And now, a word about the O's

The Orioles just completed a 4-1 week to start the season. Sunday's game ended in the bottom of the ninth, when Luis Hernandez--perhaps the worst starting player in the major leagues--blooped a single off Mariners' temporary closer Mark Lowe to complete a 3-run inning and complete the sweep against the Mariners. It's great that the O's are playing pretty well to start the season, despite minuscule crowds at Camden Yards, including it's all-time smallest crowd ever Tuesday night against Tampa Bay. The Sun and several other blogs are even signaling a return of "Orioles Magic".

But the funny thing--well, maybe not funny--is that there is NO Orioles Magic at Camden Yards. At least not over the public address system.

The O's DJ played the familiar refrain opening day as the O's took the field, as has been tradition for lo these many years. It's a song that is meant to inspire and cause reflection for the good days all at the same time. It was a way to link today's players to the heroes of the "the good ole days" of the championship years of the late sixties, early seventies and 1983.

But after the opening day loss the DJ stopped playing the song. Whether that decision was made by the warehouse, the players or the DJ is immaterial really. What does matter is that the players are happy that it's no longer played over the P.A. Instead, they are playing it in the locker after games as a "mocking, team-unifying guffaw" according to Sun columnist Dan Connolly.

Kevin Millar is credited with playing the song, which apparently was loaded on his i-Pod, and Aubrey Huff is quoted extensively on the subject in Mr. Connolly's column. You can read what they say for yourself.

Today's players have no idea what this song and this team mean to the city and community. It's a shame that something that is supposed to be inspirational and reminiscent at the same time is played as a "mocking, team-unifying guffaw". While some of the younger players seem to thing it's pretty cool, the "leaders" of this team are the ones that are playing it in a mocking manner.

I'm not bent out of shape that it's no longer played when the O's take the field, but it would be nice if the current O's knew a little bit about the history of the team they currently play for.

Maybe if they did, Huff wouldn't have spouted off on the radio over the off-season denigrating the city and talking about getting drunk and watching porn, Millar wouldn't have made himself look like a donkey's rear end on national television shilling for the Red Sox in the World Series, and this team could begin to salvage some respect and dignity with its success the first week of the season and the hard work Andy MacPhail has been doing to rebuild this sagging, moribund franchise.

But I guess to gain respect, you have to self-respect, and it seems like the veterans of this team--Millar and Huff--don't qualify in that regard.

Photos From Spring Training

Here are some more photos from our spring training trip. Today we saw the Nats lose to the Cardinals 3-0. Yesterday we saw the Orioles lose to the Mets 1-0. Notice a pattern? That's right, Cheryl and I are 0-5 on the trip. At least the sun came out today. We had the top down all day while we were driving from Ft. Lauderdale up to Jupiter for the game, then up to Viera where we'll stay the next two nights.

I'll have a game story on today's 3-0 loss on DC Sports Box.

Enjoy the photos. Cheryl took all of these. Except of course when she's in them..

Embattled infielder Felipe Lopez enjoys a rare smile at spring training.

Cheryl gets Jesus Flores attention--but he's swinging Saul Rivera's bat!

Ronnie Belliard chilling before the game with the Cardinals in Jupiter.

Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it's off to work for Nick Johnson.

Albert Pujols pops up but drives in two on Tuesday against the Nats.

Austin Kearns can't check his swing against Cards starter Anthony Reyes.

Legendary college basketball coach Bobby Knight congratulates Jason Isringhausen after the Cards win 3-0.

Nats dugout pre-game Tuesday in Jupiter's Roger Dean Stadium.

The writer and the photographer in <> sunny Florida.

We caught up with old friend Brian Schneider in Ft. Lauderdale where the Mets were playing the Orioles on Monday...

and Ryan Church after the Nats lost to the Mets on Sunday.

We have two games left. Wednesday the Nats play at the Braves and Thursday the Nats host the Orioles. Stay tuned...

Orioles Season Preview

The Orioles had a very busy off-season and may very well not be finished yet. Trades of Eric Bedard and Miguel Tejada have contributed to the replenishing of the farm system, netting ten players and prospects to a severely young-talent dry organization. Several of those players are competing for spots on the 25-man roster. And rumors abound every day about whether Brian Roberts will start the season with the Orioles or Cubs.

New pitching coach Rick Kranitz has a style that caters to the individual pitchers strengths instead of the "one way" approach of former coach Leo Mazzone. And the front office is undergoing an overhaul, with team President Andy MacPhail adding 27 year-old Matt Klentak as Director of Baseball Operations. It'll be a long summer on the field for the O's, but at least the team is making moves to be competitive in the future, rather than signing retreads and free agents to plug holes in a sinking ship.

