Camdencast: A Baltimore Orioles podcast.

The Orioles offense did a solid for struggling Cardinals veteran Adam Wainwright in letting him finally get career win #200 but Mark would have much rather seen them do a solid for their own playoff hopes. Fortunately, the Rays also lost. The big positive story from the game is John Means making his return, what was an encouraging outing even if the basic line of 5 IP, 3 ER is not so encouraging. From the mailbag, a listener wants to know what would count as a successful playoffs for these O's. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The most recent Orioles game was a rain-soaked loss in Boston full of infield miscues and that was pretty dumb, but Mark is for once trying not to dwell (too much) on one more fluky game against the Red Sox because the O's don't have to worry about fluky Red Sox stuff in the postseason. Other topics in this episode: Why this season feels so much less comfortable than 2014 did, looking to the next series for both the O's and the Rays, and in the mailbag, a listener is feeling a little disappointed that Adley Rutschman hasn't repeated what he did last year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With just more than three weeks of the season left, the Orioles have their biggest division lead of the season at four games. The magic number to clinch the division is 19. It's safe to say that the O's have exceeded just about anybody's wildest hopes for their performance this year. In this episode, Mark looks over the areas of the roster that he was not confident about before the season to see how they've each contributed to the success over this whole season. The result has been great fun for Orioles fans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Tuesday night, the Orioles won their first game of the season where they trailed heading into the ninth inning. It was a great win but also one that left Mark feeling grumpy, maybe because they kept him up so late, but also because the O's shouldn't need to squeak out wins over the currently bad Angels roster. Mark digs into what makes it so hard to believe these Orioles are THIS good with some comparisons to the 1979 O's who originated Orioles Magic. Can this year's team really manage to keep surprising everyone for the rest of September and October? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over their weekend series against the Diamondbacks, the Orioles managed to gain a game on the Rays, even winning with Jack Flaherty having another letdown on Sunday. Mark is excited about the Orioles are staying on a 101 win pace even if Flaherty being here is still a mystery. The weekend also brought 2022 All-Star Jorge López back into the organization. In the mailbag, a listener asks about Christian Walker vs. Trey Mancini. Mark wraps up with a quick overview of the coming series against the Angels. The Orioles gotta keep winning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles enter September on pace to win 101 games but with the Rays breathing down their necks, it feels like they're going to need to stay exactly on that pace to hold them off. Mark is not feeling "just happy to be here" with the O's so while enjoying this success he's hoping for the division win and wild card round bye. In the mailbag, thoughts on trying to retain Shintaro Fujinami and experiment with him as a starter. Mark also looks ahead to the Arizona Diamondbacks series this weekend, finding a team with a similar offense to the Orioles but a worse pitching staff we can hope is good for the O's offense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles won two out of three against the Rockies this weekend and kept pace with the Rays. That would feel good if not for the news that Félix Bautista has a UCL injury - what must be repaired in Tommy John surgery, if it's bad enough. Mark thinks that Bautista is a big reason why the O's are where they are and tries to find some positive in surveying the replacement options. In the mailbag, a listener wonders why Kyle Stowers and Joey Ortiz have not gotten more of a chance. Plus, a quick swing through the coming White Sox severity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles needed to find a way to win on Thursday and that's what they did. Mark is pumped to see the O's treating a division rival - and playoff contender - getting thrashed like what happened to the O's in previous seasons. (John Angelos looks for someone to suspend.) With Jack Flaherty's scratched start this week, Mark is thinking about the starting pitching trades the O's didn't make and whether they'll hurt. From the mailbag, a question about Holliday's and Henderson's ultimate defensive homes, and in closing, a weird thought: We have to root for the Yankees this weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Between John Angelos once again opening his mouth in a New York Times article on Monday and the Orioles loss to the Jays on Tuesday, it's been a grumpy couple of days. After a brief summary of Tuesday's bad stuff, Mark gets down to business with ten questions (plus follow-ups) that he would like to ask Angelos or have someone else ask him. Are we likely to get honest answers to these questions? Not particularly. In the mailbag, one listener asks about Cal as a possible owner, with another, thinking of Angelos's latest, wondering when the O's should consider as their best World Series window. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles closed out their west coast road trip with a 6-3 record and a sweep of the league-worst Athletics. Mark runs through the good weekend as well as some of its frustrating intermediate results, surveys the standings, and then gets a little crazy and starts saying it: Playoffs! The Orioles are highly likely to make them, so, that being the case, what is the best way for them to line up their starting rotation? Some choices are good. Others, less so. From the mailbag, a listener wonders which Orioles might follow the Astros example and stick around through a seven-or-more-year stretch of successful O's baseball. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fresh off a bit of a disappointing series against the Padres and continuing a west coast road trip that's gone poorly for their offense, the Orioles head to face the worst-in-MLB Athletics. Mark takes a look at the remaining schedule for the O's vs. what's left for the Rays to see who's got a tougher road coming. The Rays losing Shane McClanahan could benefit the O's, but only if the O's play well enough to take advantage. Even the cupcake Athletics are showing improvement in the second half, so the O's can't just sleep on them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles lost a stinker on Tuesday night, with trade deadline starter Jack Flaherty contributing significantly to the smell. Mark tries to find some things to be happy about in spite of that, since the team does still have a three game AL East lead. This effort includes looking at the team's #1 ranking on a recent farm system update. Do the Orioles still deserve to be that high? That probably depends on your thoughts on Colton Cowser and/or Heston Kjerstad. Other outlets disagree, so hopefully this one proves to be correct. In the back half of the show, Mark looks at how recent attempts by Mike Elias to reinforce the Orioles pitching staff with trades or signings have, uh, generated initially lackluster results, and hopes that this changes some time soon so the O's don't have an anchor to slow down their new winning ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CEDRIC MULLINS! Need Mark say more? No, but it wouldn't be a very good podcast if he left it there. Mark unleashes his exuberance about the Orioles finding a way to win two out of three against the Mariners even with Seattle packing its stadium to celebrate Félix Hernández going into the M's team HOF. They could have easily lost all three of those games and they won two. Great teams find a way to do it and the O's did. Plus, looking ahead to the disappointing Padres and what's been going on with them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If Félix Bautista had blown ANOTHER save on Thursday, things would be feeling pretty dire for Orioles fans, but he didn't and now the Orioles have a three game lead and a magic number of 44 with 47 games to play. On Mark's mind is what went wrong against Houston, what can hopefully start going better in the near future, and just trying to enjoy this ride because it's so unexpected and fun and it's important not to lose sight of that even after a stupid loss. Also, a quick overview of the just-updated top Orioles prospect list on MLB Pipeline, and a look ahead to this week's opponent, the Seattle Mariners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark was all ready to come back from Hawaii and talk about how awesome things have been going with the Orioles lately, except then on Monday there were reports that MASN's Kevin Brown is suspended for saying "too negative" stuff about the O's that wasn't even that negative. After running through what's becoming a cause celebre in baseball media, Mark moves on to another Angelos-involved bit of pettiness in not treating Mike Mussina like the franchise great that he is. From the mailbag, a listener gets Mark talking about the Jack Flaherty trade, which he's happy with so far. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The old days of Deadspin started the trend of Remembering Some Guys. Mark is on vacation right now and recorded this one in advance where listeners from the show helped Remember Some Orioles Games. Most of us understandably have happy memories from 2012 and 2014 but there are a variety of random memories including a game where Cal was caught stealing twice, a 17-inning loss, a César Izturis walkoff, and more. Thank you to everyone who wrote in and shared a story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The easiest way to have the talent pipeline that Mike Elias always talked about building was always going to be to nail the team's picks when it was drafting in the top five spots. Mark looks back through the 2019-2022 Orioles draft classes to see how things are going for them, finding that the first rounders have been working out even when the O's surprised people, and their second round hit rate is looking good too. What will that amount to going forward? None of us can say for sure, but things feel promising for now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every bad Orioles team since 2019 was made worse by Mike Elias trading away veteran players for prospects. The 2022 team that turned out to be decent also had veterans swapped for prospects. Mark looks back on the results from these tanking-oriented trades to see how much of a difference this group is making on the better Orioles of 2023 and how much the deals could still impact the O's of the near future. He's done better than Dan Duquette, to no one's surprise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been five years since the Orioles traded everybody that wasn't nailed down and netted a bunch of prospects who former GM Dan Duquette wanted us all to believe would contribute to the next good Orioles team. Mark looks back on the point where the rebuild kicked off to think about whether it could have gone differently if players were traded sooner, what other deals the O's might have made, and what's left from those July 2018 deals. Spoiler: It's not much. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One out away from closing out a game against the Phillies, the Orioles and Yennier Cano couldn't finish the job and they ended up with a walkoff loss to fall back to a 1.5 game division lead. Mark takes note of some concerning trends in Cano's performance lately and hopes that the O's can figure out what to do about it. Also down bad lately is Jorge Mateo, and quietly so is Austin Hays. The trade deadline is six days away and we're going to find out what prospects they use to improve the stuff that can be improved. The unheralded prospect is Deivy Cruz, and the revisited prospect is Jud Fabian. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another huge Orioles series has come and gone and the O's passed the test, overcoming some bad things happening to win three out of their four games against the Rays and give themselves a two game lead in the AL East. Things are going so well that Mark honestly doesn't know how to handle it. The O's are on a 100 win pace and we've never seen anything quite like it. Also in this episode, looking at the next opponent, the Phillies. The unheralded prospect is Kyle Brnovich, and the revisited prospect is Cade Povich. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles beat the Rays and now they're in first place! This was beyond Mark's wildest imagination when this podcast began earlier this season so please forgive some jubilant shouting about the O's current place in the standings and the recent victory that put them there. Pausing the exuberance a little bit, Mark also looks at the trade acquisition, Shintaro Fujinami, hoping that Fujinami can work out like the last Japanese Oriole, Koji Uehara. The unheralded prospect is Yaqui Rivera, and revisited is Dylan Beavers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's not the end of the world when the Orioles lose consecutive games, it's just really annoying when the games are as bad as the two losses to the Dodgers have been. Mark vents about everything going wrong, especially the things that reinforce the O's apparent needs to be addressed by trade. A question they have to figure out is: How hard should the Orioles go in on this season? The trade thoughts make Mark nervous, but that's mostly Dan Duquette's fault. The unheralded prospect of the episode is Ryan Long, and revisited is Heston Kjerstad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Things are going as close to good as possible for the Orioles right now with the team only a game out of first place and the Yankees and Red Sox tied for last. Mark is determined to enjoy this fun state of affairs for as long as it lasts. To see if the O's can keep the streak rolling, this episode looks to the coming Dodgers series, with Grayson Rodriguez returning to Baltimore. In the mailbag, some thoughts about MASN broadcasters. The revisited prospect of the episode is Connor Norby. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The All-Star break has come and gone and now it's time for the Orioles to face the rest of their tough schedule. Mark looks at how the team's offense, defense, and pitching have compared to their AL East competition to see where they're measuring up and where they're not. With the trade deadline arriving before the end of the next challenging stretch of game, Mark also goes through some rotation trade candidates to see if he can talk himself into wanting any of them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can you believe the Orioles are 54-35 at the break? Mark can hardly believe it either, but with regular waves of prospects hitting the team, maybe it's no wonder. New ones are still developing too, with recent promotions for Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo, and oh yeah, the Orioles also made their first ten rounds of draft picks on Sunday and Monday. Mark rolls through the draft class so far, starting with first rounder Vanderbilt OF Enrique Bradley Jr. on through all of the other college outfielders and pitchers. Plus, in the mailbag, a listener wants a Hunter Harvey reunion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Calling up a top prospect and then beating the Yankees twice is pretty good. Mark hopes the Orioles don't need that kind of jolt much more often though, because they're running out of guys to promote just now. What a two-game turnaround it's been! After running through the lovely totals from Thursday night, Mark's wondering what comes next. The last two games, however fun, are only two games. In the mini-draft preview, Colin Houck and Hurston Waldrep. The revisited prospect is Coby Mayo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Note: This episode was recorded prior to news about Colton Cowser being promoted to the Orioles. Once on a 100+ win pace, the Orioles have gone 7-11 over their last 18 games and Mark feels like they're stuck in the downward spiral right now. Or maybe that's just the several annoying losses and a lack of offense since the last episode. Mark looks at what's gone wrong lately and what might go better without external additions, though he hopes those are made too. Top prospect revisited: Joey Ortiz. There's also a mini-draft preview of a couple of players - Arjun Nimmala and Bryce Eldridge - who've shown up in mock drafts as possible Orioles picks at #17. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's nothing that gets Mark's indignation fired up more than an imagined or real slight against the Orioles by MLB, which has absolutely occurred as the new All-Star "Phase Two" voting rules hosed Adley Rutschman out of a starting spot in the game. Mark's also still annoyed about the O's losing the series to the Reds, and crossing his fingers that they can do better against the Twins. In the mailbag, thoughts on Mike Elias seeming to prefer not to draft pitchers with high picks and how this has turned out early on. The unheralded prospect is Zach Showalter, and the revisited prospect is Jordan Westburg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles gave up just five hits on Tuesday, so they really should have won... except they only got three hits and they lost. Yes, Mark is grumpy about it, especially with the rain delay keeping him up late. The good news is the O's had another winning month. Now they just need to hammer a poor Reds pitcher on Wednesday to take the series. The unheralded prospect of the episode is Alex Pham. Revisited: Colton Cowser. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles are 47-29 so far this year and things may be about to get even more awesome as the team is calling up prospect Jordan Westburg. Mark reacts to the big breaking news to guess at what it means for the Orioles roster in the near-term. Somebody's losing playing time! Then, the regular stuff: A quick swing through Sunday's results, looking ahead to the Reds series where Westburg will debut, and prospects of the episode: Unheralded Jean Pinto, and revisited DL Hall. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles are on a 100-win pace with close to half of the season in the books. That's pretty good! Mark is happy about that but also thinks there's going to need to be improvement on the roster in order to stay close to that kind of pace. That could come from prospect call-ups, or a trade for a starter or even a reliever. Until that happens, we're all playing the waiting game. It's never easy. The unheralded prospect of the episode is Maikol Hernández, and the revisited one is Jackson Holliday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it bad when the Orioles take a 7-0 lead and both Yennier Cano and Félix Bautista are needed to close out a win? Mark sure thinks so, even if Bautista getting his 20th save on his birthday was nice. There's discussion of all the good and the frustration from the 8-6 win, excitement over being two back of the Rays in the loss column, and looking ahead to when some injured players get healthy. The episode's unheralded prospect is Wandisson Charles, and the revisited one is Grayson Rodriguez. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sunday's Orioles game against the Cubs had a variety of dumb things happen that could have led to them getting swept - but they overcame that and won anyway. Mark surveys what's gone right for the O's to win yesterday and over the several weeks since Cedric Mullins got hurt, and wonders when Mike Elias will decide to add either or both of Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg. The unheralded prospect of the episode is Creed Willems, and the revisited preseason prospect is Gunnar Henderson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fresh off a series win over the Blue Jays, the Orioles have won five straight AL East series and they're rolling 18 games above .500. Mark runs down some of the highlights from Thursday's win over the Jays, with a focus on how each of Thursday's contributors could make a case to be part of the 2023 AL All-Star roster. The coming Cubs series has favorable matchups for the O's as well, so they need to win more this weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles have won five straight games, Gunnar Henderson has homered in three straight, the Ryan O'Hearn and Aaron Hicks scrap heap pickup trains keep on rolling, and the O's are 18 games over .500 for the first time since July 25, 2016. Mark is happy about all of these things, less happy with Cionel Pérez and Austin Voth, and confused why third catcher Mark Kolozsvary was added (but wishes good luck to Team Mark). The prospect of the episode is Juan Nunez. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's nothing quite like Gunnar Henderson hitting the longest Eutaw Street home run in Camden Yards history in an Orioles blowout of the Royals to bring out happy podcasting Mark. On his mind in this episode is how many O's are surprising contributors and how this is like the 2012-16 O's teams that made the playoffs. Also, looking ahead a bit to the Blue Jays, a mailbag question about Orioles switch-hitters, and the prospect of the episode is Carter Young. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles were four outs away from being swept by the Brewers, and then Gunnar Henderson cracked an outside pitch the opposite way for a go-ahead home run. Redemption! Mark heaves a sigh of relief as the Orioles staved off the sweep even with their recent problems. He revisits several starting pitchers mentioned in an earlier episode who he hoped the O's would sign to see how they've done and if they would have been good signings so far. The prospects of the episode are Leandro Arias and Braylin Tavera. