2 words for Jaret Wright: "mop up".

I think Gibbons is a nice guy and all, but he's not getting it done and Millar should be in the lineup every day. People love to rip the guy, but he led our team in OBP and he's a better defensive first baseman than Aubrey Huff. I'm not a Millar cheerleader, mind you. I'm just looking at the stats. Millar should play and Gibbons should sit.

OH FREAKIN' MAN

After Fausto Carmona walks two straight batters, Nick Markakis swings at the first pitch. You are down 3 runs and trying to get back in the game. Bad idea Nick. Looks like the O's really wanna lose today.

Roch - Thinking the same thing. The approach some of the hitters take is sometimes baffling....

Fausto is on the espn "top performers" list.

Mickey Tettleton would have homered of this guy.

This team needs to make a trade for some productive offensive player right now. No need to wait because this getting absolutely ridiculous. They can't muster more than five hits against scrub, retread pitchers.

The more I see of Guthrie, the more I understand why he's still not with Cleveland...The more I watch the O's...ah, forget it.

This just in. Jay Gibbons got a hit. I repeat, Jay Gibbons got a hit. Quick, trade him for a bag of Doritos, Pretzels, or whatever. Just get rid of him!

Am i correct to assume that this is the same Carmona who sh*t his pants for 3 straight game versus the Boston Red Sox last year?

On a positive note, NICE PERFORMANCE by Burres

The new Orioles batters: Huff, Payton, Bako, Castillo, and Bynum have a combined 200 ABs with a .233 batting average, 4 HRs (that's 1/50AB for those who struggle with division--O's FO?) and a grand total of 23 RBI (mostly because of Huff in the 5 hole).

The burden is on the organization to make the fans feel less skeptical. Their evaluation of talent is for crap. Their current overspending on relief pitching, while they finally have a semblance of a plan, is short-term and highly reactive. There is absolutely no long-term plan other than to cross their fingers that we are developing 3 Cy Young calibre pitchers.

So, how about those Ravens? Troy Smith in the 5th Rd... He probably has a better arm than our 5th pitcher--maybe the Ravens would loan him to them.

The problem with sucking for so long is that people's attention span for the O's gets shorter and shorter. We need some leadership somewhere in this organization!!!

Roch, your previous post is the funniest thing you've ever written and the funniest thing ever written on the O's. You've said it all for the fans.
You're the Greg Palast of baseball writers.
That's a complement.
Meanwhile, this dreary weekend of Orioles Tragic should set the stage for an empty ballpark when they come home. They deserve it.

When is the front office going to admit that they got snookered by the Yankees in the Jared Wright trade? It's like Ortiz last year, everytime they put him out there they guarantee the Orioles another loss. How long do they plan to stay with him? Additionally, everytime he goes out there and throws 3 innings and gets shelled, the bullpen has to bail him out, so the bullpen will eventually burn out by the end of May and we will quickly go downhill. Admit the guy has got a bad arm and let's get on with his replacement.

I don't know if the Orioles got snookered on the Jaret Wright trade. Chris Britton hasn't done a thing for the Yankees. That being said, the Orioles should move Wright to the bullpen and take their chances with someone else, whether it's Burres, Guthrie or a minor leaguer.

Funny how we were all knocking Steve Trachsel a month ago and he's been the model of consistency compared to Wright.

ON PAPER THIS TEAM LOOKS OKAY.

On GRASS IT'S A DIFFERENT STORY.

How about the following lineup?

1. Roberts
2. Markakis
3. Tejada
4. Hernandez
5. Mora
6. Payton
7. Roch (or Millar when Roch is busy)
8. Huff
9. Patterson

Have to agree with JPA. My attention span for the O's is getting shorter and shorter and I'm a long-time, die-hard fan. Weeks like this past one usually don't occur until July or August

Such a shame for Crowley's past with this team, because he would have been released some time ago from his job if not for it.

I almost felt sorry for the org when I saw the lowered attendance. Now I feel it is completely deserved. And just wait until next year....

