Only thing I would like to know is if he's finally learned to take the ball to right center or is he still Kevin Millaresque in the batters box? That should tell us if he's ready for bigger things.

But he has never been to the bigs. Give the kid a shot. Whats the worst that could happen. He sucks and goes back to AA. No big loss.

Great observations, I've never thought about that. I'd still like to see a late callup when major league rosters expand. I'm glad we've got Andy McPhail making all the final trade decisions instead of Angelos. Whether the O's make a trade before the deadline or not, I'm sure there will be good reasons for the trades or no-trades.

Keep up the good posts and responses Schmuck, you're doing a great job.

Greetings from AZ.

By way of introduction, we once crossed paths in the airport in Phoenix. As I recall, I managed to score the last ice cream serving from the machine before it gave out. Conversation ensued, and you informed me that if ever I communicated with you in your professional capacity, to remind you of the incident, and you would recall me, although perhaps not fondly...

As to Montanez, it's my considered opinion that he may be the kind of guy who just needs to come up to the majors and play consistently in order to raise the level of his game. Some guys are just like that. If you look back on Oriole history, quite a few of the greats didn't hit well out of the gate. Take Eddie Murray. Eddie had what Earl called "soft hands" early in the season, and as a result, didn't really hit like the same player who tore everyone up from June onwards. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, it's considered by many to be one of the reasons he never hit fifty homers in a season.

If I'm correct in my conjecture, then I guess the question is, do the Orioles have the chutzpa to run him out there and let him play on a regular basis. I guess anything is possible, but I kind of doubt it.

Then again, I could be totally wrong. It's happened before....

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Larry, how could I forget someone who beat me out of some ice cream. I would think the O's give Montanez a chance at some point later this year if there's any kind of opening. pete

Luis Montanez owns AA. He has nothing more to prove in my opinion. He has earned the promotion to AAA Norfolk, therefore I hope the Orioles move him up. I think he at least deserves a full year at AAA and a spring training '09 invitation based on this years performance. If he doesnt succeed, than he doesnt succeed. But again, based on his 08 AA performance, he definetly deserves another opportunity.

Last week, for the first time all season Nolan Reimold played left field for the Bowie Baysox. Prior to that Monatanez was the leftfielder, Reimold the right-fielder. That move in itself tells you who the front office sees as having the brighter future.

In fact, it's hard to understand why Reimold had not been in left-field all season.

With all the talk about Weiters getting a Sept. callup could you explain how that would affect his arbitration clock. Isn't this why Longoria was not moved up until May 1st this year? There was a lot of discussion of this on Roch's blog, but no clear cut answer.

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Ray, I don't know if I have the end-the-discussion answer, but I'll post something analyzing that later today. pete

Looking at that chart, I see a player that is having a far better year than any in his past. Whether at the lower or upper levels. Why not move him up to AAA and see if it continues? If he moves up and fails, well, then he isn't major league material. If he succeeds, maybe we have one of those late bloomers, ala Bobby Darwin, and an unexpected bonus to the O's.

You should take a look at the Baseball cube Peter:

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/M/Luis-Montanez.shtml

I like the layout better then the link you provided.

Luis Montanez has earned a callup in September, but it's important to remember that the pitching he's is only Double A. There's a reason he's a career minor leaguer and it remains to be seen whether he's finally figured it out.

Despite all the talk about not bringing Matt Wieters up when the roster expands, frankly its an injustice not to bring him up. After all, he's clearly the Orioles' Minor League Player of the Year, and I doubt that anyone else is even close to him in that regard.

Last thought on the Daniel Cabrera ejection; One point I didn't make in my post about this that more than anything else points to D-Cab not intentionally throwing at Alex Rodriguez is the right hander's reaction after being tossed, and that is the look of utter surprise on his face. Unless he's in drama class and is acing his lessons, there's simply just no way he'd be able to feign a genuinely shocked reaction. And whatever else we know about Daniel is that he doesn't his hide his emotions. (Think back to his run-ins with Gary Sheffield and Dustin Pedroia, when his glower said, "You want some more? 'Cause I've got it for you if you do! )

For those who didn't see it or forget just how cool Cabrera behaved with the umpire after the ejection, here's the video. Deliberate? No way.

http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200807293221808&c_id=bal