Base Hits: Blog-O-Sphere, Prospect Lists and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Some Christmas gifts from the Blog-O-Sphere...

Ben has risen from the ashes of MVN to revive Oriole Central (or is it Camden Central) on the original Wordpress platform and the Oriole blogosphere is richer because of it.

Similiarly, Crawdaddy, one of my old comrades from the Baltimore Orioles Round Table, has also resurfaced with Camden Depot now on the Blogger platform servicing all your Oriole scouting needs. Crawdaddy has also added a neat feature to his website: the 40-man roster with each player's name color-coded to indicate how many minor league options they have remaining. Very useful and leaves me wondering why I didn't think of it myself.

Other MVN refugee news has Oriole Magic writers Anthony and James writing for Anthony's original blog, Oriole Post.

Everybody's back for the holidays... (sniff)

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Relive Nick Markakis' journey through the minor leagues via this article at MiLB.com. Nick is a gift none of us will return.

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Baseball America finally put out their list of the Top 10 Oriole Prospects. One universal in most of these lists has been the rise of soon-to-be Bowie pitcher Zach Britton who come in at #3 on BA's list:

When talking about elite pitching prospects in the Orioles organization, it's time to add Britton's name to the discussion. He was the pitcher of the year in the Carolina League last season, and his 2.70 ERA ranked second in the league...

Britton seems like the typical sinker/slider pitcher, except that his fastball touches 94 mph. His velocity improved last season, and he usually works in the 88-92 range with his sinker, adding a four-seam fastball to go with it.

It also says he has improved his changeup thanks to tips from Brian Matusz. That's a good thing, first because he improved his changeup and secondly because it says a lot about Matusz that he took the time and had the ability to impart that to a younger pitcher. Matusz gave Britton a gift that will keep on giving through the New Year.

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The Phillies sign Danys Baez.

Who knew that Mr. Reluctant would become a man of mystery so soon after leaving Baltimore.

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Michael Aubrey says he's happy with the moves the Orioles made this season...but he's not really. They add one more veteran corner infield bat and Aubrey is buried in AAA.

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The Orioles have signed 19-year-old LHP Chris Lamb form Australia. Feel free to read the scouting report but it's more improtant evidence that the Orioles are looking overseas for talent.

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Since everybody is posting their Oriole retrospectives of the '00's, I'll link back to mine from earlier this offseason.

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Merry Christmas people.