The Cavalry’s First Wave
Count me in for a ticket on the Brad Bergesen bandwagon. I thought he should have made the team out of spring training and I’m stoked that he’s on his way to Baltimore.
I’m tempted to warn against high expectations, but let’s put this in relative terms. Anybody who can pitch at an average or slightly below average level will immediately represent an improvement over Eaton, Hendrickson, or Simon. I believe Bergesen can be that guy. Maybe he’s Josh Towers redux (I think he’s better than that), but don’t forget that Towers had his moments.
I’ll be at the the game Tuesday to watch him debut — anybody else?
On the Matt Wieters front, there’s a nice article about him from the Virginian-Pilot out today. It’s nothing new but it does reinforce all of the good things we’ve heard so far. Also the injury’s no big deal.
On the Felix Pie front, this experiment might need to end soon. It’s not about his numbers, either. We expected that he might struggle. Rather, it’s about the fact that he looks completely overmatched in left field. I get the whole “he’s a center fielder adjusting to a new position” argument, but let’s not kid ourselves. If he was the defensive stalwart we were led to believe he might be, that switch would not look this ugly.
That said, I’m back to feeling positive about the team. I’m coming to terms with the pitching situation and feeling confident that the necessary adjustments will have been made by May or June. In the meantime, I can watch the top of that lineup all night.
Koji’s on the hill today in Boston…fingers crossed that he can go past the fifth.
Neal, firstly everything is about numbers. Pie has been really quite bad in left for certain…but com’on, it’s been 11 games, and he hasn’t played in all of them. I think if the Orioles gave up on him now, they’d be pulling the plug way too soon. I’m personally willing to let him struggle until June 1 and if he isn’t showing any improvement at all then we can talk. But I’m not going to pull the plug on the experiment after 11 games when the Orioles stand to gain little either way in 2009.
And Greg, yeah, a 23 year old with 91 minor league games under his belt is hardly too old to be a prospect. You can make the argument that his numbers are borderline prospect-worthy, but in the past 12 months he has been very good and deserves a chance to carve a spot out for himself before Tillreitusz arrives.
And lastly, I’m really hoping the Orioles draft another pitcher in the first round (I’m rooting for Kyle Gibson) if only so I can make that name something really silly like Tillreitsonusz.
There are no words to express how wrong this is.
PS – there is such a thing as momentum.
I believe in only in-game momentum. I have never seen anything to indicate that there is any momentum from game to game. We’ve been over this. “Momentum” suddenly gave up on the Red Sox last fall. That was weird.
And Neal, tell me how Pie’s performance is better related without any stats. You say he looks lost in the field, and I say of course he does – AND I CAN PROVE IT WITH NUMBERS.
Look, I don’t watch the game thinking about numbers, I watch the game just like anyone does. The numbers keep track of things waaaay better than anything else could.
Rally Killer, thy name is Chad Moeller.
Well at least we’re still not shutout this year…let’s see if this rally can tie this one up at least.
Oh well…never mind.
Please, let’s not get swept tomorrow.
@Tomás – Yeah, right. Mark Hendrickson in Fenway? And the O’s without Adam Jones (probably)? Um, well, at least it’ll be over by 1 tomorrow and we can all look forward to Brad Bergesen and the White Sox.
P.S. Uehara looked pretty good out there, which is certainly encouraging. If we can find some good replacements for Eatrickson, we might have a pitching staff that doesn’t make me cry.
@Andrew – easy there, big fella. I was just razzing you a bit.
Heh…you got me. I take my baseball math seriously.
Maybe too seriously? Hmmm…I need a diet soda to think this over…
Oh, the halcyon days of summer 2001, when Josh “Control” Towers gave us short-lived hope for an improved O’s rotation.
Very, very short-lived.