I KNOW that the baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint, and I KNOW that no team is ever as good or bad as it looks after a definitive result, and i KNNOOOOOWW every team goes through (as Sammy said yesterday) a couple of bad streaks every year...but I have to agree with JPA on the subject of short attention spans. This just smells SSSOOOOOO much like nine years of losing that it's hard to imagine it turning out any different.

As i have stated on previous blogs, I live in the New York metro area, and I have grown accustomed to the Yankee fan's inherent sense of "championship" entitlement. Why? Because the Yankees have given their fans a large number of championship (or near-championship) seasons. Oriole fans of late, on the other hand, have been given their share of futile, inferior, frustrating seasons. What are we to expect at this point other than more of the same?

Is it fair to say that the fan base is becoming complacent? Probably so. After all, how many times does someone cry "WOLF!" until the listener stops listening...?...

Hey Swami, Maybe the silver lining will be that Peter Angelos will finally no longer be able to ignore the O's futility. If we're lucky he will allow the O's front office to drastically change the face of this team at the trade deadline.

I've stated before that I don't believe this team can win, as we would like, with Tejada at shortstop. Put the word out that he is available and take the best offer available. Package Gibbons or Millar with him.

Tampa Bay has a surplus of outfielders and needs pitching. Package Hayden Penn in a deal for Rocco Baldelli.

I have faith in the FO. The biggest need during the off-season was a better bullpen. They recognized this and took steps to correct it. Angelos must take the gloves off Duquette and Flanagan.

The outside possibilty that something like this will happen is one thing that can keep our attention thru the summer.

Fausto Carmona? Wasn't he whacked by Tony Soprano back in Season 3? He sure wasn't whacked by the O's.

John Maine 4-0 1.35 ERA

Phil--Crow's not to blame...not entirely anyway. There's a way good teams approach hitting, call it working the count, patience at the plate, making the opposing hurler come to you with the pitch or whatever.

I haven't seen the figures, but I'd bet the Orioles are at or near the bottom of the league in the number of pitches their offense has seen this year; their pitchers, on the other hand, who nibble way too much (despite Leo Mazzone's plea that they trust their stuff), must be at or near the top for numbers of pitches thrown. Not a good combination for a team that wants to turn the corner this year.

When the Birds used to play baseball the Oriole Way, their lineup knew about working the count and went about it the right way.

Not any more.

The recent third base coach for the O's, whether it be Tom Trebelhorn or Juan Samuel, don't seem to have a sign for the batter to take a pitch. And even there, they probably can't be held entirely accountable, as this problem seems systemic.

Ultimately, of course, good hitters are going to take pitches regardless of what sign they get, if it's out of the strike zone. Right now, that isn't the O's, who look like a bunch of hackers. There are quality hitters on this team, but they aren't performing the way they should and no one in the dugout--from Sam Perlozzo on down--seem to have the word "patience" in their vocabulary.

Good offense teams almost always are patient teams who have hitters who know the strike zone and are skilled enough with the bat to "waste" good pitches until the get one to their liking or coax a walk.

Additionally, this will run up the starter's pitch count to get him out of the game sooner and it enables the guy in the on deck circle to get a better idea of what a pitcher has that day before he enters the batter's box.

And the O's have plenty of hitters who can and on occasion do take this approach. The trouble is, they aren't doing it enough. Case in point: During today's game the Indian announcers were noting how every at bat Nick Markakis was swinging at the first or second pitch and making outs. He's supposed to have the best batting eye on the team, but it doesn't matter when he's helping the pitcher out by hacking away. Not that he was the only offender today, but when he's the guy everyone is pegging The Next Great Orioles Hitter it's likely that he's pressing more a little.

If the Orioles don't start playing smart, it's going to be another season to forget. There's still plenty of time to get it right, but whether the lightbulb will go on in their collective head remains to be seen.

