No double header for Wieters tonight?

Major Leagues in '09!

In 40 more years of me being an avid baseball fan; watching hundreds at all levels (on tv and live), and playing many many games I have never seen a Home run land on the top of a foul pole. Go O's!

Love Trembley, and loved his rant, but he's got to come out and raise some hell after Fahey gets kicked.

Let the umps know they can't let guys slide into second base with a foot thigh high.

Unless it's Bill Romanowski -- then it's expected.

Rodriguez is one dirty player !

Any chance Scott starts tomorrow over Payton even though Robertson - a lefty - is starting for the Tigers?

Reimold's last 500 AB's in AA: 27 HR 37 2B. O's say they think AA has better pitching and that's why they won't promote him to AAA. Still, he should be in LF for the O's right now with Scott as the DH and Payton sent packing. As for Wieters' consistency: .447 OBP in A ball, .448 OBP in AA. Keith Law has him as the #1 position prospect in baseball and #2 overall behind D Price of Tampa. Jim Callis of Baseball America expects to have him as the #1 prospect in all of baseball next spring. Only Price and McCutchen of Pitt have a shot at beating him out.

No, I haven't seen a ball perform that trick off the top of a foul pole before.

Then, again, I'm not sure most foul poles have the same surface area for such a beautiful landing.

It was a lovely sight.

Good question about Scott starting tomorrow Jon. Forget about showcasing Payton for a trade . . . Play your best players!

Alan in VA - I agree, Trembley needs to show some of that fire with the umpires now and then and to some of the boneheads who run the bases at times.

Best thing about Melvin's homer is that he can't get thrown out rounding the bases.

When's the last time Jeremy Guthrie didn't pitch that great and still got the win?

I've never seen a ball land on top of the foul pole like that. It's good that the ball did hit the pole because I wouldn't want to leave what would have been a real tough fair/foul call up an umpire.

Daniel Cabrera needs a strong outing tomorrow to rebound from that bizzare game last Sunday at Fenway (when's the last time a 2-1 game lasted over three and a half hours?)

Yeah, the more I hear about Wieters, the more excited I get. What would you say the organizational timetable is for him right now, based on his rapid progress -- next year with the Orioles, or perhaps a mid-season call up?

Let Payton start. Scott is a freak. Let him rest till later in the game. Wieters is a super freak. Don't keep him away too long. Huff and Mora are keepers. Nick and Jones too. Guthrie, Ray , Hoey, Johnson must be kept. Mac start doing your thing. PLEASE!!

When a player is hitting, YOU PLAY HIM ... in every lineup !!!

enough of this L-R foolishness

Scott is the kind of hitter who needs to hit every day ... that means EVERY DAY, DT !!!

Either LF or DH, every lineup !!! Go
Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuukke !!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight's game will be very interesting. Cabrera has been known to, shall we say, lose control of his pitches and isn't afraid to pitch inside. If Pudge is playing tonight, I wouldn't dig in too much if I were him.

The Orioles are just waiting for Cabrera's turn in the rotation to drill Ivan Rodriguez, right?

On the Loewen hitter debate, the question for me isn't whether he's out of options (we all know he is). Couldn't he *volunteer* to go to the minors? Isn't this what the Yankees wanted Giambi to do a few years ago when he was off the juice? Otherwise, if they did try to send him to the minors, would any team claiming him be forced to keep him on their 25-man active roster? Because I wouldn't think there are many teams that would take the risk on him being an active contributer to their team at the present.

i have seen bowie play in harrisburg twice in the last couple of weeks. weiters is to say the least very impressive. he hit a homer to right field in that stadium that had as much distance as any i've seen in that area and i've probably been to 150 games there through the years. jeter, manny, thome, vladdy, garciaparra, ryan howard, utley etc. have all been through that league recently and he is as impressive as they were. what he has done to this point does not guarentee success at the major league level but it seems to clearly indicate that he has a chance to be very good. reimold is starting to become a very interesting prospect. he is hitting the ball quite well. he got fooled on a couple of hooks from nationals prospect jordan zimmerman in his first at bat so one would assume he be looking curve in his next time at the plate. he hit a sharp single on a fastball. he either did not make an adjustment or he is a very good hitter. zimmerman was throwing a perfect game at this point so he was clearly pitching well. recently, he has been hitting with some degree of power. in a farm system where position players are at a premium reimold might get a shot with the orioles at some point.

