Rangers In Town For Three
I’m not sure if this will surprise or not, but as of right now the Orioles are just two games better than last year’s team. On August 8th, 2007, the O’s would lose 8-4 to Seattle, en route to getting swept. In game three of that series, the Mariners would win 13-8 behind winning pitcher Horacio Ramirez and the first save of the season from…‘Ol FlatBrim himself.
Things hadn’t yet collapsed at that point, though. The Birds would remain within sniffing distance of .500 for another couple of weeks before the 30-3 debacle would send them on an epic tailspin in which they’d win just three of their next 21 games.
It’s only natural to flash back a bit with the Texas Rangers in town. These games are no more or less important than any others, but it certainly would be nice to beat them up a bit and pad the record before another road trip (to Cleveland and Detroit).
It’ll be Jeremy Guthrie on the mound tonight against Luis Mendoza, with the DC Cab going tomorrow against Vicente Padilla.
After that it gets interesting. Rocky Cherry, as you know, was called up today to replace Chad Bradford. If Cherry stays, Dennis Sarfate will get another start on Sunday. There’s plenty of thought out there, though, that Hayden Penn will be called up to start Sunday, which would obviously require a corresponding roster move. This one’s very much up in the air.
I’m still waiting on news regarding that “semi-big” announcement I mentioned earlier in the week. Maybe next week? Hard to say but stay tuned.
Meanwhile, let’s go Birds…
Com’on, Neal…just tell us your news. This waiting is killing me.
I thought Sarfate/Penn got skipped because of yesterday’s off day in the schedule?
Record in August so far: 3-3. Last year’s August record: 9-19. So far so good. Last September we were 10-19. This is and always has been, the true test of 2008, and it’s “exorcise the culture of losing” and Dave Trembley as a manager: how do you do when you’re way out of the race, and its the end of another long season with little to play for? So far, so good.
Fun stuff from Forbes via shysterball:
America’s most loyal fans:
Rangers
Red Sox
Braves
Cubs
Pirates
Blue Jays
Brewers
Cardinals
Orioles
Padres
What does it mean? Less than preseason football! But it’s still fun to be the 9th most loyal fanbase. (The Yankees were 6th least loyal – ha!)
As of right now, the “official” starter for Sunday is still Sarfate. I’m with you — I thought they had bumped up Chris Waters. Maybe they have and it’s just not official yet? I d’know, so I have to go with their official listings for now.
Totally agreed on August/September. This is the only part of the season that truly matters, from right about now to the end.
No can do on the news. It’s not even a big deal, it’s just something that I think folks here will be interested in (and to some extent even involved in). But until I know it’s actually a done deal, I can’t really “announce” it.
I was going to say that your blog was probably recognized by some local publication for it’s great writing and community and they are going to pay you to put it in print somewhere. Local publication being the Sun paper.
That’s my guess if I had to make one.
Man, that would be nice. Not quite, but thanks for the kind words.
Now I’m off to the WNST 10th anniversary party…wish me luck…
So I finally made it out to PG County Stadium to see David Hernandez and Matt Wieters and the gang pound on the New Britain Rock Cats.
1) Wieters is a monster. He hit 2 home runs, went 3 for 4 with a walk and 6 RBI. And he was calling his own game, where the pitchers only gave up 1 run. The Sox won 10-1.
2) Hernandez has a very impressive fastball which sits around 91-92 (but he can dial it up to 94ish) and has enough movement on it that AA batters can’t really do anything with it. He struck out the side in the first.
3) I noticed at one point Blake Davis hit a screamer that was caught and he trotted back to the dugout and got high fives. Usually I hate pointing out teams high fiving players, but it’s good to see the team reward line drives, regardless of outcome.
4) Bowie is a very patient team from what I gathered, making pitchers work. Perhaps that’s a good part of their success this year?
5) Hernandez is definitely not ready for Baltimore. At one point I could see clearly that he was tipping his pitches, and while his fastball is good enough for AA, isn’t the saying something like “in the show, everyone has a fastball”? His breaking stuff was good at times (he could throw it for strikes) but not consistent enough. He went 5.66, which is never good.
6) His delivery is very smooth though. I was impressed, all things considered.
glad to see the win tonight, but I’m fully focused on the Olympics. If you don’t care, I truly feel sorry for you, as this is amazing. Should have some coverage of swimming, and Bmore centric coverage as best I can.
Thanks for the report, Andrew. It’s good to hear the thoughts on Hernandez, because I’ve become a big fan of his from a distance. He might not be ready for Baltimore, but if what you say is true (good fastball, good breaking stuff that he can mostly throw for strikes, good mound presence) then he will probably get a look in ‘09. We have to remember that not all of the big names (Tillman, Arrieta, Erbe, etc) will pan out. There will have to be a Hernandez here or there to make up for it. Or, at the least, to serve as trade bait.
As far as the O’s, that was a textbook win tonight. Guthrie is legit as hell, and the fact that he’s going to remain here for several years to come is kind of mind boggling. He’s no Rodrigo Lopez or Willis Roberts or Josh Towers — he’s a real deal #1 or #2. Can’t build a winner without one of those, so we’re pretty fortunate.
Don’t know what I was thinking. Wieters went 3 for 3 with a sac fly.
What a great night for O’s fan. 4-3 in August. 9-19 last year. So far so good.
I like how Cabrera went exactly as far as you can go without giving up any runs. In the first inning. Could be a long night.
So of course Padilla says “I can do anything you can do better.”
I forgot to mention one important thing about last night. The Rock Cats’ (Minn) pitcher – Ryan Mullins – is a junkballer. More movement and mix stuff up than speed and power. Now, he’s not very good at pitching (1.577 WHIP, .285 BAA, 4.63 ERA) but Wieters showed off a useful inside-out swing to hit a ball the other way in the first for a blooper into right.
Is there anything you can’t do, Matt?
“I can do anything better than you.”
Nick – THE STICK
He is…the most interesting man in baseball.
“I don’t always get hits, but when I do, I prefer home runs.”
Roc-ky Cher-ry!
Palmer is talking about “the variable chance deviation theory.”
I love it when a game gets out of hand and the announcers don’t have anything relevant to say that means much. They just turn into gunk. Every single one of them. Michael Kay just sits there talking as fast as possible about how great the Yankees look. Palmer goes to gibberish. Joe Angel starts talking about no hitters in Chicago.
I love baseball.
Any time you get a shutout it’s impressive, but to do it against the Rangers is pretty damn amazing. The only downside tonight is that it further highlights how frustrating it is to watch the DC Cab. Six innings of shutout ball tonight, six walks the next time. I’ll still take him on my team.
The game ended conveniently at the very start of Michael Phelps’ first gold medal attempt, in which he won and set a new world record. Good to see.
What’s the feeling on the Olympics here? I was thinking of putting up a few open threads over the next two weeks, just places to put any and all Olympic thoughts. My interest is marginal at best, though, so I’d only want to do it if people want to see it.
And yes, Ryan, I know you’re down but it’ll take more than one or two people having interest to justify putting up some threads.
By the way, I just noticed that we’re inching towards 10,000 approved comments. We’re at 8,175 right now which means we ought to reach 10k before the end of the year (depending on whether or not Drew ignites a few more battles between now and then…). I’m thinking I might want to do something special when we get there. No solid ideas yet, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Thanks again to everybody for being here, spreading the word, and generally making this site what it is.
I made it to my first Bowie game tonight. Ryan Finan almost had himself an in the parker, but was thrown out at the plate. Very upsetting.