Did something happen to Jeff Z? Haven't seen him post in a while, and now his picture's gone from the O's Insider main link. What's up?

They also provided their 2012 record. 51-111.

Before I can get excited about the 2012 Orioles schedule, let me know who will be the new owner.

I suppose there's one good thing about Baltimore baseball.

Our beautiful stadium is going to be 20 years old, and it still looks brand new, while capturing a classic, retro feel that dozens of teams have tried to copy.

Maybe Jeff Z is taking Jamison's spot on the Ravens Insider now that he's going over to ESPN?

Would they be so kind as to mark on the schedule which 100 games they plan to lose so that I can plan my sports viewing calendar accordingly?

Maybe they could also mark the date when MacPhail comfortably leaves town without being fired or ever really pressed hard by the local media for his lies and failures?

Perhaps they could mark the date when they announce a gimmicky new GM who unveils a "plan" and makes lots of vague promises, while asking us to accept more losing while they put this "plan" into place".

How about they note the dates when the Orioles will fail to make any sort of real effort to land top free agents? Or the dates when they sign stop-gap players who are either past-their-prime stars or seriously-flawed players nobody else wants?

I guess we could also mark the trade deadline and the draft date since those will be the only occasions when the Orioles will be a factor during the season. And show-pony gimmicks like publicizing a minor league prospect brought up for his first game in May or June.

This is what the Orioles franchise has been reduced to under Angelos.

Do you think Peter Angelos feels any embarrassment from seeing such an excellently-run professional franchise playing right next door to Camden Yards? Yes I realize he will plead poverty and blame MLB's lack of a salary cap, but there are plenty of other teams not called the Yankees and Red Sox who compete year in and year out. Besides, spending disparity isn't what has caused the Orioles management to be so obscenely dysfunctional.

Angelos used strongarm legal tactics to get MLB to give him majority ownership of MASN, and to get them to give him a guaranteed selling price for the Orioles (the only team in major league baseball to have this). If he really believed that the lack of a salary cap is his biggest problem, let's see him put as much energy into lobbying for that as he devotes to pursuing his selfish financial interests. The fact that he publicly whines about the absence of an MLB salary cap while privately doing nothing about it means a) he knows a salary cap will do nothing to resolve the Orioles organization's underlying dysfunction, and b) a salary cap would create pressure for him to spend up to the cap, potentially reducing his presently-cushy profit margin. The bottom line is Angelos likes having an excuse not to spend, and an excuse for all the losing; MLB's lack of a salary cap is his favorite thing in the world...

It would be nice to capture that retro feeling of winning That I remember as a child.

Who cares. Another losing season.
Why play? To make Angelos $

Does this mean they're conceding this year already? That might be a little premature. One good run and ....... oh, never mind.

And the Yankee and Red Sox fans thank you for posting this information so soon so that they can make their travel plans now.

This is truly good news. I bet there were a lot of people in the warehouse that were worried the entire franchise would be demoted to a more competitive level (AA).

Start printing the promotional material: "2012: Another Year of Major League Revenue for a Minor League Product"

It's nice that we will have another Friday Opening Day. The scene in 2010 when there was an OD on Friday was amazing and made me remember how much Baltimore loves its baseball--when the team wins (or at least has hope of winning.) How nice would it be to have some meaningful changes for this team for 2012 though so that there is excitement at OPACY after Opening Day? 14 years of losing is enough but at least the team is turning a handsome profit, right?

If you remember Jeff Z was critical of the Orioles' ownership in some of his posts. Not a good thing to do in Baltimore.

Wow, let's calm down guys, the enthusiasm is maddening...Remember, nobody likes a cynic...
I remember that first game, Rick Sutcliffe pitched against the Indians...Chris Nagy? I actually saw the first game ever played at OPACY, the exhibition game against the Mets, Eddie Murray was playing first for New York (we won). 20 years...WOW, hard to believe that much time has gone by. While I'm not expecting the Orioles to go to the World Series next year, here's hoping we see improvement, Angelos or not...As fans, it's our duty to "keep the faith" come heck, high water, or bad owners, otherwise, you might as well start cheering the Yankees...ugh...

2012 is going to be the year, I can feel it! If only there was a font named "sarcastic".

No open date after the scheduled home opener in case of rain next season. Maybe they play a day night double header on Saturday if Friday 4/6 is rained out.

One would have thought the schedulers could have put Boston in April 10-day road trip instead of LA and put LA in the 10-day September road trip instead of Boston, thereby eliminating one coast-to-coast road trip.

I guess you get little consideration in scheduling when you lose 90 to 100 games each year.

I guess we are one step closer for the Grand Prix to be held Labor Day weekend 2012. WAHOO!!

"Did something happen to Jeff Z?" - BJK

He's now covering major league baseball.

"They also provided their 2012 record. 51-111." - Greg

Too funny.

"Our beautiful stadium is going to be 20 years old, and it still looks brand new ..." - not brooks

Yup. Looks completely World Series-free.

"... let me know who will be the new owner." - arkayy

"Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss." - Pete Townshend

I noticed there has been a general lack of how wonderful the Mark Reynolds trade was and who needs a young, talented reliever anyway article or blog, and by extension how great Andy Machail's four-year tenure has been ... so I will as a public service give an update.

Mark Reynolds is 2 for his last 27 with 12 strikeouts. But, hey, he has walked five times, too, so his OBP is .219. Bat him clean-up where he can do the most damage!

