Big Leagues

Jair Jurrjens, who will make his Orioles debut Saturday , spoke with the local media after arriving in the clubhouse Friday. Here's the Q&A: What are your thoughts being back in the big leagues? This is everyone wants to be. When you are playing professional ball everybody wants to play in the big leagues. I just happen to be back and am ready to help the team out. What have last 6 weeks been like? I've been just trying to get my stuff back together and just keep working and trying to have fun again playing baseball.

Kevin Gausman met with reporters Wednesday afternoon in the Orioles clubhouse, hours after learning he was being called up to make his debut Thursday in Toronto.

When right-hander Zach Clark was summoned to Orioles manager Buck Showalter's office two weeks ago and told he was being designated for assignment, the conversation suddenly veered off in a peculiar direction. Clark, who at that moment was still digesting the end of his brief four-day stint in the majors after parts of eight years in the minor, said Showalter abruptly began talking about reigning National League Cy Young Award winner and current Toronto Blue Jays pitcher R.A. Dickey, who turned his career around after transitioning into a knuckleball pitcher.

Jair Jurrjens, who will make his Orioles debut Saturday , spoke with the local media after arriving in the clubhouse Friday. Here's the Q&A: What are your thoughts being back in the big leagues? This is everyone wants to be. When you are playing professional ball everybody wants to play in the big leagues. I just happen to be back and am ready to help the team out. What have last 6 weeks been like? I've been just trying to get my stuff back together and just keep working and trying to have fun again playing baseball.

Kevin Gausman met with reporters Wednesday afternoon in the Orioles clubhouse, hours after learning he was being called up to make his debut Thursday in Toronto.

One minute this week Manny Machado was the baron of Bowie, traveling with the Baysox to glamorous ports of call like Altoona. And the next -- he's in Baltimore, pulling on a pristine new Orioles uniform. No matter how cool he might have seemed on the field in his big-league debut Thursday, being plucked from the minors and dropped into the majors without warning could make a 20-year-old's head spin. He's among the youngest to ever play the game and brand new in the big city. The kid needs pointers.

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Zach Clark's professional baseball career has had its share of bumps and turns, just like those long bus trips through the minor leagues as he clutched the dream of one day breaking into the big leagues. "A lot of ups and downs," Clark, a UMBC product, said with smile Thursday. "More than you'd really think. It's been a journey. " After seven years toiling in the minors, the 29-year-old right-hander finally has the feeling that reaching the majors in within grasp.

Milwaukee Brewers scout Ron Rizzi pulled no punches with the 63 big-league dreamers sitting in front of him."One of 10,000 kids gets a chance to play pro ball, and only about 10 percent of them get to the big leagues. I don't say that to discourage you. I just want to tell you how it really is."But that didn't drive a soul from Rizzi's Wednesday afternoon tryout camp.These high school and college players have dreamed of playing major-league baseball since they were old enough to pitch and catch.

Orioles rookie outfielder L.J. Hoes earned a taste of the big leagues this past season, but the organization's minor league player of the year faces a tough fight this spring to make the 25-man roster out of camp. The Mitchellville native was a late-inning sub in two late-September games last season - he had just one at-bat, an eighth-inning ground out to short in the Sept. 26 game against Toronto - but he was able to experience the Orioles' push to the postseason firsthand. “It was tremendous,” Hoes told reporters Tuesday during the Orioles' annual holiday party.

It wasn't what Denny Neagle had hoped, but still he's there in the big show.A 1986 graduate of Arundel High in Gambrills, Neagle's first appearance in the big leagues was shortened Saturday night by Candy Maldonado of the Milwaukee Brewers.Making his major league debut for the Minnesota Twins in front ofnearly 48,000 fans at the Metrodome, Neagle took a lined shot off Maldonado's bat at the start of the fourth inning; he was hit on the elbow of his left arm -- his pitching arm. Neagle had to leave the gamewith runners on first and second and the Twins leading, 2-1. He received a standing ovation from Twins fans as he departed.

When right-hander Zach Clark was summoned to Orioles manager Buck Showalter's office two weeks ago and told he was being designated for assignment, the conversation suddenly veered off in a peculiar direction. Clark, who at that moment was still digesting the end of his brief four-day stint in the majors after parts of eight years in the minor, said Showalter abruptly began talking about reigning National League Cy Young Award winner and current Toronto Blue Jays pitcher R.A. Dickey, who turned his career around after transitioning into a knuckleball pitcher.

