Roch-
I have a question and I wonder if you can answer it for me, If the O's finish in the bottom 15 of the league, and they sign Texiera, the Braves would get our 2nd round pick and not our first round pick, right?
I hope the O's first allegiance is to Markakis, make him happy. But, I would love to see them sign Tex just to show that they can hang with the big boys. I would hate to see Tex with Boston and New York killing us 18 times a year. We can rebuild all we want and they still just spend more money. "Defensive Free-Agency", not only do we get the player, but the other team doesn't!

Olson is constantly going 2-0, 3-0, 3-1 on hitters. You simply can't win in the big leagues consistently pitching behind hitters, especially when you don't possess a mid-90's fastball to help get yourself out of trouble. But you don't have to have a mid-90's heater, as long as you get strike one and go from there. Listening to Jim Palmer, one knows strike one is the most important pitch in baseball. Jeremy Guthrie consistently gets ahead of hitters, and his results show.

I optimistically think Olson can work through this, being that he's a bright guy. But at what point does Trembley say "enough is enough"? Can you keep rewarding Olson for poor outings by throwing out there every fifth game? But how else does he get better?

Recently there has been alot of talk here about trading Huff and Sherrrill while their value is high. With all the scouts at tonight's game maybe someone will be interested in Melvin Mora. His value will never, ever be higher. Don't the Phillies need a 3rd baseman? The same could be said about Ramon Hernandez. Dump both of these guys and their salaries for a major league ready position player if possible.

Hate to pile on and I didn't see the game tonight. Really didn't need to. The outcome, at least that of Garrett Olsen's, has become far to predictible.

Tried to check stats on O's website, but couldn't get in. But, if memory serves me correctly Olsen's era in his last eight starts is closing in on 9.00. That's unheard of. It's awful and does not belong in the major leagues.

I would agree with most of what Trembley said about him in the post game, except for one outrageous remark. "I think he has a tremendous upside". Based upon what? Personally, from what I've seen he is maybe a 4th starter, but most likely a five, if he ever sticks in the majors. There is a significant difference between he and Brian Burres or Radhames Liz right now, not that either of them have shown any consistency as well. But, Olsen has been terrible.

I stated here three starts ago that they need to send him down for July and August. If he shows progress, get him back up for some starts in September. My choice to replace him was then and is still today Brad Bergeson. We need to find out if these young guys can do it. Olsen has had plenty of opportunity and has failed. Try someone new.

I sure am happy I got busy with work during the 4th inning and couldn't get back til' the bottom of the 9th inning. Sounds like I didn't miss much. O's are stuck with their pitching staff. Nobody in the minors to replace them at this point. Only thing they can do is trade position players for more young major league ready pitchers. Anyhow, this is a long process. Great so see Mora going to right field again. As soon as he started doing that he caught on fire like when he hit .340. As always Roch thanks for all your diligent work in keeping us supplied with the plethera of news about the O's. GO O'S!

For those of you hoping to see Nolan Reimold in Baltimore soon, here is the best news yet! Reimold played leftfield tonight against the Harrisburg Senators for the first time this year. Lou Montanez started in right.

An August 1 callup after ridding the team of Jay Payton at the trade deadline would be perfect. Play Reimold in leftfield for the last two months to break him in for 2009.

why can't our starters go longer then 5 innings in going to hurt the bullen sooner or later.

why can't our starters go longer then 5 innings it going to hurt the bullen sooner or later.

Think it's time to start the July call-ups now? Instead of September?

Just to have a "gander" at the minor league players and see how they can adapt to major league baseball.

And, Olson has to really be aggressive with his stuff. He practically blanked Toronto for three innings until he fell apart in the 4th. Be strong, Garrett, be strong!

I think we're going the wrong way at this point. It's not our offense that needs the fixing. It's the pitching! All of it! We need to find a few pitchers to replace the young ones in the rotation. I don't care if they're called Halama, Benson, and so on. Just kidding, folks. But this is what needs to happen, so we can get Olson, Liz, etc, down to the Minors so they can take deep breaths and try to polish their mechanics/pitches.

Somebody on here in the last few weeks asked about former O RHP Kris Benson

From espn.com
"Speaking of ahem, older major leaguers, Kris Benson finally won a game this season, as he scattered six hits through six innings for Philly's Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Benson lowered his ERA to 8.53. Don't laugh, it's not much worse than Adam Eaton's ERA in the past month. If Brett Myers struggles in his return to the big league club, Benson could find his way to the Phillies in August."