Let's take a look at the Orioles position-by-position as spring training cuts have already started.

First Base: Expect to see Kevin Millar log the bulk of innings at first. Sad as that may be, he's under contract and will probably lead the team in OBP. Scott Moore has seen some at bats there in the spring in hopes of adding some positional flexibility. Moore will probably be the back-up corner infield guy, starting twice a week to give Millar and Mora some rest.

Second Base: Brian Roberts, until the trade. There's just no way this doesn't get done. Once he's gone, it'll either be whoever they get back (Eric Patterson maybe) or Brandon Fahey full-time.

Shortstop: Here's where it gets dicey. Right now, Luis Hernendez is getting almost ALL of the playing time in Florida and proving beyond a doubt that he's not a major league player. If the O's don't get a shortstop in the Roberts deal (Ronny Cedeno?) they might have to look elsewhere, because 600 at bats combined from Hernandez and Fahey will be disastrous.

Third Base: Melvin Mora is the incumbent, and until he gets hurt, he's start all but one night a week. Mike Costanzo and the aforementioned Scott Moore are both hitting in spring training, but Mora has a lock on this job.

Left Field: Luke Scott, obtained in the Tejada deal, is the starter. He could surprise and flourish since Houston never wanted to commit to him full-time. He had 18 homers in 369 at-bats last season, and his left/right splits are negligible.

Center Field: Adam Jones. He was the jewel of the Bedard trade, and the most impactful player the Orioles picked up in the off-season. The guy has been compared to Eric Davis talent-wise. He's above average defensively as well. He will be fun to watch this summer.

Right Field: The cornerstone of the franchise, Nick Markakis. He elevated every aspect of his game last year, hitting .300/23/112/18 with gold glove caliber defense. He's the real deal, and only 24. If the O's make a financial commitment to him, the outfield at Camden Yards looks pretty solid for a while.

Reserve Outfielder(s): Jay Gibbons, Jay Payton, Tike Redman. Take your pick. None are going to be very productive. Gibbons misses the first 15 games due to his PED suspension. Payton is rumored to the Cubs with Roberts. That would be a blessing. Redman performed admirably but way over his head last September.

Designated Hitter: Ah, Aubrey Huff. He sure made himself look like an idiot over the winter. The O's are straddled with another year of his not hitting before Memorial Day, then hitting just enough to justify his existence. Declining home run totals the last five (!) years shows his skills are eroding, and if Moore or Costanza hit enough, Huff may not make it through the season with the O's.

Catcher: Ramon Hernandez and Guillermo Quiroz. Hernandez reported to camp in much better shape than he did last year. Hopefully Quiroz will provide enough time off to keep Hernandez healthy and productive enough to entice someone to make a deal for him at the trading deadline, when we may get a taste of future all-star Matt Wieters.

Starting Pitchers: Yuck. The rotation looks like this right now: Steve Traschel, Jeremy Guthrie, Adam Loewen, Daniel Cabrera and ???. Loewen will miss his start tomorrow though, so things could shake up considerably. The O's lost Troy Patton, obtained in the Tejada deal, to labrum surgery and they've already assigned Hayden Penn to the minors. So that leaves Matt Albers, another Houston transplant, Garrett Olson, Brain Burress, Radhames Liz and Lance Cormier in the competition for the #5 and maybe #4 if Loewen is injured and not just sore. Not pretty.

Relief Pitching: George Sherrill is the closer. He came over in the Bedard deal, and was absolutely killer last year against righties and lefties on a situational basis. Can he close full-time? We'll find out. Chris Ray will miss most of the season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Jamie Walker and Chad Bradford will be the primary set-up/situational guys in the back of the pen. They are both better suited for this work that the heavy loads they has to carry last year.

Dennis Sarfate is a hard-throwing RHP who is out of options and Randor Bierd is a Rule V draft pick the O's think can help, so both stand a good chance to make this pen. That leaves Greg Aquino, a former closer for Arizona, Rocky Cherry and the losers from the starter competition to fight for the long-man spots in the pen. Tough way to make a MLB living. James Hoey will most likely start in AAA and be ready the first time someone goes down. He was dominant in AA last year but struggled with location in Baltimore, not uncommon for rookies. But he's got a cannon.

Coaching: What kind of big league manager will Dave Trembley be with the full-time gig? Who knows. He's been preaching the "pitching and defense" mantra all spring, but is that because he just doesn't have the mashers? He's known as a teacher from his time in the minors, and you figure he'll have to have patience this season, especially with the pitchers.

New pitching coach Rick Kranitz come to Baltimore with all kinds of accolades from his time with the Marlins. He allows the pitchers to pitch to their strengths and tries to refine through mechanics instead of preaching time-tested methods. Not saying Mazzone was to blame for ALL the O's pitching woes, but some people just learn in different ways.

