Strike Zone

Orioles right-handed relief pitcher Jason Berken looks like a different man this spring after losing at least 20 pounds since last season. Fortunately for the Orioles, he again is looking like the guy who was the club's best pitcher in the first half of 2010. In his two outings this season, Berken has faced 10 batters and retired nine of them, including six on strikeouts. In the seventh inning of Sunday's win, his first big league game since being shut down Aug. 13 with shoulder inflammation, Berken struck out the side, throwing 10 of his 15 pitches for strikes in the Orioles' 5-1 win against Tampa Bay. In Monday's home opener, Berken pitched the seventh and the eighth, allowing just one hit and striking out three in the club's 5-1 win against the Detroit Tigers.

Packed into a sardine can of an interview room with about two dozen reporters - most of them sending details of his outing to his home nation of Taiwan - Orioles rookie left-hander Wei-Yin Chen tried to explain the toughest day of his brief major league career. Through his first seven starts as a big leaguer, the 26-year-old has been close to perfect on paper. He came into Sunday's start against the Washington Nationals with a 4-0 record that included wins over the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers in his past two starts.

In his defense of beleaguered umpire John Hirschbeck the other day, Ben McDonald hit on a touchy subject that produces a wide difference of opinion between hitters and pitchers -- the size of the strike zone.For years, pitchers have contended one way to speed up the game is a stricter enforcement of the strike zone. They particularly have contended that pitches at the top of the strike zone, defined as the midpoint between the armpits and waist, are consistently dismissed as being high.There is an obvious contradiction to that theory.

As the Orioles went 5-1 on this week's six-game homestand, it's been an eventful week for right-handed reliever Pedro Strop. Earlier this week, with closer Jim Johnson hospitalized with food poisoning, Strop had the opportunity to step into the ninth-inning role and earned his first two career big-league saves on back-to-back nights Tuesday and Wednesday against Toronto. Strop, who has spent most of the season pitching in an eighth-inning set-up role, thrived under the late-inning pressure, throwing 98-mph two-seam sinking fastball that cuts off the corners of the plate.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Orioles reliever Todd Frohwirth doesn't complain much, but he couldn't hold back after a series of close ball/strike calls went against him during a four-run California Angels rally on Saturday night."

Major League Baseball vice president Sandy Alderson came out looking like the villain in the strike zone controversy that flared up between MLB and the umpires union, but the issue turned out to be more about semantics than substance. Alderson's attempt to get umpires to call more strikes was consistent with his crusade to standardize the strike zone - which is a noble quest - but his method of determining who was correctly enforcing his strike zone directive left him open to the charge that he was improperly trying to manipulate the game.

It's a little early to judge the Sandy Alderson strike zone experiment, but the early anecdotal returns appear to indicate that the higher strike is having an impact on the balance of power between pitchers and hitters. Obviously, the six strong performances out of the six starters who appeared in the season-opening series between the Orioles and Boston Red Sox are an indication that something is different from last year. Neither team is considered to have a particularly strong starting rotation, yet both teams looked like the Atlanta Braves.

The world is full of gray areas. That fuzzy line between right and wrong. That gap on the speedometer between 55 mph and the speed that gets you pulled over on I-95. Cleveland before they built Jacobs Field.The baseball world is full of them, too, and none has created more controversy than that theoretical box known as the strike zone.It is too big. It is too small. It is getting too narrow. It is far too wide. It is always changing. It hasn't changed in years. It depends entirely on who's doing the talking.

This season's strike zone seems to be causing more conflict between the umpires and Major League Baseball officials than between umpires and players. Umpires are outraged over instructions that have come to some of them in the past 10 days via e-mail and telephone calls from Sandy Alderson, baseball's chief of operations, two persons who had been told by umpires said yesterday. Alderson said that either the messages had been misinterpreted or the reaction "is all part of a political agenda that some people have," stemming from the bitter feelings between two factions of umpires over which union would represent them.

