The Orioles' Aubrey Huff was awarded the Silver Slugger award Thursday as the top designated hitter in the American League. The award, voted on by coaches and managers, is given to the best offensive producer at each position in both leagues.

It's the first Silver Slugger award for Huff, who became the eighth different Oriole to garner the honor and the first since shortstop Miguel Tejada did it in 2005.

"It's a tremendous honor for me and something I've always wanted to win," said Huff, who led the A.L. with 82 extra-base hits to go along with 32 home runs and 108 RBIs. "Some guys try to win a Gold Glove, but as a DH, this is the ultimate honor for an offensive player."

(baltimoresun.com)

The University of Miami has announced its 2009 class of inductees to the UM Sports Hall of Fame.

The six former student-athletes range from a track-and-fielder to a golfer to baseball and football players. All were stars in their respective sports, though some are more well known than others.

UM football fans will immediately recognize running back Edgerrin James, who also will soon be introduced as a new member of UM's Ring of Honor. James played from 1996-98 and holds the school record of 299 yards in 39 carries against UCLA in 1998. He is second all-time in rushing yards (2,960) and rushing touchdowns (32).

James, whose cousin Javarris James currently plays for UM, was drafted fourth overall by the Indianapolis Colts in 1999 and now plays for the Arizona Cardinals.

The other soon-to-be inducted UM Sports Hall of Fame members:
• Warren Bogle, baseball, 1966-1967.
• Davian Clarke, track, 1995-1998.
• Aubrey Huff, baseball, 1997-1998.
• Cathy Morse, golf, 1974-1977.
• Mike Sullivan, football, 1987-1990.

The induction ceremony will be April 23 at Jungle Island in Miami.

(miamiherald.com)

As the Orioles head into the offseason with twice as many questions as they have answers, one problem they do not have for 2009 is cleanup hitter Aubrey Huff.

Huff was named winner of the Louis M. Hatter award as the Most Valuable Oriole on the final weekend of the season. It was well deserved as Huff finished the season hitting .304 with 32 home runs, 48 doubles and 108 RBIs. 

Not bad for a guy who was booed on Opening Day for some controversial comments he made about the city of Baltimore during the offseason. “Maybe it motivated him,” said Orioles manager Dave Trembley. “Maybe it was his way of trying to do things a little better. Maybe it was his way of trying to undo some of the things he wishes he could take back. That’s the way I look at it. He certainly didn’t let anything bother him.”

That’s because Huff set goals for himself before the start of the year, and those goals were no different this year from what they have been in the past.

“I go into spring training every year wanting to hit .300 and hit 30 homers and drive in 100, that’s usually a goal I shoot for,” Huff said. “You know, I was fortunate enough to get those numbers this year, and it makes it a little sweeter when you consider what I went through in the offseason with the fans and everything. Hopefully all is forgotten, and we can go into next year and try to do it all over again.”

Part of Huff’s success came in the early part of the season. A notoriously slow starter, he wasn’t hitting for average in April and May, but he was being productive in the middle of the lineup.

“The average wasn’t there early on, but the satisfaction was that late in the game I was getting big hits,” the 31-year-old veteran said. “I was driving in some runs and winning games. I don’t think I was over .240 or .250 before the first two months of the season, but there were good power numbers and RBIs, so that was definitely a confidence builder going into the rest of the year.”

Now Trembley doesn’t have to go into next season wondering who is going to provide power in the middle of the order.

“He has put up incredible offensive numbers,” Trembley said. “Total bases, I mean every category, runs scored. He has been a legitimate No. 4 hitter. That’s what he’s been.”

For the first time in years, Huff said he did very little in terms of heavy workouts in the offseason.

“Whether I started earlier than December, later than December, lifting harder, running harder, nothing ever worked,” he said. “Then this year I did absolutely nothing except for maybe stretching and cardio. I didn’t pick up a ball or a bat until spring training, and I guarantee that’s what I will do again.”

Huff credits his season to the success of guys at the top of the order, leadoff man Brian Roberts and right fielder Nick Markakis.

