Jeremy Guthrie, 2009 Upper Deck #31

Hey, Jeremy Guthrie, you seem like a pretty cool guy and all. You did a lot of good things in your five years in Baltimore, and made some dreadful teams a little more enjoyable to watch. I'm glad you've got a good thing going in Kansas City, I really am. But there's no way the Orioles can let this Royals gravy train roll into the World Series unchecked. For the next week or so, I just can't wish you and your ilk well. It's not personal, it's just baseball.

Aubrey Huff, 2009 Upper Deck #539

Whoops, I almost missed this one. Aubrey Huff officially announced his retirement this past weekend. He did not play baseball last year after spending parts of 13 seasons with the Devil Rays, Astros, Orioles, Tigers, and Giants. The 37-year-old corner infielder is looking to kick-start a career in broadcasting, already having landed a gig with the Pac-12 Network for college baseball coverage. The highlights of his time in the major leagues include:

-A career batting line of .278/.342/.464 (114 OPS+) with 242 HR and 904 RBI

-A 2003 season that still places him atop Tampa Bay's single-year leaderboards in hits (198), total bases (353), doubles (47), and times on base (259).

-An award-winning 2008 campaign that saw him named Most Valuable Oriole and the American League Silver Slugger at DH. He led the O's with 32 HR, 108 RBI, a .552 slugging percentage, a .912 OPS, and a 137 OPS+. He also scored 96 runs, cracked 48 doubles, and batted .304.

-Two World Series rings with the Giants. Though he didn't contribute much to San Francisco's championship drive in 2012, playing only 52 games with a .608 OPS and seven RBI, he was a major offensive force for the club in 2010. That year he batted .290/.385/.506 (142 OPS+) with 35 doubles and team bests of 26 HR and 86 RBI. He also slugged .588 and drove in four runs in the Giants' five-game Series win over the Rangers.

-In addition to his on-the-field exploits, Aubrey Huff also had a knack for doing and saying the perfect thing off of the field...as long as you don't know anything about the articles linked here.

Enjoy your retirement, Aubrey. Just don't tell the world about it.

Adam Jones, 2009 Upper Deck #33

I'm sure that you're all tired of seeing Adam Jones on this blog, but he's having a hell of a year. Besides, the patchwork nature of this year's Orioles team doesn't leave me with many options for current players. There's no such thing as a Nate McLouth or even a Wei-Yin Chen O's card just yet. (Get off your monopoly-having ass, Topps!)

Anyway, before I so rudely interrupted myself, I was going to tell you that Adam Jones hit another game-winning home run last night, this time a two-run shot in the top of the 11th to seal a 3-1 victory over the Mariners and a series sweep. That's a 15-2 mark in extra innings; a full 10% of the team's games played in 2012 have resulted in an extra-innings win. Dr. Jones himself has set a major league record with four home runs in the 11th inning or later. Last night's clout was also his team-leading 30th of the year, making him the sixth Oriole outfielder to reach that mark in a single season. The other five are familiar names: Boog Powell (39 in 1964), Frank Robinson (49 in 1966, 30 in 1967, and 32 in 1969), Ken Singleton (32 in 1979), Brady Anderson (50 in 1996), and Albert Belle (37 in 1999). While other key players like Nick Markakis, Nolan Reimold, Mark Reynolds, and (sigh) Brian Roberts have missed significant time with injuries, Adam has also been 100% reliable, as he is currently the only American League player to participate in each and every one of his team's games. I hope he slept in when the Orioles arrived in Boston, because he's earned it.

Cesar Izturis, 2009 Upper Deck #991

Cesar Izturis is the newest former Oriole after signing a minor league contract with the Brewers. He'll likely back up Alex Gonzalez at shortstop, giving Milwaukee a tandem of defensively gifted infielders who happen to be historically inept with the bat.

Gonzalez at least has enough pop in his bat to keep him hovering around a league-average OPS+ in his best years. He's peaked at 23 home runs twice, most recently in 2010. But he doesn't hit for a high average (.247 career), and doesn't walk enough to bridge the gap. His on-base percentage has not cleared .300 since 2007, and is down to .291 for his career. At age 35, it's not likely to improve.

But Cesar's so-called offensive numbers make Gonzalez look like Honus Wagner. The 5'9" Venezuelan has a career OPS+ of 64, and his high-water mark was 88...in 2004. With a career average of .255 and OBP of .295, he's actually slightly ahead of Alex. But a complete lack of power is his ultimate undoing. In 1,185 games spanning 11 seasons, he's hit a total of 15 home runs. That would match the total that Gonzalez hit in 149 games for the Braves last season. Izturis, too, is no spring chicken, as he'll turn 32 before Opening Day. He's also something of a health risk, having missed 48 games in 2009 and well over 100 last year with injuries.

Of course, Cesar did bring some value to the O's in his two-plus seasons with the team. His glove skills at shortstop were a breath of fresh air following the range-challenged tenure of Miguel Tejada and the bumblings of Miggi's various would-be replacements in 2008. And I'll always remember witnessing his wall-scraping two-run homer that put the exclamation point on a 10-5 Opening Day win over the Yankees. It was an improbable way for Izzy to debut in Baltimore, especially considering that he would hit only 2 more home runs in 281 subsequent games with the O's. Speaking of which, the last of those longballs came against Cliff Lee in July 2010! As a popular blog often says, you can't predict baseball.

