Seems like Mora started huge out of the gate last year too. Lead the team in HRs and RBIs in April, and then...

Here's hoping it's not a repeat.

Roch--And to think that it was only two weeks ago (Feb 21) that you posted: "Manager Dave Trembley threw a little love at Jay Payton, saying the outfielder is a lot further ahead this spring than in 2007."

Melvin Mora is batting .471 with three doubles, a home run and eight RBIs. He's hitting everything heard. No cheapies.

I'm glad that MelMo is hitting everything "heard" but the real question is, is MelMo hitting them hard?

Is he hitting everything heard?? Lol, just picking on ya buddie.

CRB - I agree with you on Fahey.

I just can't figure out why the O's love him so much. He is like the High School kid your neighbors keep bragging about as being the next Einstein, Ripken, Carlton, Jordan, whatever, then you meet him and he is 5' 4" and 95 lbs with an below average IQ.

Granted, he can play several positions - none of them with excellence - but how does he help the O's? He would be great in Boston, NY or Detroit. But he is a luxury item this O's team can't afford.

And I would love to see Penn earn a spot, too. I thought he looked very promising in his late season call up a couple years back, but he has not been 100% since. I thik he has paid his dues. It would be nice to see a guy the home team actually developed make the squad.

Finally, keep in mind that whatever they call Houston's field these days favors right handed pull hiters more than OPACY ever did, so Tejada should do well.

Roch - can you give some background on Torres? Is he home grown? Has he been around?

Granted it is early in ST, but some of the "kids" are looking better than expected.

My big hope is Torres and (I shudder to say it) Fahey do well enough the O's lose all interest real or imagined in Cedeno - who would properly start behind Hernandez, Torres, Fahey, Tucker and even Moore (at 2B) on the depth chart.

I think either Costanzo has to make it
or he has to be told that if he starts slow in AAA he is an immediate call-up. I especially like his power. And our park, as we all know, is small. Who says he can't hit 25?

This has good a good spring. Long way to go...

Now I will enter the letter "o" in the field below:

The question still remains......can he hit everything un-heard?

I'd like to see BOTH Liz and Penn given a more extensive opportunity to make the club. Liz has performed very well, and Penn has had little opportunity but done fine.

I also hate the Cubs offer. Cedeno-Veal-Gallagher. Not exactly promsing. Cedeno looks like a AAAA player. Veal looks like he may have hit his peak, so it appears Gallagher for Roberts. C'mon, get real. I'd rather see if we could find a better match. It may not please BRob, but this deal is not good. Any word on offers from Cleveland? It seems all we hear about is the Cubs, and they're really not offering much here.

Here's hoping the Moore injury is not the latest craze--the hernia.

It continues...As long as we don't play the Marlins or Esteban Yan pitches, then we win. Good thing they released Yan.

Fahey? I don't understand the love for Freddie "Boom Boom" Bynum

As long as there's a former Bird watch crossing threads, has anyone remarked yet that Rick Bauer is in the Cleveland camp? Still don't know why he couldn't stay on with Texas after putting up a good season and working setup in nearly 60 games a couple years ago. Definitely didn't impress the Phils or Dodgers enough in AAA to be called up last season.

Costanzo should make the team over Moore anyway because he's a RH bat.

Has nothing to do with the game, but I LOVE MASN's new in-game scoreboard-thingy. Much clearer than last year's and looks really professional.

And while I'm glad they finally put a stroke around the players names when they do the opening field position layout thingy (like the Nats did back in, what, June?), I wish they had just scrapped it for something better-looking. Oh, and I still can't believe they have the non-stroked text on bright orange for the stat screens still. The Nats ones work decently becasue of the dark red, but the O's ones don't work too well.

Though I'd forgive that if the packaging is revamped to something that works even 1/5th as well as the great packaging the Nats had last year.

I would love to see a story on the success rate of pitchers coming back from torn labrum surgeries. I've heard the numbers aren't good, and if the statistics and anecdotal evidence support that, I would like to see some hard questions posed to McPhail.

He says he knew about the risk of the injury, but I would like to know if he knew about the probability of full recovery. For example, if it was likely that surgery would be needed, and only 10% of patients get back to the majors, he needs to be held accountable for making a very bad decision. But again, I don' know the stats.

No one order MLB 2K8
It is no different from the past 5 years
Plus Kevin Millar and Jamie Walker arent in it and Bedard is still an Oriole. Also the franchise/season scedule is the one from 07 with them starting the season off in Minnesota and AAA is still the Ottowa Linx?

Wierd right?

John,
Costanzo and Moore both are left sided hitters. Oscar Salazar though is a righty.

Terps19, Thanks for the Jason Johnson thought. I would agree with you to.
John D, I'm not a Fahey basher either and also like how he works and handles himself. A good role model for everyone.
billi, I reported about Rick Bauer being with Cleveland. I'm making a tracker list of ex-Orioles to see how they're doing. Don't know why I am, but wanted to contribute something a little different here. I feel like we are all a team amongst ourself.

Bill in Elkton.... Thanks for doing that teammate.

Ryan,

It's not really too strange. Granted, most sports games are essentially just the same every year (one reason why I don't play any sports games unless Mario's in it), but it still takes a few months to make the game, print it onto discs, then ship it out to retailers. Believing that somehow EA should have anticipated the Bedard-to-Seattle trade at least 2-3 months prior (though it'd likely have to be 4-5 months prior actually) and fixed the game within 2 weeks of release is just foolhardy. The video game industry doesn't work that way.