Remember that stat I passed along last night about the Yankees being 19-0 when they score first? Well ... That was quite a dramatic mood shift at Camden Yards last night. The Orioles win in 10 innings on Nate McLouth's walk-off home run, and news breaks that last year's top draft pick, Kevin Gausman, was going to make his major league debut Thursday night in Toronto. No blown saves, no more losing streak, no more angst over Thursday's starter. It's a shame that Gausman will be wearing...

BOWIE, Md. - It seems a little crazy to say this but, after just 28 professional innings, is Kevin Gausman ready for the major leagues? He may be - or at least he may be close. Double-A Bowie manager Gary Kendall is not one to rave about or overly hype players, but after seeing Gausman's strong six-inning outing last night against Akron, where he allowed just two hits and one run, Kendall sounded like a skipper that just might endorse Gausman for the majors right now if Dan Duquette and Buck...

If you want to talk about the changes, upgrades and improvements in the Orioles' minor leagues over the last, say, 10 or more years, Baltimore native Gary Kendall is a great guy to talk to. The 2013 season is his 14th in the Orioles' organization and he has managed at Bluefield, Delmarva, Aberdeen and Bowie. This will be his this third year as Baysox manager after he led the team to a record of 75-66 in 2011 and to a mark of 78-64 last year. In 2012, he guided the team to an Eastern League...

The Orioles added infielder Jonathan Schoop and left-handed pitcher Mike Belfiore to their 40-man roster yesterday. It will mean, for one, that each player will report to spring training when the big leaguers do. It also could be a big step for both as they look to get to the majors with the Orioles. The man who saw the pair play every day this year was Double-A Bowie manager Gary Kendall. Schoop, ranked by Baseball America as the club's No. 3 prospect, spent all season with the Baysox, and...

Gary Kendall, the manager of the Double-A Bowie Baysox, can remember the exact date. It was June 6 and his team had lost to Portland to fall to a season-worst 11 games under .500 at 23-34. At that point, Kendall, on a suggestion from pitcher Kyler Newby, called a team meeting. "I really didn't think we had any kind of identity, even though I thought there was a lot of talent on the field. We had a meeting in Portland and it was just about owning up to this. It was just a talk about pulling...

The first time Nick Markakis played with the Double-A Bowie Baysox, in 2005 on his way through the Orioles' farm system, he hit .339 with three homers and 30 RBIs to go with a .993 OPS in 33 games. He hit those three homers then in 124 at-bats and last night, on an injury-rehab assignment with Bowie, he hit two in three at-bats, driving in four runs as the Baysox beat Akron 7-1. "He's been with us the last few days and yesterday he had a great BP," Bowie manager Gary Kendall said. "He...

Orioles 2010 top draft pick Manny Machado, a player rated by Baseball America as the sport's 11th-best prospect in February, is struggling badly at bat in the last few weeks. On May 21, Machado had a batting average of .279 and an OPS of .810. Now he is batting .234 with 15 doubles, two triples, three homers, 18 RBIs and a .695 OPS. Machado is batting just .134 at 9-for-67 over his past 17 games with no multi-hit games in that stretch. But Machado is the youngest player in the Eastern...

When a team has lost for 14 straight seasons, you can probably put at least some of the blame for that on an underperforming minor league organization. The Orioles' minor leagues have been a lightning rod for fan criticism this year. Some fans seem to feel the O's minors are barren and completely devoid of talent. Others see some players reaching the majors, but not nearly enough, or feel that the ones that reach there are not good enough. Late this past season, I asked two of the Orioles'...