Olson hasn't shown anything as a starter. Out of 16 starts he has had 5 good starts and 3 of those were his first 3 starts of the season. In his last 13 starts he has given up 51 in 66 innings. And he is consistently bad. Not like 1 out of 4 games pitching poorly. Just destroys the bullpen.
He has barely shown any improvement over last season when he had an era of 7.79 and a whip over 2. He is still young but it isn't looking good and pitching in the ML might not be the best thing for him or the team right now.
Although the team is rebuilding, it wouldn't hurt to add a veteran inning eater to help the bullpen out.
Rich

Y'know, Roch, when I read your first game entry, "Fast Start," I came so close to saying Olson would give those runs back, but held off because that seemed way too pessimistic.
Let me see ... Jeremy Guthrie and who else are our rotation?

So tell me again, who is this Alberto Castillo, and who told whom that he could pitch?

And while we're at it, who told whom that Garrett Olson could pitch?

I haven't thrown anything at the TV, but what will seriously tempt me is if Olson issues any postgame comment such as, "I thought I threw all right," or, "I felt pretty good," or, "I made one or two mistakes, but other than that ..."

I am sick and tired of these starting pitchers and the amazingly horrid way they "go after" hitters. Toronto's No. 9 batter entered the night batting .170 against lefties and you would have thought Olson was pitching to Babe Ruth. Heck, he walked him on 4 straight pitches his first at bat!!!! It's disgusting. If this is how it's going to be, I suggest they drive up the road to a Babe Ruth diamond and sign one of those kids. He'll come for cheap. At least then we can spend all of our money on players like Texiera and simply try to outslug the other teams.

SHOW SOME DADGUM GUTS, O'S PITCHERS AND CHALLENGE THE BLASTED HITTERS.

I don't know why you would ever start Olson again. It's the same story with this guy everytime he takes the mound. And I for one have seen enough.

I was browsing some pitching stats at Bowie (trust me, you don't want to look at the Tides pitching, awful) and am curious as to the low innings pitched by Tillman and D.Hernandez. Both have very good eras (3.11 and 2.65, respectively) but only average 5 innings per start (Tillman 20 starts/105 innings, DH 20/92innings).
Are they being held to low pitch count due to injuries? Seems like if they are healthy and not pitching more than 5 innings per start, it isn't a good sign for whenever they get to the ML.

Rich

Olson has never impressed me. He pitches like he is ready to wet his pants.

I told everyone that Alberto Castillo was a mistake when Roch was predicting (correctly, albeit sadly) his call-up. Retread, garbage, waste of time.

You know, I think most of us know these Birds aren't going anyplace this season. We knew if before the season started and have had no false aspirations. It's not the losing, though, that bothers us. It's the way we lose. It's the stupid base running mistakes, the inability to move a runner from second with nobody out, the inability to score a runner from third with less than two outs and, most of all, the horrible way most of our starting pitchers treat every hitter as if he's Willie Mays. If you have a four-run lead, why would you ever walk a guy on 4 or 5 pitches???? And if a guy is hitting under .200 for the season, why would you ever walk him period??????? And it seems to be the same scenario every game. If the Orioles score a run or two, you can bet the house our starter is going to start the leadoff hitter out with a 2-0 or 3-0 count the next time our opponents hit.

Losing stinks, but it's tolerable if you see a team making progress. Olson and Burres are making absolutely no progress. Call up position players from Norfolk and let them pitch for all I care. At least then we can dh for our shortstop. I just don't want to watch these two toe the rubber anymore this season.

well i guess kranny is getting his answers loud and clear about who can pitch at this level...the thing is you can always find guys like buress and olsen, guys with ok arms and barely an out pitch who get wacked around the second or third time thru the order. Next.

terpfan-- i did not advocate bringing up tillman or arrieta which would indeed be complicating our problem (i'm not sure why you assumed that).

it was rightly pointed out that we don't really have many pitchers at the ML level or the minors who throws strikes consistently. on the big league team it just seems like we have an absolute glut of moderately talented arms that never learned to hit a spot with consistency.

in that respect i guess i was just whining rather than offering a solution. for every ryan and koufax i imagine there are 200 guys who never make it more than a couple of seasons before being deposited into the scrap heap.

how frustrating are guys like cabrera, sarfate, olson, burres, liz, castillo (omg), and not to mention the minor leaguers who seem to be at the top of their leagues in BB as well? PLEASE use the defense and lower that WHIP!

our situation is being compounded by some poor in game managing at the moment. today was very winnable...

the hitters are doing some serious damage but so is the staff. 10+ runs should not occur several times per week.