I check our farm team box scores every night and one of the things I notice is that even our good A- to AA pitchers are being limited to 5 inninngs almost every start whether they are winning 10-0 or in a 1-1 ballgame.This has been one of our problems for the last four or five years.Subsequently you have a pitching staff full of pitchers who get to the major leagues and either a)cannot go past 5 inning,i.e.Liz,Olson,Burres or b)get hurt before they ever really make it to the big leagues with any consistency,i.e.Loewen,Penn,Stahl,Albers,the list here is horendous, or c) were damaged goods when they got here,Patton,the pitcher who was going to be an all star from the Sidney Ponson trade,don't think he ever pitched again anywhere,the guy Syd Thrift traded BJ Surhoff for who never pitched an inning for us,and on and on ad nauseum.So at some point we have to look at why only three pitchers out of our farm system in the last 5 or 6 years have consistently eaten up innings without going on the DL.I would like to include Erik Bedard on that list but he's just been injured way too much.Ponson,like him or not,Mussina,left to be a Yankee and Cabrera.So either our scouting or our developement needs to change.Anybody seen Beau Hale?can't miss prospect.We've been drafting supposed quality arms for the last 10 years ,where are they?Our best pitcher came on waivers from the Cleveland Indians for crying out loud.We have given up 10 runs 8 times already this year and 7 runs in 1 inning at least 3 times.And finally,we haven't had a manager who knew how to use a pitching staff since Davey Johnson.Anybody remember him?I think the DJ curse is still haunting us,we haven't won since.Our offense has performed well enough too get the job done,and our pitching,with the exception of 3 or 4 people has been offensive.You should not lose when you score 8 runs.Spend some money for some decent arms because our player developement has and continues to be horrendous.Why an Oscar Salazar or a Luis Montanez is still in AAA or AA,while we have bums like Bynum,and Ramon Castro take up spots on the roster is totally beyond me.And you can throw Quiroz in there too in my opinion.Look at our Sunday lineups,is it any wonder why we lose?And Millar and Payton can go too,sorry in Millar's best years he wasn't a premier 1st basemen.Do you see anybody lining up tp make any trades with us?
My rant is done.I'm an O's fan through and through but am sickened by what I see for the 11th straight losing season.And it goes back to Peter Angeloser and the enviroment he has created.Nothing against Andy McPhail,but if you think he's going to be allowed to gut this franchise and really rebuild like the Marlins did twice(and won 2 World Series)you're sadly delusional.Root,root,root for the home team,if they don't win it's the same,for it's 1,2,...11 straight losing seasons at the old ball game.

In a somewhat watered-down market for left-handed relief pitchers, maybe the Orioles should be looking for one. John Grabow of Pittsburgh has good numbers, is only 29, becomes a free agent after 2009, and would come relatively cheap. This team desperately needs someone to get left-handed hitters out in the 5th, 6th, or 7th innings.

I'm kinda shocked at Trembley's comments about Garrett Olson. If Olson is so "confident", why is he so afraid of every hitter? Does Trembley really believe that stuff or is he just trying to pump Olson up? Olson certainly has a golden opportunity to succeed this year --- he better stop pitching like a sissy and MAN UP!!.........Mora and Hernandez are increasing their trade value nicely!! Keep hittin', fellas!!

I'll tell you one thing. I love this team. I watch almost every night, and even when we lose, we never give up. It's fun to watch. But I'm going to have a heart attack if our pitchers can't throw the ball over the plate. It's frustrating to watch major league pitchers who can't throw a strike. I would rather see hitters pound balls over the park instead of ball after ball after ball. Ugh.

Burt, did you not even read Roch's blog? He said and here I'll even quote it, "Bowie’s Jason Berken allowed a run and two hits through seven innings" not 5. Point #2 we got Albers in a trade his injury was not a result of any poor coaching in the minor leagues. Point #3 if you dont know the players name DONT say it Ramon Castro? now i know we just traded for him, and just for the rest of the season as a defensive hole filler. Actually yes I see the Brewers and the Angels linning up for talks about Sherrill, i am not saying i am for it, but they are. And friend you sir are sadly delusional to think MAcPhail will run this team into the ground? hasnt he already shown he will do whats best for the franchise? hasn't Angelos already been fairly hands off on anything?

