter; there's some good Oriole stuff over there. But even if you don't want to Twitter yourself, you have to check out UnPeterAngelos.

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Frost King has moved over to Camden Crazies on the Fanball.com Sports Network. Good luck Dan and congrats on getting your work noticed.

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I've got to stick up for my blog's namesake, Rick Dempsey. Seems that Dempsey took some heat for something he wrote in his blog over at MASN.com.

3.) Brian Roberts: He is a quality position player who could draw a lot of attention from a contender and be worth a few good young prospects. Now the only reason I suggest B-Rob is because he has probably missed his window of opportunity to win with the O's and now that the nucleus is becoming much younger, having to wait two more years to contend may take Brian out of his prime and out of his value. I would hate to see him go, but it might be the best overall for the Orioles for the future.

Absolutely correct. I would like to see Roberts stay but for the right package, I'm OK with the club trading him for the reasons Rick stated. This hardly seems a controversial statement but speaks volumes about the near-Ripken level of popularity that Roberts enjoys in this town.

Outside of Wieters, Markakis and Jones (and perhaps Reimold) everybody on the big club should be available...for the right price.

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The Orioles have made a trade involving a guy named Aubrey! Not Huff though. They traded for AAA first baseman Michael Aubrey from the Indians organization.