Slump-Busting Open Thread
I’m in a hurry this morning but I wanted to have a dedicated post for discussing today’s effort to break the Sunday Slump. I’m not sure Brian Burres is exactly the guy I’d want on the hill, but there it is.
Also, for those who missed it: Adam Loewen is done as a pitcher and will try to become a position player, Randor Bierd has returned from a stop in his home galaxy, and some dude named Juan Castro has been acquired to add depth at SS.
I’ll be at the game today in section 17…stop by and say hello.
Wow!
I was away from home all day yesterday. For anyone who happened to be at Artscape at the Saturn Stage at 2PM on Saturday watching a band called Stupid Hero, that was me on the drums. Haha, much fun, that was. Hot as balls, though.
And then I wake up this morning and it’s like O’s news central. Adam Loewen 2.0, Castro trade, Bierd up, Aquino DL, Luke walkoff home run, more awesome DT quotes. Yes!
I really never, ever thought they would decide to go that route with Loewen, but you have to commend everyone involved in that decision, Loewen included, for the guts it takes to do that. We might never see Loewen again in the bigs, but you absolutely gotta root for the guy because it’s been a hard luck journey for the kid. At very least, he’s not bouncing around between the DL and the minors and whatnot, so that’s good.
With Castro, obviously, none of us really know jack about him except that he’s hit .230 in his major league at bats. Glad to get Bynum off the squad. Not sure what happened to Freddie because he wasn’t that bad last year. I wasn’t really minding Fahey starting at SS, but you can’t really fault the decision. Anybody know anything about Mike McCoy?
GO OS
ugggggggggggggggggh!!!!
I HATE watching GIDPs on <2 strikes!
Good Lord!
Leyland is ruthless pulling Verlander out of a complete game with 1 OUT to go and a 4 run lead.
Da-yum.
Dammit, Inge.
Oh well, a split series is still an accomplishment.
Bierd looked a little shaky but it was a lot of bloops and weak singles. Glad he’s back.
Hard to expect to win with the matchup being Verlander/Burres. I mean, this was pretty much 15 in a row before it even started.
Next Sunday it’s the Angels, so it’s not getting easier. But then! We get the Mariners. The streak shall end at 16, I predict. Speaking of the Mariners, Bedard won’t pitch until August because of shoulder issues. Wow.
I understand getting rid of Bynum, but DT confuses me with the decision to sit Fahey. The kid was actual the cause of some production at the plate lately. I don’t really get it. A 36 year old who can’t hit at the major league level? How does that help anything?
McCoy info http://coloradosprings.skysox.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Mike%20McCoy&pos=2B&sid=t551&t=p_pbp&pid=453454
He’s no world-beater, but he had a decent average.
I doubt Castro will continue to start every game. I think he was getting a start just to get him in there right after being acquired. DT likes Fahey and I think he’ll probably end up starting Fahey/Cintron and subbing in Castro in the late innings to shore up the infield defense. It is kind of a shame that we had to give Colorado an infield guy just because we’re so thin at infield within the organization. But hey, neither McCoy nor Castro will be our shortstop of the future.
This was not a fun game to go to. Scott’s baserunning mistake completely deflated the team and, shortly thereafter, the crowd. There was never a point after that where I thought they could pull it out.
Still, as Tomas points out, a split here is pretty reasonable.
The Juan Castro move is one of the most puzzling things I’ve seen in awhile. The guy is a total mystery, birthed from a great Nothing and destined to leave virtually no mark on this team, good or bad. It’s very, very odd.
I disagree. I think he’s there to provide solid defense. Fahey does ok, but he still makes mistakes and doesn’t have a great arm. You need someone to put in there in the late innings to be solid. There’s no one in the organization that can do that. No one. Andy MacPhail openly admitted at the question and answer session that Castro was not the future shortstop and the hunt is far from complete. But I agree that it’s not exactly a move that needed to be made.
Word on the street is Roch is leaving the Sun. Interesting…
I see your point about Castro, but it’s just so weird. It seems to me that if you’re going to trade for a SS it’d be better to make an impact deal and bring in a guy who will hold it down in years to come. Otherwise, I’m honestly fine with Fahey there. I don’t see Castro as a giant upgrade. Maybe an incremental one — late-inning defense, like you said — but it just seems a strange move.
I heard that Roch rumor, too. That would have a huge impact on the Orioles media landscape if it’s true.
Are you blogging for Camden Chat, Dan?