"p" is for knowledge is Power

Hopefully someone sees Mora on fire, overrates this brief flurry, & offers the O's something for him, something decent.

Mildly surprised Roch.....

I agree with the poster a flew blogs ago about possibly dealing Hernandez. Only if they get a decent offer of real prospects , not AA waste. He will be more motivated next year, a contract yr. He can keep the position warm for Weiters call up next year at this time....

Joyce obviously had dinner reservations somewhere & was having no part of extra innings between the 4th & 5th place teams. It's sad, the teams fought hard, did their best, but the Ump didn't.

Olson needs to stop nibbling & start firing. Can the results be any worse? Work fast, change speeds, throw strikes or back to Norfolk next year. They have no choice this year but to let him pitch here.

Halama in AAA??? He has to be close to 40 now. Talk about not wanting to get a real job....
Maybe Olson should watch the tape of that game, he might learn a few things from Halama, they are the same type of pitcher.

Good for Boucher, maybe he gets to play at Bowie again next year....

Most of those scouts had radar guns... it looked like that speed trap & I went through at the Eastern Shore corn field during the 4th of July.... they don't need radar guns for hitters, so I assume most of them were checking out pitching.
I still say don't deal Huff. They need a couple of Vet hitters. He will be in a contract year next year as well....translation, even more motivated than this year. Deal PAYTON, Millar, Mora, Hernandez, Walker, Burres if you can, but not for crap, for decent, have a chance to make the MLs types of "prospects". They can't afford to deal any other bullpen guys, like Bradford or Sarfate, they have none in AAA to replace them.
Trading Sherrill is really going to create havoc too.... I wouldn't do it unless they get VERY good prospects in return.

can the Orioles please have a doctor surgically remove Dave Trembley's right hand fron the top of his left hand. I am so sick and tired of watching this man, every night, just stand there and do nothing. He doesn't argue when umpires blatantly blow calls and, last Sunday he didn't (forgot?) to pinch hit for Castro in the bottom of the eighth inning and, last night, he just watched as Olson blow all of a four run lead. Olson should have never been allowed to finish the fifth inning. Forget getting him the win. He didn't deserve it. He should have been pulled when he walked the number eight hitter to load the bases. If Trembley is going to do no more than watch the games, he should be made to buy a ticket, like the rest of us.

Changing out Quiroz to Ramon on a Sunday is not going to win us games. Catching 5-7 days a week, would only make Ramon lazier. I don't know how many times I have watched him, look at a passed ball, and wonder why he is not running for it. Ok, its 8 times. and allowing 65 Stolern Bases, wow, that is truely unacceptable for a catcher. Especially when he isn't getting it done at the plate.Until recently. ... sorry my rant on Lazy Ramon is over.

P is for please don't rain out tonight

"Do you go with the starters longer and let what happened what occurred tonight, or do you pull guys early and your bullpen by Aug. 15 will be dragging? "

Unfortunately, Dave has no good options because he leaves the starters in AND they throw so many pitches that they deplete the bullpen. I'm actually going to retract my poor in-game managing comment from before. He really has nothing with which to work.

This isn't the Food Network. You can't give a chef a can of Spam, a box of mac & cheese, and some 2-week old milk and have them create a 5-star meal (especially when the other "chefs" all have fresh and expensive ingredients at their disposal). Sorry for the silly metaphor, but at a certain point you just have to recognize that we are trying to empty the cupboards and build this devestated program back up.

The fact that many of us think that we might compete in 3-5 years is some serious progress. There was no hope at all in the last several years if you were honest about the team's direction. There is still plenty of room for improvement at every level and every job description in this organization but many strides have been made from players to coaches to marketers to media to owners and it's pretty visible.

I think it's time for the O's to trade Ramon to the Yankees. They have a need, and they have pitchers.

I’ve thought before that one of the keys to the season would be how well the club could rotate primarily relief pitchers from the minors to the majors and back and keep fresh arms available to help support the relatively young pitching staff. Now, I’m thinking it might be necessary to use a revolving door for starting pitching, as Ray sort of indicated. The problem, though, is just who are they going to bring up that’s ready and will fare any better than the likes of Liz, Olson, and Burres? There is a big gap between Liz, Olson, and Burres, in terms of theoretically being “ready” (though not necessarily in talent or quality), and the pitchers in AA. The club was probably hoping that at least 2 of these 3 would show signs of improvement over the course of the season, but that hasn’t been the case.

