Shortstop

Hereford shortstop Jay Patti has been named the Baltimore County Player of the Year by the county's baseball coaches. "He's a hard worker and probably the most humble, skilled player we've ever had," Hereford coach Todd Hartshorn said. "He respects the game, the players on the field and he's easy to coach. If my daughter was 18, she'd be dating him. " Patti, a junior, batted .574 with 8 doubles, 3 triples 2 home runs and 22 RBIs. He also had 8 stolen bases, a .907 slugging percentage and an on-base percentage of .625.

Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy, who has spent the entire season hitting in the sixth and seventh spots in the lineup, is batting third tonight against the Yankees. Hardy had his 13-game hitting streak snapped Sunday, but he's still hitting .333 (18-for-54) with two doubles, five homers, eight runs and 10 RBIs over his past 14 games. He is also 9-for-28 (.321) with one homer and five RBIs in his career against Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia. Second baseman Alexi Casilla, who is 14-for-24 (.583)

Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy received some scary news when the team's charter flight touched down in Chicago Sunday evening. That's when Hardy got word that a storm system that terrorized many parts of the midwestern U.S. and spawned numerous tornadoes leveled the condominium of his grandmother, Carol Shinn, in the town of Creston, Iowa on Saturday evening.  Shin was uninjured, but her home was destroyed. “I wasn't really following the weather so I didn't even know about the tornadoes going on,” Hardy said.

In a sense, baseball players are a lot like other craftsmen. They have tools they become comfortable with over the years, and it's hard to make a change when a manufacturer discontinues or alters a product. That's sort of what has happened to Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy this season, although it was actually baseball's umpires who led to a change in Hardy's most treasured piece of equipment. Since he broke into the majors in 2005, Hardy used a Rawlings Pro 200 4K 11-1/2 inch model glove.

The Orioles know very well the level of prep baseball talent that comes out of South Florida. Two years ago, the team tabbed shortstop Manny Machado out of Brito Miami Private with the third overall pick. And on Tuesday, the Orioles used their third-round pick (99th overall) on another talented Miami shortstop, Adrian Marin of Miami Gulliver Prep. Marin, who has signed to play at the University of Miami, projects to be a top-of-the-lineup bat given his well above-average speed.

X-rays taken on shortstop J.J. Hardy's left side following the Orioles' 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday afternoon were negative. Hardy, who was drilled in the side by a 91-mph fastball from James Shields in a five-run fifth inning, said he had a sizable bruise. He entered the Orioles' clubhouse with his torso wrapped in ice. "They're fine," he said. "They hurt but they're fine. They hurt a lot. " Hardy has started in 96 of the Orioles' 99 games this season and is playing through a sore throwing shoulder.

The Orioles continue to make adjustments to their shortstop position, acquiring Juan Castro from the Colorado Rockies' organization yesterday for Triple-A infielder Mike McCoy and placing him on the 25-man roster. And they might not be finished. Castro, 36, would be the sixth player to start at shortstop for the Orioles this season. One of the others, Freddie Bynum, was sent outright to Norfolk and has 72 hours to accept his assignment or become a free agent. The trade was part of a busy day of roster shuffling for the Orioles, who also returned pitcher Randor Bierd from his injury rehabilitation assignment in the minors and activated him from the disabled list.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- He's going to keep playing shortstop, this season, next season, and maybe long after that. Cal Ripken looks better than ever in the field. "He hasn't lost a step anywhere," Orioles manager Johnny Oates says.So, what will become of Manny Alexander, the Orioles' shortstop of the future? Alexander, 22, was rated one of the top 10 infield prospects in the minor leagues by Baseball America last season. But the way Ripken is going, he might never play in Baltimore.Ripken, 32, has started 1,708 consecutive games at shortstop, the longest streak at one position in major-league history.

Here's another tale of toughness from inside the Orioles' clubhouse. Manager Buck Showalter said he had two different lineup cards filled out just more than 30 minutes before the first pitch of the Orioles' 12-2 win over the Blue Jays on Wednesday - one with shortstop J.J. Hardy in it and another without. For the past two days, Hardy has been dealing with a painful hangnail on his right middle finger, and on Wednesday Hardy said it became so difficult to throw that he was gripping the ball with just three fingers.

On one end of the clubhouse stands a ring of reporters around an empty locker, waiting for San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds to appear and maybe, just maybe, offer words of surly wisdom - or at least an expletive. Five lockers down sits another veteran player, another guy who is chasing history and a longevity record set by a Hall of Famer. He sits by himself. A perfect contrast in the imperfect world of sports. While every move of Bonds' is chronicled despite his contempt for the media, his always-approachable teammate, shortstop Omar Vizquel, remains virtually unnoticed, drinking a power shake and organizing his sanitary socks.

