Bill Scherrer '88 Orioles. Lefty specialist who couldn't get anyone out. Especially Kent HrBek in back to back games.

Cha-Ching....good one Roch

I vote for Syd Thrift-y as the worse front office talent evaluator of all time. The ONLY decent player he ever acquired in any deal was Melvin Mora. His trades were horrible, his drafting was horrible, and his talent evaluation was horrible. Remember Fernando Lunar, Trenidad Hubbard, Brook Fordyce, Chris Richard, closer of the future Ryan Kohlmeier, John Bale to name a few? If I wanted to have a guy to have a few drinks with, Syd would be the man. Granted, the Beattie-Flanagan regime made some horrible trades, signings, and call-ups too. (Moss, Daal, Dejean, Kurt Ainsworth, Rick Helling, Jack Cust, Pedro Swann, Carlos Mendez, et. al.). Ahhh the money I've spent watching some greats parade through Camden Yards over the last 15 years...

Dave,
I think Thrifty aqcuired BJ Ryan also... But not much else.

Dixon... pitching well for a guy in his mid 40's & in his own words , not in great shape. He has a fastball, slider, curve. It seems guys sit on his fastball after one time through the lineup. He has done a good job for us. He pitches tomorrow in a big game for my team, we play the league organizer's team , which has some dubious members on it (we seriously doubt their age & eligibility). No matter , they are going down. It's the semi final of our league tourney. We won the reg season title. We actually have another guy that might throw harder than Dixon, best guess is he is near 90.
I read RLo was claimed by Tampa. Apparently, they are mad at Boston for contacting Lugo's agent just before the trade deadline. How stopping Stern from coming to the O's until after the season hurt's Boston is beyond me.
Only Thrift could have made that blunder.... LOL. Thanks for the story on Brea Roch, that was hilarious!!

Frank Wren acquired Ryan in the Juan Guzman trade. He also stole Jeff Conine from the Royals for Chris Fussell.

Heh. Really milking this one, aren't you Roch?

As far as Syd Thrift getting Melvin Mora.....as the old saying goes "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once and awhile!"
But, do keep in mind, that the man at the top is infamous for meddling into what our GM's do... so who is really responsible???

Dave,
John Bale served a purpose. He was used to acquire Gary Matthews who became an all star center fileder. But......

What about Roland Hemond? He had to be high on the list of lousy GMs. I was but a lad then, but even I knew he was no good.

Bengals fans can now call (513) 381-JERK to complain about drunken roudy jerks around them and bengals players can call (513) 381-BAIL when they get caught being drunken roudy jerks and get tossed in jail.

I'm pretty sure it was Terry Matthews who once blew a game by letting in the winning run when he threw a wild pitch while attempting to intentionally walk a batter. It really just doesn't get any lower than that.

My Sunshine Boys moment:
There was no Jim Leubber.
There was a Steve Luebber who was one of the bums I was remembering. I saw him pitch in Yankee Stadium one bad day when I was drunk and giving a lot of @#$% to the NYY fans behind me. I survived.
There also was Dick Luebke (LUBE-kee) who WAS a submariner and who was an O in 1962, during the first year of the dreaded Billy Hitchcock regime.
He was the other bum.
Ken Dixon was a nice guy. I interviewed him several times. He just gave up an awful lot of HRs.

We used to call Ken Dixon "Ken Canaveral" because he was the human launching pad. I do remember a game though against Oakland when he was being used as a closer. He walked the bases loaded and then promptly struck out the side. Roch, how about nominating 20-30 guys and let us vote to determine the All-Time Bottom Ten?

I know it's bit off the Orioles/worst pitcher topic, but since the headline is about the Bengals. I go to school at Cincinnati (please refrain from any jokes to be made about UC) and thought I'd share a few jokes I've heard on the radio/blogs/etc. I'm half tempted to save some for the future. For the record, I'm taking Shayne Graham as the next one to be arrested. Kickers have it so hard.

Why haven't the Bengals haven't signed any of their draft picks?
~It's hard to negotiate when they only get one phone call.

Why are the Bengals license plates are so popular?
~They're the only ones actually made by the players.

Why did the Bengals go to the bright orange uniforms?
~So they're easily visible on street detail.

Why did the Bengals go to the no-huddle offense last season?
~They didn't want to be seen associating with felons.

How about the two great Doug's? Linton and Johns. By the way Roch, J Hunter just mentioned that R Lopez is going to the pen. Any confirmation and who replaces him?

Great Bengals jokes Roch! Hey, when Marvin Lewis is finished with the machine that smoothes over the bad memories from the past six months, do you think he'll let me use it to rub out the last 9 seasons of O's baseball???

Leslie Brea's arm- worthless.
Roch's story on Brea's age- priceless.

On the subject of interviews, it would be much easier for me to dislike Russ Ortiz if I were to read that he was a real jerk. But, I have to give him credit for (from what I have read) sticking around after games and taking the heat, "politely" answering questions. That isn't easy when opposing hitters are smacking you around like an Everlast punching bag.

How about Willis Roberts? I think he should be on the list.

