First Baseman

SARASOTA, Fla. - More than a decade after he broke into the major leagues, first baseman Nick Johnson has little doubt that he can still hit a baseball. That part of the game has never been a problem for Johnson, signed by the Orioles to a minor league deal a week before spring training began here at the Ed Smith Stadium complex. Staying on the field has. Coming up with the New York Yankees in 2001, Johnson was seen as one of the most promising hitters in the game, but injuries often stepped in the way of potential.

It took only 44 minutes of Dan Duquette's introduction to Orioles fans for them to ask the big question: What are the club's chances of landing free-agent first baseman Prince Fielder? “I lost the over-under on that,” Duquette joked to the crowd. Duquette, the club's new executive vice president of baseball operations, and Orioles manager Buck Showalter participated in the day's first Q&A at this year's Orioles FanFest. As for Duquette's answer, he said, “Are we going to get him?

Orioles first baseman Mark Reynolds apparently will break his string of three straight seasons with 200 strikeouts or more, but he said Tuesday that he has made no conscious effort to avoid that dubious plateau. "I don't ever think about that," he said. "I've done it three times, so it doesn't ever cross my mind as long as I feel I am doing what I should be doing at the plate. " Reynolds entered Tuesday night's game with 192 strikeouts, and he joked beforehand that it was too early to assume that he wouldn't get eight strikeouts in the final two games of the season.

Orioles first baseman Chris Davis, who was going to get a chance to play every day over the final month and a half of the season, was placed on the disabled list Tuesday with a right shoulder strain, an injury that could put the rest of his season in doubt. Davis, who was acquired from the Texas Rangers along with Tommy Hunter for Koji Uehara last month, will see renowned orthopedist Dr. Lewis Yocum on Thursday in Los Angeles. "There's something going on in his shoulder; the MRI reveals that," Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail said.

First baseman Chris Davis and shortstop J.J. Hardy remained out of the Orioles' lineup for a second straight day, though early tests on each revealed no significant concerns. Davis (sore right shoulder) and Hardy (sore left ankle) both had X-rays taken Friday night and they came back clean. However, the Orioles sent both players for further testing Saturday afternoon. Davis had a magnetic resonance imaging taken on his right shoulder, and Hardy had a CT scan performed on his ankle.

Derrek Lee hadn't hit a homer since May 8, but he certainly remembers what it feels like to make good contact with a pitch. So the second the ball left his bat in the 12th inning, Lee knew exactly what he had just done. He didn't need to see his teammates pouring out of the dugout while following the ball's flight. Lee ended a night in which his team blew a four-run lead and botched numerous scoring chances with a long home run to left field off Cincinnati reliever Jose Arredondo, securing the Orioles' 5-4 victory over the Reds in front of an announced 45,382, the second sellout crowd at Camden Yards this season.

Derrek Lee, who had been an Oriole for all of 31/2 months, summoned his struggling teammates together and delivered a message that was a mix of encouragement, insight and advice. With the Orioles in the midst of an eight-game losing streak in mid-April, Lee urged his teammates to relax, acknowledged that he needed to start doing his part and concluded there was too much talent in the home clubhouse for the lineup to be performing as it was. "He thought it was appropriate at the time, and so did everybody else," Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis said.

As it turns out, the Orioles not only blew a six-run lead on Monday against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, they lost the right side of their infield for what could be an extended period. Veteran first baseman Derrek Lee , who strained his left oblique in that game, was put on the 15-day disabled list Thursday. Second baseman Brian Roberts , who started Monday's contest with a head-first slide into first base to beat out an infield single, was put on the seven-day concussion disabled list.

The Orioles came out of Monday night's dramatic come-from-ahead loss at Fenway Park physically and emotionally bruised, and they were still feeling the after-effects on their unscheduled day off Tuesday. First baseman Derrek Lee underwent treatment on his strained left oblique, but it seems unlikely he'll be able to avoid a stay on the disabled list to recover from an injury similar to the one that put J.J. Hardy there for a month. Infielder Cesar Izturis returned to Baltimore before Monday's game with numbness in the fourth and fifth fingers of his throwing hand and almost certainly will be placed on the DL before Wednesday night's game against the New York Yankees at Oriole Park.

Derrek Lee shouldn't have anything to prove at this point in his 14-year major league career, but he's going to try to prove something anyway. Two years ago, he was all over the National League leaderboard. He ranked in the top five in RBI (111), slugging percentage (.579) and OPS (.972), and finished ninth in the balloting for NL Most Valuable Player. Last year, he tore a ligament in his right thumb on the first day of the regular season and played hurt from start to finish, but still managed to hit 19 homers and drive in 80 runs for the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves.