What the Birds really need to do to get back to October

I agree with pretty much everything in this Tom Verducci piece. But I was struck, while watching last night's game, by some numbers thrown out there by Gary Thorne: Baltimore is 20-7 in games that Chris Tillman starts. They're currently 71-61  on the season. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that they need better starters to complement Tillman. Or Buck and Dan need to figure out how to clone him and run four more copies of him out there. They'd be 98-34 right now if they had a whole year of an all-Tillman staff! That's how stats work, right?

The Wisdom of Buck

I know it's only three games into his tenure and they're still the worst team in MLB by a healthy margin, but so far I really dig Mr. Showalter's style, man. Not only are the O's 3-0, but we get post-game quotes like this:

"Part of playing, not only in the big leagues, but in the American League [is] big, strong, hairy guys here. They hit it where the grass doesn't grow. And that's part of playing in this division, this league. That's part of it. We've got some big guys, too. Maybe not as hairy."

Is Nothing In This City Sacred?!?

Four young geniuses were arrested downtown last night after they were seen driving around in a pickup truck with the large #8 statue last seen on Eutaw Street, outside of Camden Yards. 

Did they really think that they could get away with it?

The Obnoxious Factor

Dan Connolly is completely correct in his latest blog entry (and so far, his readers agree); for the past four years, the Red Sox have not only had more on-field success than the NYY, but their fans that infest Camden Yards nine times per season have definitely surpassed New York fans in obnoxious behavior. It's almost pleasant to go to an O's-Yanks game these days, if only because it ensures than no critical mass of Boston fans will be at the ballpark. How times have changed...

O's Pull Off a Decent Trade

In trading Erik Bedard, Baltimore actually gets real value back in return, and according to the "experts" pulled off a great trade. Bedard wasn't going to sign a new contract with the Orioles, and they get a nice young outfielder in Adam Jones, a serviceable lefty reliever in George Sherrill, a pitching prospect who's on the cusp of top-100 prospect lists (Chris Tillman), and a couple more big young pitchers with some upside (lefty Tony Butler is 6'7", Kameron Mickolio is 6'9"). Now all they need to do is trade Brian Roberts to the Cubs for a few more pitchers, and resist the urge to start adding free agents in '09 (bad Peter! No!). This team won't be ready to compete for anything until 2010 at the earliest, but after ten straight losing seasons, what's two or three more?

Nothing Is Easier Than Blaming the Manager

Sam Perlozzo is supposedly out as O's manager. Not surprising, but it certainly wasn't Sam who decided to throw all that free agent money at the most inconsistent performers in baseball, middle relievers. Peter Angelos obviously needs to sell the team, but barring that gift to Baltimore fans, Mike Flanagan and Jim Duquette need to be shown the door. Only then will a manager ever had a chance to succeed with the O's.

And if these clowns do decide to hire a high-rpofile manager, please let it be Davey Johnson and not Joe Girardi. The last thing this team needs is another Yankee coming in and telling them how Joe Torre does things up in the Bronx. Didn't work for Mazilli, won't work for Girardi either.

Battery Powered

I'm not sure what possessed me to tune in to the Baltimore-NY game last night. Masochism? After all, they had lost the night before by the humbling final of 16-5. Loyalty to the team? Maybe, but I haven't watched even parts of 20 games since the All-Star break, and have only been to 3 games this year. How many times have I mentioned them in this space all season? I think this may be the first.

But something made me flip the channel at 9:00, in time to catch Daniel Cabrera overcome a sixth inning error, his no-hitter still intact and nine outs away from reality. Did it happen? Nope. He was unperturbed by two errors and two passed balls in the seventh that gave NY a run, but with two outs to go in the ninth, an opposite-field single by Cano broke it up. What a game to watch though. Ramon "Javy Lopez, isn't he retired?" Hernandez had two homers and drove in four of the seven O's runs (hence this post's title), but it was really all about Cabrera, a pitcher who can be so dominating at times that it makes his inconsistency that much more maddening. A microcosm of the Orioles, a team with plenty of talent and potential, yet to be harnessed en masse.

7/7/77: Happy Birthday to Jenny!

The celebration actually started eight days ago, when Em and Dave were in town and we went to an O's-Phillies game. I had called the O's a day before, and gotten Jenny's name - and upcoming age - up on the scoreboard with the other birthdays! She was (probably?) happy that her name was up there, but less than thrilled about her age being displayed, since she still had eight more days of her twenty-eighth year to enjoy.