Yeah, I dunno. MacPhail’s made two blockbusters and two headscratchers – Gomez and McCoy. I’m with you in that I hope Fahey continues to get starts. But Bynum wasn’t doing anything, and that’s a fact.
Apparently, as I’m sure you know, it’s something to do with the Tribune company buyout. Crazy shit.
haha nah, man.. I put up a “Fanpost” about Roch, which anyone can do on Camden Chat, and if you’re the first one to put up some kind of news that they deem worthy, they put it on the front page.
Ahh, gotcha.
I think we can all agree that Bynum was terrible and needed to go. In that sense the Castro move works…it’s still weird though.
This Roch Kubatko news is really interesting. I know a lot of Sun reporters took the buyout offer, including (according to Mobtown Shank) heavyweights Kevin Cowherd and Greg Kane. But I figured a guy like Roch would stick around, based largely on the fact that he’s the only sports reporter there with any kind of following. It’ll be interesting to see where that goes and how it affects Orioles coverage, since Roch was usually first with breaking news.
Yeah, I mean.. does this mean that other Sun sports reporters will have their blog become more prominent, like, say, Rick Maese? Ugh… And like you said, who else is going to have that “in” on O’s news that Roch had? It seems like a lot of the players knew him and chose to talk to him.
You have to wonder if there’s a spot on MASN somewhere for him?
Dan, I would definitely say MASN is in the running for Roch considering how frequently he’s been appearing on the pre-game show this year more than last. Sure they have Zriebec on there too, but Roch has even subbed in for Rick Dempsey (as difficult as that task is…).
I suppose another Sun blog could step in to take Roch’s place, but it’s hard to imagine which reporter there could get the job done. I mean no disrespect to them, of course, but for whatever reason Roch seemed to strike a chord. I think it was a combination of his generally affable personality combined with his access to good sources. That’ll be tough to duplicate.
It’d be tempting to say that another, non-affiliated blog will take his place but I doubt it. For better or worse, having a name like “The Sun” associated with your work matters a lot.
I work to cultivate relationships with the communications/PR departments at various entities and have made some solid inroads. And, in fact, over the past few weeks I’ve developed a pretty good relationship with the Orioles communications staff. They have been receptive to my outreach and very cool and professional. I hope to do the same thing with the Ravens and some of the other local teams/entities.
But even if I’m successful, I’ll never have the combination of access and reach of a Roch Kubatko, and neither will any other independent website operator. It just doesn’t work that way without two things: (a) that doing it is your full-time job, and (b) that you have the credibility of “old media.” That’s changing fast but we’re not there yet.
All of which goes to say that if the buyout rumors are true regarding Roch, I think Orioles coverage in general will suffer a bit.
I doubt anyone would disagree with that last statement. It’s easy to make fun of Roch’s writing style, etc, but no one can deny his real insider-ness. Dude trades text messages with players.
Neal, do you anticipate that you’ll ever have press access to things like O’s press conferences? Is there a criteria for that sort of thing, or is it at the whim of somebody?
I really don’t know for sure, but I suspect that I could probably have access to those things if I asked for it. Because I’ve done my share of “real journalism” and, in particular, have done two cover stories at PressBox, I think I tend to get taken seriously. That said, somebody would have to approve the request if I made it, and I don’t know how that would turn out.
All I know for sure is that the people I’ve dealt with have been very cool, and my only goal is to develop the same kind of relationships with them that any other media type would have. I want to provide the best content I can provide, and talking to those folks helps.
Maybe if the O’s sign Mark Teixeira or something big like that it might be cool to go to the press conference. It’s something to think about.
Might be cool, he says! Well, best of luck to you if you decide to put in that request one day. The O’s certainly wouldn’t be making any dire mistakes adding some LC flavor to the mix.
I find it interesting that your dealings with the O’s PR people differ so drastically from that of, say, Drew’s. Obviously there’s some history there with NST and all that, but maybe that creates a little room for the “new media”. Maybe it makes the O’s PR guys say hey, maybe these guys aren’t so bad because they’re approaching us with respect rather than expecting to receive it.
And I don’t pretend to know what the hell I’m talking about with regards to how sports media or journalism works, so let me just say that before Forrester comes on here and blasts me.
Just wait 6 years or so and the Sun will be long gone. The print world is dying out, and unless you’re the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, or the LA Times you’re on the clock. That’s just how it is, and really, the blog world is replacing it, so I don’t think that the overall coverage is going to falter that much in the long run. It’s sad, but the little papers all over the country, like the Sun, are just dying out because who is paying for news that you get for free on the internet?
