Koji Uehara

When the Orioles broke spring training 31/2 months ago to heightened expectations and growing excitement, Robert Andino and Mark Hendrickson grappled with opposite emotions. Hendrickson, the veteran of nine big league seasons, was facing his first trip to the minors in eight years after failing to make the club. Andino, the talented but enigmatic shortstop who had been designated for assignment a year earlier and pigeonholed as a bench player long before that, defied the odds to make the Opening Day roster.

Matt Wieters' selection to next week’s All-Star Game was sweet, sweet redemption for the young catcher, who was labeled as one of the biggest busts in baseball history by Baseball Prospectus before the start of the season -- just his third in the major leagues. That claim was met with criticism in Birdland and beyond, and the Orioles backstop has proved that the rumors of his looming mediocrity were greatly exaggerated. Baseball Prospectus’ belief at the time -- the writer’s name was Steven Goldman -- was that Wieters was never going to be a good enough hitter to live up to the hype that met him when he arrived in the major leagues.

Each morning, Monday through Friday, I'll hook you up with reading material to skim through as you slug down coffee and slack off at the start of your workday -- that way I'll have an excuse to do the same at the start of mine.   Running it back: Life in Canada was no different for the Orioles on Tuesday, as the Blue Jays won, 6-5, in 11 innings when Adam Lind hit a walk-off home run against reliever Koji Uehara . ... Mark Connor, who has been with Buck Showalter in each of his four stops as manager, resigned as pitching coach , citing personal reasons.

Maybe it's going through customs, having to exchange currency or playing under a retractable roof, but things are seemingly always off-kilter for the Orioles whenever they travel north of the border. Life in Canada was no different Tuesday, as the Toronto Blue Jays allowed the Orioles to crawl back before winning, 6-5, in 11 innings on Adam Lind's game-ending homer that bounced off the facade under the third level in right field. The homer came on the second pitch of the 11th from Koji Uehara (1-1)

Brian Matusz walked into the home clubhouse at Camden Yards on Monday afternoon and smiled broadly when he overheard a conversation about the amateur draft that was set to begin in three hours. "I remember that day," Matusz said. With much of the night's focus on whom the Orioles would select with the fourth overall pick in this year's draft, the club's most recent first-round choice to make the big leagues pitched well enough to give his team a chance to win, but his performance did little to squelch persistent questions about his velocity.

It has been an interesting two months for catcher Craig Tatum . He lost his big league job, became a first-time father and thought his career might be in jeopardy when he heard his shoulder pop on a throw this month. And now the 28-year-old is back in the majors, officially recalled Thursday after the Orioles demoted Brandon Snyder to Triple-A Norfolk. "It's been up and down. Of course, I wanted to be up here, but I had some stuff to work on," said Tatum, who hit .200 in 21 games at Norfolk.

Since the day Vladimir Guerrero walked into the Orioles' spring training clubhouse for the first time, his mere presence has been the source of much fascination from his new teammates. It wasn't just his prodigious batting practice blasts, his Hall of Fame-worthy statistics and his ability to make contact with pretty much any pitch in the same area code as home plate. It was the boyish enthusiasm the 36-year-old plays with, and the smile that's on his face no matter what he does on a baseball field.

Orioles reliever Koji Uehara said he feels better than he did at any time last season. It just hasn't shown in his results recently. Uehara started the year with 4 2/3 scoreless innings in his first five games, allowing just one hit and two walks. In his past six appearances, covering seven innings, Uehara has given up seven hits, two walks, five runs and three homers. His ERA during that span is 12.60, pushing his season ERA to 3.86. "The major leagues is all about results," Uehara said through interpreter Jiwon Bang . "So to give up runs is really frustrating.

Orioles closer Kevin Gregg isn't getting too excited after converting three consecutive save opportunities or making four straight hitless appearances. That seems fitting since he stayed calm after his first five outings, which included allowing hits in each and blowing a save at Yankee Stadium on his first pitch, a homer by Jorge Posada . "I don't think I would be here right now if I doubted [my ability]," Gregg said. "There are days when you are not throwing the ball the best and you still have to believe in your ability and what's going on. As soon as you panic, that's when things are going to go haywire for you. I didn't panic; I believe in what I was doing and my preparation was there, and I knew it was going to come back around.

The return of a healthy Brian Matusz would be a welcome development for an Orioles rotation in flux. However, the young left-hander appears to be several weeks away from making his 2011 debut. The Orioles had initially hoped that Matusz would rejoin the club on their 11-day homestand, which begins Monday, and start throwing bullpen sessions off the mound in front of pitching coach Mark Connor and bullpen coach Rick Adair . But Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Sunday that the 24-year-old is still feeling effects from a strained left intercostal muscle and hasn't been cleared to throw off the mound.