“If it wasn’t for those two getting on for me all year, I’m not driving in 100 runs,” Huff said. “I mean, these guys are the on-base guys. Nick has a .400 on-base percentage, they both play spectacular defense, [are] great hitters, and they are definitely the key to this team.”

“He was tremendous,” Roberts said. “That’s the kind of player and hitter we saw in Tampa for so long. … I think that the way he swung the bat this year was for a long time just fun to sit and watch. There was probably a handful of us in there watching his video and trying to figure out how we could hit like him.

"It’s fun to watch guys have years like that, and I think he’s capable of repeating it. It’s not like this is the first time he’s had that kind of year. If you look back on his numbers, he’s had years like this before, so we’ll expect nothing short of that next year.”

In fact, Roberts may just try the Aubrey Huff offseason conditioning program.

“Sit and eat donuts," Roberts said. "That’s what he did. I might try the donut plan this winter.”

(pressboxonline.com)

Aubrey Huff, who leads the American League with 82 extra-base hits and set career-highs with 48 doubles and 96 runs scored, has been voted winner of the 2008 Louis M. Hatter Most Valuable Oriole Award by members of the local media who cover the team on a regular basis. 

Huff, who completes his ninth major league season and second with the Orioles Sunday, was the only player named on all 27 ballots. He enters today's season finale with a .306 average, 32 home runs and 108 RBI. It is the second time in his career he has hit more than 30 home runs and the third time he has topped the 100-RBI plateau. In addition to leading the league in extra-base hits, Huff enters today's game second in the AL in total bases (330), tied for third in doubles, fifth with a .555 slugging percentage, sixth in RBI, tied for eighth in home runs and 10th with 182 hits.

The 31-year-old earned American League Player of the Week honors twice this season, for the weeks ending July 6 and August 31. He put together hitting streaks of 14 (August 27 – September 14) and a career-high 19 games (July 22 – August 11) during the year and saw time at first base, third base and designated hitter in 153 games for the Orioles.

Huff is the first Oriole to hit at least 30 home runs since 2004. Of his 32 homers, 14 either tied the game (2) or put Baltimore ahead (12). He homered in consecutive games seven times this year and recorded five four-hit games in 2008.

Huff is the 36th different player to win the Most Valuable Oriole Award, which is named in honor of the late Lou Hatter, a former sportswriter for the Baltimore Sun who covered the Orioles for 27 years.  Balloting for the Most Valuable Oriole Award is conducted with voting on a 5-3-1 basis.

Huff will be honored in a ceremony prior to Sunday's 1:35 p.m. game.

(wjz.com)

Aubrey Huff remembers vividly when Tampa Bay was a last-place team. Now that the Rays are headed to the playoffs, he's delighted to see a few old friends enjoying success.

Huff spent five long seasons in Tampa Bay. He was traded to Houston late in the 2006 season, and signed with the Orioles as a free agent in January 2007. The Orioles are in last place, and his former team has clinched a spot in the postseason.

"I am happy for a few guys I played with," Huff said Tuesday. "If we're not going to be in there, I'd love to see them in there and go all the way."

Huff played 799 games with Tampa Bay -- second-most in club history. He is the career leader in home runs, RBIs, doubles and extra-base hits.
When Huff played in Tampa Bay, the Rays never won more than 70 games. The Rays began Tuesday's doubleheader against Baltimore in first place in the AL East with 93 wins.

"I knew they'd be good. I had no idea they'd be that good," Huff said.

Huff hoped that when he signed with the Orioles, they'd be able to contend. He still thinks that can happen, in part because the Rays did it.

"If they can, we can. They turned it around in two years," he said. "There's no reason this organization can't do it as well. (Tampa Bay) stockpiled a lot of young talent, and gave it time to develop."

(baltimoresun.com)

Aubrey Huff went 3-for-5 with a grand slam as the Orioles crushed the Indians 14-3 on Monday night.

The Orioles trailed 3-2 after five but broke out with a seven-run sixth inning that culminated with Huff's slam. He and Adam Jones both drove in four runs in the lopsided win. Huff is having an unbelievable season and is now hitting .316/.372/.581 with 31 bombs and 102 RBI, and has driven in 38 runs in his past 35 games.

