At this point Trembley is just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. He can't get any offense going, his starter barely gets thru the 5th and he has to be concerned about over-taxing the pen. Where does he go? Does have faith in Castillo or Bierd (just off the DL) to face this lineup?

I keep hoping Burres will develop into another soft-tossing lefty that pitched here once, Jamie Moyer. Moyer couldn't knock you down with his his fastball but he sure knew how to get guys out. Is it a question of developing another pitch or control or just plain confidence? I guess it just takes time.

Roch, your silence on the buyout speaks volumes.

'z' is for Zero wins on Sundays

So when you replace Cormier with Bierd why not have one of them walk the bases loaded ad set up the force at home and try and keep the score at 3-1? I don't get it!

'z' is for Zany managing

I Iiked yesterday's score better.

I hope Roch continues here.

Brian--I remember your questioning of the provenance of the comments attributed to Jay Payton on the blog.

Did you eat your hat? Maybe with a little Old Bay?

Or are you convinced that the writer was not Jay Payton?

they may have lost anyway, BUT the starter walks the ninth inning leadoff man on four pitches... You're down four runs and need base runners...

Nick swings at the first pitch and hits into a double play???

How about a take sign??? How about some smart baseball???

Is it too much to ask???

"F" is for curses "Foiled again!!!

Gary Thorne has got to go. Why was he talking about the World Series in the 7th inning? He has Palmer eating out of the palm of his hands. This has to be the worse pairing of Orioles announcers in the history of the team. As for the game, another Sunday loss. I tried to change my routine and not watch so much. The same results. I guess I'll have to try something else next week. Wonder if Dave will change the rotation and let Cormier start. I think Burress is more suited for the bullpen. Verlander pitched a good game so we couldn't generate any offense.

Dave, I'm going to completely disagree with you. Gary and Jim are the best the O's have had since Mel Procter an John Lowenstein.

With the exception of Guthrie, the O's starting pitching will kill them the second half of the season. Consider that Cabrera's "light went on" for a 7 game stretch in late April and May when he looked like a reliable major league starter, and then was quickly extinguished in June and July. We have to face the facts, with the exception of his complete game against KC, Cabrera has given up 34 earned runs in his last 45 innings, while walking 30 and giving up 54 hits. You can't win at this level when you put 84 people on base in 45 innings, which is about the same level of performance that we got from him last year. I know someone will write in that he has value because he is an "innings eater," which translates to being a "loser," but his team has lost 8 of the last 10 games he has started. Couple that with Burres' 5.02 ERA and the two 5 innings or less twins, Olson who has an ERA of 5.79 and Liz with a 7.57 ERA, and the O's bullpen will shortly be decimated. As such, the O's will be lucky to win 21-22 games the rest of the way. Let's hope that the last 60 games of the season won't be the disaster that we had last year, but faced with these numbers, and the loss of Loewen, MacPhail has his work cut out for him. Maybe it is time to write off the balance of the year and make a couple of trades before the deadline, that will help us down the road.

He signs his checks "Justin Verlander," but Oriole hitters had a different name for him today, one that can't be printed here. (At least Luke Scott was able to come through with an RBI to prevent the shutout.)

I agree with Steve "The Nuclear Guy" about Nick Markakis being a rally killer. Verlander shows fatigue for the first time, walking Brian Roberts to lead off the ninth. Nick's thinking, no doubt, that Verlander is going to try to get something over for a strike after four straight balls, so why not hack.

Why not? Because the O's needed baserunners--three of them, to be exact--to get the tying run to the plate. Force Verlander to prove that he can still throw strikes, work the count to get runners aboard, and force the Tigers to go to the bullpen. That's smart baseball. Nick's a good enough hitter that swinging with two strikes shouldn't bother him.

Oriole Magic = Never on Sunday

What do we have to do to break the Sunday Streak?

That's it! Break out the Ace version of Daniel Cabrera against the Royals!

Or switch to the black jerseys, since it seemed like we scored a lot of runs wearing that jersey.

I don't know! I'm running out of ideas! Clearly, the "We win, You Win" 3 will be shown next week.