Xavier Avery is not satisfied. Since being taken in the second round by the Orioles in 2008, the 23-year-old outfielder has risen through the minor league system and consistently found himself listed among the organization's best prospects. Last season, he played 32 games in three stints with the big league club and spent the rest of the year with Triple-A Norfolk. But after just a brief look this spring, Avery finds himself at Double-A Bowie, a victim of improved outfield depth in the organization, as he battles for another shot to impress the Orioles.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - As a veteran of 14 major league seasons, it took a while for right-hander Freddy Garcia to get used to those long bus rides in Triple-A. But when the 36-year-old pitcher decided to sign a minor league deal with the Orioles before this season - and then agreed to remain with the organization past his initial opt-out date earlier this week - he had the faith that he'd soon pitch again in the big leagues. Garcia will make his Orioles and 2013 major league debut on Saturday against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium, where he is 8-1 with a 3.18 ERA in 16 career starts.

SEATTLE - As a veteran of eight minor league seasons, right-hander Zach Clark has endured plenty of excruciating bus rides during his career. He had never been on a cross-country flight, however, until he flew to Seattle on Tuesday. The five-hour airplane ride seemed even longer knowing what was on the other side: The Safeco Field clubhouse and his No. 64 Orioles uniform hanging in his first big league locker. "I've never been on a long flight, so five hours on a plane was crazy," said the 29-year-old Clark, who was added to the Orioles' 25-man roster Tuesday as bullpen insurance.

The Orioles officially selected the contract of Chris Dickerson before Wednesday's game, but not before the outfielder was thrown for a loop when he was told of his promotion. Dickerson said he was told he was going to Boston after he stepped up to bat in the first inning of Tuesday's game with Triple-A Norfolk. Tides manager Ron Johnson then pulled him aside and told to go pack. “I found out walking up to lead off the game,” Dickerson said. “He's like, 'Come here.' I'm ready for him to give me a sign or something and he says, 'Get off the field.

The Orioles have decided to take advantage of a new rule that allows for the hiring of a seventh coach. Former big league catcher Einar Diaz, who was ticketed to be the field coach at Bowie, will now be an assistant major league coach, helping hitting coach Jim Presley as well as other members of Showalter's staff. “I've had Einar as a player [with the Texas Rangers in 2003],” Showalter said. “Einar is just a solid human being. He'll fit in real well to the clubhouse, pretty seamless.” Showalter said one of the most important things about Diaz is that he's a good batting practice pitcher, something needed with the departure of last year's third-base coach DeMarlo Hale.

A SMALL SIGN on a former lighting fixtures store might be an indication of big changes in Baltimore's television landscape."Future Home of Fox 45 News" reads the lettering in front of what was once the Baltimore Gas Light building. Sitting as it does at the foot of Television Hill, it cannot have escaped the notice of executives of WJZ-Channel 13 and WBAL-Channel 11 as they drive to work every morning.At a cost of more than $6 million, early next year WBFF-Channel 45 is going to begin moving its entire operation into the building, originally constructed in the late '40s as a Dr. Pepper bottling plant.

Based solely on win-loss record, the Orioles' minor league system took a tiny step backward this year. The organization's combined 367-390 mark for its seven primary affiliates was one game below its cumulative record in 2008. And, unlike last year, when the Double-A Bowie Baysox won their division, the Orioles had no affiliates make the playoffs this time. Only two of their farm teams, the Baysox (73-69) and the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Orioles (30-26), posted records above .500 in 2009.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- The Orioles have signed right-hander Freddy Garcia to a minor league contract in an effort to see whether the 14-year major league veteran can add to the organization's pitching depth. The 36-year-old Garcia, who spent the past two seasons with the Yankees, will report to Triple-A Norfolk and receive five to six starts there before the organization choses whether to purchase his contract. Garcia was released by the Padres on Sunday. “We're going to take a look at him for a few starts in Triple-A,” Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said.

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The stability of the Orioles starting rotation - in which four pitchers essentially had spots locked up  - and a Grapefruit League schedule that included a heavy dose of American League East opponents was possibly the best thing that could have happened to Orioles pitching prospect Kevin Gausman. In Gausman's first spring camp, he's had a chance to compile innings in major league games because the Orioles didn't want to pitch their established starters against division competition.