On Senior Day, with the county championship on the line, Glenelg's Leah Allen delivered a performance befitting the reigning Howard County Player of the Year. The senior shortstop hit two home runs and made nine putouts in the field, leading the way to a 6-4 victory over No. 5 Atholton that gave the No. 2 Gladiators sole possession of the county title. "As a team we all knew we had to step up today, and being my last regular season home game, there was definitely a little extra motivation," Allen said.

The senior shortstop-outfielder led the Greyhounds (12-4) to a 4-1 record last week. Tilley came through offensively and defensively late in a dramatic 9-8 win over No. 14 Mount St. Joseph in the President's Cup semifinal game Saturday. He hit a two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning to give the Greyhounds the lead and then helped end the game in the bottom of the frame when he turned a double play at shortstop. Tilley batted .436 in the five games, including two home runs, two doubles, eight RBIs, eight runs scored, two stolen bases and a sacrifice fly. Gilman also had wins over Georgetown Prep, McDonogh and St. Paul's early in the week before losing to Archbishop Spalding.

The senior All-Metro shortstop led the Bruins to a 3-0 record last week - including upsets of then-No. 8 C. Milton Wright, 11-1, and No. 13 Severna Park, 8-7 - as they climbed to No. 9 in the latest poll with a 4-3 overall record. Dillard was 2-for-3 with a double and a stolen base against C. Milton Wright, and she was 3-for-4 with two home runs - including the game-winning shot in the top of the seventh inning - and four RBIs in the win over Severna Park. In a 7-1 victory over Arundel, Dillard was 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored.

BOSTON - The steady season that Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy had defensively in 2012 - which was capped by his first career Gold Glove Award - hid the pain that Hardy played through from spring training to the final game of the postseason. After nearly every throw he made, Hardy would feel a sharp pain in his shoulder. Often, he'd shake his arm to get the numbness out, and over the course of the season he needed two cortisone shots to help alleviate the pain. The injury - a muscle imbalance that he's dealt for years with with varying degrees of discomfort - hasn't completely gone away.

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- After playing a strong World Baseball Classic with the Netherlands, Orioles top position prospect Jonathan Schoop is slated to return to major league camp on Tuesday, where manager Buck Showalter said he intends to get a few more looks at the 21-year-old before optioning him to the minors. “I'd like to get him some at bats here to take a little look at him,” Showalter said Thursday. “We've gotten very few peeks at him.” Schoop, who tied for the Netherlands team lead with 2 homers and 6 RBIs in eight WBC games, initially started at second base for the Netherlands, then moves to third when Jurickson Profar joined the team.

Everyone likes to be recognized for a job well done. But despite playing his best defensive seasons the past two years, Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy never thought he'd win a Gold Glove. These days, shortstop is a position of flash - of acrobatic, diving plays, off-balanced throws and behind-the-back tosses. But Hardy was rewarded Tuesday, winning the first Gold Glove of his eight-year big league career, joined by second-time winners Adam Jones and Matt Wieters to make the Orioles' first trifecta of Gold Glove winners since 1998.

Projecting Cal Ripken as a baseball shortstop and not a pitcher, even when he was still green and growing, qualifies as an example of exceptional judgment. The natural ability was there. And his father before him, Cal Sr., had already established the name. But consider the embarrassment had the Orioles somehow allowed another team to pick him Ripken in the free-agent draft of June 1978? It would have been an error of incalculable proportion, but one they would have had to suffer with. There were 47 players drafted ahead of the then-17-year-old prospect.

New St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa won't be in uniform for a few more weeks, but he's working to defuse a potential problem: what to do with the Wizard.The new-look Cardinals still have veteran shortstop Ozzie Smith on the roster. They also have young Royce Clayton, one of several off-season acquisitions expected to make the club a strong contender in the National League Central. La Russa will have to choose between them this spring, and he's laying down the ground rules right now."

Three Orioles players were named American League Gold Glove finalists for the second straight season, and just as in 2011, two O's players should win the game's highest honor in fielding when they are announced tonight. Catcher Matt Wieters appears likely to win his second straight Gold Glove despite committing 10 errors this season, most of any AL catcher and five more than he recorded in 2011. Wieters threw out 38.6 percent of base runners attempting to steal against him, the best percentage among the four Gold Glove finalists at the position - Detroit's Alex Avila, New York's Russell Martin and Chicago's A.J. Pierzynski are also finalists.

For the second consecutive year, the Orioles have three players that are finalists for the annual Rawlings Gold Glove Awards, which are given to the best defensive players at each position in each league. This year, catcher Matt Wieters is up for his second consecutive American League Gold Glove Award, center fielder Adam Jones will be going for the second (2009) of his career and shortstop J.J. Hardy is seeking his first. The awards will be announced on ESPN2 starting at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.