(rotoworld.com)

Baltimore Orioles designated hitter Aubrey Huff was named the American League Player of the Week on Tuesday.

Last week, Huff hit .478 (11-for-23) with four doubles, two home runs and seven RBI.

During a three-game set against his former team, the Tampa Bay Rays, Huff went 6-for-12 with a home run, three doubles and four RBI.

The 31-year-old slugger is batting .311 with 30 home runs and 98 RBI this year.

Other nominees included Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox, Adrian Beltre of the Seattle Mariners and Billy Butler of the Kansas City Royals.

(nationalpost.pa)

Aubrey Huff has always said he is a notoriously slow starter, which has hindered his production the last three seasons. But this year, the Orioles' designated hitter is well on his way to matching or surpassing the best two seasons of his career.

Through Monday, Huff was hitting .305 with 28 home runs and 91 RBIs. He also has 69 extra-base hits. Not since 2003, when he hit .311 with 34 homers and 107 RBIs, and 2004, when the numbers were similar, 29 and 104, has Huff put together such a season.

Huff usually doesn’t like to talk about his success at the plate. In fact, when searching for answers earlier this season as to why he has been one of the Orioles' clutch performers in the middle of the lineup, he said, “I don’t know. See ball, hit ball.” 

That wasn't exactly the explanation many were looking for, but it was consistent with what he said last weekend.

“It just seemed like this is a ‘do’ year,” he said. “I have had three off-years in a row.”

Whatever it is, there is no question what Huff has meant to this offense. He is hitting .329 with 11 homers and 74 RBIs with men on base. With runners in scoring position, he has batted .328 with five homers and 60 RBIs. With runners in scoring position and two outs, he is at .315 with two homers and 24 RBIs. His on-base percentag5 is .361, and he is slugging .560.

“I feel pretty confident in the year I’ve had,” Huff said. “The big thing was slow starts, and even though this wasn’t a fantastic start, it was a lot better than what I have had in the past. You know, I was around .240 the first two months, and that’s not great, but I managed to drive in some runs, so that was nice, but for some reason, the second half has always been a little more friendly to me.”

It is always important when a player is struggling at the plate to still be able to contribute to the team, and Huff took a tremendous amount of pride in doing that early in the year. “I wasn’t hitting for average, but I was getting a lot of big hits and driving in some big runs, and that means a lot,” he said. “You look at Carlos Pena in Tampa. He’s not having the year he had last year, but every time he’s up in the late innings, he’s getting the big hit, and you got to do that when you are not hitting for average."

Orioles manager Dave Trembley said he has watched Huff closely this year and thinks there are reasons Huff has been able to put together the impressive offensive numbers.

“I think he’s a lot more relaxed, and I think he is standing up straighter at the plate,” Trembley said. “He uses the other side of the field. He’s a very good cripples hitter, and for me, a cripples hitter is when [opposing pitchers] get ahead in the count, and they throw him the fastball, he usually doesn’t miss it. His swing doesn’t seem to be as long or as big as it was.”

Trembley thinks something else may have turned Huff around.

“It’s the second year with the organization, and he seems to be a lot more comfortable,” he said. “I think some personal things in the offseason with him as far as losing his best friend woke him up and put some other things in perspective for him.”

Huff came into spring training coming off a very emotional winter. He lost friend and former Tampa Bay teammate, pitcher Joe Kennedy, who died unexpectedly from heart disease on Nov. 23, 2007. As a tribute, Huff asked Kennedy’s wife if it would be all right to honor him by wearing Kennedy’s No. 17, which he wore in Tampa. She agreed it would be a great gesture by Huff. So Huff switched from No. 19 to No. 17 to start the year. 

Kennedy’s death is something Huff still thinks about every day.

“He was one of my best friends, growing up in the Tampa organization,” Huff said. “In baseball, you probably have five or six real close friends you keep up with your whole career and throughout your whole life, and he was one of them. … He lives on in my memory by wearing the jersey."