George Sherrill, 2009 Upper Deck #37

Yet another disheartening side effect of the Orioles sustained residence in the basement of the American League: baseball card photos showing a beautiful yet sparsely populated Oriole Park at Camden Yards. I'm going to tomorrow night's series opener against the Angels. It might be my last visit of the 2011 season, and it's supposed to be cool and brisk, which will be a nice change of pace. Baseball gods willing, the Birds will send me and 15,000 to 20,000 of my closest friends home for the weekend on a high note.

Koji Uehara, 2009 Upper Deck #941

Since he last walked a batter on JULY 16, Koji Uehara has a total of 41 strikeouts. His strikeout-to-walk ratio for the season is now 10.4-to-1. That is all.

Ty Wigginton, 2009 Upper Deck #540

If you see this spaceholder, I didn't make it home in time to post tonight. I'll make it up to you tomorrow!

Luke Scott, 2009 Upper Deck #34

Firstly: sorry for the eBay image, but I'm not connected to a scanner at the moment. Onward and upward.

For a few anxious moments last night, I thought that I was going to miss Matt Wieters' major league debut. I left work at 4:30, which gave me just enough time to get to the train station and take the 5:16 train, set to arrive at Camden Yards at 6:33. Or so I thought. I had a sneaking feeling all day that I should have slipped out of work earlier, but that was really just because I wanted to get to the park in time to meet the Camden Chatters across the street for a drink or two. Cutting to the chase, the train did not even board until the scheduled departure time, and then we learned that there was no train crew, and we were delayed 20 minutes until a crew could be located. Yikes. Fortunately, my family arrived downtown before I did and bought the tickets. The crummy weather lent an assist as well, as thunderstorms rolled through Baltimore and did just enough damage to delay the start of the game by half an hour. It was almost 7:00 by the time I arrived, and I had time to grab some hot dogs from a street vendor and walked through the gate just as the pre-game ceremonies were taking place. They were announcing the Orioles starting lineup as my father and I walked to the escalator, and the first six O's hitters were introduced to polite applause. Then: "At catcher, number fifteen, Matt...WIETERS!" An overwhelming cheer rained down from the stands. It was the first of several goosebump moments that night.

When we got to our seats on the upper level and met up with my mother and sister, the stadium was still filling, but there was orange everywhere you looked, as opposed to the usual high-attendance games against New York or Boston. The game got under way, and there was a Wieters moment right away. Tigers leadoff hitter Josh Anderson tried to test the rookie by bunting, but #15 pounced on the ball and threw a perfect strike to first to collect the out. Again, there was a raucous shout of approval from all of us. He was really here, at last. There wasn't much more excitement until the bottom of the second inning, when the Birds put the first two runners on base against Dontrelle Willis, giving Wieters an RBI opportunity in his first at-bat. It's not often that you see a standing ovation when a rookie comes to the plate, but that was the case. Most of the crowd remained standing for the duration, until the catcher hit a sharp liner to Clete Thomas in right field, who then gunned down the terribly slow Melvin Mora trying to advance to third. It was the best-hit ball all night for Matt, who went 0-for-4 to bring a little reality to the outsized expectations that swirled around him. Luckily, his tough night at the dish hardly mattered.

The following inning, the O's bats erupted. Three straight hits by Brian Roberts, Adam Jones, and Nick Markakis gave the team a 1-0 lead, and Brandon Inge chose to nail Jones trying to score on an Aubrey Huff grounder, rather than going for the force at second and an apparent tailor-made inning-ending double play. Mora singled, and the bases were loaded with two outs. That brought Tiger killer Luke Scott to the plate. Luke's two-home-run performance on Thursday was his third such feat of strength against Detroit in the last two years. Here was a chance to break the game open, as the Birds had been letting a pretty sloppy Willis off the hook early. As Luke stood in, we noticed a rainbow arcing right over the stadium, a bizarre and portentous sight against the still-dark-gray sky. Suddenly, Luke took a big swing and sent a fly ball to right field. Thomas backpedaled and soon gave up, and the crowd game unglued as the ball disappeared onto the flag court. GRAND SLAM! The cries of "LUUUUUUKKKKEEEEE!!!!" were deafening; it was 5-0 and Mr. Wieters had some competition for the limelight.

Scott, of course, went deep again in his next at-bat and was even coaxed out of the dugout for a sheepish and brief curtain call in the middle of Wieters' subsequent at-bat. With his second-inning single and an eighth-inning walk, he didn't make an out all night. His unbelievable career stat line against Detroit now stands at: 18-for-31 (.580), 9 HR, 19 RBI, 4 2B, 5 BB, and a 2.220 OPS. There's nothing you can do but laugh...if you're an Orioles fan, I guess.

With all of the Wieters excitement and the fireworks from Luke, I can't forget the masterful performance from rookie pitcher Brad Bergesen. The sinkerballer, who outed himself as a baseball card collector in an interview with MASN, had reportedly been chomping at the bit to be reunited with his former minor league catcher, and last night he showed why. With Wieters calling every pitch, Brad breezed through the first six innings with only two hits allowed to a fairly strong Tigers lineup before running into a spot of trouble in the seventh. Still, he had a decent shot at a complete game and settle for eight full innings with two runs allowed on seven hits and no walks. As he left the field after being removed, he got a standing "O" that rivaled the stirring reception for Wieters and the huzzahs for Scott. Jim Johnson stranded two runners in the ninth to close it out in a tidy two hours and twelve minutes, and Baltimore had its fifth straight win (and seventh out of eight games).

Look out baseball, here come the Baby Birds.