The Orioles have designated 30-year old lefty reliever Clay Rapada for assignment. Rapada pitched in 22 games (0 starts) for the O’s this year and he is 0-0 with a 7.30 ERA and a 1.54 WHIP. He has now pitched in 68 games (0 starts) in his five years in the majors and he is 3-0 with a 5.36 ERA and a 1.56 WHIP. Rapada will likely clear waivers and it will be interesting to see if he would accept a minor league assignment if he does.

UPDATE: (7/1/2011) - Clay Rapada has cleared waivers and he has accepted a outright assignment to AAA from the Orioles.

36-year old lefty reliever Mark Hendrickson has been pitching well in AAA-ball for the Orioles this year. Instead of whining about his situation, Hendrickson is pitching well enough that he is likely the next reliever called up by the Orioles. Hendrickson has pitched in 17 games (0 starts) in AAA-ball so far this year and he is 2-4 with a 3.16 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP. He has only given up 35 hits in his first 42 2/3 innings in AAA. Hendrickson pitched in 105 games (12 starts) in 2009 and 2010 for the Orioles and he was 7-11 with 1 save, a 4.74 ERA and a 1.48 WHIP. It’s also possible that the Orioles might deal Hendrickson next month if a team shows interest in him, after all, lefty relievers are hard to find.

28-year old righty swinging shortstop J.J. Hardy has exploded so far in June. He has played in 22 games so far this June and he is 34 for 92 (.370 avg, 1.128 OPS) with 19 runs scored, 8 homers and 17 RBIs. Hardy has now played in 48 games for the O’s so far this year and he is 56 for 184 (.304 avg, .907 OPS) with 28 runs scored, 10 homers and 29 RBIs. He has really excelled as the leadoff hitter for the Orioles as has really been helping make up for the loss of 2B Brian Roberts who has missed most of this season due to injury. Hardy’s swing is perfect for Camden Yards, so look for him to continue ripping the baseball.

Veteran righty Jeremy Guthrie has been solid but it has been 23-year old lefty Zach Britton and 25-year old righty Jake Arrieta who are laying the framework for the future for the Orioles’ starting rotation. Britton has pitched in 14 games (all starts) for the Orioles so far this year and he is 6-4 with a 3.10 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP. He pitches to contact, yet he has only given up 77 hits in his first 87 innings and he has 9 quality starts so far this year. Jake Arrieta has pitched in 15 games (all starts) for the O’s so far this year and he is 8-4 with a 4.45 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP. He has only given up 73 hits in his first 83 innings this year, but 12 of them are homers. He has also walked 40 batters which is way too many so far this year. Arrieta has 11 quality starts out of his 15 this year, so when he’s bad….he’s really bad. The future of the rotation is looking bright for the Orioles with Arrieta and Britton at the top of it.

Switch-hitting outfielder Ken Singleton was a fixture in the middle of the Orioles’ lineup in the late 1970’s and the early 1980’s. His best season for the Orioles came in 1979, when he made the A.L. All-Star team and finished second in the MVP voting. Singleton played in 159 games in 1979 and he was 168 for 570 (.295 avg, .938 OPS) with 93 runs scored, 35 homers, 111 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. Singleton played in 1,446 games in 10 years with the Orioles and he was 1,455 of 5,115 (.284 avg, .833 OPS) with 684 runs scored, 182 homers, 766 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. Singleton made 3 All-Star teams in his 10 years with the Orioles. Singleton is 10th in Orioles’ history in games played with 1,446. He is also #9 in hits (1,455), #8 in homers (182), #8 in RBIs (766) and #5 in walks (886) in Orioles’ history.

The Orioles have designated 29-year old righty reliever Jeremy Accardo for assignment. Accardo has pitched in 25 games (0 starts) for the Orioles this year and he is 3-3 with a 5.29 ERA and a 1.67 WHIP. He has now pitched in 229 games (0 starts) in his first 7 years in the majors and he is 10-20 with 38 saves, a 4.13 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP. Accardo will likely reject an assignment to AAA if he clears waivers.

UPDATE: (6/22/2011) - Jeremy Accardo has accepted an outright assignment to AAA.

35-year old righty swinging 1B Derrek Lee was signed over the winter to add some thump to the lineup while bringing his solid glove to Baltimore. His glove has been good but his bat has been pathetic so far this year. Lee has played in 48 games for the Orioles so far this year and he is 40 for 187 (.214 avg, .597 OPS) with 20 runs scored, 4 homers, 16 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. In his previous four years before 2011, Lee averaged 88.9 runs scored, 24 homers, 90.8 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. The Orioles need Lee to get hot with the bat if they are going to get back into the A.L. East race.

The Baltimore Orioles are sitting at 31-35, 9 games behind the Boston Red Sox. If things don’t get better soon, the Orioles are likely going to be sellers at the trade deadline. Vladimir Guerrero, Luke Scott, Derrek Lee, Felix Pie, Jeremy Guthrie, Kevin Gregg, Koji Uehara and Mike Gonzalez give the O’s some interesting trade chips. The Orioles would likely want young position players and relief pitchers back in deals for their veteran players. The Orioles already have a impressive young starting rotation to build around for the future.

The Orioles have placed 30-year old righty reliever Alfredo Simon on the 15-day disabled list due to a right hamstring strain. Simon has pitched in 5 games (0 starts) for the O’s so far this year and he is 1-1 with a 3.14 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP. The Orioles have called up 27-year old righty starting pitcher Jason Berken to replace Simon in the bullpen. Berken pitched in 15 games (0 starts) earlier this year for the Orioles and he was 0-2 with a 7.94 ERA and a 2.18 WHIP. He gave up 27 hits (5 homers) and he walked 10 batters in only 17 innings for the Orioles earlier this year. The Orioles hope that Berken will be much better this time around.

27-year old righty swinging 3B Mark Reynolds is off to a good start in June. He has played in 7 games so far this month and he is 5 for 20 (.250 avg, 1.150 OPS) with 3 runs scored, 3 homers, 8 RBIs and 1 stolen bases. His overall numbers still aren’t that impressive though. Reynolds has played in 59 games for the Orioles so far this year and he is 39 for 196 (.199 avg, .728 OPS) with 27 runs scored, 10 homers, 32 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. His power doesn’t come cheap though as he has whiffed 61 times already this year. But, the Orioles knew he was going to whiff a lot this year and they were fine with it when they dealt for him over the winter.