After being swept by the Yankees over the weekend, and splitting an unconventional doubleheader with the White Sox, the Orioles find themselves a season-high seven games under .500. Huff would rather look at the overall big picture to this season than just the recent struggles.

“We’ve played well all year,” he said. “You can look at the pitching being bad the last couple months, but we were terrible hitting-wise the first couple of months, and they were brilliant. If we could have put it all together at once and played consistent baseball, we would probably be about 10 games over .500, but that just hasn’t been the case."

Huff also attributes the competitive nature of the Orioles to Trembley. “Dave has been great,” Huff said. “He lets you play. He is a young manager in terms of major league experience. He is a guy that’s going to let you play and be positive. He’s not a yeller or a guy who is a screamer who is going to get a lot of the young guys nervous or anything like that, so I think in that aspect he’s great.”

Trembley appreciates that sentiment and what his cleanup hitter has done the whole year. “He’s been a dangerous hitter in the middle of the lineup and a very reliable, two-out RBI guy,” Trembley said. “He’s gotten a lot of big two-out RBI hits for us.”

(pressboxonline.com)

Aubrey Huff went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer as the Orioles defeated the White Sox on Wednesday night.

He also hit a sacrifice fly, giving him three ribbies on the night. Melvin Mora and Kevin Millar both hit solo shots for Baltimore, and Brian Roberts also drove in three. The Orioles have had no trouble scoring runs this season: they have the fifth-ranked offense in baseball.

(rotoworld.com)

Aubrey Huff went 3-for-5 with a homer and two RBI Sunday but the Orioles dropped one to the Yankees.

The O's put together a four-run second inning and a three-run fourth, but the Yankees hung with them and delivered a tie-breaking home run in the seventh inning to secure the win. Huff doubled twice and hit his 28th dinger of the season. He's batting .304 with 91 RBI.

(rotoworld.com)

Hey, it's easy to muster enthusiasm for the stretch drive when your team is in a pennant race, showing a pulse in the wild-card chase or playing at least .500 ball. Every minor league call-up, positive news on the injury front or Freddy Garcia signing brings an adrenalin rush and renewed faith that things will work out OK in the end.

Still, positive omens can be found amid the rubble. In this week's installment of Starting 9, we pay tribute to major leaguers who have made unexpectedly strong contributions to give losing teams a reason to feel good amid all the bad news. With apologies to San Francisco's Brian Wilson, Detroit's Armando Galarraga and Seattle's Jose Lopez, here are nine members of what we like to call our "silver lining" edition.

1. Joakim Soria, Royals (32 saves, 1.51 ERA)

2. Brad Ziegler, Athletics (37 innings, 21 hits, 0 runs)

3. Aubrey Huff, Orioles (.302 batting average, 24 homers, 76 RBIs)

Here's a great way to fall out of favor in the town that worshipped Cal Ripken Jr: Hit 15 home runs in the first year of a three-year, $20 million contract. Perpetuate a reputation for slow starts, a half-hearted work ethic and a penchant for producing only when your team is out of the race.

Add some ill-advised comments about Baltimore and its lack of night life on the "Bubba the Love Sponge" radio show, and it's easy to see why the locals viewed Huff with skepticism in April.

Four months later, Huff is Mr. Popularity at Camden Yards. He leads the AL in extra-base hits, ranks third in total bases, fourth in doubles, sixth in homers, seventh in slugging and eighth in RBIs. Huff and Kevin Millar, who combined for 32 home runs out of the first base-DH spots in 2007, already have 42 homers with seven weeks left to play.

Huff started slowly in spring training after January surgery for a sports hernia, but a mechanical alteration at the suggestion of Orioles hitting coach Terry Crowley has made a huge difference. During a one-on-one tutorial in July 2007, Crowley urged Huff to stand taller in the batter's box and make a greater effort to use the entire field. Huff hit .346 in August and September 2007, and he's never looked back.

(espn.com)

Aubrey Huff has cleared revokable waivers, therefore he can be traded to any team at any time. Huff has been a big suprise this year in Baltimore and could provide some prospects from a contender in need of his services.


