Hey Roch. Good to hear about some of our prospects (except for Spoone of course). I like hearing that Mickolio and Tillman have been successful, but out of curiousity how is the other pitcher in the Bedard trade doing? Butler? Thanks.

One correction: Mickolio still hasn't allowed a HIT since moving up from Bowie!

He must want to be next in line...

Slow down Roch-O. Lets move these minor leaguers along sloowwlllly. Snyder is hitting well, but dont we need to see more power out of him???

Here's to trading for more pitching prospects !!

Liz, of course, is a work in progress (how's that for an understatement?), but I do see his future in the bullpen, once he maintains some command.

I know this is late, but weighing in on Thorne-Palmer: I really enjoy listening to them, even though that probably puts me in the minority among bloggers here. Maybe I'm a little prejudiced because I always appreciated Thorne as a hockey announcer, and I loved it when he would do Red Wings games on ESPN, especially during the playoffs.

As for Palmer, I will hear him say something and think, "I hope that (insert player's name here) hears this and takes it to heart." He has tremendous insight, and you can feel his passion for the Orioles from the way he expresses his opinions. My only complaint about him is this: Every time my wife sees him on the postgame show, she'll say, "His hair just does not look natural."

What are the chances that the orioles move Brandon Snyder up to AA. He seems to be having a pretty good year, why not see if he can hit up there??

Sure Roch, we can also ask Ramon when he's going to start paying attention behind the plate... acting like a major leaguer... putting some effort in on the field and on the bases... taking responsibility for his own outs... guiding our young pitching staff like the vet he's supposed to be... (and just for Jim Palmer) giving our pitchers a target, you know, before the ball gets there.

But maybe I'll start nice with the 'crushing the ball' option...

Hey Roch

Who is Ryan Adams (2B) in Delmarva I think. Hitting .302. Who is Cole McCurry who is 5-0 and 1.64 ERA iwth Ironbirds. Both seem to be doing well and I dont think I had heard of them. Elvin Polanco is still beating the ball like he is Scott Erickson's wife.

Who do you think has the best shot in the Bigs first out of: Hernandez, Becken, Arrieta, Bergessen, Tillman and Spoone?

Luis Montanez is still looking good .314 avg, 21HR and 72 RBI

If Liz can become a useful relief pitcher, I would be thrilled.

His performance in the starting rotation has been extremely disappointing at best.

But time is on his side, and hopefully he just needs another season or two to figure some things out.

Roch,

How much of the Sunday loss streak do you think is part of the fact that it seems to be the day off for a lot of starters? Most notably at catcher, where Quiroz seems to start most Sunday games.

I would like to put a radical idea out there: Pitchers should have to be able to throw strikes before coming to the Majors. If you are walking 4-5 batters a game at AAA, why would we think that this number will decrease against more talented and selective hitters?

More importantly from a developmental perspective, how can pitchers work on mastering the fine details of pitching at a major league level if they can't throw strikes??? For how many pitchers on one team can a pitching coach say, "don't try to aim it, just trust your stuff"?

This is the highest level of baseball-- one should have fantastic stuff and have control over it (at least hitting general areas). We continue to have too many throwers and even our soft-tossers walk a lot of guys.

Fun 2008 O's pitching stats: AL leaders in walks, HBP, balks; 2nd worst in HRs, OBP, shutouts; 3rd worst in runs, ERA, and complete games.

Too bad it's not chemistry and defense wins championships.

"K" is better than "BB"

terps19: Cole McCurry was getting lit up at Delmarva before moving down to the IronBirds. Hopefully, he's finding something that works and can move back up soon. But he was getting crushed at Delmarva.

Maybe we lose on Sundays because it is 'get away day'. The umps tend to be more liberal on the strike zone to get out of town and our hitters aren't adjusting to that philosophy as much as our opponents are, (getting behind in the count more often.) Although our pitchers sure don't seem to EVER get the benefit of 'get away day'. Unless it's get away as in get off the mound so a reliever can bail you out.

