If any of you have tips about people or businesses in/around Baltimore who are making things happen, let me know. I’d love to cover them.

Self-promotion over — on to the Ravens and Orioles. Both made some pretty big waves over the weekend, starting with the Ravens’ release of (among others) Troy Smith and Shayne Graham on Friday. Then they went out and signed one-time “it” receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh, which led to a trade of former first-rounder Mark Clayton to the Rams.

Troy Smith always made me laugh. At least, his presence did. Sports talk radio callers loved that guy, and it made for sublimely ridiculous theatre. The notion that Smith could ever even attempt to compete with Joe Flacco was always laughable, but in a good way. I’m sure he’ll turn heads out in San Francisco. Right. Because, you know, he won a Heisman.

As for the Houshmandzadeh move, all you can say is is that it’s more wizardry from Ozzie Newsome. The receiving corps has now been upgraded to compensate for Stallworth‘s absence and the team, amazingly, looks even better on paper. They don’t really have a big-play, downfield threat at wideout but with three solid guys at the top of the rotation that’s not so much of an issue. They won’t have to rely on the home run.

Then there’s the Orioles. How about two of three from the Rays and a win to open the series behind Brian Matusz in New York? I have to catch myself these days from wondering what might have been if the team had looked in April the way they look now. But then I remember that we’re in a good place today, what with Buck Showalter on board, and that maybe things had to go the way they went to get here.

Key point is “in a good place.” Both the Orioles and the Ravens appear to be there, at least for now. Let the aforementioned busy season begin in earnest.

Such is the state of the Orioles right now. They’re better than they were but the Rays are in a pennant race and that’s a very different thing. Matt Garza might be a douchebag but he’s also probably going to pitch in October. I’m not surprised the O’s lost 4-1 last night. A little bummed, sure, but not at all surprised.

We’re four games into a run of six against the Sox and Rays and the O’s have won one. They’ve played fairly well from what I’ve seen and read, though, so I’m OK with it. Today it’s Jeremy Guthrie‘s turn and tomorrow the intrigue begins: Chris Tillman is back and with him comes the arrival of a six-man rotation.

I remain lukewarm on Tillman. We know what he can do at AAA and we know that, in flashes, he has been brilliant here as well. The overall record, however, speaks for itself. He pitched to an ERA of nearly 8 in six starts this year and until that kind of behavior ceases I’ll be running from a horrible vision of Rick Krivda in my rear-view.

Labor Day weekend, folks. Who has big plans? I expect to stay relatively quiet but enjoy myself all the same. I picked up a couple bottles of Bitches Brew from Dogfish and I’m stoked to find out what it’s like. Report to follow in the comments.

You?

(ps – dig the image I used for this post at full size)

Win or lose tonight, consider this: we’re about to experience meaningful September baseball for the first time in years.

Not the kind of “meaningful” we’d like, of course. No playoffs in sight. But the team is playing for next year in a way we haven’t seen before. In past Lost and/or losing seasons “next year” was always a mystery. When MacPhail hired Showalter at the beginning of August he essentially started 2011 two months early. 2010 ended with the Juan Samuel era and these games represent a head start on what we hope will be next year’s progress.

They’re not playing out the string because they ran out of string when Buck arrived. There’s no “we’ll get ‘em next year” because this is next year.

Kind of a strange circumstance but I have to say: I dig it.

26 games isn’t a large sample size by any means but it isn’t a small one, either. It’s roughly 15% of the season and that’s enough to notice. I could be wrong but I don’t believe (going off of memory) that they’ve had another 26-game stretch this year where they played six games above .500. These are good times, well-earned.

I’d love to think that they could keep up the pace but they probably won’t. Beating up on the Angels is only just what it is. Not the same as running through the AL East. The September schedule is fairly terrifying.

Still, good things have happened to make for a 16-10 run. Stepped-up starting pitching. Improved hustle all around. Many of the same guys who failed earlier are succeeding now. Josh Bell appears to have settled in, and Brian Matusz looks good. Jeremy Guthrie looks like he could next year be the guy we thought Kevin Millwood would be this year. Brian Roberts appears to be strong. Brad Bergesen seems solid. Etc.

I wonder what Buck and Andy see in all of it. The month just passed and the month to come are all about evaluation and figuring out which current players deserve a spot next year. How much weight do they — and we — give this run vs. the rest of the season, and how much weight do we give the final month in light of it all?

Things might be a lot easier if they’d just continued to lose in spite of Buck. That they’ve stepped up a bit speaks to the notion that they underachieved for 2/3 of the season. Which counts more?

Or, to put it another way, who are these guys?

(photo via)

I think all of us knew this was a possibility, back in a dark corner of our baseball-loving minds, the moment Strasburg grimaced in pain last Saturday in Philly. Sure, it could have been a strain. Sure, he might just need rest. But really…we kind of knew. Suspected at the least.

Nationals fan or not, this is a loss for baseball. It’s also, in the words of Joe Posnanski, “all too familiar.”. History is littered with pitchers who couldn’t manage to keep their health in check (Posnanski’s piece does an outstanding job telling the story). Our bodies aren’t made to do what these guys do.

A fact which highlights just how difficult the road ahead is for our beloved black & orange. The hard truth of baseball is that pitching prospects rarely turn out. A lot of them never do anything, many of them do less than expected. A small handful meet or exceed expectations. Injury is one of the big reasons but another is that playing baseball at the big league level is very hard. It takes a fairly special guy to do it at all, an exceptional guy to do it well.

We’ve got guys who, in theory, have what it takes. They’re at various stages of proving themselves and the results are, so far, mixed. I’d love to believe that, two years down the road, Bergesen, Matusz, Tillman, Arrieta, and Britton are all established major league starters. While we’re at it, David Hernandez is a dominant reliever.

But that’s not going to happen.

Someone’s going to get hurt. Someone’s not going to pan out. We’ll be lucky if one guy emerges as a true #1, happy if we get a solid bunch of 2s and 3s out of the deal.

Tempering expectations isn’t fun. I hate the idea that one of these kids will probably end up a total bust. But we have to keep such things in mind as fans. Just as we have to keep in mind that Andy MacPhail‘s deep focus on acquiring organizational pitching depth is now, always, and forever the right strategy.