(majorleaguereport.com)

Team: Baltimore Orioles
Position: Designated hitter
Stats: .302 AVG, 24 HR, 76 RBIs, .550 SLG
Measurements: 6'4", 235 lbs.
Nicknames: None. Don't know if one is really necessary when your name is Aubrey.
Signature: Returning to A-list slugging form after a three-year hiatus.

Mysteries: Where did this resurgence come from? Did anyone actually call it? What has he been doing the past couple seasons? How impressive is his 19-game hitting streak? How obvious is it that his streak will snap within 24 hours now that he is being profiled as an Unusual Suspect? How traumatizing was the "Three Little Pigs" story for him growing up? Did you know that there have been five players in the history of baseball with the first name Aubrey?

Background
Aubrey Huff used to be awesome.

Back in the early years of this millennium, before the days of the iPhone and the Montauk Monster, Huff was the one Tampa Bay Devil Ray worth drafting in fantasy leagues.

And for good reason. In 2003, the then-26-year-old hit .311 with 34 homers and 107 RBIs, which -- according to Baseball-Reference.com, earned him 24th place in American League MVP voting, roughly 400 spots better than Bobby Higginson.

Simply put, Huff had the look of a future superstar.

But it didn't exactly turn out that way. He finished his 2005 and '06 seasons with batting averages in the .260s and clubbed a pedestrian 15 home runs just a season ago. Now with a 19-game hitting streak and a whopping .550 slugging percentage under his belt, Huff is back swinging his big bat of yore and looks every bit the hitter many thought he would be.

So how did the reinvention of Aubrey Huff come about?

To the evidence!

The evidence
Cleaning up: Huff has absolutely been loving life as the Orioles' cleanup hitter this season, hitting .320 with 14 homers, 46 RBIs and 18 doubles over 70 games in the four-hole. That's a huge improvement over the .190-0-3 line he posted in his 14-game audition as the team's cleanup hitter just a year ago.

Free bird: One of the main reasons for Huff's slugging resurgence can be traced to his improved fly-ball rate. The 31-year-old primary designated hitter has been smashing the ball in the air a career-best 41.6 percent of the time, a full 10.3 percentage points better than the mark he posted in his career year of 2003. More balls in the sky means more homers. Yes, it's really that simple.

ISO good: If it looks like Huff is swinging a more powerful bat this year than ever before, it's because he is. Charm City's finest is sporting a career best .248 isolated power average (ISO), a formula created by people much smarter than me that looks something like this: 2B+3B+(HR*3))/AB. See, moms and dads? Unusual Suspects is not just some column stacked with baseball rubbish and nonsense -- it can also help your kids with their algebra homework!

Too legit to quit: As per usual, it's time to see if Huff's comeback campaign is actually legitimate or merely a result of some favorable luck. Huff is currently donning a .312 batting average on balls in play, which is a bit higher than average but surely not enough to blemish his genuinely stellar year.

Conspiracy theory
Of course, there are always alternative explanations.

In November 2007, just a couple months after the Orioles finished a disappointing 69-win season, Huff offered some disparaging remarks about Baltimore's not-so-hoppin' nightlife on the "Bubba the Love Sponge Show."

Now, as both one who grew up in the humdrum suburbs of Detroit and who's watched every episode of "The Wire," I can somewhat empathize with Huff's sentiments.

However, the Orioles' ardent fan base did not take Huff's comments lightly and busted out the boo birds (see what I just did there?) every time their starting designated hitter came up to the plate on Opening Day 2008.

Clearly, it behooved Huff to get his loyal fans back on his side. So he did what any other player would do in such a circumstance. He took a page straight out of Frank "The Tank" Ricard's playbook and started going streaking.

From the quad to the gymnasium, Huff has been streaking for 19 straight games, hitting .390 with five homers, 15 RBIs and 14 runs while becoming the toast of Baltimore in the process.

With such staggering numbers, Huff is back having an awesome time in Baltimore. In fact, I think the entire town knows Huff's having an awesome time.

And wouldn't you want those times to keep on going?