Little-known fact: Jenny shares a birthday with fashion icon Pierre Cardin! (same day, but back in 1922)

A Bizarre Draft Option for the Orioles

I'm not sure what I found more shocking in this article, that the Orioles are actually contemplating drafting Jeffrey Maier, or that Scott Erickson is still pitching in the majors.

Baseball Is Back

Another season begins, and Peter Angelos is still an ass when it comes to player negotiations. What a shocker!

An Early April Fool's?

Call me crazy, but this story about the apparently impending divorce of Orioles new starter Kris Benson from his model/"actress" wife Anna, sure seems suspicious. It's March 31st, it's right before the season begins, and Anna has never been shy about self-promotion. April Fool's, anyone?

I'm down in South Carolina, and am running in the Cooper River Bridge Run tomorrow - there are currently over 45,000 runners registered for this 10K race!!! That's an insanely big 10K race field, but according to Em & Dave this is a big Charleston area tradition. It should be fun, it will just be a crowded bridge, that's all.

I'm using Em's brand new laptop to write this entry. It's shiny.

Leo Mazzone, Pitching Genius?

It's been a long-standing question in baseball; during all those years of Atlanta Braves pitching dominance, how much credit did pitching coach Mazzone deserve for all of the Cy Youngs, the 20-game winners, and the top-five staff ERAs almost every season? We may know the answer to that question starting next season. If Leo signs on with his good friend Sam Perlozzo and miraculously turns the putrid Baltimore staff around, then there can no longer be any doubt that he's the real deal.

Good Luck to Sam Perlozzo

Things can't get too much worse for the hometown team these days, so here's hoping that Sam, a Cumberland native and lifetime O's fan, does well as manager. So far, so good.

Should Mazilli have been fired? I can only give my opinion, but this item from the Sun article about his firing qualifies as a fireable offense in my book:

"Players were irritated last season by Mazzilli's constant references to the Yankees"

Win or lose, at least they won't have to put up with that kind of talk around the clubhouse. Nobody deserves that (not even Palmeiro).

Raffy Saga, Day 2: Confidentiality?!?

I was thinking about this last night while I was doing some painting: why can't Raffy talk about the specifics about what he took? If MLB and its players are really concerned with protecting kids from harmful chemicals, wouldn't that be a good idea? Who exactly is this confidentiality agreement protecting anyway? The secret is out, we know it's Palmeiro! The public is always fond of full disclosure. I say he gives us all the details, and hopes that MLB or the union sues him - then he'll be a guy who comes clean AND a sympathetic figure for being dragged into legal procedings for telling the truth. That's win-win, baby!

Barring all that happening, we can only hope that one of the MLB executives is buddies with Karl Rove. Then we'd know that the truth will leak out eventually.

Raffy Suspended for Positive Steroids Test

Wow, I didn't really see this coming. Is it possible that Raffy's telling the truth, and he has never knowingly taken steroids? Sure, I guess. But that doesn't really matter. He knew that he was under the microscope thanks to Canseco's book and the testimony before Congress, especially with Mark McGwire's very evasive testimony. So there are five possibilities IMO, and two of them are real long-shots:

1. Canseco was right after all, and Raffy has used steroids for a long time. He looks like Mr. Universe under that baggy uniform, and not like a Dunkin' Donuts regular.
2. Raffy took a 'supplement' that he didn't know was on baseball's list, or something that contained small amounts of a banned substance, that he thought was OK.
3. A third party gave him something that was laced with steroids so that he would test positive. This kind of sabotaging has happened before on the Olympic level, but is unlikely.
   
4. Baseball's incompetence in most matters extend to its drug-testing program, and samples can become easily contaminated. Raffy's positive test sample was actually from teammate Brian Roberts, he of the 16-HR (and counting) season, quadruple his previous season high for HR!
5. MLB includes Viagra on its banned substance list.

OK, while #4 can't be ruled out by any means, let's assume that MLB runs their testing program reasonably well, and besides I have to believe that before any suspension there are multiple samples taken for verification purposes. Number 5? That would be a real downer.

That leaves items 1 through 3, and I'm not sure how much we need to differentiate between them - any of the three would prove one thing, that Palmeiro is really not very smart. He knows that some people are suspicious thanks to Canseco's book, and that he would be jeopardizing his HOF credentials (like McGwire already did) with a positive test. Even the carelessness that would allow numbers 2 and 3 to occur isn't an excuse, because that level of carelessness borders on brain-dead. When I remember to, I take a glucosamine chondroitin vitamin supplement for joint health (I've had knee problems in the past) - if I were Raffy I would have stayed away from that, because after all you can rearrange the letters to spell steroid nachogloucinmin, a well-known Cheez-Whiz-based steroid derivative.