Buress isn't suited for any role on this team. He is just another guy that can't break a egg and very few of them make it as a major league starter.Look when a guy throws a 3 hitter you just have to give him credit. 17 hits the night before and had to win it in dramtic fashion. We have the worse starting pitching in the major leagues with no options to do anything about it. I am so tired of seeing them run out daniel every 5th day and pretending to be a pitcher that it's getting to be a joke. But i forgot he is still learning to be a pitcher after 4 years and over a 130 starts. When i ask does it all end.

It's ridiculous to go through the rest of this year with Burres,Liz and Olson in the rotation.They are not improving.In Olson and Burres' case they just don't throw hard enough and it's too easy to sit on pitches. Liz can't get his breaking stuff over. Why is it teams like Oakland can "rush" thier kids to the majors with success and we can't? Do we have less confidence in our pitching coach than they do? Even if Bergeson,Tillman,Hernandez get hit up here starting out,you can judge if they're over matched and if they progress from start to start.Olson,Liz and Burres are middle relievers starting games, it's that simple.

I'm not liking this,,,,,,,,,,not the O's loosing , I'm talking about loosing Roch,,,,,,,,,,,,tell us it ain't so Roch ..........

barry that was NOT Payton.... I doubt the guy has a comp... :-) BUT if I did indeed have to eat a hat, Old Bay would be my choice of seasoning....

Why all the Thorne hate....his voice is one of the few that can be heard over the cheesy music played constantly on the PA system in my opinion.... been 3+ yrs & the sound system seems worse!
I also need my glasses to read all the small fine print on the scoreboard.... LESS ads getting first dibs & more info about the current game situation would be nice....

"I think they have a dynamite videoscreen but I need more Cowbell...."

Roch,

I hope you aren't leaving us!

Question for you to ask Andy: Are the Orioles looking to the Tigers at all as trade partners? The Tigers have a couple of interesting young players in Jeff Larish and Matt Joyce. Larish can play 3B and Joyce plays a pretty good LF. Any thoughts to trading Walker or Bradford and Payton to the Tigers for one or both of these guys?

Don't leave, Roch!

We love you.

*sniff* We'll change! We'll make it work!!!

roch when are we going to get some real trade rumors?? when it comes to trade rumors you are about as quiet as a bar filled with ravens fans after the loss to the dolphins last year. why isn't anyone pressing the O's front office about Wieters? he has been tearing up the two levels he has been at! i didn't believe in moving him up so fast at the begining of the season but they atleast need to prepare him for next year. he isn't a 18 or 19 year old and he has seen college pitching. atleast move the guy up to AAA so he can see better pitching. him facing A and AA pitchers is like me facing a little league team. if i was the front office i would trade Hernandez dirt cheap to the marlins just to get his salary off the payroll. he is about as worthless as a busted condom. what about the rumors of Sherrill going to the angels? i think i would try to atleast get SS Eric Aybar (who is only 24 years young) who looks to have tons of talent and hope he solves our SS problems.

Dave,
Changing your routine has a lot to do with the losing on Sunday.

I listened to the game on the Tigers radio station on my way to the golf course. Their announcers-former Tigers back-up catcher Jim Price and some other guy weren't bad and were actually kind of humourous about the O's baserunning. They said it seems like some of these guys act as if they never been on base before. They couldn't figure out what Scott was doing at 3rd and referred back to Friday's game and the numerous baserunners. They went on the reminisce about the great O's teams back in the 70's-the great pitching, defense etc and the 'rivalry' with the Tigers(I remember we usually kicked their butts!).
Verlander seems to have turned things around and from the looks of things, we didn't do much with him.
Burres is probably more suited for middle-relief but what choice do we have but to send him, Olsen and Liz out there?
Teams like the Tigers must be licking their chops at facing these types and we were probably lucky to split.

Best of luck to you, Roch. We'll miss you. I hope you land at an organization that is worthy of you, unlike the one you've slaved away at for all these years.

I was waiting for a new way to lose a Sunday game -- score more runs than the other team after nine innings, but then have to forfeit due to uniform violations. haha

Verlander looked good today, and we couldn't hit him. That happens. It's baseball.

where did the rumor of the buyout start?

OK Boys, I'm going to go over this one more time. Are you listening, Melvin? Luke? everyone? Good.

When you find yourself on 3rd base, and when we have no other runners on base at all, then you DO NOT HAVE to run on a gound ball. How should you decide? Well, check with the coach (the guy in that little box in foul territory there) before the pitch and he will remind you. But basically it is pretty easy.