(mlb.com)

BALTIMORE -- Comebacks can be found in the strangest of places. Aubrey Huff will freely admit that his confidence was in freefall for the last few years, spiraling downward with no relief in sight. Baltimore's designated hitter found his swing during a winter in which he was too hurt to work out and mentally conflicted about his life and his future in baseball.

Paradoxically, Huff's path back to stardom started when he was too dispirited to worry about it. The veteran was coming off a trying season with a new team and a sports hernia that kept him from picking up a bat over the offseason, but perspective in the form of impending fatherhood and the passing of a former teammate helped him snap back to reality.

"I wasn't sure anymore. My numbers had gone down for two seasons before last season, and then I had that year. It was pretty much the lowest season I've ever had," he said of 2007. "My swing hadn't felt the same for three years. I'm starting to think, 'What happened? I'm 30. It's not like I'm 40.' I think, more than anything, it was a confidence thing. 'What's going on, and why is this happening?' Before you know it, your mind gets in the way. It just got more and more miserable.

"It got tough to even think about the game. It was just so frustrating that I couldn't get anything going. But this year, I just came in and said, 'I'd better have a good year or I won't have much more of a chance to do it again.'

Things had gotten that desperate for Huff, who spent the first six years of his career in Tampa Bay and described himself as "beaten down mentally" by the end of his tenure there. He had seen personal success -- four straight seasons of 20 or more home runs -- devalued by his team's losing records.

Huff's career had gotten stale at the ripe old age of 28, and then came a trade to Houston which saw his fortunes briefly revived and a free-agent contract with the Orioles that led to his worst season and the revival of all his doubts. That's where Huff was this winter when close friend and former teammate Joe Kennedy passed away from heart disease.

All of a sudden, his mind was transported from his professional despair and onto something more important.

"I just realized how short life is and why worry about things," Huff said of Kennedy's untimely passing. "You play a kid's game and ultimately, this is third in life for me behind God and my family. There's no need to come in here and stress out about a kid's game. I think about [Kennedy] every day, and it reminds me every time I put that jersey on. The guy was 28 years old when he died. He had a lot of life left. He had a baby on the way and he already had a 1-year-old.

"I know he's in a better place, but I just feel for his wife and kids. It's funny, because he reminded me a lot of myself. He'd give the media a hard time, but it was a sarcastic hard time. And he was the same with the boys in the clubhouse. He was just a genuinely sweet guy. And if he met you once, he'd know your name again in a year."

Against that backdrop, Huff found it hard to rededicate himself. He had a hernia injury that took him six weeks to rehabilitate, and when that didn't fix the problem, he had surgery and had to sit out another six weeks to recover. He came to Spring Training without having picked up a bat all winter, but he found that his second season in Baltimore just clicked.

Hitting coach Terry Crowley, who had helped Huff find a flaw in his swing late last season, said that things were better from the first day. He could tell Huff was more relaxed and prepared to resume hurting baseballs on a regular basis.

"I think he's maybe a little more happy-go-lucky. I know he's a little more comfortable with his surroundings," said Crowley, who had a 15-year playing career of his own. "Anytime a player -- whether it's a young guy or a 20-year veteran -- changes teams, it's a very different feeling when you go to the ballpark. It happened to me a couple times in my career. When you don't know your teammates, psychologically, you feel like you have to produce every day. 'These guys don't know I can hit, and I've got to show them every day.' And when that doesn't happen, you have a tendency to put pressure on yourself."

And when all of that evaporated, Huff and Crowley could just work on the basics. The pair found last season that Huff hit better from a more upright stance, and that combined with his newfound mental clarity to give him a needed boost. All of a sudden, Huff went right back to the metronomic slugger who could be counted on to fill out the middle of a lineup.

The 6-foot-4, 235-pound left-handed hitter has bounced back with a big season, batting .302 with 22 home runs and 73 RBIs after a 2007 season in which he hit .280 with 15 home runs and 72 RBIs.