"s" is for Olson's sweat when he gets men on base-- worse than Gary!

Its time to bring up three pitchers from Bowie.Norfolk has crap and they started the season with crap.

I think the price for our first-round pick goes up every day his agent looks at the O's box scores.

I know this new pitching coach hasn't had enough time to put his full mark on this staff, but he was one of the hottest commodities in baseball when we signed him -- as was Mazzone. Baltimore is becoming the place great pitching coaches go to die.

If you were our first-round pick and were a pitcher, would you really sign with Baltimore? I think we're going to have to pay out the wazzoo.

funny how the pitching coach is just like every other pitching coach the O's have had the last few years...what must it be like for him knowing that the odds of getting a well pitched game from a starter are slim and getting slimmer?? There is no magic to be worked with most of this bunch.
I doubt some of them have a clue about where the ball is going when they let it go.
If you're gonna live with really bad pitching, then let the sell off of the position players and tradeable arms begin. Like tomorrow.

Mora - 61 RBI's - team lead - pay the man

they have more than one pitch who should try changing positions... Since most of them can't pitch with good arms... Give Nick the ball... The only way it gets worse is if they just keep letting this happen... They stink... again!!!

Roch-
I have a feeling that where it looked like the O's might have 3 lefties in their rotation of the future to only one.....AND THEY HAVE NOT SIGNED HIM YET!!! AUG 15 is fast approaching. Olson is way to timid on the mound. What's he scared of? The ghost of Glen Davis? Is he dead yet? Ray Rice signed today! Best pick in the draft.

D Hernandez throws strikes. I have seen him start 3 times now. He should be the next call-up. The reason our pitchers fall apart in the 5th inning is because it is normal now to have such strict pitch counts in the minors and they are not used to having to adjust the 3rd time through the line-up and Big-League hitters make them pay. Your breaking pitches are for crap when you can not get your fast ball over. Big leagers are not gonna chase the way the aggressive MiLB hitters do. But that is the reason pitchers that throw strikes actually have better e.r.a's in the MLB then they did in the MiLB.
Arrietta and Tillman are not ready but Bergesen and Hernandez I think really could hold their own. Better the Olson anyways.

Olson looks like Wil-E-Coyote when the road runner would get him to run off the cliff and then time froze so he could shrug and then plummet to the bottom of the ravine.

Jamie Walker, we need you back pronto! Our bullpen sucks now!

OK, I know Olson is tonight's whipping boy but what about Mora last night and tonight? Not long ago he had one bad game (11 LOB) and the bloggers were coming out the woodwork to slam him. Well? How you like my boy now??!! Where are all you haters now?? C'mon, give it up. If a guy is in scoring position who on this team would you rather have at the plate? Are his initials MM? You betcha.

'y' is for You can't keep the father of quints down!

When will someone teach these guys to PITCH TO CONTACT!

Where is the Sun's article on Luke Scott named as AL P O W ???

Don't see it ? - Roch, you had it at the end of one of your pieces - but sure seems like you guys at the Sun could do better for Luke than that !!!

Where is the Sun's article on Luke Scott named as AL P O W ???

Don't see it anywhere ? - Roch, you had it at the end of one of your pieces - but sure seems like you guys at the Sun could do better for Luke than that !!!

Roch
The O's MLB site has a good article on Luke Scott named the AL P O W -

Where's the Sun's article ??? I couldn't find anything, you had a small mention at the end of a piece - but surely you guys with the Sun can do better for Luke than that !!

I've been reading alot how the Orioles wanted to see which guys could pitch at the ML level. Well, I guess we found out. We have exactly 1.5 starting pitchers on the staff: Guthrie = 1, Cabrera = 1/2. For God's sake, can't the Orioles find ANY pitchers who are not afraid to throw the ball over the plate? It's bad enough to lose, but the walks are inexcusable. When the Orioles draft, sign or trade for pitchers, can't they find at least ONE who can throw strikes. For crying out loud, this is (supposed to be) the major leagues!! I think Liz gets a little more rope because of his stuff, but Burres and Olson have proven they don't want to pitch at this level. Geez, they're not even "crafty" lefties, they're sissies. Let the other team hit off a tee, but for God's sake, stop the #%*@ing walks.