Good. A new week, a new starting pitcher, a new outfielder. Last week is over, let's turn over a new leaf.

Hope Freel is okay. Did he leave Boston with the team, or did he stay for observation?

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Pete's reply: He stayed over one night in the hospital there.

montanez should have been up here all year.

good article today... but i still dont understand how sports teams can just take a year off. you said this was a 'transition year'. well i dont see ticket prices, parking, or food costing less, because the orioles are 'rebuilding'

sure they have different packages. but with so many people out of work, how can people like andy macphail just say 'not this year'

these guys are professionals, the best in the world, and were just supposed to expect mediocracy?

i never heard ozzie, john h, or big steve talking about 'transition years'...even when they started a no named rookie out of delaware.

baseball= a falling star

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Pete's reply: They don't have to take a year off. They could do what they did every year of the early 2000s and stumble around wasting money and trying to win with a sub-par foundation. I think this makes more sense if you ever want to see a really good team here.

Aberdeen? They don't start playing until June. (I think you mean Frederick.)

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Pete's reply: No, he was on the Aberdeen roster. He has not played yet this year.

Perhaps its time to go with a 20 man pitching staff

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Pete's reply: Would not have been enough this weekend.

Seems like everyone they are moving up in the system is doing craptacularly this year-- I'm not talking about the Norfolk guys coming up to the Os, but the corresponding moves to replace these guys from Frederick on up. All their annual stats look horrid so far. I understand it's only been a couple of weeks, but still!

do the o's have any interest in mark mulder??

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Pete's reply: I doubt it. Haven't heard a word.

Peter, I'm going to throw this idea out there, I wonder what you think: Let's not bring Matt Wieters up this year. We're only going to have him for six full seasons; after that he'll become most likely a Yankee. Why waste one of those seasons on 2009? I know that by leaving him down until May 1, we keep him an extra year. What about leaving him down until May 1, 2010?

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Pete's reply: He'll probably need a year up here to mature, so you want him to do that this year without the pressure of a pennant race.

Peter, I'm going to throw this idea out there, I wonder what you think: Let's not bring Matt Wieters up this year. We're only going to have him for six full seasons; after that he'll become most likely a Yankee. Why waste one of those seasons on 2009? I know that by leaving him down until May 1, we keep him an extra year. What about leaving him down until May 1, 2010?

Resfresh my memory, where did Bergeson come from, trade?

How has he looked in spring training and early minor league stints?

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Pete's reply: Bergesen was drafted by the O's in the fourth round of the 2004 draft. He pitched pretty well in spring training -- better than just about everyone except Simon -- and has thrown well so far at Triple-A.

I am excited to see someone different tonight. Hope the kid does well. Need something positive after this past weekend.

Hi Pete,

In your personal opinion, do you feel that the O's are putting Freel on the 15 day DL as a precaution for his health or do you think they are secretly hoping that Lou Montanez continues to play like we all know he can so they can cut ties with Freel.

From what I've read he's already come across as not being too happy with his current situation? (who can blame him)

I remember during the offseason how the powers that be were selling us on how hard this guy plays and that they were happy about his reputation from Cincy as far as being a gamer. Now the season is 13 games old and it feels like such a bad fit (for both sides) and with 2 highly touted minor leaguers ready to come up and get a chance to shine how do you see this playing out?

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Pete's reply: I think Montanez will do what he always does, which should buy him some time up here. I have no idea how Bergesen will do, but I'd rather watch him than somebody with no chance to be part of the future of the team.

Pete i am really trying hard to buying into what Andy is doing, but there are a couple of things i need to get off my chest. They have preached to the Alter since andy has been here that they are going to develop there farm system and reward the younf players in our system for doing well. But yet they went to another organization to pick up PIE who looks like a complete bust out. They just handed him the job and said fail. Well people say that we did the same thing with Nick when he struggled that 1st year but the difference being that nick was our own number 1 pick and we could afford to give him every benefit of the doubt. Another thing pete,you can't tell me that after just 13 games you can already start to see the frustration surfacing among the everyday players. The defense has been far from stellar and you can bet your bottom dollar is has to do with the pitching on this team.When healthy we have a starting lineup that is every bit as good as anybody in the entire league. But when you tell the fans and the players before the year that we are not going to be competive even the best players have a very hard time focusing on playing for 162.

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Pete's reply: Maybe, but it didn't seem to be a problem for the first three series. I don't have a problem with trying to catch lightning in a bottle with Pie. It's not like you're losing the other outfielders because of it. It doesn't look good right now, but Markakis struggled for a month his first year. It's not a parallel situation, of course, but pulling the plug on this after two weeks would reek of the same kind of thinking that led to 11 straight losing seasons.

Pete, I'm still confused over the Felix Pie situation. Who in the organization, other than Andy Macphail thinks that he is something special? I noticed that when the Orioles obtained him from the Cubs your reaction was very guarded. What have you heard about him?
The problem with Pie is not learning to use the whole field, the problem is that he strikes out roughly once every three AB's. Terry Crowley is a fine batting coach but even he can't teach the kid how to put the bat on the ball.

I know he has only had 34 AB's with the Orioles, but nothing has changed.

If the Orioles stick to the original plan, Pie will get at least 300 AB's before a decision is made, and will probably strike out 100 times.

I think The Orioles will keep sending him out there no matter what until the All Star break.

What do you think?

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Pete's reply: I don't think he'll be able to bat .141 for three months.

2009: a season thrown away.

Despite the horrendous pitching, I still am willing to wait this situation out so that we can allow the LONG-TERM plan to proceed. We've had many a season where we've thrown away confederate money on at-best-mediocre pitchers (Trachsel, Benson, et al.) only to end up with 70+/- wins.