The worst pitchers list reminds me how obsessed the O's were with plugging in a quality LHP into the rotation over the '90s. I think the only 2 that worked out were Jimmy Key and Fernando (both were short-lived). El Sid, Mercker, Moyer (success later of course), Krivda, and so on.......

Well at least we finally found one in Bedard

HB -- on web gems, my memory of the Komminsk catch was when he was an Indian playing CF in Memorial Stadium. He caught the ball in left-center and toppled over the wall. Ripken was the hitter I'm almost sure and was credited with a HR, and I'm pretty sure it was an important HR statistically.....perhaps that was his 20th of the year which extended his streak of 20+ HR seasons which was probably a record for SS. Does that sound right?

My thoughts on the top 3 O's web gems of all time reminded me of early years in Camden Yards when Rip Sr would hit fungoes to Brady and Devo in front of the bullpen so they could practice robbing HRs. His precision with the fungo bat was incredible...I think he was hitting them from around 2B. It was fun to watch.....and why I'm a huge proponent for getting to games early for warmups. Although anymore it seems like teams do less and less of that kind of stuff pre-game (other than BP).

Has anyone mentioned Rocky Coppinger as a huge bust?

Is it too early to thinhk of Markakis as a 3rd or 5th hitter in the lineup? He's not only hitting for average, he is starting to be one of the guys you want up with runners on base and 2 outs.

I can't remember who made the recommendation on the blog about the book Black and Blue about the 1966 series between the Orioles and Dodgers . . . but thanks! It's the kind of book that makes you appreciate the talents and character of the Robinsons (Brooks and Frank) even more.

Unexpectedly, one of the coolest insights has been the recounting of the Juan Marichal-John Roseboro incident. I heard the story before, but I didn't reallize the history behind the incident (Roseboro getting upset at Koufax for not retaliating, firing a pitch right by Marichal's ear, etc.) Makes me wonder if Ozzie Guillen would have sent Koufax down to the minor leagues for not throwing beanballs.

Markakis and Cabrera--just wait til next year!!

Roch,

The offense gave Cabrera a win, and some confidnce I hope.

Does BRob merit the same numbers as Reyes? I think he does.

Bengal fans can now report unruly behavior in the stands by using their cell phones. At least we know they can stay busy reporting unruly behavior by the players.

Roch, only a dominant 92-pitch over 7 inning performance by Daniel backed by a 4-RBI night from the kid in RF can top that Brea-Thrift story. That's hilarious!

Saturday and Tuesday have been great nights to cherish in this middling season that will hopefully be a glimpse of the future.

He was 28 and they thought he was 21? Oops......Typical Orioles blunder, eh??

Roch, not to go too much into the Orioles/Wren saga of the late ‘90s, but is Wren the heir apparent to Schuerholz in Atlanta? I’ve always wondered why he hasn’t caught on somewhere else as a GM. He barely had a cup of coffee here.

And, not to go too much into the Orioles/Thrift saga, but how sad was that. A major league GM getting fooled on someone’s age like that. And, of course, Thrift was the one who got fooled by a radio caller about a player who didn’t exist. We have a sharp mind like Gillick and then the bumbling of Thrift and we’re still trying to recover. That’s a great story about Brea, Roch. Slick work there not confronting about his age.

I always liked Ken Dixon, for some reason. His occasional brilliance was a glimmer of hope back in those awful years. He reminds me of Cabrera this year (not including last night). I remember a game Dixon pitched where he walked 9 and struck out 8.

Ken Dixon gets my vote. I heard he was asked to pitch in the Home Run Derby.

Any of you experts/bashers that care to come out & take some hacks against Dixon are welcome to come do so. I can arrange it very easily.

Brian:

Easy Francis.

Brian: I’m sure Ken Dixon can strike me out in just 2 pitches. Glad to hear he’s still playing ball all these years later.

You don’t happen to have Brad Pennington on your team, do you? I’m sure I can draw a walk on him in just 3 pitches, or hit a grand slam against him with just two runners on base.

Dixon definitely gets my vote (no, it's not personal, Brian...I understand he's a good guy). No pitcher in MLB history has pitched fewer innings and allowed 30+ HR's like Dixon did in '87 when he gave up 31 HR in 105 innings.

LOL, no Pennington, but Bill (Spaceman) Lee is on our roster & still doing the weed as I have been told. He has offered to fly in from Canada (by plane I hope) to pitch against certain teams that have players he isn't too fond of..... I stay out of that one. It's a carry over from some Fla tournaments. The team "Coach" tells me he used to get Swaggerty out to pitch but he hasn't been there in years.

I might have to tease Dixon about that stat Scottie.... :-)

The one pt he is proud of is the fact he was drafted 63rd overall in the Am. draft back when...

How about Chad Pennington? As I recall, he had all this potential, but never lived up to it. The only game I remember him pitching in was against the Mariners back in '95. He loaded the bases to bring up Griffey, threw a wild pitch to score a run, and then promptly gave up a three run shot to Junior. Being a huge Griffey, Jr. fan, I remember thinking, "well you could have at least saved that wild pitch so Griffey could've gotten the glory of a grand slam if you were going to give up a homerun anyway." I don't believe he stayed around much longer,