Thank goodness we don't have to search for a 3B, 1B, DH -- what are we doing with him again?

that's because it's been beaten to death, waspman. The trade was good. Only a fool (and it sounds like I can count you in that category) would think Hernandez would be putting up those same numbers in a division other than the NL West.

Reynolds still has a shot at 40HR, which hasn't been done here in quite some time. At first, where his glove isn't near as much of a liability, he's far more valuable than Hernandez.

Wow, to think that news of next season's schedule could arouse such an onslaught of timesome cynicism. Surely there's some pleasure to be had in following your team. Last night was pretty good. They got good pitching and beat a desperate team with late-game heroics from the best catcher in the league. Unless you happen to be the lucky team to win the WS, hope for next season is what keeps it compelling.

Jeff is now covering the Ravens. He did his penance covering the Orioles. He must feel like Kurt Russel, eye patch and all in "Escape From New York." Dan should go over there too, and let smitty and ken cover the team and tell us that the Orioles rebuilding plan is on schedule and ready for phase two.......which is trying to put nine major league baseball players on the field all at one time.

sad to say that with three weeks left to this nothing season, we already make plans for the next nothing season.

Regarding the schedule for 2012: same old wildly unbalanced schedule in which an Orioles team has to play 72 games against the AL East, plus the Phillies and Braves, and still compete with Cleveland and Kansas City and Oakland and Minnesota, et.al. for a wild card spot based on overall W-L record. Ridiculous. What do you posters think of Billy Ripken's 157 game schedule idea? Create 2 fifteen team leagues (rumor has it that Houston has already been approached); each team plays the other 14 teams in its league 8 times, totalling 112. Each team also plays all 15 teams in the opposite league 3 times, for a total of 157. Inter-league series alternate home stadiums every other year. First 5 finishers in each league go to the playoffs. Teams 4/5 have a one game "play-in" game, then 1 plays winner of 4/5, and 2 plays 3. Winners play best of 7 to determine WS opponents. WS home field goes to the remaining team with the best overall record, including playoffs.

Great. Now we know when and against whom the suffering will start in 2012. At least we've been warned.

Thanks for the name-calling, Christopher. Since the only stat you can point to is "a shot at 40 HR's, " let me remind you (and everybody else who thinks Reynolds is a real find):

1) His best production is batting 7th

2) His best innings to bat are in the middle

3) His best production is when his team is up or down by more than four runs

4) His worst production is with men in scoring position

5) His RBI total stinks because a huge share of his HRs are solo shots or with one man aboard ... in fact, 42% of his RBI's are himself (36% lifetime) ... and he's had 28 different 5-game stretches (some overlapping) without an RBI

6) He bats sub-.150 with the bases loaded

The above isn't just this year. It is every year. And his fielding is skewed because he gets to very few balls.

Everyone gushed when he had his three-game stretch with 5 HR's and 9 RBI's (5 were himself), but the Orioles lost two of those games, one by nine runs. Even when he does well, they're mostly empty stats. He has five full seasons of proof.

He would only have value on an already strong team where is output would be piling on or maybe making a lost game close so some genuine clutch hitters could complete a comeback. He may not be the biggest wart on a flawed team, but he makes a flawed team no less flawed.

Now, add a full run to Hernandez's ERA, and tell me how many relievers the Orioles have had with that ERA or better in the last 14 years who have made at least half of his appearances this year. I'll give you a hint. You would have fingers left over.

Guthrie might have 10-12 wins with Hernandez and without Reynolds ... but, gee, he has a chance at 40 HRs (30 of them meaningless).

Okay, you can resume your name-calling again ... Like Reynolds, do what you do best.

Anyone wanna bet on which game knocks of out of contention? Both mathematically and reasonably. I'm gonna say no one expects squat out of us by the All Star Break and as usual we will know who is going to be in the post season by the end of August.

waspman -

There's one point about Reynolds in your list that certainly isn't true of every year:

"4) His worst production is with men in scoring position"

That's absolutely the case this season:

2011: .198/.297/.379

But in every season before this one, his line with RISP was pretty damn good:

2010: .276/.414/.619
2009: .208/.343/.476 (not much average, but that's still an .818 OPS)
2008: .287/.337/.503
2007: .287/.379/.463

That said, I don't expect him to succeed in this division. Sure, Reynolds is still young-ish, but if you look at his 1st half/2nd half splits, it seems as though AL pitchers have already figured him out:

1st half: .227/.346/.493
2nd half: .200/.274/.419

He's not walking any more and his power is way down. Another season in this division and this league is just going to expose his weaknesses even more.

I was all for giving Reynolds a chance this year, and he had his chance, and he blew it. And the fact that the Orioles are going to sit on their hands instead of pursuing an impact corner infield bat this winter just because they have Mark Reynolds at first base and Mark Reynolds at third base is just plain pathetic.

Disclaimer: I've read the name "Chris Davis" in box scores and people have told me that the Orioles acquired this Davis character from the Rangers, but there's no distinguishable difference between "Davis", a chump with good power, a low average, and big strikeout totals and Reynolds, a chump with good power, a low average, and big strikeout totals, so I'm convinced they're the same person.

WELL I CAN ONLY HOPE 2012 IS BETTER THAN 2011, I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY YOU HAVE YO HAVE HIGH DOLLAR PLAYERS TO WIN. JUST ASK TAMPA BAY OUR PAYROLE IS TWICE THAT OF TAMPA BAY AND WE ALL KNOW WHERE YHE ORIOLES WILL FINISH !!!!!!!