The market is working weekends now?

Anyway, the thrills of the "Call-Up" and the 5-2 homestand have quickly given way to "Here we go again", only without Tawney Kitean.

That'll be the way it is with this club for the foreseeable future. At least David(Dave?) Hernandez is looking good so far.

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Pete's reply: I don't know why I put Sunday instead of Monday there. Brain cramp. I fixed it.

Poor Peter,

Contemplate this: The blOriOles have upgraded in two of their three outfield positions, and a sound argument can be made that Markakis continues to improve. They've upgraded at short and Melvin is having a better year than last. They've also upgraded at first and catcher. All of this improvement has netted them a record that is third or fourth worst in the American League, or about where they've been over the last several years. This team is on a trip to nowhere, which is a shame given the young talent they're developing in the field.

Pete,

I do not understand why Zaun just sat back as Berkens struggled? He hung an 0-2 breaking ball that was hit for adouble and he went off the raills - Zaun never went out to talk or at least settle him down?

Also, with all the trouble they have scoring runs is there any reason you would plop Reimold on the bench?

Latly, it appeast the hitting slump has everyone firing early and lunging at the ball - which happens because you start everything early and cannot sit back...it is amazing to see all the one handed swings.

I still like what I see - this hitting slump will end and they'll play near .500 team the rest of the season.

Pete,

I do not understand why Zaun just sat back as Berkens struggled? He hung an 0-2 breaking ball that was hit for adouble and he went off the raills - Zaun never went out to talk or at least settle him down?

Also, with all the trouble they have scoring runs is there any reason you would plop Reimold on the bench?

Latly, it appeast the hitting slump has everyone firing early and lunging at the ball - which happens because you start everything early and cannot sit back...it is amazing to see all the one handed swings.

I still like what I see - this hitting slump will end and they'll play near .500 team the rest of the season.

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Pete's reply: Nobody's being plopped on the bench. They're just trying to get a game here and there for everyone.

The O's look shell-shocked, demoralized, defeated. Guthrie looks lost. Huff is sleep walking. There's no fight in this dog. Helluva way to mark the 65th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. I can't watch any more.

Will somebody please tell me why you let Greg Zaun bat for himself with the bases loaded in the 8th,or why you bring Hernandez,a starting pitcher in to only face 6 batters?Or why you can't see after the 3rd inning that your young pitcher doesn't have it?Yet Trembley does the same thing over and over,and a struugling hitting team has to battle back down 9-0.I keep telling you the man can't manage.And he keeps proving me right.A fastball pitcher with the bases loaded and you leave Ty Wigginton,a dead fastball hitter sitting on the bench.Makes no sense,just like not starting Reimold the last 2 games made no sense.Unreal.

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Pete's reply: Do you think they should play the same niine guys every day all season long? I really don't get the nitpicking the lineup on a daily basis. There are 25 guys on the team. They all get to play at one time or another. That's why you have them. These aren't playoff games. That said, I have no idea why Zaun hit for himself in that situation, other than the fact that Wieters isn't hitting well either.

Can anyone please explain to me why in the name of all that is holy, did Trembley let Zaun hit with bases loaded in the 8th with Wieters on the bench? I know a comeback would be hard to get, but at least get the kid an opportunity to hit in that situation. If he strikes out, who cares? If he gets a hit it could be the spark he and the rest of the team need to get going. There was no pressure, nothing to lose. Come on DAVE...
By the way, why did Dave bench Wieters for a game that will be televised on the MLB network? It would have been a great opportunity for fans like me who are out of the area to get a look at him play. I have been looking forward to watching this game since they announced his call-up. What a huge disappointment....

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Pete's reply: Can't answer that one.

I had the Birds going 5-1, as I truly thought they would build on success of their recent home stand. They played well in Seattle, but awful in Oakland.

Pete, do you think it could benefit David Hernandez to stay in the majors as a long man in the pen? I know he has a future in the rotation, but with the #s game right now, he will lose his spot to Koji, but curious if you think a starter should start even if at the minor league level or if the experience of facing major league hitters, is more beneficial? I am 50/50 on the issue, but he looks too good to send back to the Tides where he can only prove how much he can dominate AAA batters.