"I think it was physical, and then when he got the feel -- 'I can see the ball better from this position, and when I get my pitch it's easier for me to drive it' -- it allowed everything to fall into place," Crowley said. "Consequently, this year, he's been a much better offspeed hitter without sacrificing anything at all on the fastball. Some guys, when they become a little better offspeed hitters, all of a sudden they're late on the heater. That's not the case with Aubrey. He's right on every fastball."

"I don't know if he looks more relaxed, because he always looks the same to me," added manager Dave Trembley. "I know he's in much better shape, it would appear. He doesn't take himself too seriously. He hits the ball the other way. He's just been a very good, consistent No. 4 hitter for us. I'm sure any time somebody comes in the organization the first year, they put a lot of expectations on themselves. That's kind of a good quality because that means they want to do well and they care. But I think after a while, they adjust, they kind of get comfortable. It's probably best for everybody that way."

Huff's success has bred more of the same, and he's helped frame Baltimore's lineup by protecting Nick Markakis and getting on base for guys like Kevin Millar and Luke Scott. He's gone from the new guy to one of the most popular players in the clubhouse, and Huff said that knowing that his wife, Barbara, is expecting has given him something new to play for.

"That's another thing. I feel good about saying, 'I know I'm going to have a little one,' and it changes my perspective on baseball," said Huff of becoming a parent. "When I was going good in 2003 and '04, I came to the field and thought, 'If I get some hits, great. If I don't, I'm not going to let it bother me.'

"I was coming in here, working hard early and thinking about my swing too much, studying more video. And I never used to do that. I kind of got back to that this year, where I'm not studying too much video and not doing too much early work," he said. "I'm just taking my batting practice and trying to make things as simple as possible. The fact that I'm going to have a little one on the way has made it much less stressful at the ballpark."

(mlb.com)

Aubrey Huff had four RBIs as the Baltimore Orioles held off the New York Yankees 7-6 Tuesday night for their third straight win.

Huff hit an 0-2 pitch into the gap with the bases loaded in left-center to make it 5-1. Huff hit his second homer in two days and 22nd of the season in the ninth to make it 7-3. He tied a career high with four hits and is 17-for-34 in an eight-game hitting streak.

(espn.com)

About five hours before first pitch, and about two hours before the rest of his teammates arrived for batting practice, Baltimore Orioles first baseman Aubrey Huff met hitting coach Terry Crowley on the field at Fenway Park, hoping that together they could find a solution.

It was last July 31, about three months after Huff had come to Baltimore with a record as an elite offensive player, owner of a smooth left-handed swing that would boost any lineup. He was just three years removed from hitting 37 homers and driving in 107 runs in 2003 with Tampa Bay, his best offensive season in the majors.

But after signing a three-year, $20 million free agent contract, his first few months with the Orioles yielded lots of frustration and very few hits. With Huff's batting average languishing around .240 and his power numbers down, Crowley reached out to the underachieving player. "When he asks, that means he wants you to," Huff said about meeting the coach for early work.

When Huff arrived as instructed, Crowley gave him but two pieces of instruction: 1. Stand taller in the batter's box. 2. Aim for the Green Monster.

"If we didn't have that session, who knows?" said Huff, looking back at the moment he rediscovered his swing. "Something clicked."

Huff credits the changes made during the 20-minute session that afternoon to what's shaping up to be an impressive comeback season. With 17 home runs and 54 RBI through Baltimore's first 87 games, Huff is on pace to hit 32 homers and drive in 100 runs, production that approaches his career-best numbers of 2003.

"He's just simplified things," Orioles Manager Dave Trembley said. "He's seeing it, hitting it and using the whole field, not overthinking it. Obviously, his M.O. has been a slow first half and a very strong second half so, with that in mind, we have a lot to look forward to if he stays the course in the last 2 1/2 months of the season."

A notoriously slow starter throughout his career, Huff has bucked that trend with an impressive first half, another unlikely development after sports hernia surgery prevented him from even picking up a baseball bat until spring training. Nevertheless, Huff has been a catalyst in an Orioles offense that has defied expectations.

When Trembley moved Huff into the cleanup role earlier this season, the Orioles broke out of an early hitting slump. And in recent days, Trembley has placed Huff in the third spot to offer protection to Nick Markakis.

