Orioles-Blue Jays Game Two
It’s Garrett Olson on the hill against Shaun Marcum tonight as the O’s look to build some momentum off last night’s solid all-around win. Olson’s having an iffy year, sure, but the good news is that his numbers are way better at home than on the road. He’s pitched to 3-1, 4.76 at the Yard while going 3-4, 6.81 on the road. So, there’s that.
A couple of “if you missed it” items:
Luke Scott was named AL Player of the Week for the week ending July 20th. More important than that nugget is this one: Scott’s 420-foot homer to end the game on Saturday was the first walkoff homer to ever land on Eutaw Street.
And…tomorrow (Wednesday) the Orioles are holding 1983 Turn Back the Clock day, which means (a) cheap seats, (b) awesome unis, and (c) likely good times. I’ll be there somewhere in the upper deck — anybody else going?
Finally…Keep Hellboy Sherrill!
Also — tonight’s my radio night, 6-8 pm with the Ungers. The WNST stream is back, too, so listen in.
Hey man, I’ll be up there…I’m in section I-don’t-know-what. I’ll drop by and at least say hey.
If we can get a Wood-esque player for Georgie…well, I’ll at least know which team to root for in the playoffs.
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How maddening is Garret Olson right now? Well, actually he reminds me very, very much of Erik Bedard circa 2004. He’ll get better, I’m sure.
Wow, Mora’s really turned it on lately. He’s making my derision of him look stupid, which is great. We can’t trade him, so he might as well perform for us, even in spurts.
But he looks great right now.
Ya know with all this excuse making of “high humidity & heat” causing HRs at Camden (for and AGAINST the Os), one would think Trembley & Kranitz could use that to their advantage by getting all the desperate 4A guys in the bullpen to at least *try* throwing the knuckleball.
I don’t know what section I’m in tomorrow — it’s not my usual perch at 17. I’ll be somewhere in the upper deck but if you email me separately (editor {at} thelosscolumn.com) I’ll send you my # and we can say hey.
Meanwhile, this pitching is infuriating.
The worst part about this — if we don’t come back — is that things just get crazy with Burnett and Halladay for the next two. With a second-tier pitcher on a limited count we needed to do something. And offensively, we have. Stupid pitchers with their ten run meltdowns.
That 2nd to last pitch to Ramon was ridiculously out of the strike zone. I hate it when umps decide they want to go home.
I don’t think knuckleballing is something that you can really teach, seeing as it’s only got one current player who is any good at it.
What a forgettable night all around. We could really use Albers back, eh?
Olson, Burres, Johnson, and even Daniel Cabrera are OJTing at the major league level, and it shows.
Olson seems to pitch scared to often, e.g., afraid to trust his stuff, and let the other team put it in play.
Palmer’s verbose comments about this dilemma do have some merit; Olson’s trying too hard to make perfect pitches and he doesn’t yet have that kind of command. Thus, he falls behind and then is forced to serve meat to major league hitters who are obviously making him, and the O’s pay.
I would have thought Olson would have shown more progress by now.
He and the other starters must get deeper into games, or we’ll really go down the tubes because the current offensive onslaught is subject to taper off. . .
Need a Dave Johnson SMAR, because I love listening to that guy on the radio. I think he’s spot on with everything he says.
One thing you cant take from he O’s this year is heart. Yeah, tough loss to swallow, but they fight til the very end. When we were down 6-4, i think it took less than 10 pitches to take the lead right back. We’ll get em tonight.
Melmo!! are you kiddin me! 14 rbi in 6 games since the break. all of a sudden he leads the O’s with 62rbi’s.
I slowly(not yet) but slowly, am starting wonder if maybe we dont throw our money at Texieria, but rather at an ace caliber pitcher. It has not been the offense that is the problem, but no one seems to be able to pitch into the 7th, or even 6th inning anymore. Someone like Olsen could start next year at norfolk, maybe we dont see him next year, let him fine tune his breaking stuff, and get some of that confidence back for the 2010 campaign. Just a thought. I know guys like Millar, Mora(though hot right now), and Ramon are on their last legs, maybe we dont get the same offense from these guys next year, and we will need Tex, but pitching is much more important, if indeed we are a year ahead of schedule of the re-building process, and want to make the playoffs next year.