Loewen’s injury has gotten a lot of press, but Matt Albers’ injury has been the most devastating one to the club this season. Albers was a guy that either could’ve picked up the bullpen slack or taken the place of one of the floundering starters and actually been successful.

I think it has been quite telling to see Guthrie the last two seasons and see just how better prepared he was from the get-go to be in the majors, even more so than Daniel Cabrera who’s started 3 times as many games. What’s one difference? Guthrie was developed by a different organization. He didn’t come here with the 5 inning, 100 pitch, 4 walks, and at least 3 earned runs outings we’ve come to expect from our homegrown guys.

Still, it’s amazing that this club, with all of its current pitching woes, is sitting just 3 games under .500 at this point in the season. I’m not sure how they’re doing it. How long can you hang in there using 4 or 5 pitchers every night? The lineup’s been hot, but looking at the overall talent, this can’t be expected to last, and they’re bound for a devastating offensive drought that could result in a big string of losses.

One of the most frustrating things about our pitching is to watch us get the first 2 outs seemingly with ease, and then appear to forget that there are 3 outs in an inning. I'm tired of 2 quick outs on 5 pitches, and then 4 hits/walks (with full counts on each batter) and 2 or 3 runs to get that 3rd out. We need consistency!!!

Trembley said those things about Olson, because he knew that the comments would make the paper, and that Olson would hear them. I do think Olson has a chance to be really good, but he has to go after hitters. Everyone knows this except Garrett. He may be confident, but he's not showing it on the mound - at least not consistently. Our starting pitching is not good at this point, and I can't wait to see Tillman, Arrieta, Patton, and Albers back next year.

Thought of the day: If Sherrill or Walker gets traded, how would Olson look as a lefty out of the pen? He seems to do okay for the first couple of innings that he pitches.

Roch - someone brought up the compensation (draft picks) for signing free agents. For example, if Atlanta does not offer Teixeira arbitration, does the team that signs him still have to cough up any draft picks?

what role does hernendez have in
calling pitches??? it seems to me
that his pitch calling is hurting the
o's...

Do the O's have any pitchers in their system that are so competitive that they refuse to give the ball up and instead will elevate their game in tough situations? If they do, and I could care less whether they were at A, AA, or AAA, bring them up. Maybe some of the guys on the current staff could be inspired. Of course, having a manager that pulls a pitcher in the sixth inning (when the other team gets a leadoff hit) when he's ahead and has a pitch count of 87 pitches isn't doing anything to inspire the starters to raise the bar. Start telling them that they are pitching into the 7th or 8th innings regardless of their pitch count or the score. Find out now who's up to it. Build character and toughness.

Burt, I don't want to get into most of your "rant", but there is one comment that I wanted to address.

You said that the O's starters inability to pitch more than 5 innings starts in the minors, where we're taking out our young arms after 5 innings regardless of how well they are pitching. First off, I'd like to say that this is not always the case, but yes, it is a recurring theme. Here's why. The standard industry belief is that you don't want to increase a young pitchers workload by more than 25-30 innings per year. If you increase it more aggressively than that, you severely increase his chances of getting hurt or suffering a drop in performance. The numbers back this up. So the young arms' shorter outings can be explained by the organizations efforts to control their workloads. However, if the same guys are still only pitching 5 innings per outing when they're in Triple-A, or even Double-A (if they're not young for that level, like Chris Tillman), then that could be telling. When a pitcher is getting close to the majors, you definitely want to see more endurance.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Brewers signed Gibbons to a minor league contract yesterday and assigned him to Huntsville. A spokesman said they did not think his issues were serious enough to deny him a second chance.

Hey Roch-I just stumbled on to a good column by Will Carroll posted on Baseball Prspectus. He claims the Orioles could pass both Bradford and Walker through waivers after the July deadline, supporting the idea that someone might need some late relief. As far as our closer in concerned, Carroll claims he is not being moved unless someone comes along with a "crazy offer." I have not seen these points before, but they make sense to me. (Sorry about sending two posts together, but I thought this second bit was really interesting.)