Right now the biggest fan of the Orioles has to be John Maine. 4 and 0 for the highly regarded Mets. Threw 7 innings of 3 hit, 8 strike out ball today. Oh he did walk 3. Maybe a tribute to his Baltimore days.

man. can we please have guthrie or burres become a starter? we always have this problem, jared wright, rodrigo lopez last year, and gee, how is that john maine kid doing? oh yea we got kris benson for him. good deal.

and guys, at least the game i'm going to go see (KC vs these orioles), tickets are only $25 bucks (3$ higher then last year to pay gil meche's salary). it'll be a battle for the basement on memorial day weekend.

It's long past time to fire Terry Crowley, and hire a hitting coach who stresses plate discipline rather than aggressiveness. Because of that approach, his offenses are almost always mediocre or worse (seventh or below in the league. 10th last year, and this year this far, with lousy team OBP.) The Yankees had a team OBP 30 points higher than us last season, because they, like the Red Sox, stress plate discipline and having long at-bats. They rarely swing at bad pitches, as our hitters always do, especially when ahead in the count, and when they do swing at the first or second pitch, it's down the middle. They protect the plate with two strikes, while we rarely do. The Orioles could have a decent offense if they were disciplined.

Crowley demonstrated his cluelessness today, it appears. Gary Thorne said that Gibbons' problem is his swing. Gibbons problem is that he constantly swings at balls, way too high and way too low! He could have a swing like Mickey Mantle, and he'd still miss those pitches! But he's aggressive at the plate, so Crowley's satisfied, it seems. Pitchers know the Orioles swing at bad pitches, so they throw them. Pitchers hate to face the Yankees or Red Sox, but love facing us. I hate watching teams have disciplined at-bats against us, and build our starters' pitch counts, while we give opponents innings of 10 or less pitches!

It's bad enough to have a manager who doesn't know how to handle pitchers. A good offense can overcome those mistakes a goodly number of times. Ours can't.

I've been a faithful fan through good times and bad, but Crowley's inept offenses are going to drive me away. Peter Angelos should fire Crowley, and order Perlozzo to pick a coach from the Yankee, Red Sox, or Oakland system. Crowley may have ruined Markakis, who once was our most disciplined hitter (even too patient at times, but that's better than overaggrresive, as he is now. He swings at many more bad pitches than he did last season, and that's Crowley's influence. Crow may well be a good swing doctor, but he's an inept hitting coach.)

Great analogy Swami. As we have mentioned before, complacency is probably the stage that follows anger for an alienated fanbase. A few of us hard-headed O's fans who continue to hope still get angry because we can see that with some different approaches to offseason spending, management, and fundamentals (followed by discipline when fundamentals are not executed), we could be competitive. A vastly greater percentage of former O's fans even follow the team. Outside of family members and a few diehard baseball fans, it is hard to talk O's baseball in this town anymore.

There is a lot of tension felt by the fan of a horrible organization. Fans ("fanatics") want to have a unrealistic passion and love for their team. THey believe their players play hard for them and their city. They take wins and losses personally. They have a hard time understanding how or why a professional would EVER fail to run out a ground ball or not have their head in the game. People like to find the features of the best players and identify with those qualities. It's kind of hard to identify with this crew. Anyway, since it's clear to me by now that I can't give up baseball, I probably need to start going to Bowie and Aberdeen soon.

I completely agree with Deke too. Cut your losses with Wright. Unfortunatley, Angelos will try to squeeze the value out of him and cost us 4-5 more losses before it is said and done.

I know that hindsight is always 20-20, but the John Maine deal isn't looking so good these days. Benson is out and probably has thrown his last game as an Oriole, while Maine is 4-0, with a 1.35 ERA and has gone 7 innings in 4 of his 5 starts.

Dylan:
Are we looking at the same stats on Chris Britton? He has gotten into 2 games and has yet to allow a run!

IT COULD BE WORSE, WE COULD ALL BE WASHINGTON NATIONAL FANS!!!!!!

a late entry: "Hey, we can solve the Mgr problem! Bring Earl back!"