Terry Crowley returns as the hitting coach, and I just don't understand why. He's a nice guy and has been around forever, but the Orioles have been in the lower half of the pack in scoring for several years now, and although the O's have been through four pitching coaches in six years, he remains. Must be his pre-game botche-ball games.

Outlook: Two weeks ago I would have predicted the O's to lose about 90 games based on all projections. With injuries to Patton and now possibly Loewen, and the prospect of 600 at-bats from Luis Hernandez, the Orioles could very well face triple-digit losses. Expect MacPhail to deal anyone over 30 by the trading deadline that has any kind of value, even to bring just organizational depth over. The off-season deals brought some good talent, including pitching prospect Chris Tillman, but they have a long, long way to go before this organization can be competitive again.

First Beltway Battle of the Spring

Viera, FL--The Baltimore Orioles defeated the Washington Nationals 4-1 Saturday afternoon to take the early lead in the Battle for the Beltways this season. Granted, the victory only counts in the Grapefruit League standings, but with each game and each season that passes where these teams play each other, a fan-interest rivalry grows just a bit stronger.

Neither teams is expected to contend this season, but the seeds are starting to grow for each, as the Nationals and Orioles both made extensive off-season changes to their everyday line-ups and quality of bench play.

For the Nationals, Saturday's game featured the spring debut of de facto "ace" John Patterson, in his return from forearm surgery. He pitched two innings and gave up two hits, including O's third base prospect Mike Costanzo's second inning home run. He also struck out two without allowing a base on balls.

John Lannan followed with two scoreless innings, surrendering three hits but striking out four. Non-roster invitee Dennis Tankersly gave up three earned in his two innings, and Chad Cordero, Ray King and Jon Rauch each pitched one scoreless inning.

The offense managed seven hits off six Orioles hurlers, including two apiece from Jesus Flores, non-roster catcher Humberto Cota and Elijah Dukes. Cota drove in the lone Nats run of the day.

The Nats have split squad games Sunday against the Orioles in Ft. Lauderdale and the Houston Astros in Kissimmee. Steven Shell will go against Houston and Garrett Mock will face the Orioles.

Article also posted at DC Sports Box.
Photo courtesy of Al Santos, DC Sports Box

If I Ran the Orioles

IMHO, the O's should trade Tejada for the best 2 almost ready prospects they can. a trade with LA for Kemp and Meloan would be IDEAL. then acquire a slugging first baseman (Adam Dunn, anyone), shortstop and legit back-up catcher. i'd let Huff/Millar effectively platoon at DH with the other providing depth on the bench. re-sign Patterson for center, and let Payton be the 4th OF, pinch-hitting and playing for Corey against lefties where he belongs.

contemplate this line-up:

2b Roberts
lf Kemp
rf Markakis
1b Dunn
dh Huff/Millar
3b Moore/Mora
c Hernandez
ss Juan Uribe
cf Patterson

bench: Millar, Mora, Payton, Luis Hernandez, Toby Hall

then for pitching, there's CRAP available for starters, so i'd concentrate on closer (Nathan? F. Cordero?) and back-end rotation help (Josh Fogg? Jon Leiber?)

SP Bedard
SP Guthrie
SP Loewen
SP Fogg
SP D. Cabrera
LRP Burress
LRP Walker
RHP Cherry
RRP Meloan
RRP Bradford
CL Nathan

they'd be getting younger (Kemp, Moore, Meloan) and more competitive (Dunn, Nathan) and the only real money would be on Dunn and Nathan, and you'd be off-setting part of that by dealing Tejada's $13M. Uribe, Fogg, Hall all would come at MLB average salaries.

A Firesale for the O's? Don't bet on it.

the question "do the O's have anyone of any real value to trade?" is fair and pointed. the answer, sadly, is "not really".

Bedard, Guthrie, Roberts, Hernandez, Mora and now sadly Tejada are all untradable for varying reasons. Patterson, Gibbons, Baez and Trachsel all have values so depressed the best they could get would be a C-level player. the rest are either unproven (Ray, Burres, etc) or spare parts (Bynum, et al).

the only players that have some trade value that might net more than a c-level prospect would be Cabrera, Huff, Payton, Millar, Walker, Bradford and perhaps Gomez. honestly, the relievers should have the most value to a contender, but even then, the O's are not going to pry away Lasting Milledge or Brandon Wood for Jamie Walker.

the sad reality is the O's, and us, are stuck with most (all) of these guys, and the hope that the young pitching is for real and they can sign a big bat for the middle of the order for next year, or 2009.

just don't expect a firesale July 31. they don't have the kindling.