Even this year, it's not like we didn't have 3 dozen pitchers "vying" for spots on our roster in Spring training, so we've seen much of what many pitchers (don't) have to offer.

I don't see us faring any better this season than 5th place in our division, so whether it is with 50 or 60 or 70 wins, it will be a season more for the scrapheap than the scrapbook.

Give the green sprouts in the farm system time to take root and develop into healthy pitchers. Maybe some will be ready to be brought up this year, maybe not. Turning a prospect into a legitimate major league pitcher requires more than just adding water.

We all get that the pitching staff will struggle this year. There is no excuse to put a lousy product on for team hitting though. We await Weiter's at catcher and we know Izutris limitations. These should be our only acceptable weak spots in the lineup. There should be no outfield weak spots or dh weak spots. This is truly unacceptable. As for pitchers release Walker we can not afford a one batter specialist.

pie is a good player and will find success eventually.

I would pull the plug on Pie.He hasn't proved he can hit and Montanez has.Pie is small so he will never have the pop that Reimold has.Also,Pie doesn't look that good in the outfield.I know it's early,but Andy you're wrong on this one.

I say give Pie a chance to fail , say, until the end of May or early June. That would be a fair chance, and would fit with bringing up Weiters and maybe a couple of our young pitchers about that time. Montanez is now here and we could consider Reimold if Pie fails then. That would be like the start of the second season and would spark fan interest. I vote to release Freel now. He's too old to help us down the road much further and doesn't seem to want to be here anyway. Maybe we can get a prospect for the farm system for him in trade from a team that needs a good bat off the bench.

Good to see Lou Montanez back up and Bergeson as well. I still think this team can be good if we make a few moves. Jettison Pie, Freel, Eaton Bass and Simon. No more Chris Waters types either. Bring up Montanez, Reimond, Bergeson, Wieters and Tillman and we'll compete. Addition through subtraction is the way, since we aren't supposed to complete, let's give all the kids a chance tomorrow!

Sometimes I wish we can do like the Braves did back in the day before they became a playoff fixture.
They had Glavine, Avery, Smoltz and a couple of other pitchers who were highly touted but were very young and inexperienced. As we all know, they got lucky and eventually hit the jackpot on a couple of them.

We already have a formidable lineup when healthy and I really feel like the defense will be fine when all is said and done. My point is, how do we know that we don't have the next Dwight Gooden in Arrieta or the next Mike Mussina in Matusz if we don't dare to fail.

I understand the concept of being patient and methodical but every situation is different and should be looked at differently.

So, for all the people clamoring to pull the plug on the pumpkin Pie experiment, what if he goes on a hot streak starting tonight and goes 11 for his next 20? What if he continues his early struggle and goes berserk in May?

Baseball players know this is a marathon, not a sprint. We need to keep that in mind as well. Let's not forget that Jones struggled mightly at times last year and we still had Riemold and Montanez in our farm system then. As I recall, that turned out pretty well for us.

E is for "Everyone needs to just calm down! It's only APRIL!"

Let's play "Guess That Top Prospect Who Had A Job Handed To Him Out Of Spring Training"!!!! ("GTTPWHAJHTHOOST" for short)

Top Prospect #1:
11 g, 31 ab, .161 avg, 10 k, 1 3 bb, 1 hr, 2 rbi

Top Prospect #2:
11 g, 38 ab, .211 avg, 10 k, 1 bb, 0 hr, 2 rbi

Can't figure it out?

Well, Top Prospect #1 is everyone's favorite Oriole, Felix Pie.

And Top Prospect #2 is... Adam Jones! (Disclaimer: I limited this to 11 games because in his 12th game, Jones went 3-3 with a walk to raise his average to .268)

So in his first 11 games, Adam Jones struck out just as many times as Pie has and Jones actually walked fewer times! And, what's that? Pie hit a home run and Jones didn't?! You don't say!

Come on guys... Chill out. Do you really think this team would be that much better if Lou Montanez was starting in right field?

And do you realize that Pie would raise his average to .278 if he goes on just a mini hitting streak and gets 10 hits in his next 20 at bats? And then you'll all be praising Andy and Dave's patience in the kid and talking about how he's our right fielder of the future.

In short, stop whining. Pie may succeed, and he may fail. But considering the fact that seasoned big league hitters go through slumps that last longer than 12 games, we're going to see Pie out in left field for the forseeable future.

I see there is another roy on the list now, welcome brother! The series against the Sox was painful but it seems only a prelude to what is to come.
I don't mind giving Pie another couple weeks, but not much longer. We have two guys who seem ready right now to replace him.
The pitching situation is tougher.
The O's staff has given up 10 runs or more 5 times already, only 13 games in, and though the starters deserve most of that blame, the bullpen has hardly been "lights out" when they come on.
The line we got all spring was that the bullpen was set, and that we only needed to worry about the starters. Apart from the fact that starters who can't go more than 5 or 6 innings will eventually kill the BP anyway, the fact is the BP isn't exactly shining now. Do you know if A.M. is satisfied with this seasons relief corps. or does he believe that needs a rebuild too? Right now it's hard for me to be optimistic about any aspect of the team. we didn't exactly tear the cover off the ball in the last Sox game and the defense has gotten suddenly very shaky as well. Talk about dashed hopes, we at least usually get a few weeks, or even months before the team dives into obscurity.

Everyone wants to bring up Montanez and Reimond, but aren't they both outfielders? Seems that we would be on outfielder overload, we still have Luke Scott DH most games on top of that. Does Reimond play any infield position?

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Pete's reply: No, he's an outfielder, and a valuable one.