Update from the Houston Cronicle

Miguel Tejada: I thought he would be a nice addition both in the clubhouse and on the field. I was half-right. Since getting off to a nice start, he has declined dramatically, especially in clutch situations. It's not just that the Astros gave up Troy Patton to get him. It's that the Astros took on an additional $26 million in salary. This deal was a win-win for Baltimore.

I just don't get this whole idea of bring Reimold up in July (if Payton is traded) and just giving him left field for the final two months of the season. The last time I checked, we have a left fielder that is only 30, under our control for the next 3+ years, is affordable, is a proven MAJOR LEAGUE hitter, and on pace to hit near 30 homeruns. Yet we are just going to kick him out of his position for a minor leaguer that is no longer considered a top prospect. I totally agree with bringing him up and getting him some quality at bats, but not at the expense of Luke. Play Reimold in left field on some night and DH him a few other nights, but he has to earn him way into a full time player. This whole idea of replacing every 30+ year old with a 20 year old is a bit ridiculous.

As Baron hit on in a post from a day or two ago, money should go to extending homegrown players like Nick Markakis before being spent on free agents like Mark Teixeira (if that’s even going to happen—I say it won’t). Indeed, money on Teixeira becomes frivolous if you don’t make a commitment to a player like Markakis. What’s the point of potentially signing Teixeira to a long-term deal if you don’t have a core of top players that are also locked up for a number of years?

Right now, Markakis, under the team’s control, would be less expensive than Teixeira and potentially a better value over the long term. Also, the team has control over the Markakis situation since he’s not going anywhere, while they have no control over Teixeira’s fate—he could sign with someone else during the offseason, or he could be traded tomorrow to a contender and be signed to a deal that averts free agency.

I’m not sure how many times it can be said: extending Markakis should be a high priority. Obviously, the team’s front office should be able to juggle multiple tasks and priorities, so it’s possible that the team can pursue expensive free agents this offseason while it’s also still working on contract extensions. The team has to work multiple fronts and approaches for both the present and future.

Considering the sorry state of this franchise the last decade, though, I think it would be wiser for the club to get its internal stuff in line first (like locking up good young homegrown players for the foreseeable future) before it seeks expensive external solutions. Drafting, developing, and holding onto players like Nick Markakis will ultimately be more critical to the team’s long-term success than spending $100+ million on free agent players particularly when, as has been mentioned repeatedly, the O’s can’t financially compete with the likes of New York and Boston.

Like many of you here, my frustration level has increased every time I see one of our starters miss the plate on a consistent basis. The only guy that seems to be able to throw strikes is Guthrie. All the rebuilding efforts will so down the tube if we only have one decent starter and 4 question marks.
Case in point-last night's game..Olsen missed the strike zone by miles and couldn't even throw one strike to a #9, .190 hitter. More disturbing is that he was behind almost every hitter and when he did find the strike zone, they weren't missing.
The retreads in the 'pen(Castillo & Fernardo) looked like the '08 answers to the '07 Victors. I know we are decimated by injuries and under-acheivers but is the best we can come up with?

Jay Gibbons signed with the Brewers

So ... what did Anita's shirt say, Roch?

CRB. It may be a stretch to say that Albers loss has been that devasting because Safrate started out pretty good and regressed. Maybe he would have entrenched himself in the starting rotation by now-who knows? The downside of rebuilding with other teams players is that we don't know who we are getting, their make-up, physical problems etc.
That's why I long for the days when our answer to rebuilding is to trade away our good players and the cycle goes on..Most fans here think we should trade guys like Sherrill/Huff and I say keep 'em! At least we know they can play..The answer is not acquiring a pile of Safrates/Costanzos and hope that a couple pan out.
JPA.Couldn't agree more about extending Markakis. The only problem now is that due to the idiot JP Ricciardi ridiculoulsy overpaying Rios, Nick's stock is rising by the day. Rios is signed for 64 mill and his numbers are no better than Adam Jones so what will it take to keep our best player in the fold? I'm guessing he will want at least 12 mill/yr over 5 years, maybe more. Who knows if he even wants to stay, given the fact that we are probably 3 years from even competing. I have to admit that I am not optimistic that we can fight for a playoff spot any sooner, given the sad state of our pitching. It has to be frustrating for Markakis & Roberts to be watching good teams and then having to stand out in the field forever watching our hurled throw ball after ball and give up a ton of runs.