The whole "Swing at the first pitch and be aggressive" thing is pure Crowley. Sometimes it works (Markakis last year), but many times it doesn't. I know the Crow's been with the team for a long, long time (14 years now is it?), but I think it's time to get a new batting coach. The Orioles leave way too many men on base, and it's happened the past 3 or 4 years, not just this one.

Granted, that doesn't really solve the problem of the pitching staff not being able to throw a strike, but it would help the other side of the ball. I'm not really too sure how to fix the pitching. Everybody (well, except Williamson and maybe Wright) is healthy, and they have the talent to be good pitchers, but for some reason it isn't clicking.

Good thing there's a day off Friday. The O's have had their two best series of the season so far right after a day off.

Hey all. I'm on the west coeast this week so following our team has been, well... not quite as zealous as normal. As for the lineup posted by our fan in San Fran:

I agree, drop Mora down. Take some pressure of him. Let's not forget he is getting old. How bout Jay Payton as our 1 or 2 hitter? Either after or before Roberts. Seems logical to me, especially since we gave him a two year deal. So Mora could follow Hernandez, or Huff if we need to keep the L/R/L/R balance in the lineup.

I think it's time for terry crowley to go. It's funny to listen to the announcers say how good "the crow" is yet the O's have never been a good hitting team.

Go ahead Peter, buy the team. The fans will love you forever. You'll be bigger than Earl, Frank, Brooks, Cal and Wild Bill put together.

Swinging at the first pitch also hurts your own pitcher. When you do that you don't give your own pitcher time to get hisself together and rest up a bit. Sometimes you have to have a defensive at-bat. I agree I would have Kevin Millar in the line-up as long as he is hitting and I this point is a better defensive 1B than Huff. I also feel so bad for Jaret Wright because he took the ball and tried to fight the pain for the team to compete. That is an example for a team player. But at the same he was also hurting himself by furthering more damage to an already bad shoulder. On a more sorrowing note I'd like to extend my condolences to the St. Louis Cardinals organization for the loss of Josh Hancock. Josh was an important part of the Cardinals team and he will be missed by all of baseball fans, players, most of all his family.

the Os need to take some pitches

no need to jump off a bridge just yet

how bout that john maine?

Roch, the decisions you would’ve liked to have seen reversed are classic. The posters did a great job adding to it. I’m usually all over stuff like this, but I don’t know if I have anything to add. All right, I have some (though they pale in comparison to Roch’s list):

“Okay, if it’s clutch you’re looking for out of the ‘pen, I have two words: Armando Benitez.”

“There is only one way to win the 1989 AL East division and it’s Keith Moreland.”

“Power-hitting switch hitting catchers like Mickey Tettleton are a dime a dozen, but pitchers named Jeff Robinson aren’t.”

“Go after Lesli Brea. He’s much younger than he looks.”

“Here’s the main reason we have to bring back Rafael Palmeiro: he’s the kind of guy who will never bring shame upon your team.”

“It’s a no-lose strategy: we’ll trade Sidney Ponson then re-sign him to a contract after the season.”

“Casey Blake? No, put him on waivers. What’s he ever going to do?”

“Who should we bring in to face Ken Griffey, Jr.? That’s a no-brainer: Brad Pennington.”

So far, the team is on pace to win 78 games (and that’s rounding up). That sounds about right. At this moment, the team is not looking good, but if they end up with 78 wins, I’d have to consider that a success. Unless, of course, they somehow reach, say, 78-64 and then lose their last 20 games. Now that would be terrible.

It’s still April and Jaret Wright has been injured and now apparently re-injured (or still injured from the previous injury). The only surprise about this is that it’s happened so early in the season. I figured it was going to happen sometime this year.

Acquiring him was questionable, sure. I think the more questionable thing is why he was automatically penciled into the rotation, considering his injury track record. Now, the O’s are taking a hit with losing one of their starters. This isn’t a terrible thing—teams are dealing with it all the time—but it was predictable. At least someone like Guthrie should now get a chance.