See where the infielders are playing. If their little toesies are on or near the infield grass, then you DO NOT run on a ground ball until you have watched it get by the infielders in into the outfield. Got it?

Is that a question , there Melvin? Oh, you want to know why. Well,. not that you really have to know why in order to do the relatively simple job that we are paying you millions of dollars a year for, and not that you should have to ask why with all of your playoff experience and your advanced age, but I will be happy to tell you anyway in case it helps you remember.

You see, with the infield in, they will throw your sorry heiny out at home plate if they can catch the ball.

If the infielders are playing back in their normal positions, then you might try for home on a ground ball - IF you have the coach's permission in writing prior to the pitch.

Now, here is where it gets a little more complicated, so I will speak a bit slower. If there is a runner on first also, but not on second, when you are on third, then papa-samuel might tell you to run on a ground ball even if the infiield is in. The idea is to tempt the fielder to throw home to get you so as to keep him from starting a rally-killing double play. But (please pay attention Melvin) if this is your instruction from the coach, then you must IMMEDIATELY run for home when a ground ball is hit. It only works, you see, if you IMMEDIATELY run for home.

Now keep in mind, boys, that you will likely be thrown out at home. But your job is make them take some time to tag you out (remember it is not a force) so that our batter can safely reach 1st and there can be no double play. Luckily this is pretty easy. Keep an eye on the catcher, and when you see him catch the ball, you stop and make him chase you back to 3rd.

Lukie - let me review for you, since you had some trouble today and killed our only scoring inning. Since there was no other Oriole on base when you were on 3rd, and since the 3rd baseman was playing very close in - almost on the grass, wasn't he? - you should not have tried to run home on that ground ball. And when the fielder threw to the catcher, you did a very nice job of stopping to get into a run-down, but you forgot one key thing. There was no one else on base, so there was no reason to stop and wait for the to tag you. Once you break for home when you are the only runner, you just need to run hard all the way home and into the catcher if necessary and hope for the best.

We have some nice video lessons for you to watch starring our old friend Jack Cust to help everyone keep this straight. Permission slips for the coach to sign are available on the table in the back of the room. But before we leave, let me summarize one final time:

3rd base only: Infielders playing up on the grass: DO NOT BREAK FOR HOME UNTIL THE BALL IS PAST THE FIELDER

3rd base only, Infielders playing back, follow your coaches instructions, only break home as he has instructed you to do. AND IF YOUR WERE TOLD TO BREAK FOR HOME, RUN ALL THE WAY THERE!

1st and 3rd: Break for home IMMEDIATELY and get into a rundown if you see the catcher waiting for you with the ball at home.

OK, thanks for paying attention. Kevin, stop ironing Georgie's hat. Tomorrow we will all go over why we don't swing at the first pitch after a late-inning reliever has walked the first batter on 4 pitches. And we will also cover, Jay, how to not swing at 3-0 pitches at your ankles. In fact, we will all study just how few times it makes sense to swing at all on a 3-0 pitch and the permission slips and approvals needed for that activity.

Class dismissed. Some of you still owe me papers... Hey, c'mon... This is not a joke.. this is my job.

Wait a minute.... who said Roch was leaving? I haven't even seen anything about him leaving.

And on another note, the Tigers/Orioles trade does seem intriguing. I like Joyce or Larish. They did put on a good show in the series. As for SS Aybar, he is a great player, and is young. He could be our SS. I just want a SS that can just flat-out hit, and have excellent range. It doesn't hurt that Aybar is batting .284 for the season. Trade Sherrill and somebody else (Walker) for him.

Roch, what's all this about you leaving? We need an answer!

Sarfate, who is 4-1 with a 4.06 ERA and 37 walks in 446 1/37 innings, said he isn't trying too hard.

great type-o haha

oh, and you had a classic tirade by bowie's manager tonight against reading. he even made his own version of home plate and spiked his helmet. only thing that could have made it better was to turn the helmet backwards earl style and spike it.

thanks for everything, it was a pleasure reading your work.

Roch, could you at least give these rumors of your leaving a yay or nay? Tell us whether the buyouts included you, and if they did, whether you took it or not.

