Why, CRay not getting it done?

After yrs of studying CRay, i've determined that after reading every interview done by him or the mgr after the game, that 'stuff' ain't the problem. But location is.
So I propose , as an answer to the location problem, and decreasing ability to retire even a somewhat decent hitter with his 'stuff', that the O's attempt to relocate CRay and his 'stuff'.
I have no idea what to do with the rest of the bullpen. You just never know how they're gonna pitch.

They should use Olson out of the bullpen like the Twins did with Lirano. That way the Orioles have a stronger bullpen for a while and they are showly showing Olson the ropes of how to pitch major league batters.

If we were in contention, I'd say try to trade for Gagne, Lidge or Derek Turnbow. But since we're not, don't bother. I wonder if Hoey could be the long-term answer at closer. Clearly, he isn't ready yet, but perhaps by the end of the year? There's also Corey Donye, but I don't know enough about him to really weigh in.

Or here's another idea... make Brian Burres the closer and give his rotation spot to Garrett Olson. Then make Ray the set-up man and hope that Baez never recovers from injury so we can collect insurance money on his contract. haha

Let's face it, folks. This team is probably 10 players away from contending. Aside from Tejada, Hernandez, Roberts, Markakis and Mora (MAYBE), the rest of our position players are under the league average. Huff may indeed get hot the rest of the year, but he hurts the team too much by being colder than a polar bears paws the first 3 months of the season. Aside from Guthrie and Bedard, the rest of the staff is just so-so. I would hang on to Bradford, Walker, Burres and Ray, but everyone else has to go. Ray needs another pitch that he can throw for strikes. A split-finger would be ideal (to keep the ball out of the air). I would love to see Cabrera close. It worked with Eric Gagne, and Cabrera already cuts an imposing figure. Bring up Olson to take Cabrera's spot in the rotation. He's proven that he can handle AAA batters. Let's see what he can do at the major league level.

On another note, there are a lot of people on this board who have bashed Perlozzo, Trembley, Ray, Baez, Trachsel, Huff, et al.
Until we get a leadership team that is committed to REAL change rather than plugging holes, this team will never win. The teams that risen above their losing ways have either gone very young (Brewers, Twins), or mixed youth with gutsy free agent signings (Tigers). We need to go younger, especially on the hitting side.

As far as a closer,why not just pick names out of a hat? (Just leave Joan's out of it!)
Why not give Walker a shot? He's about the only guy in the 'pen that hasn't stunk it up on a consistent basis.

I'm still infuriated about last night's game (9-7 loss, yet another bullpen outRAYge). As bad as the same-ol story has gotten, the moment I knew the Orioles would lose was in the bottom of the seventh, when Aubrey Huff was removed for a pinch runner. Didn't you just love seeing the Orioles down to their last out in the ninth and Brandon Fahey coming up as our last hope, all so that a guy with three extra-base hits could get his little encore moment? Don't try to sell me that removing Huff had to do with strategy--that's crap. We were going to need that bat in the ninth a heck of a lot more than we need a slightly faster guy on first base--especially with our only slugger (Miggy) shelved. In Trembley's two weeks as manager we have seen the phony extension of the consecutive games streak travesty, and now the Let's Remove Our Best Hitter So We Can Clap For Him move. Has anyone told him that he's paid to win games??

I say give the kid a shot. Put Burres back in the bullpen and get Olson in his slot. After tonight's game, that is. Now.

Oh, Roch, what about me? I'll gladly close for the O's. Just tell me the time and place and I'll show up with a glove and my Rocket arm.

yes roch, i will be more than happy to close for this team and i also can throw strikes and my pitch count can reach more then 75 before i get gassed!!!!!

In addition, relay this message to Mr. MacPhail:

Injured or not, I request and/or want a trade for Mark Teixera. Thank you very much.

I've always thought that Danny Cabrera would make a better closer than a starter. I know the walks would make anyone wary of doing so, but if he only had to be concerned with one inning, maybe he wouldn't lose his control so often...and he has that mano a mano attitude about him that seemingly all the good closers have.

Would be interesting. Olson could take his spot; making Ray your 8th inning set up guy, where he could regain his confidence, and have Danny boy close out some games....

Roch- Could you answer why we need both Fahey and Bynum? They are essentially the same player. They remove Huff for Fahey and then move around the defense. Couldn't they do the samething with Bynum? Do they see Bynum as a liability at SS? I say send one of those two out and bring up Doyne and give him a shot at closing while Ray finds the plate in the 6th or 7th innings.

Does anyone want to close? Why don't you pose your question to Cory Doyne, Roch, who's the only Tides pitcher named to the IL All-Star squad?

The link to this blog on the O's page reads "Roch Around the Clock: Time for O's to look at Olson," and while I agree with you that Garrett Olson deserves a look, even more it SHOULD have read "Time for O's to look at Doyne."