So far, though, the rest of the rotation is doing okay. Trachsel has been a pleasant surprise and if he keeps pitching the way he has been, what a deal he will be. Cabrera and Loewen overall are doing well, though Loewen needs to work on the walks (he’s young and inexperienced, so he gets some leeway and we have to expect some rough spots). Bedard has been erratic, but he still leads the team with 3 wins, and hopefully he’ll even himself out in May. Overall, though, these starters need to find a way to pitch deeper into games—this is the biggest concern so far.

Of course, the hitting has been subpar. You figure it will turn around eventually, but then, you have to worry that that’s when the pitching will slip. The classic symptom of a fourth place team: not getting all of your team to perform well at the same time for a long period of time. We’re all too familiar with it around here.

78 wins CRB! But they told me that a better bullpen would have saved 20 games... does that mean that our regular team not counting the bullpen is worse than last year's team?

Baseball is backwards. They reward or at least tolerate ineptitude among coaches. Why are there no up and coming coaches like in football? Is it because they don't do much relative to football coaches? What is the great fear of moving onto a hot prospect hitting coach? Does this type of individual exist? Would such a person come here knowing that he would have to join the ranks of Angelos' yes-men?

how quickly everything changes in just one week! After sweeping the BlueJays, we go on a week long losing streak. Nice.

Let's not roast J Wright too much. If he has a bum shoulder & still tried to pitch, respect that & leave it alone. BUT now, get it fixed or at least checked with exploratory sugery, there is obviously something wrong there.
Stick Guthrie into the rotation & call up Williams. They have Burres for long relief.

Anyone on the O's considered sending Gibbons to Norfolk for a couple of weeks & let him get straightened out there instead of riding the pine in Balmer or continuing to struggle?

I have to agree with everyone else who said the main problem is the hitting approach. How many of the opposing teams' starting pitchers over the course of the past week have made it to the 7th+ against us? How can our offense watch people work our own pitchers for walks and then actually go up to the plate and have the nerve to swing at first pitch after first pitch?

For now, I would give the whole Chris Britton talk a rest. He has pitched two innings in NY. Secondly Jaret Wright was washed up in New York so I am not sure what anyone was expecting when he got here. The Yankees are in terrible pitching shape themsl;eves and they let Wright go to a division rival. Well rival may not be the right word, but you know what I mean. The Kris Benson fiasco is another matter altogether. Maine was well regarded and is off to a fast start, Benson may be through and Maine may go 15 more years.
No one is going to give top dollar for Tejada. Maybe 70 cents on the dolalr at best.If you throw in Millar or Gibbons then whatever value you would have gotten in return goes down even further. Other teams aren't going to let the O's dump salry AND get prospects in return. Other teams do that to us remember.
The facts are this: Angelos' ego is holding the team hostage. The Orioles can't sign anyone no matter how much "Confederate Money" they have. Flanagan and Duquette are ineffective because other teams know they hold no real power. Perlozzo is a C+ manager with fanatastic talent to manage, with this bunch he is D- at best.

Excuse for a while I think I am going to go throw up now.

Brian,
I doubt Gibbons has any options to be sent to Norfolk, so he would have to clear waivers.

Hold on, maybe that's a good thing.

The sign of a terrible contract: not a chance in the world that Gibbons would be picked up on waivers. His agent should be given a lifetime achievement award!

Everyone should relax with the trade Tejada for whatever you can get thinking. It's not his fault that no one else can drive in runs and that he is one of our only potential sources of power on a team that has suffered a collective power outage. Maybe if BGE puts us on a deferred payment plan, we can get some of it back.

The O's will be lucky to win one of the next three.

how about throwing in john maine to get benson.

I thought the options thing or his time in the ML to date might be a deterrent to his getting shipped to Norfolk Buck.

I don't miss Britton, that deal was a decent risk. The Benson one was not. Two good young Ps for a one year rental.

I can't wait to read the doom & gloom here when the O's lose 3 of 4 in Detroit. Or is it a 3 game series? The Tigers are playing OK, are at home, & starting to hit.

Trade Tejada? Why? I don't get that rant one bit....