If you are leaving, I imagine you could get by as Anita's co-host (or she as your co-host) and the Inside the O's segment on O's Xtra if you had to. Maybe you can take writing or leave it, I don't know how you feel about it. If you keep doing it, I can't imagine there isn't a need for your services somewhere. This has been one of the best baseball blogs in the country.

It's my first stop for Oriole news every day, even though it always helps to realize the factual content begins and ends with your part. Most of the posters have almost no idea what they're talking about, but some have something well thought out to contribute.

I hope and pray this season isn't sinking slowly in the West (er, East, as it were). Surely AM won't let that happen, no matter how much he's preaching "pain before progress."

I went to the Baysox game tonight. Wieters didn't play, so I wondering if they rest him every Sunday, as happens with every team's regular catcher. Chris Tillman gave up 3 in the first and lasted a few innings. He came out before Bowie scored 4 in the 5th to take the lead for good. Reimold got a sac fly RBI, a bloop RBI double, and a smash that the shortstop couldn't handle and was scored a hit. He looked good. Luis Montanez also had a 2-run double.

This organization is going outfielder crazy, with those two guys, plus Loewen about to begin The Grand Experiment, getting re-trained in the Arizona Fall League as an OF. I just keeping wondering how his arm would withstand one good, hard throw from the outfield, or swinging a bat on a daily basis. It would have to affect his cracked bone whether he makes contact with the ball or misses. Why should we assume the bone would heal by the time the Instructional League starts?

Are they still not taking batting practice before Sunday games?
How about the throwback uniforms for Sunday's games?

Nick was kind of a rally killer today. Word on the street is he will be a daddy next spring. Any truth? Perhaps that is what is distracting him.

"*sniff* We'll change! We'll make it work!!!"

I tried that once. It's not successful.

Ahh, the Sun's periodic buyouts. Gotta love 'em. Without them Baltimore would be without Donna's, without the Tess Monaghan detective books, without The Wire. Buyouts. The best thing that ever happened to Baltimore.

Roch:
What's the deal, are you going to be traded for a "player to be named later?"

mark c-- good stuff and unfortunately it should be required reading by the players (minus the personal jibes).

i don't get why supposedly "dumb" football players go to minicamp after minicamp to hone their craft in the offseason while most baseball players apparently do very little to enhance their mental preparation for the season. it is clearly not just an Orioles thing because we have brought in plenty of guys who are just as clueless.

Maybe it is a case of the really attractive girl in high school who gets away with her looks for so long that she fails to see the need to develop any sort of personality? These prospects are fawned over for their HR hitting and highlight reel plays that it never occurs to them that they would benefit from knowing all of the nuances that win you games over the course of a season.

I asked this one month into the season and I'll ask it again, "Does saying you are going to stress fundamentals really translate into executing fundamentals if your players have not been prepared at earlier stages in their career?"

Tough game yesterday. The bats just didn’t show up. The funny thing is, that even while down 5-1 with two outs in the ninth inning I found myself sitting there thinking “Hey one more walk and a hit and we’re back in this thing”. My thought immediately following that was, “on the other hand this is Sunday”.

Also, for anyone that did attend the game on Saturday and witnessed the Race to steal the bases. I do not actually have a huge mullet. It was a dare and I also thought it would be pretty funny to go streaking across the field with a magnificent mane of hair trailing in the wind behind me. I deferred to Anita and Jeremy and they said to go for it. I still maintain that I could take Anita in an even sprint. She’s got some speed though.

A few seasons ago, I noticed that when the Orioles had a high run game, they came in the next day game and couldn't hit a thing.
Is there someone out there doing stats that can check this out and let the rest of us know how many times a season that happened?
I started getting sad when they got on a hitting binge in a game because I knew the next day they wouldn't be able to hit anything.

Bob-

Yes DCab has had 4+ years experience in the big leagues now but remember that he didnt play baseball until he was something like 18 years old. In order to get the ball back to the mound when they were teaching DCab they couldnt just throw it back to him. The catcher would roll the ball on the ground and DCab would catch it with his glove like a turtle shell on the ball. So yeah 6 years pitching for most pitchers would put them in high school. But DCab is in the majors. I still dont think you give up on him just yet. He is baseball young, his arm is young, and unfortunately his mentallity is young as well. I for one would really like to see DCab do well and show us all wrong.