Erik Bedard

Orioles left-handed starting pitcher Erik Bedard set career highs last season in wins (15), innings pitched (196 1/3 ), starts (33) and strikeouts (171). The 27-year-old returns this season as the team's ace. Bedard, a sixth-round selection in the 1999 draft, was born in and still resides in Navan, Ontario. What would being the Orioles' Opening Day starter mean to you? -- It would feel good. It would be an honor to start the first game of the season. But after the season starts, it doesn't really matter.

It's one of those baseball statistics that's hard to believe. I checked it a couple times to make sure I hadn't missed anyone. And I really believe I haven't. According to baseball-reference.com, there are 44 active major league pitchers who have at least 80 career wins - a modest accomplishment, but impressive considering all who have played the game. Of that group of 44, none has played for the Orioles. Think about that for a moment. I'm not talking about none of the 44 plays for the Orioles right now. I am talking about ever.

As players and media filed into the Orioles' clubhouse yesterday before a workout at Camden Yards, available space melting away like patches of snow on a sunny afternoon, pitching coach Leo Mazzone stood in a hallway and delivered a statement that should prove chilling to opposing teams on this year's schedule. Asked about Erik Bedard, who starts tonight's opener in Minnesota, Mazzone said, "Let me put it to you this way: In all the years that I've been coaching, Erik has the best three or four pitches of any left-hander I've ever had the privilege of coaching.

On July 28, the Orioles lost to the Oakland Athletics to drop their record to 52-49. As pleasant a surprise as the club had been to that point, the season suddenly carried all the hallmarks of an Oriole collapse, the kind fans had come to expect in 14 straight years of losing. The Orioles had given up far more runs than they had scored. The defense was suspect. Injuries had frayed an already patched-together roster. But executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette and manager Buck Showalter did not simply watch the train derail.

SEATTLE -- Two boys and a girl stand next to a massive promotional photo outside Safeco Field and smile widely for their father's camera. Five feet to the right of them looms a similar-sized picture of Ichiro Suzuki, currently the most popular athlete in the Emerald City. But Ichiro's pensive mug doesn't get a second glance. On this morning, the father wants to forever preserve the moment in which his kids first stood beside Erik Bedard's Seattle Mariners mural. In a city that hasn't tasted a World Series in the club's 31-year history, Bedard isn't just the new face, a quality left-handed starter acquired from the Orioles in February.

Even before Erik Bedard started an eight-decision winning streak that elevated him to an American League Cy Young Award candidate, the Orioles vowed to explore signing their 28-year-old ace to a long-term contract extension. Bedard is under contractual control by the Orioles through the 2009 season, but with each dominating outing the pitcher delivers, securing him for the long term might be more and more of a priority. "We have him for the next couple of years, but I think it is very appropriate to consider him in that Cy Young caliber," said Andy MacPhail, Orioles president of baseball operations.

Good morning--Orioles--Will Erik Bedard now be trade bait at the winter meetings this week?

Good morning -- Erik Bedard -- Another year, another fast start. Now it's just a matter of staying off the DL.

Orioles tonight Opponent: Seattle Mariners Site: Safeco Field, Seattle Time: 10:05 TV/Radio: Comcast SportsNet/WBAL (1090 AM) Starters: Orioles' Erik Bedard (0-1, 5.64) vs. Mariners' Ryan Franklin (2-3, 4.43)

SEATTLE - In recent years, the Orioleshave experienced plenty of these games in September, when a contender demolishes and demoralizes an overmatched also-ran playing out the string. Almost exclusively, though, the Orioles were on the wrong end of those beatings. Not now, however. Not in this crazy season. The upstart Orioles pounded the Seattle Mariners, 10-4, Monday night, amassing 15 hits and chasing starter Hector Noesi with just one out in the second inning. “Everybody is kind of just picking the next guy up. If someone doesn't get it done, the next guy does,” said first baseman Mark Reynolds.

Orioles fans, pinch yourselves. It is just four days until the calendar turns to September and your team is just 3 1/2 games out of first place in the American League East, the O's smallest deficit in the division since June 24. If they remain steady this week against the Chicago White Sox, they can chip into that lead even more this weekend in the Bronx. Take a deep breath. As you wake up today, after the Orioles' 4-3 comeback win over the White Sox, they are tied for the two AL wild card spots with the Oakland Athletics.

Here's a look at what some other media outlets are saying about the Orioles: ** Cliff Corcoran of SI.com says the Orioles are among three sleeper teams (the others are the Pirates and A's) that are not going away this season : As for the Orioles, well, they've been just a game over .500 since the end of April and have been outscored by 69 runs over that stretch. Despite tying up their season series against the Rays with a 10-inning, 1-0 victory Sunday, they seem destined to ultimately fall behind the Rays, whose season has followed a similar path, but who have outscored their opponents by 11 runs since the end of their own hot April and are expected to get Evan Longoria back in the lineup sometime this week for the first time since April.

Wei-Yin Chen didn't come to the Orioles with the reputation of being a strikeout pitcher, but after Sunday afternoon's record-breaking performance, perhaps that may begin to change. The 27-year-old lefty from Taiwan has often deflected attention during his rookie season, repeatedly saying through his interpreter that he's more concerned with team wins than individual stats. In the top of the sixth inning of the Orioles' 6-1 win over the Oakland Athletics on Sunday, the announced crowd of 19,698 at Camden Yards was giving Chen a standing ovation after he fanned Josh Reddick for his 12th strikeout of the game.

Maybe it's a little early to start passing around the credit for the Orioles' surprising, uplifting and just plain fun first half of the 2012 season, but this could be a clear case of better early than never. The O's have exceeded expectations, and it's easy to point a couple of fingers in a couple of obvious directions. Buck Showalter clearly has changed the culture both on the field and in the clubhouse, so you can put a big gold star on his photo in the Orioles yearbook. New baseball operations guru Dan Duquette has made a couple of dynamic moves to upgrade the starting rotation, so his impact is easily measurable, even if he tried to acquire just about everybody with a pulse during the offseason.

Though it certainly must seem longer, it was just a couple of weeks ago that everyone was drawing comparisons between the surprising Orioles of 2012 and the team that enchanted Baltimore during the magical "Why Not?" season of 1989. Now, that's starting to feel like a cruel joke. The Orioles appear to be in full retreat after a two-week slump that has knocked them off the top of the American League East standings and still threatens to send them quickly to the bottom of their tightly packed division.

With his six-year, $85.5 million contract extension official, Orioles center fielder Adam Jones sat between his two bosses - manager Buck Showalter and club executive vice president Dan Duquette - on Sunday and said Baltimore is where he belongs. "I fit here in this city. I fit here on this team. I fit in at Camden Yards. I really don't see myself wearing another white uniform that doesn't have 'Orioles' across the chest," Jones said. "If we win here, this is my championship, this is our championship.

Adam Jones is officially the owner of the largest contract in Orioles history and is the second-highest-paid center fielder in the big leagues. Jones agreed to a six-year, $85.5 million contract extension Saturday, which will keep him in an Orioles uniform through 2018. According to an industry source, the contract has performance escalators that could make it worth $91.5 million total. The annual average value will be $14.25 million - also a team record. Jones, who is making $6.15 million this season, will receive a $2 million signing bonus now. He then will receive: $8.5 million in 2013 (which would have been his final year of arbitration)