Hopefully we'll get more details about this positive test, but I'm not holding my breath. Raffy will come back in 10 days, and if he finishes the year strong (and continues to hit like he has been) he'll quiet some of the talk. Should he come back strong this year, it certainly doesn't hurt that a (suspected) steroid user like Jason Giambi is having a nice comeback as well.

O's Close to Burnett Trade?

Lots happened over the weekend for the hometown ball club; Raffy's 3000th hit, and a somewhat disappointing 4-game split with Seattle. It looks like more big news may be around the corner, as Baltimore may be on the verge of trading reliever Jorge Julio, top pitching prospect Hayden Penn, and outfielder Larry Bigbie to Florida for starter A.J. Burnett and third-baseman Mike Lowell.

I think this is a trade the Orioles should make, for several reasons. Burnett is a solid pitcher who instantly becomes the ace of the staff (and hopefully moves Ponson out of the rotation? Probably not, but I can dream). Lowell has had a terrible year, but has been an All-Star in the past, has only 2 years left on his big contract, and they're already paying Sammy Sosa to do nothing this year so just replace one hole in the lineup with another. Sosa is hitting like he belongs on the bench, this trade could be a good excuse to put him there more often. On the O's side, Julio is nothing if not inconsistent, and Bigbie is in his late 20s and no longer a prospect - it's likely that he is the kind of player that he's been the past 2 seasons or so; over a full season, he'll hit .260 to .275, with 15-20 HR power and above average defense. A decent enough player, but not someone who you would hesitate to trade. Yes, a team always hates to part with a top pitching prospect such as Penn, but Baltimore is going to have to give up something other than Julio and Bigbie, and Penn is that player.

Baltimore 3, Minnesota 0

Jenny and I went to our first O's game of the season last night, a 3-0 win against the Twins. How is it that we have a first-place team in Baltimore for the first time in 8 years, and I don't get to Camden Yards until May? Good question. It's because I was in no hurry to fork over my money to Peter Angelos this year, after the morons in the 'customer service' department wouldn't return my calls when all I wanted to do was upgrade the seats in my ticket package. No wonder he was so scared about a Washington team.

We had marvelous seats, good enough that you could recognize the players without reading the jerseys or knowing their uniform numbers. But there wasn't much of a crowd there. I suppose it's because it was a Monday, but the weather was perfect, and the Twins are a good team; they've been to the playoffs the last few years. The fans down in section 14 aren't too vocal either, which is too bad. I always suspected that once D.C. got a team, the long-time Orioles fans would finally be in the majority at Camden Yards, displacing the cell-phone-chatting casual fans from the D.C. area. I guess I was wrong - the $40 seats are apparently still full of those people, using their company's season tickets, chatting on the phone, leaving early during a great game on a beautiful evening. Could it kill them to make some noise, other than when the scoreboards instruct them to?

There was a 5-6 year old kid sitting behind us who started asking in the fifth inning if they could leave. Thank God for short attention spans, which led to the kid's discerning observation in the seventh: "Whoever cut that grass did a pretty good job." Yeah kid, they sure did.

On to the game! A dominating pitching performance by Daniel Cabrera, shutting out a team that hadn't been shut out since July of last season, and striking out a career-high 11 in 8 innings (B.J. Ryan pitched the ninth to complete the shutout). And Cabrera is a BIG guy. He's listed at 6' 7", and used all of that leverage last night -he was hitting 99 mph on the radar gun on more than one occasion, with most pitches above 95. Miguel Tejada also hit his 10th home run (and 200th of his career), a line-drive that cleared then left field wall in a hurry.

Hopefully this is a defining moment in Cabrera's young career - he's got the stuff to be a frighteningly good, intimidating pitcher. Baltimore pitching coach Ray Miller supposedly compared his mound presence (and fastball) to that of J.R. Richard, a similarly-proportioned pitcher who had some great years with Houston back in the 70s. That's good news for the Orioles, if Cabrera can have a career similar to that of Richard.

One last item: now that Washington has a team, would it kill the Orioles to put Baltimore back on their uniforms? Their road uniforms used to include 'BALTIMORE' in big block letters. We looked around the ballpark last night, and couldn't see one sign, uniform, or advertisement that included the name of the city in which the game was being played. That's just sad. In all fairness, this can't be blamed on Angelos (see link to Sun article), but he has the power to rectify it. Time to stop pretending that this is a huge regional team, because it isn't anymore (if it ever was in the first place). I know that Baltimore has its problems, but there's something wrong when a team purposefully dissociates itself from its own city.