JPA, while I appreciate your concern over throwing strikes and agree that ideally this should be the case and what we should strive for, I also need to point out that this is an age old problem, pitching vs. throwing. Some never learn and some take a while even in the majors, Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan are prime examples. Both learned to go from throwing to pitching while in the bigs. Circumstances dictate. We need to change our circumstances.

Read in the Sun that the Brewers are interested in Jay Gibbons. How can a team in the hunt afford to put Gibbons on their 25 man roster, than lose the value of that roster spot as he serves out his major league suspension?

Read over at Fox that the Cardinals are interested in Sherrill, but also interested in Guardado from the Rangers, with the Rangers interested in getting AA pitcher Jess Todd. Sherrill has much more value than Guardado, so it seems that Todd would just be the starting point for the O's and a very good starting point at that.

What a fall to take -- Opening Day shortstop to batting .178 in AAA. Ouch,

Jennifer --

Speaking of B-Rob's song, I agree with you. He shoulda have stuck with Biggie's "Hypnotize". Or how about Big Poppa?

Now that would be a heck of a walk-up song.

JPA--nice theory, but who is going to pitch for the O's then? Would you rather have Trax than Liz or Olson? It has been harrowing, but they both have winning records. With our lack of major league pitching, we've had no choice but to plug these guys in. Once (or if--see DCab) they trust their stuff, the walks will go down. Right now we have no choice but to have these guys learning at the major league level.

Sherrill and the Cards' choice of Huff or Mora for Colby Rasmus. We would have the best young outfield in baseball. If they won't do it for that, I'd give up Roberts and Sherrill for Rasmus and Brendan Ryan. Little more than a week to go and the rumor mill seems pretty light when it comes to O's trade possibilities.

I'd like to see the O's trade George Sherrill for Brandon Wood. I know Wood's stock has been dropping, but the Angels have handled him very poorly. If he came to Baltimore he could be installed as the starting SS and just play. The Angels have a very crowded IF situation and don't seem keen on making room for young players.

The Tampa Bay Rays are the new trendsetters in sports. Two years after signing Evan Longoria, the Orioles go for a prospect named Jesse Beal. The first pick in next June's draft, guaranteed, will be named Angelo Jolie.

Perhaps it's been said by others here recently (I've not been able to read all the entries), but the injury to Spoone and others is a reminder of just how deep organizational pitching talent must be to ensure home-grown success at the big league level.

JPA - Yes! Yes! A thousand times, Yes! I'm excited for the likes of Arrieta and Tillman, too, but right now they are still walking too many guys. Bergesen and Berken have much better control numbers and are more worthy of promotion. I really like Berken's numbers - good strikeout ratio, too, and few HR allowed.

Dudes--Bergeson and Berken don't walk guys because minor league hitters don't have the discipline of major league hitters. AA pitchers don't just get called up and start getting out major league hitters. Much as I would like to see it happen, it won't.

Jeff, maybe you neglected to notice that the Angels already have Francisco Rodriguez closing games in addition to (at times this season) the best record in baseball. I would love to acquire a top-flight SS prospect, but it would seem silly for the Angels to give him up when they don't have the needs that Sherrill would fill for other teams.

terpfan - that's correct, minor league hitters don't have the plate discipline of major league hitters. That's central to JPA's argument: if minor league pitchers walk 4 or 5 IMPATIENT hitters a game, they shouldn't be pitching to major league hitters.

You're mixing two issues. First issue is should we let guys like Olson and Liz pitch in the bigs since they walk guys. My point is we have no choice because we have no one else and letting them learn how to pitch is preferable to watching Trax get bombed since he was done. Second issue is that JPA thinks these AA pitchers who supposedly don't walk guys should be called up to pitch now. He's wrong. They would walk guys here too and they don't have the experience to pitch here yet. People want to call up Tillman. He's like 20 years old.

Roch,do you know if MASN is planning to show the 83 ceremony prior to the game?