I’m not sure we should throw money at an ace-type pitcher because we’re not ready to compete yet. Plus, Guthrie does just fine in that role. What we need is about 2 more pitchers who can just “get the job done”. Preferably young and cheap pitchers. Via trade. Unless we rush a couple AA dudes, we’re going to have to find some pitchers from outside of the organization. Olson is pitching like a little wussy, and Liz is most likely a reliever. Burres is staying afloat, for what it’s worth.
I doubt the Orioles buy any pitching. Everything I’ve heard is that MacPhail’s thinking is develop your own pitching, because free agent pitchers are so incredibly risky (Pavano, Igawa, Ponson, Zito anyone?) – and ace types command so much money that the deals can never be fair to the team. Do you think Santana is gonna be worth his insane contract in 5 years? No way.
I think the O’s will overpay and grab Tex. There’s a few reasons for it:
1) We all know how the warehouse has slobbered over themselves wanting Tex in black and orange, and that includes the owner.
2) The team hasn’t been afraid of spending money in the past (Belle) even though lately the offers seem to be more conservative than not (Carlos Lee)…but this isn’t a cheap team by any stretch, unwilling to give out big contracts (Wieters).
3) Basically, we’re looking at a 29 year old Tex entering his prime years in a home run friendly ballpark, where he will instantly be loved, give us a power presence, and play gold glove defense…or a 38 year old Kevin Millar, who already looks done this year. Sure, it’s short term planning, but Tex is literally the only first baseman available next year.
4) The warehouse knows that if we pass on him, he becomes a Yankee and will be forever remembered as a member of “The Greatest Organization of All Time” (fun fact: did you know that there are actually 28 major league teams that are not the Yankees and Red Sox??)
So, I think the run gets made. Hey, whoever gets him overpays for him. That’s baseball in the year 2008. If you want a superstar who plays exceedingly good ball and who can be the face of a franchise, you have to reward him exceedingly.
I also always think about how the Tigers built themselves. A lot of farm tending, but a few key acquisitions of big names like Ordonez and Rodriguez, even when they weren’t very good, and suddenly they become a very good team. I’m constantly reading that the Orioles won’t make a move because we’re “not there yet”…but how do we get “there” if not by upgrading one of our weaknesses with the conveniently available hometown superhero?
Damn, Andrew, nice post.
You forgot that Tex has to want to come here
I think the status of Markakis, Roberts and DT may have something to do with that.
Or maybe he’s simply a mercenary, in which case he’ll be on the yankees.
I don’t know what to think of this team. My brain hurts. Wake me up after the deadline has passed and let me know what happened.
Albers, Aquino, Baez, Loewen, Ray, Walker
12.8M worth of injured pitching
And still we’re only 1.5 games back of first place
(I’m going to pretend we’re in the NL West for the rest of the season)
To be fair, 2 of those guys aren’t pitchers. I mean, of course, Loewen who got hurt, and Aquino, who is so bad I can’t call that pitching.
I’m excited to see what deal gets worked out for us. Apparently there were millions of scouts at the game last night. Hellboy’s about to become a very wanted man, I think.
Flatbrim is a wanted man. That’s very obvious.
Seems to me the reasons to keep him far outweigh the reasons to move him.
I say – Ride Him Hard, Shut Him Down Early. Then he gets an extended offseason to prepare for an increased workload in 09.
I don’t think we can get what we need by trading George Sherrill.
And I lust at the possibilities of Ray/Johnson/Sherrill in 09.
The reasons that the O’s will make a run at Tex are all pretty obvious. But like JTG said, if he doesn’t want to come here, then there’s nothing the Warehouse can do to make sure that he doesn’t become a Yankee. Who knows what the guy’s impression of Baltimore is? Who knows if his apparent desire to play for his “home” team isn’t way overblown?
That said – Tex fits the mold here perfectly. Tex instead of Millar in the lineup right now is a fringe playoff-caliber lineup. But where do we get the pitching? No, we probably won’t buy more than one “innings-eater”, but Tex doesn’t want to wait around for Tillman and Arrieta, you can bet on that. At least two major league-ready pitchers need to be acquired either via trade or free agency by next year.