Look at his stats: 33 G, 0-1 W-L, 22 SV,1.77 ERA, 35.2 IP, 17 H, 12 BB, 42 SO, .142 AVE.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Doyne would mind having your question thrown his way, Roch.
Oh, in the light of Chris Ray's latest meltdown, here's one other number that will appeal to Oriole fans. In 35.2 innings pitched, Cory Doyne has yet to give up a home run, that's as in ZERO home runs in 35.2 IP, compared to 5 HR in 36.2 IP for Ray. And to state the obvious, as often as not a home run hit off of a closer is of consequence to the game's outcome.

Can anyone in the front office give one cogent reason why Doyne isn't getting a chance to help the team. And, no, letting Ray figure it out at the club's expense isn't a cogent reason; let him figure it out at Norfolk, where at least he won't hurt the O's, now THAT makes sense.

P.S. Dave Trembley can't be faulted tpp much for bringing in Ray, since he doesn't have any alternatives, but there was a move in last night's game that was far less excusable. Here I'm thinking of his lifting of Aubrey Huff (4-4, 2B, 3B, HR, 3 R, 3 RBI), for pinchrunner Brandon Fahey with an out in the seventh signaled the official end of the honeymoon, as far as I'm concerned (and I hope MacPhail was taking notes). In case Dave somehow missed it, the Angels lead the majors with a team BA of .292. When he removed hot hitting Huff for a "defensive replacement," the Oriole lead was only one run. Given the O's less-than-stellar bullpen, the possibility of a comeback by Angels, who already had scored six runs in seven innings should have been considered as a real danger by Trembley and that being the case, the need for more offense by the Birds should have been considered as a higher priority than defense. A better solution would have been to move Huff to DH for Jay Gibbons (0-4, 2 K) and bring in Kevin Millar or Chris Gomez to play first, either of which would have been a defensive upgrade over Huff and an offensive upgrade over Fahey. True, I say all this with the luxury of hindsight, but I'm disappointed in Trembley for not picking up on it. Still, it's only one gaff, so let's hope he learns from it.

Re. Cabrera: Why would we want a closer who often has trouble in his first inning and whose undoing has always been his propensity to walk batters? Ask the Red Sox how well converting Joel Pinero to a closer worked for them this spring.

Look at the best closers in the league: The Hoffmans, the Riveras, or-- as of this year-- J.J. Putz. These guys don't walk anybody! If you're going to beat them, you're going to have to hit the ball. They don't give games away to anybody. Cabrera, as much as I love the guy, isn't that kind of pitcher. The best place for him is in the rotation.

As far as the bullpen meltdown that has hampered the Oriole's season so far, is there such a thing as a bullpen pitching coach? From what I've read, Mazzone (dating back to his Atlanta days) was more known for his great starting pitching staff going deep into games and less for a stellar bullpen. Of course you can always say that things were helped out by some great starting pitching with the likes of Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz etc. I think that Mazzone has done a great job at lowering the pitching staff's era with that being his focus but maybe it would help if an ex-bullpen pitcher or catcher (known for his excellent handling of a pitching staff) could come in and coach and concentrate on the Oriole's beleaquered bullpen? I don't know what these guys are up to nowadays but here are some possible candidates:
Bruce Sutter, Dennis Eckersley, Rick Dempsey (I know what he's up to-MASN), Bob Boone, Carlton Fisk etc.

Does anybody have Stu Miller's phone number? He couldn't throw hard, anyway. Who cares if he' 70?
How about George Zuverink?

Let's look at Rob Bell's and Garrett Olson's stats in Norfolk this year (remember Bell was on the DL for a month and has been up for almost two weeks):

Bell
10 starts
66.2 IP (6.2 per start)
2.97 ERA
1.17 WHIP
59K (8 per 9IP)
17BB (2.3 per 9IP)
.241 BAA

Olson
17 starts
104IP (6 per start)
3.46 ERA
1.06 WHIP
94K (8.1 per 9IP)
31BB (2.7 per 9IP)
.211 BAA

Across the board, 2 very good pitchers.

With Burres' questions marks surrounding his shoulder and ability to go deep into games, why not convert him back into a reliever? Take out the Trach and that opens up 2 rotation spots. Bell and Olson certainly seem like great candidates for them. Plus, getting Burres back in the pen might actually allow one of the 5 worst bullpens in baseball this year to hold a lead occasionally.

This is the funniest baseball story I've seen in years:

"The Orioles placed Steve Trachsel on the 15-day disabled list today with a strained gluteus muscle."

Apparently, he got his @$$ kicked so hard last night, he actually has to go on the DL for it!!!!

Well...it's time.

Let's bring back Smash and Crash, the dynamic duo of Pete Richert and Eddie Watt.

I'm betting dollars to donuts that their combined ERA/save record was no worse than the eighth-inning-trio/CRay.

Ken Francis -

You can't switch a position player to DH in the middle of a game. Against the rules.

A DH may be substituted for, but ONLY by a player not already in the lineup.

But pinch-hitting for Fahey in the 9th would have been nice. Gomez was already playing first, so Millar could have pinch-hit and Gomez could've gone back to short.