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In April and May, it seemed that Yennier Cano could do no wrong. The league is perhaps starting to catch up to him. Mark looks at some of what's been his challenge lately, along with the other negative trending Orioles who contributed to the Tuesday loss to the Brewers. Are the O's waiting for the Super Two deadline to pass - possibly this week - to get Colton Cowser or Jordan Westburg up here? If so, we'll find out very soon. The prospect of the episode is Noah Denoyer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nothing like a series win on the road to get some good vibes going in Birdland again. The Orioles might even be MLB's best road team so far this season. Who would have seen that coming? Mark thinks that they're going to keep this up, some contributions from unlikely players, including recent additions Aaron Hicks and Josh Lester, may be needed. Also, he looks ahead to the Brewers series, especially frequently mentioned potential trade target Corbin Burnes. The two prospects of the episode are John Rhodes and César Prieto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you ready to believe that the Orioles are as good as their record yet? Mark sure isn't, because although there's plenty that's gone right to excite everyone about the 2023 team, there are some potential pitfalls too, many of which we're stuck dwelling on for two full days after Wednesday's ugly Guardians loss. Here's hoping they can avoid the problems over the next four months. The prospect of the episode is Justin Armbruester, a springboard to talk about Mike Elias's apparent deliberate choice to not use high draft picks on pitchers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles have mostly been fortunate about injuries since the 2023 season began, until now. Cedric Mullins suffered a groin strain and seems almost certain to hit the IL. Mark considers the possibilities of how the team will try to replace Mullins on the roster and in regular lineups. It might get weird. Hopefully it doesn't get too bad. In the mailbag, a reader reminds Mark of a chaos god he forgot. The prospect of the episode is Frederick Bencosme. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles are fresh off a 5-1 AL East road trip, and aside from the fact that they're winning so many games, another big takeaway of the 2023 Orioles season is they just can't play a normal, boring game. Things get chaotic a lot, so Mark indulges his dorky side to consider which ancient mythological - or nerd-created fictional - gods of chaos might best represent the 2023 O's. He also looks ahead to what will hopefully be a fun weekend at Camden Yards. The prospect of the episode is Chayce McDermott. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We were two outs away from having Happy Mark in today's episode, but instead, the Orioles lost to the Yankees, 6-5, in 10 innings, so instead Mark is running through all the reasons why it was unfortunate that the O's couldn't close that game out while hoping that starting pitchers can do better for the rest of this Yankees series. For a mood-improving palate cleanser, there's some deserved singing of the praises of Jackson Holliday. The prospect of the episode is Drew Rom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Orioles sweeps of AL East opponents have been hard to come by, even once the team improved last year - the last one was at the start of the 2021 season. At least until yesterday, when the Orioles swept the Blue Jays. Mark is much happier after the O's pulled off another one of "those" wins in grabbing the sweep on Sunday. Also in this episode: Looking ahead to the Yankees series, a listener email about the homer hose, and prospect of the episode Hudson Haskin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles had plenty of opportunities to win their series finale against the Angels, and instead they only seized the equal plenty of opportunities to lose. Mark is annoyed by the whole thing and spends the episode venting about all the players who made it go wrong, then takes a breath and considers those players in the context of their season performance and whether we should stay annoyed that they're around or accept that it was just one day of bad luck. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ryans McKenna, Mountcastle, and O'Hearn all contributed as the Orioles stopped a losing streak on Tuesday, so Mark offers thanks to them before looking ahead. Tonight's matchup, the question of what to do with Grayson Rodriguez, and relievers struggling in rehab outings are on Mark's mind too, as well as some very early hope for who could be an All-Star. The prospect of the episode is Max Wagner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Would you want to get sprayed by a hose every time the Orioles get an extra-base hit? Mark sure wouldn't, but he's delighted to see that there are people who do, and that the O's played well enough over the Bird Bath Splash Zone's inaugural weekend to make some exciting early experiences there. Mark also looks ahead to the coming Angels series with a quick survey of the non-Ohtani/Trout players on that team. The prospect of the episode is Seth Johnson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After largely taming the high-powered Rays offense for three games, the Orioles are sitting with a 24-13 record with nearly a quarter of the season played. Mark looks ahead to the coming weekend series against the Pirates before discussing who's done the best for the team so far this season and what hasn't been working out up to this point. It's added up to fun so far that we should all enjoy for as long as it lasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles snapped a little losing streak on Tuesday night, so we can all be happy for a real prize instead of consolation prizes. Mark digs in to some things that GM Mike Elias said about the team before that game, including about prospects Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser and the possibility of signing young players to extensions. The prospect of the episode is Samuel Basallo, with lots to say about how great it is that the Orioles are now signing these international players. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices