Loewen isn't the only one who trailed 3-0 after the first three batters. I attended the Frederick-Salem game last night and Brandon Erbe trailed after 3 batters as well. He gave up three home runs, 9 hits, and 6 earned runs in 5 1/3. Brandon Snyder and Matt Weiters were a combined 0 for 7 and the latter left the game after the top of the 7th because of a home plate collision. The throw beat the runner who was safe when Weiters couldn't hold the ball. Salem won 13-6. A bad night for Keys prospects!!

I'll help you with the last one-- increase the availability of food. I can't believe no one thought of that.

On a serious note (because obviously O's relief pitching is more important than world hunger), Jim Johnson looks like a different animal altogether this season and he deserves to prove that he belongs at this level. Aquino, I'm afraid is not ready for the primetime. I say we eat the $25K. Aquino looks like an Eddy Rodriguez. The hat thing makes him look even younger than he is as well. To be fair, I'd probably be okay with it if he were pitching well (like Sherrill's bendless brim).

Okay, here's a conspiracy theory for you all: look at all of MASN's scheduled HD broadcasts--
http://www.masnsports.com/pdfs/2008_Orioles_on_MASN.pdf

Shockingly, all the HD broadcasts except the Nats and an away Cubs series come against the Red Sox and Yankees. Why?

Is it subsidized? Do we want their fans to get a better picture since it might be viewed worldwide? I just noticed this, but any explanation might be useful. Odd, that's all.

I don't know if this was brought up on any of the game threads last night, but I was at the game and Loewen struck Thome out on three pitches in the first inning. Unfortunately, the ump blinked, and the fourth pitch sailed over the rightfield fence. Now, it's a drag that the first two batters reached, and even if Thome struck out, there was another hit after him, so they likely would've had one in after one, but 1-0 is a big difference from 3-0.

I thought Loewen did a fine job. His pitch count was too high and it was pretty clear in the stands he didn't have quite the fastball he needed, but he fought for six pretty tough innings.

Roch - Loewen gutted out six innings and kept the team in a position to win. I was much more disappointed with only getting one run off of Contreras than giving up three to their offense.

I liked his curveball - but he was sketchy at best with the fastball. He was never polished - full of talent but raw - then he missed 9 months pitching. We're seeing the rust. There were some positives last night.

But we were also lucky that he didn't give up six or seven runs. The Sox ran themselves out of a few potential big innings - and our of's made plays.

Let's see how it develops.

Would anybody else be more confident in Matt Albers taking Brian Burres start on Saturday?

This is what is frustrating....

Loewen has great stuff, but like Cabrera, it usually takes him an inning or two to find that stuff. And again like Cabrera, when it's on, IT'S ON! Both pitchers have amazing arms, they just need to feel comfortable in those first two innings and not give up any runs. If they could do that, the O's would probably win more games.

Barry, You left out one other prediction for the Yankees game which I will help you out with.
Dave "The Brave" Trembley will put himself into the game to pinch hit with the bases full of Birds and crank a grand slam out of Yankee Stadium to win the game.
It will be on Saturday's This Week In Baseball with the familiar line, "How About That."

Roch, I’m going to say Loewen gave the team a decent if flawed start. It’s good that, even though he was down 3-0 early, he didn’t completely come undone, and he shut them out the rest of his start. The last thing the O’s would’ve needed is a pitcher who had to leave the game in the 1st or 2nd inning because of ineffectiveness. The high pitch count seems to be common with young O’s pitchers. Throwing more strikes would help cut this down, and it goes without saying he needs to cut down on the walks (but I said it anyway). We can’t forget that Loewen is young, relatively inexperienced, and recovering from a major injury. I think in that light, his start last night has to be seen as positive.

At this point, I’d say you’d have to keep Johnson here at least until he falters. Why send him down if he’s effective?

how probable that the O's have an entire new starting infield come August 1st?

you can waste a lot of breath analyzing the pitching from many angles .....

but w/o a clean up hitter the pitchers are going to be exposed nightly.

Roch , a little self promotion never hurts , the O's could learn from you and Anita,,,,,,,,,,,,,,you guys work very well together , I just wish MASN would do away with that Riggins guy,,,,,,,,,,,,more Ravens and O's would be better..............

Actually all Ravens would be best,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,the other posters are saying so many negatives about the O's , I have nothing else to say,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I wish they could learn to be a little positive sometimes , like me , have a great day,,,,,,,,,,,,

Busy workload Roch, even without the world hunger.

Its good seeing the pregame show on MASN. You seem comfortable in front of the camera.

Loewen had the ball up in the zone and it cost him in the first inning when Thome went deep. He won't win too many games giving up 5 walks. I wasn't sure how many pitches he had going into the 6th so I wasn't surprised that he went out. The OF defense was great as Markakis and Scott both gunned down runners. And Jones just surprises me as he continues to run down fly balls in the alleys. In ST I wasn't even impressed with his defense and thought for sure he would end up at Norfolf. He is a different player now and his defense is impressive and his bat might be coming around.

Now we gotta get the pitchers to start throwing strikes instead of walking hitters. Ever walk they give up seems like an automatic run.

I still think Loewen is going to be fine. HE DID NOT PITCH ALL OF LAST SEASON. (well most of it) He needs some time to get it all back. Look for him to be heating up in June or July, the same time that O's Attempt to trade Roberts, Millar, Huff, Mora and Hernandez. Hopefully those guys get hot and look good for another team.....

Weiters and Snyder should be traded, 0-7 is unacceptable. Prospects should never be 0-7 in a game. Trade them! No take them out back and shoot them, there careers are over!

Roch,
Who is better to be interviewed by Anita Marks or Amber Theoharris? My money is on Amber Theoharris, haha.

Wait... You haven't solved world hunger yet and you still have a job? Haha. Roch, you need a raise.

As for Loewen. Watching him last night was hard in the first inning. All the walks he gave up, the same. But... I think the positives do outweigh here because he is progressing each start now. I hope his command comes back next turn.

Also. It looks like his windup has to do with a lot of use from his back leg to push off. (Like all pitchers, really.) His upper body frame looks to be huge compared to his lower body. You hear pitchers always working on their arm strength, pitches and command... Do they work their legs enough with conditioning? He looks like he could benefit from that. It may help his release point too, if you think about it. I am no whiz at this, it just looks like it would help him.

How is Hoey looking down at Norfolk?

Roch, can you do me a silly favor? Could you walk up to Matt Albers and say "Hey Hey Hey... it's Maaaaatt Albers!".

He's not fat or anything, but when I hear his name I keep thinking I'm hearing "Fat Albert".

Or maybe tell Millar to do it. I'm sure he'll do anything for a laugh! :-D

The man of many hats.... Rocco.....

Good to see you getting the exposure! When they finally run Marks out of town, maybe you can get that gig.

One other thing Roch, after seeing Marks' commercial too many times now, even I know that her hair style went out about 15 years ago, she needs a new one. Unless they are doing a remake of St Elmo's Fire, & she is going to be an extra, she needs to get rid of it.

Time to move Luke Scott up to the 5th spot.

Roch,

If Loewen is still working on his control and he's out of options (so we cant send him down to Norfolk to work on this), why not let him pitch 2 inning stints out of the bullpen for a couple of weeks? That would allow him to work more frequently than every fifth day and in game situations (bullpens are nice, but no hitter = no real help) and maybe get his mechanics in better shape. If I had $100 for each of the wild fastballs he threw last night, I'd be able to retire today.

All in all, while it wasn't a "pretty" start I look at it as a positive one for Adam. Despite the 3-run shot by Thome and the fistfull of walks allowed during the game he still managed to fight his way through it all and get the game to the bullpen in the 7th with the O's still very much in the game.

I, personally, think way too much is being made of his lack of command right now. In a perfect world Adam would have been able to pick up right where he left off in spring training last year before the elbow issue...but most of us knew that wasn't very realistic. He'll be fine, he just needs about 10 starts to regain the comfort with the pitches that are giving him fits right now.

"One other thing Roch, after seeing Marks' commercial too many times now, even I know that her hair style went out about 15 years ago, she needs a new one. Unless they are doing a remake of St Elmo's Fire, & she is going to be an extra, she needs to get rid of it. "

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA! Very Nice! HAHAHAHA!

I hate that damn commercial!

The demise of what seems to be a very good relief staff is on schedule. Through 14 games the Orioles have used 42 relief pitchers, an average of 3 a night. With 5 starters out of their 13 pitchers, this means some of the relievers are going to have to pitch every other night. This will cause a lot of tired arms which translates to the relief staff getting lit up starting in May, and the club will start losing a greater percentage of their games. With the starters only averaging a little over 5 innings a start, the relievers are having to throw over 3 innings every night. This is a recipe for disaster which we have seen every year over the last 4-5 years. The only thing that can stop it is if the Starters step up their games, and that doesn't look likely. So the Merry-go-Round with the Norfolk staff is already starting with the O's bringing up Johnson, and will have to continue during the Summer.

Bring back the Boo Birds. If guys are going to start "dogging it" again then it
s time to boo. It worked at the start of April and maybe we can get these players to wake up and play hard.
No rest till the 27th out.

Hey, Doug M
I assume your comments about Weiters and Snyder refer to Austin's note that they were 0 for 7 at Frederick last night. No where in his or anyone else's post do I see a suggestion that they are now bums. It WAS a rough night for O's prospects. Save the sarcasm for something deserved such as the posters who are ready to send Weiters to the HOF because he was hitting .500 before last night's game.

"p" is for perspective

I just saw a baseball fan in Delaware today wearing a Yankees hat and an Orioles shirt. You know I had to ask who he was a fan of which brought out a laugh from him and his wife. He said he's both because, "I'm from New York and my daughter is from Baltimore."
His favorite players from both teams are Derek Jeter and Brian Roberts.
I asked the question just so I could post it here.

Did you guys notice Tejada's age conspiracy: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080417&content_id=2540641&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

It turns out that Miggy is actually 2 years older than he's claimed for his whole career. That means he turns 34 next month, not 32. That might explain why we started to see age-related decline a little earlier than we were expecting for Miggy.

Yet another reason that MacPhail gets an A+ for his offseason moves. With Bedard on the DL and Tejada dealing with steroids and the feds and the age conspiracy, is there any question that we got the better end of the deals with Scott, Albers, Sarfate, Jones, and Sherril (not to mention the others in the minors)?

Here's to hoping that Andy works some more magic throughout this season.

Nice! We signed Tejada as a 27-year old to a 6-year contract. We traded him four years later when he was 33, so we kind of got our six years worth. It's probably not a surprise, but it just came out that he's two years older than anyone in baseball knew, from the standard falsify your age by a couple years to be viewed as a bigger prospect out of the DR. He's off to a nice start for Houston, but the Tejada deal just keeps looking better.

Tides SS Luis Terrero photo day is this Sunday @ 1:15. The first 5,000 fans will get a photo. Also buy one reserved seat ticket and get one free with an A-1 Steak Sauce proof of purchase against the Durham Bulls. Thought I'd just plug that.
An Oriole thought of mine is to bring 25 pitchers to the majors who can field and hit.

check out mlb.com turns out tejeda has been lying about his age he is two years' older than advertised

The Norfolk Tides continue to play poorly here in Louisville. They dropped the second game of the four game series last night. Radhames Liz was hammered--both Jerry Hairston Jr. and Jay Bruce hit home runs. On Tuesday night, Tides starter Jon Leicester looked like he was ready for a call up until the fifth inning when he gave up a home run to Hairston. Until that point, Leicester was ahead of the hitters and working quickly. Based of these performances alone, Leicester looked far better than Liz.

Scott Moore continues to struggle in the field and at the plate. He looked more uncomfortable at shortstop than second base. After two games, it would appear Moore is just where he needs to be--in AAA.

Oscar Salazar's average has really tailed off, but when he makes contact he hits the ball hard.

Of the relief pitchers seen thus far, Cormier and McCrory have looked the best with Novoa appearing to be very unsteady and probably out of place in AAA. Tonight Craig Anderson is the probable starter for Norfolk.

Oh Tejada! You had to unburden yourself of something. Clear up a falsehood and deceit. OK, so you are really 33, not 31.

Someone tell him that pleading guilty to a lesser charge of lying about ones age does not absolve one of the congressional purjury investigation. Sorry, Miggy.

Between Tejadas' instantaneous aging, and Bedards trip to the DL, those trades are looking more genius every day! I'm guessing the Cubs put Roberts on the 60-day DL in mid-August.

So, with Tejada’s age revelation, we get back a couple of years from Leslie Brea. Tejada’s jumped from being in his prime years to being just out of them. I guess since he was lying about his age all this time has no bearing on whether or not he’s ever lied about steroid usage. Maybe someone will tell him, did you think that was a six-year deal you signed? We forgot to tell you—it was only for four. Our bad. I guess Houston’s at least glad he didn’t get named in the Mitchell Report one day after they traded for him. Oh, wait…

The way Aquino pitches, he might end up standing up pins in a bowling alley. At least there his ERA could easily be confused with a bowling score.

JPA,

I'm glad you mentioned the HD schedule. Something is definitely up. Unfortunately for us out-of-towners who have to watch games on MLB Extra Innings, we almost always get the YES or NESN broadcast in all of the games between the O's and the Yankees or Red Sox. I've had the package for 7 years now, and each year its been this way. Therefore, out of towners will never see the O's in HD! What's with partial HD anyway? You either have it or you don't. Sharing cameras between two teams is bush league. It sucks, but Angelos' deal has made him a de facto owner of the Nationals as well as the Orioles, and the last thing O's fans need is for Peter's loyalties to be split in half. Half of almost zero is pretty small.

One more thing about the HD schedule. The HD broadcasts including the Yankees and Red Sox almost exclusively means even more O's fans will stay home during those games. Who the heck is in charge of promoting the O's to Baltimore? This person or team should be canned immediately. Or be forced to rip out their own eyes and live their remaining days in the hills of Western MD, kind of like the ending in a GREEK tragedy.

Wow, my beliefs about Tejada's age, that I have been stating here for the past couple of years, were true! Okay, he's not 40, but he is older than previously stated. My wife still thinks he's pushing 40. My question is, how can he feel good about getting the age thing off his chest when he still hasn't come clean on the steroid allegations? That's gotta be more of a burden.

Lowen is just what we want. He's a keeper. Some how give the Cub what they want. We have 2nd. basemen out the yingyang. Millar will be gone. Huff ? Hard to figure. The Gibbons thing was another blunder. Not Jay's fault. Proof. My cousin who hates baseball and is serving 7 life terms asked me " Herb, isn't Jay a far better hitter then Fahey?" I couldn't answer.

Jennifer--Remember when your buddy--your dog--tried to eat your boots?

He was trying to save you from last night's fall at the Yard.

Give that fan a milk bone!

Can't say anybody is surprised that Tejada is 2 years older than previously reported.

Will we be surprised when we find out that Greg Aquino is really 16?

I just saw a baseball fan in Delaware today wearing a Yankees hat and an Orioles shirt. You know I had to ask who he was a fan of which brought out a laugh from him and his wife. He said he's both because, "I'm from New York and my daughter is from Baltimore."
His favorite players from both teams are Derek Jeter and Brian Roberts.
I asked the question just so I could post it here.

Posted by: Bill In Elkton | April 17, 2008 1:47 PM

Did he look nervous & start slowly backing away with his wife as you questioned him?

Nice updates Jim Carter. Thanks, it's good to hear how they are really doing. You are obviously much more intelligent than the other Jim Carter. That one is in the Middle East looking like an idiot craving relevance.

Tejada's age 'error' makes up for the Astros sending us damaged goods in Payton. Maybe Miggy is really 35 but the man gave us 4 good years and shows no signs of slowing down. Houston may get 4-5 more good years from him and who knows if Payton will ever pitch at the MLB level.
Scott looks good but as far as the others we received, who knows? I'm hoping that 2 of the pitchers have long O's careers, which then means the trade is one of the rare ones where both teams benefit.

Jennifer-so it was your boots ? perhaps you wore boots in case you need to kick BRob's 'laziness' ? HAHA

Go O's !

Barry.. he ate my other boots. (I had them fixed in case you were really upset about it.

I think I'm going with Allan on this one. I wore them in case the O's needed me to kick BRob out of his funk!

Umm did anyone else catch Kenny Chesney at the game?!?!?!? Apparently Millar and Chesney are BFFs! (yes I know I just used BFF!) hahaha