Yeah, I saw the last season of The Wire. Heh.
Oh, and is anybody out there not sick and tired of hearing about NST’s problems with the Orioles? I know I am. With their internet feed down, and me living outside of their very, very small broadcast signal, I haven’t listened to anybody over there in a couple months and I’ve felt a little more positive about things in general. So it goes.
I’m thinking we split with Toronto as well, probably taking Wednesday and either tonight or Tuesday. The Angels are going to beat us up real good for sure, maybe we sneak in one win. That’s not a very good home stand, going maybe 5-6, but these are good teams. If Toronto plays as poorly as they’re capable and we get hot, we could do some damage. Maybe the Angels come in without expecting any competition from the O’s. Who knows?
After the Yankee series though, things get interesting. We should be well out of range of competition, but within 5 games or so of .500. The trade deadline will have passed, and it’ll be the dreaded month of August. I’ve been preaching all along that August and September are how you judge this team, and nothing beforehand matters that much. So, I’m looking forward to the annual late season swoon (or lack thereof) to get a really good idea of how the team is built and how Trembley can hold things together.
Yeah, I didn’t mean to bring the NST subject up again. I just think since there’s a bad relationship that exists there, it could open up some doors for other, less-high-profile press people.
I have to admit my interest has somewhat waned with regards to the actual games and I’m starting be more and more interested in what the organization does next with the team. Will they extend Trembley? Markakis? Roberts? What can they do about this ridiculous starting rotation which did not pan out at all how it was supposed to? When does Matusz get signed? How will Loewen’s contract issue be resolved and where does he end up? Will there be more trades?
I think that’s fair, since we pretty much know hwo the team is going to perform:
Burres is going to keep pitching pretty much exactly like we’ve already seen him pitch like for 2 years now.
Liz and Olson are going to struggle, trying to comprehend exactly how to pitch against major leaguers.
Cabs and Guts are going to give us exactly what we expect from them, which is crap and greatness, respectively.
Mora, Millar, Ramon, Payton, and the SS are going to show how bad they are at the plate, while Scott, Roberts, Huff, Jones, and Nick carry the offense for the most part.
Hopefully Jones will start to hit some home runs.
What we don’t know is whose playing for the team next year, and where do we see Tillman, Matusz, and Arrieta next year – not to mention Wieters, Rowell, Synder, and Reimold.
I mean, it’s not exactly riveting stuff, I’ll give you that. Watching players develop at the major league level rarely is. But as a whole, I think the last two months will be the most telling, frustrating or otherwise, of the whole year.
I think we’ll see Mickolio before we see any of the other guys. He recently got promoted to Norfolk after tearing it up in Bowie, and I’m he’d look mighty good in that depleted Orioles ‘pen. Just a guess.
I’m still interested in this team. It’s only natural to lose focus in the Dog Days, but maybe they’ve got another run to .500 to keep everyone interested.
Either way, I’m not going anywhere.
If this was the NL West we would sure as hell be interested because we would be half a game out of first place.
Andy is right on the mark – August is a gauntlet of death. The trade deadline will have passed. Hopefully DT can motivate this team to enjoy playing the spoiler.
August:
@ sea, @ la, TEX, @ cle, @ det, BOS, NYY, CHI, @ TB
Not to mention the Left Coast trip that starts the month is fresh off a trip through the Bronx.
Oh, me neither. I’m just saying I don’t think there’s going to be a breakout performance that makes everyone sit up and go “Whoa” like Markakis two years ago or Bedard last year (and when he went down in September, I honestly don’t remember that many more games, since it was just painful to watch without Erik or Jeremy around).
August will suck, it’s true, but I’m still holding out hope that they’ll hover within 10 games of .500 — close enough to give me hope through the end.
Even if they don’t, I think it’ll be worth watching guys like Jones and Markakis and Guthrie. Hopefully Payton is gone by that point, maybe some prospects show up…there will be seeds planted for next year, for sure.
what will happen first. the orioles win on sunday, or the ravens win on sunday?
It’s amazing that if you take out the sunday games we are 46-35. I was at the only sunday win this year, and it was a near loss. the down 2-0 in the bottom of the ninth against seattle, and we win 3-2 on timely hitting, a wild pitch, an error, and of all guys, luis hernandez delivered the game winning hit.
Is there anyway to explain this? i like the idea of a uni change, something the rid the bad ju ju going around. I think DT should say if we win this sunday he’ll dye his hair orange. i think lou pinnella proposed something like that when he managed in tampa bay, and it worked. he bleached it blonde for a week or something.