"The Orioles currently are researching how many innings Bierd threw per appearance in the minors last season."

I think many of us on this blog would have done that research for the Birds long ago.

might be interesting to see how good Humber is.

he was one of Mets gold nuggetz in Santana trade

I think really unless you have a lights out closer the idea of having just one guy close is not a great idea. For example the O's are leading 6 to 5 against the Bosox entering the bottom of the 9th inning and they are scheduled to send up Ortiz, Ramirez and Varitek. Perhaps Ortiz has hit 450 against Sherrill with 2 homers in 15 abs, Ramirez 320 with a few hrs and Varitek 375 again with a few hrs but you have Bradford still in the pen and these guys each have poor numbers against him. I think you need to go with Bradford in that situation because otherwise you are putting Sherrill and the team in a position to lose just to keep up this long standing idea of having a closer. If you look at stats around the league so many closers blow saves all the time and really it's only pitching 1 inning. I think that happens because managers ignore matchups in the 9th inning to keep up this baseball idea that it's necessary to have 1 guy close

Roch, Bierd in 2005 pitched 15 games and 85.5 innings...so he was pitching either as a starters or he did pitch lots of inings per game....then in 2006....he pitched 20 games but only 38.1 innings...so his innnings were coming down per game....and then in 2007...42 and 67.2 innings so again...seems like fewer innings....seems they were trying to keep him between 1 inning 2 innings tops. So he for sure needs stretching out to go more than that for the O's.....but 2 innings seems like that would be good for him....they are not tslking long reliever for him anyway....Scott Moore seems to be injury prone....hope he makes the team...seems like good young player...Sherrill....should be a happy camper now that he came to the O's....great team the Twins brought today...seems like their mgr treats his vets like Trembley does with respect...

I can't remember the last time the Orioles had such a pipeline of pitching. It's a literal long string of arms reaching down to the Delmarva. When you have that many arms who might be quality ML players it is a good sign. Few of them will make it of course but it's a lot different than having just 1 or 2 Liz's to bank your hopes on. Today we have seemingly a boatload of those kind of guys, each with their share of strengths and weaknesses, and nearly all of them are mid-90s or more pitchers.

Nice to finally see legitimate talent in the minors. I'm excited to see where the farm and draft go this season.

Interesting to read about the Olson-Moore circumstances. Olson isn't helping himself any with incidents like this. Despite the fact some of his spring training stats are impressive, he continues to have trouble harnessing his control. With that in mind, he's better off starting in a low-pressure situation in Norfolk. If he starts pulling a Steve Blass at the Major League level, it could mess his entire career up.

As for Moore, he has every right to be angry and frustrated. He's just coming back from an injury and here comes another one he can't control courtesy of Olson. However, I believe Moore would make a better impression on management if he sucked it up and put his emotions in check, at least while he's in public. That's called composure and maturity and those qualities have landed many players on big-league rosters while their more-talented but volatile competition ends up in the minors again.

It's different than in a game situation. If Moore believes he has been deliberately beaned by an opponent, then I'm all for him delivering a message back to the pitcher in no uncertain terms.

That's why I admire Tampa Bay outfielder Jonny Gomes. He's the only guy who took a real stand after Shelly Duncan of the Yankees came into second base spikes high with a dirty slide. The other Rays will learn from it and pull together as a team.

I feel bad for Olson, and I'm sure this bothers him. He could be psyched by the whole incident, though, and a bit more time in Norfolk will hopefully get him back on track.

BUT Sherrill does take for granted the team for which he plays this game..... I do recall Sherill reportedly being miffed at being dealt here.

Bierd didn't impress me much on TV this past weekend. He reminded me ALOT of that guy the O's signed a few years ago from the Korean League. I can't recall his name, but he looked alot like him physically & more importantly, pitching wise. They are JUST now researching his past outings??? Good grief...

Eli Whiteside???

Is he in the stands?

Tom D, Jim Palmer had a 15-5 record in 1982 and a 3.13 era in 227 innnings pitched with 103 strikeouts. I call that a darm good year.

"The Orioles currently are researching how many innings Bierd threw per appearance in the minors last season."

You're kidding, right? That info is easily available to anyone with internet access. Here ya' go:

In '07, Bierd got into 42 games and pitched 67.2 innings. He made 3 starts. So, about 1-2/3 per appearance.

Always happy to help. :-)

Roch- Is Whiteside fully recovered from last year's season-ending injury?

As long as Eli Whiteside carries the prefix of “Former Oriole,” he is always welcome.

Brought to you be the letter “e,” as in “Score that as an ‘e’-2.”

I agree with Patrick. One labelled closer is a bit foolish, especially in Sherril's case. He's dominant against lefties, not so special against righties (admittedly, he probably needs more appearances against righties to really say this). Why not plan who closes based on matchups? If you're going to face a tough lefty or two, go with Sherril. If you are staring at some good righties coming to the plate, go with a different guy. You can also manage the two of them based on appearances - if one has gone two days in a row you ignore matchups and use the other, etc. It's not quite closer-by-committee, but probably better because there really are well defined roles.

Eddie in NYC: You are assuming that Scott Moore was mad at Olsen. Don't you think he could have been mad at the situation? You do not know Scott.... he is competitive but he does not hold a grudge. It's frustration from coming back from an injury from early hustle. He wants to make the team. Trembley wants him to make the team. But it requires him to be on the field as much as possible and they both know that.

Olson is a lifetime minor leaguer..case closed.....