Mike Mussina never has been kind to the Detroit Tigers. Indeed, for Christmas, Mussina always asks for another turn at Tiger Stadium. But last night the Tigers found the combination of Mussina and plate umpire John Hirschbeck absolutely intolerable.With Mussina tempting perfection before a sellout crowd atCamden Yards, Hirschbeck's "liberal" strike zone pushed the Tigers into a frenzy.The Tigers ended up with a 4-0 loss and more ejections (three) than hits (two) against Mussina. They were only four outs away from being on the wrong end of a perfect game when designated hitter Frank Catalanotto drove a double into right field.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter was tossed in the top of the sixth Saturday against the Los Angeles Angels after complaining about home plate umpire Angel Campos' strike zone. When Campos called a pitch that appeared to be well off the plate a strike against Nick Markakis in the sixth, Showalter yelled something and was immediately ejected. It was his first of the season and 20th of his career for Showalter. John Russell took over managing duties. Showalter has been displeased with the strike zones in each of the games during the Angels series.

The consensus in the Orioles' clubhouse after Friday night's loss to the Los Angeles Angels is that Brian Matusz is making strides - his slider is sharper, he's throwing his fastball in the low 90s, his command is improving some.     Here's what manager Buck Showalter had to say: “I thought he was better. A little better each time he has pitched since the first one. A little crisper, the command was a little better. It got away from him there a little bit at the end.”      And here's what Matusz had to say: “I definitely made some improvements in this start over the last.

Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie insists that he's frustrated only with himself, not with his abominable win-loss record, his team's failure to provide him consistent run support or the constant trade rumors that swirl every time that he pitches. However, evidence continues to mount that all those things have taken a toll on Guthrie, and perhaps a change of scenery is exactly what he needs. His frustration came through Sunday in his demeanor on the mound -- where he uncharacteristically reacted to plate umpire Todd Tichenor's inconsistent strike zone -- and in a terse post-game session with reporters after the Orioles' 9-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels in the series finale in front of an announced 15,676 at sultry Camden Yards.

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: After one of the worst outings of his career in a loss to the Cardinals , struggling starter Brian Matusz was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk on Thursday night. ... After the game, Matusz was relatively upbeat about his demotion , saying he will use it for motivation.

Anyone who has closely followed the Orioles this year is likely able to identify one of their biggest problems on offense, and that certainly includes manager Buck Showalter . The hitters just aren't particularly patient, especially in high-leverage situations. Heading into Thursday, Mark Reynolds was sixth in the American League in pitches seen per at-bat with 4.26 and led the team in walks with 48 this year, more than twice as many as any other Oriole. Luke Scott (4.16 pitches per at-bat)

Orioles closer Kevin Gregg pitched a perfect ninth inning in Wednesday’s 3-2 win over the Athletics, giving the team its first home sweep of the Athletics in more than a decade. It was a rare uneventful night for Gregg, whose propensity to allow baserunners in save situations often leaves fans chugging Alka-Seltzer. His late-night appearances usually aren’t heartburn-free, but he has been getting the job done the past three weeks. Gregg, who was signed to a two-year deal in the offseason, has converted his last five save opportunities and he hasn’t allowed a run in seven straight appearances.

By the time shortstop Mike Bordick had taken a few steps toward the home dugout and was tossed from yesterday's game, the Orioles already knew what brushes had been used to paint their 11-8 loss to the Seattle Mariners. They weren't appreciative of the artwork created by plate umpire Kerwin Danley. It wasn't a pretty picture. Though the Orioles wouldn't pin blame for defeat on an umpire, they were incensed by a strike zone that seemed to change as the game progressed and a 7-1 lead turned to dust.

Runs per game -10.6% April 2000, 10.75; April 2001, 9.61 Batting average -3.7% April 2000, .270; April 2001, .260 Home runs per game -8.6% April 2000, 2.56; April 2001, 2.34 Earned run average -9.5%M April 2000, 4.96; April 2001, 4.46 Strikeouts per game +5.4% April 2000, 12.91; April 2001, 13.61 Walks per game -13.3% April 2000, 7.82; April 2001, 6.78 Length of game -2.2% April 2000, 2.58; April 2001, 2.54 Throughout his crusade to...

Aberdeen - Though his team came up one win short of a state baseball title, losing 4-0 to St. Michael's Saturday in the Class 1A championship game, Patterson Mill head coach Matt Roseland said he considered the Huskies' 2011 campaign a success, and that their appearance in this year's final was a sign of good things to come for the four-year-old program. "I told the guys before Saturday's game, 'we said at the beginning of the season that our goals were to win the [UCBAC's] Susquehanna Division, and to win the [1A North]

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.