"It's made it really easy for me to put him in the three spot," Trembley said. "I think it's a nice tandem with he and Nicky hitting back to back."
Said Crowley: "He's everything we dreamed he was going to be when we brought him over here as a free agent."

Such a statement would have been unthinkable a year ago, when, by his admission, Huff was in a rut. At some point that he said he can't recall, his swing devolved into what he called a lunging motion, leaving him unable to make consistent contact.

He resorted to trying to pull the ball on nearly every at-bat and pitchers adjusted, feeding Huff a steady diet of breaking pitches and change-ups. Even though he rallied with a strong second half to finish with 15 homers and 78 RBI, his performance was so alarmingly subpar that some experts projected him to finish with worse numbers this season.

Just one year into his deal, many considered Huff a free agent flop.

"Hitters go through strange things in their career," Crowley said. "He had drifted away from being the force that he was. When I think back to '03, I remember a monster. He had just gotten away from that a little bit."

So that afternoon at Fenway, Crowley and Huff set about turning back time. By simply putting Huff in a taller stance, Crowley said it allowed for better leverage on the ball, which made it easier to hit breaking pitches. Just as important, the Green Monster in left field gave Huff an inviting target to reinforce the second key idea: going the other way.

Just a few pitches in, Crowley said that even Huff's bat speed appeared improved.

"He instantly started driving balls off the Monster, balls that I thought were going to go through the wall, hitting balls over the wall," Crowley said. "And every time we threw the ball in to him, he hit it into the seats in right field. I knew we had touched on a comfort zone."

Several times this season, Trembley has attributed Huff's rebound to the ability to hit to the opposite field.

"From that moment on, it's been a total turnaround," said Huff, who has hit .304 with 26 homers and 82 RBI since that fateful clinic at Fenway. "This feels about the way I felt in '03."

(washingtonpost.com)

Orioles slugger hit .345 with three jacks for week of July 6

Kevin Millar has a term to describe the Orioles' season thus far. He calls it "Orioles Magic," which is named after the song and is meant to sum up a team that has been in pretty much every game this season, and also sports a winning record in July, despite not having a true superstar.

Millar says that all throughout the season, the entire team has stepped up to keep Baltimore afloat in the highly competitive American League East.

Last week, it was obviously Aubrey Huff's turn.

The Orioles' designated hitter knocked in a run in six out of seven games and, on Monday, he was named the Bank of America AL Player of the Week.

Huff, in his second year with the Orioles, hit .345 (10-for-29), with three home runs, nine RBIs and three doubles to go along with a .333 on-base percentage and a .759 slugging percentage last week. In a four-game series against the Royals -- which Baltimore split -- the 31-year-old went 7-for-17 with three home runs, seven RBIs and four runs scored.

"I've had some hot streaks," Huff said after a two-homer game on Thursday against the Royals -- a game that ended in a 10-7 loss for his Orioles. "But, over the last month, it's probably the best I've felt in a while."

Over his last 11 games, Huff is hitting .372 (16-for-43) with five home runs and 15 RBIs. This was the second time that Huff has won the award and the first time since September 2005, when he sported a Rays uniform.

But 2008 didn't start off on the right foot for the nine-year veteran. In January, Huff underwent hernia surgery that sidelined him for the early part of Spring Training. And in the first few games of the season, Huff was booed at Camden Yards for some controversial comments that he made about the city of Baltimore on a radio show last winter.

It seems like Huff handled it well.

Fast-forward three months and Huff leads the team in power numbers with 17 home runs and 54 RBIs, while also sporting a .281 batting average. And, after a 3-4 week, his Orioles stand at 44-43 and 11 games back of the Rays for first place in the AL East.
For a while, Huff has said he's feeling as good as ever.

"It just seems like my timing feels good right now," Huff said two weeks ago. "I'm seeing the ball, even if it's an offspeed pitch, and I've been able to lay off the bad pitch.

"It's timing, man. It comes and goes. I'm just trying to ride it as long as I can. Tomorrow, it can go away just like that. That's how baseball is. You just never know. It can turn right around."

(mlb.com)