Mora's homerun should not have counted!

You're supposed to call "foul pole" before it bounces off the top of the foul pole. Very similar to calling "backboard" during a game of HORSE.

One of the burning questions facing the club right now is whether to bring Wieters up for September and give him a legitimate shot at becoming the number-one catcher next year, or to delay the arbitration-eligibility clock and not bring him up until later next season after he's fine tuned his game a bit more at the Triple-A level. I've always been a proponent of the patient approach, but if MacPhail gets an impressive trade offer involving Ramon Hernandez, he would have to be tempted. Problem is I don't envision a lineup of other teams looking for a fading catcher who won't put his body on the line for his team. I'd still love to learn more about how well Hernandez has worked with the pitching staff and what he brings to the team besides his stats.

Is it just me, or does anyone else get annoyed when Gary Thorne refers to the O's as "Baltimore"? It's like he's the announcer for the other team! I don't expect him to be a total homer, but for this "Oriole" fan who is watching on MASN, I'd like to feel like I'm watching an Oriole telecast.

Roch- When is Nolan gonna get his shot? I would hate to see him lose motivation as some higher ranked prospects do when they feel like they are stuck.

Supposedly, Pudge won't be in the lineup tonight, as he's "resting." Convenient. I would have paid large amounts of legal tender to see a D-Cab fastball between the numbers.

"W" is for "Watch out," Pudge!

Sorry I'm out of the loop, but I didn't get to watch too much of the game, ... but what did Pudge do this time?

I hope the team plans to allow Wieters to make the team next year out of Spring Training. There's no doubt in my mind that he will have a great spring and will deserve it. I can't wait.

I was just looking at the Oakland A's starting pitching stats for the year. Their starters' ERA is around 3.5 on the season. The O's = 5+
Even with the recent trades of 3 starters, they're stacked. Beane makes assembling a pitching staff look easy. So, I'd be happy if all of the Orioles' upcoming trades get us more starting pitching - the types of starting pitchers the A's would want.

By the way, I think Seattle should keep Bedard and start looking ahead to next year. He's still their 2nd best starter and his stats are better than Guthrie's (except for IP).

Another guy doing well is Mussina. He's got 262 wins now. If you add up all the money he's made with the Yankees, the total is 105 million over 8 years. That's about 13 million per year. He hasn't won 20 yet, but he's been above average consistently. We should've paid him and kept him (obviously) at that price, because it would've been worth it. But you know what, screw all the old drama. Why not bring him home on a 2 year deal w/ an option to see if he can get to 300 here? He could help make us more competitive and allow us not to rush young SP from the minors while we continue to rebuild.

I missed it, what did Pudge do?

I really don't get the O's trying to trade Ramon but at the same time they won't"rush" Weiters. There's tons of other young players around the majors playing every day and not having any problem. Quiroz being the starter for another year+ would totally s**k. Plus they probably won't trade DCab? Why not? If you could get a solid AAA starter plus a couple good position prospects then you should pull the trigger. McPhail is just too passive making moves and is never short on excuses. When real teams like the Yanks and Red Sox need a player, they go get them. They don't give a half an hour interview saying nothing.

Alan: Pudge stayed in the baseline but still managed to kick Fahey in the shin by sticking his leg WAY out to nail him. Palmer was furious but I've never seen a runner called out for doing that while still being able to touch the bag, which I Rod did.

OK, the drought ENDs tonight....my first game in 3+ years at the Yawn. I will be at the scalp zone at 5:15ish PM to get seats. Anyone wishing to meet & say hi & then go bug Roch can meet me there. I will have on tan shorts & a blue/grey shirt. I am 6' 2", with brown hair. I would be honored to meet any of you fellow Rochheads.... a beer at Pickles before the first pitch will be in order. I may even do my Forrest Gump impression at the press box door to embarrass Roch... "Mr Roch, Mr Roch, hey, Mr Roch!" waving my hands furiously...

Me 3 on the Pudge issue.
They may have mentioned it on the Radio but I'm sure the blood flow from my ears was significant at that point from the sound of Dave Johnson's voice and I missed it.

McPhail is just too passive making moves and is never short on excuses. When real teams like the Yanks and Red Sox need a player, they go get them. They don't give a half an hour interview saying nothing.

Uh, John. McPhail made two big off-season moves last year. One (Seattle) got a GM fired; the other (Houston) GM was almost strangled by his own player.