Where Should We Start

It's taken me a little bit to consolidate my opinions about yesterday's events surrounding the Baltimore Orioles. There was good, bad and ugly.


First, and briefly, the good. The O's took two of three from the Padres in San Diego. Interim Manager Dave Trembley said, "What I saw was guys taking a lot of pitches, working the counts, using the whole field, being patient at the plate. There was just a real good chemistry in the lineup." The key to good baseball is not making outs, and the last two games it's been like a light has gone on. Not that anyone expects this team to be competitive, but just the realization that taking a few pitches and getting on base is important is progress enough.

Now, the bad. Bedard and Tejada are hurt. It sounds like Bedard is the less injured of the two, but if a pitcher doesn't have his legs, he's got nothing. One sure way to hurt your arm is to try to pitch with a leg injury. Tejada is the troubling one, in many ways. First, if his wrist is broken, then he'll have to miss some time, and that helps no one. Doesn't help the team on the field, doesn't help the front office get fair trade value. Just bad all around.

But what's the deal with letting him extend this consecutive games streak by batting second yesterday and laying a feeble bunt, forcing Roberts at second and almost getting a DP out of it? What exactly would he have done if Roberts hadn't gotten on? And Trembley's defense of it was just as weak: "Miguel Tejada is a very special person. What he's done in this game is very special. I believe you walk a fine line between doing what's right for your team and what's right for Miguel, out of respect, because I believe he's earned that. Today, I took him out of the game for the team, but I allowed him to have that at-bat out of respect for him."

This is just further reinforcing the notion that the inmates are running the asylum. HE'S INJURED!!! You want to be the regular the manager, display the fortitude necessary in the interest of the team to stand up to your best player! What self-respecting managerial prospect would come in to a situation like this??? Truly amazing and pathetic. Guys whine in the paper about playing time, they're in the line-up the next day. Guy whines in the paper about not being consulted about a day off, he gets a public apology instead of further benching. Guy BREAKS HIS WRIST and is allowed to make a mockery of himself and the team by taking a feeble bunt attempt and pulling himself from the game for the sake of a consecutive games played streak?

What's worse, the co-GM thinks it's ok: "He said that he was sore, but he could play," Duquette said. "He thinks it is going to feel better. He seems to have a very high pain threshold, but you don't want to risk making it worse."

Again, HE'S GOT A BROKEN WRIST!!!

*Quotes lifted from linked article by Zrbiec and Kubatko in the Sun.com, photo by AP.

Guthrie Channels Steve Carlton

I stayed up last night to watch the O's-Padres game. obviously Guthrie is pitching well, and he had a high strikeout total last night, but the thing that really impresses me about him is the way he pitches to both sides of the plate.

Steve Carlton is a nut-job in every sense of the word, but the guy could really pitch. anyway i heard him say one time the key to getting big league hitters out is to make them uncomfortable by moving the ball around in different areas of the plate. he said you can throw a great slider (and by all accounts his was one of the best), but if they know it's coming, and more importantly where it's coming, big league hitters are going to make you pay.

that's what Guthrie is doing right now. next time he throws, watch him. i mean really watch him. don't just look for strikes and balls. inside-outside-up-down. never in the same place twice. that's why he's allowing (much) fewer than one base runner per inning.

he simply can't continue the pace he's on, so we should be enjoying it, but this kid really has something, and shame on the Indians for jerking him around so much that they couldn't see it. he really seems like a creature of habit and he's comfortable where he is now. good for him, and good for us.

What to Take Away from Joe Girardi's Comments Today

The Post scooped the Sun on Girardi's comments today.

Here are the telling quotes from that story:

"I think the people, number one," make it an attractive position, Girardi said. "Andy and Mike, it starts there. Number two, the city and the tradition. And the challenge. That's what competition is all about, right?"

Andy referring to the still-unnamed COO Andy McPhail, who was President with the Cubs as Girardi was finishing up his playing career, and Mike being Mike Flanagan, half of the current GM tandem for the Warehouse. I guess Jim Duquette was too busy calling up veteran relievers to replace the rookies that were obviously overmatched the other day.

"Andy was the one who approached me about this," Girardi said. "I know him pretty well. I have the utmost respect for Andy MacPhail."

Again, the same guy who still doesn't officially work for the team is contacting managerial prospects and interviewing them.

Girardi said he did not know a specific timeline for Baltimore's decision, but said, "The Orioles made it sound like it'd be sooner rather than later."

This would be the first time since Peter Angelos took over the team that they made a decision sooner rather than later, if it actually happens that way.

Anyway, the comments sound like he's interested. Nothing like kicking the tires on a 53 year old once-proud baseball franchise.