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Pete's reply: I like David Hernandez as a long guy, but don't know if they want to pigeon-hole him like that.

Pete,

I think you're great at what you do but thinking the Orioles are a good bet to win four of six on this trip or any trip is just crazy. There is a still black cloud hanging over this franchise and it's not going to be cleared up this season. Maybe (hopefully) next year.

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Pete's reply: I am, by nature, an optimist, which is probably a bad thing to be in this business.

After their last two starts, I don't know whether Hernandez or Berken should be demoted once Uehara comes back, but any chance they'll move Hernandez to the pen? I've heard he'd be better there anyway, and he looked pretty good tonight - gave up 4 hits but the A's were on and he really slowed them down. We should have at least one lefty besides Sherrill, and Johnson, Baez and Bass all belong in the pen, so maybe we could demote Albers who hasn't been great the past couple games and did well but only faced the bottom of the lineup yesterday? I hate sending either Hernandez or Berken down - I think all the young guys are really helping each other adjust, and sending one down could mess it up. We really should've brought up Waters. So who do you think - Berken or Hernandez, and any chance they'd move Hernandez to the pen?

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Pete's reply: I would use Hernandez in the pen and give Berken a few more starts, but I don't know what they are thinking on this.

Come on Pete... what were you thinking that the momentum would continue lol. You are talking about the Orioles. You should not be surprised or disappointed. It should be expected. When you predict them to do well, you know it's not going to happen. At least, not yet anyway. Wait for the roster to continue to shape up. You are going to see more changes as time goes on.

The best thing that could have happened with Izturis' injury is the call up of Salazar!!!!! It is about time this guy be given a chance. If Huff does not resign, he could be a decent fix until Snyder is ready to take over a couple years from now. He also could fill in at 3rd if Mora is not resigned. He is getting up there in age and his days could be numbered.

When you have Bergensen, Burken, and Hernandez in the starting rotation, you can't expect them all to be consistent all the time. You have to expect some set backs and that includes some poor performances like tonight. Remember, these 3 rookies are not even the cream of the crop!!!! Wait for Tillman, Arrieta, and Matusz to come up and then maybe your expectations will be realistic.

I just hope they keep Hernandez up with the team when Koji comes back. Koji should be in the bullpen if his health is such an issue. There must have been a reason why he did not start in Japan!!!! Take Hendrickson out of the bullpen and move on. What are they going to do when Sarfate comes back?

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Pete's reply: They can't think ahead until tomorrow, much less beyond that.

Was that GE or did youi mean GM? Possibly was it MG or EIF (egg in face........!)

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Pete's reply: GE is General Electric. I just snatched a Dow-30 stock out of the air.

Why on earth is Pie still getting starts in LF??? Reimold to me clearly won that gig….

If sports were completely predictable they wouldn't be worth following.

It'd just be nice if us folks stuck with this team were on the sunny side of the coin every once in a while.

I commend the O's for bringing oscar up despite him not being a SS back up per se.He could finish a game if there was an injury to Andino and Wiggy could also. What they wouldn't need is a dreaded day to day injury for Andino.

The bench has been dreadful all year so Salazar has to improve that. Last I heard and that was a couple weeks ago the O's only had one PH.Why Reimold isn't playing every day is beyound me. If they want to give Pie a start play him in center. Reimold could also give Nick a day off. Trembley being stuck in everything fitting a box is killing the O's.Why wasn't Wieters catching Berken last night and Zaun catching Hil today and why didn't Trembely use Wieters to PH for Zaun with the bases loaded? The reason is Trembley already accepted losing the game.

As far as Oakland is concerned the Beatles said it best in their song........Number 9..........Number 9.........Number 9.........Number 9

Luckily for you Pete, the market is closed on Sunday.

Hernandez pitched good in relief tonite. That's the way the O's used to do it. They would let young starters come out of the bullpen for awhile so they could learn how to pitch on the big league level before they went into the rotation.
It worked great that way but the Oriole way will never be seen again, sadly.

Since you weren't to good predicting things over the weekend, maybe you will tell me that Dave t job is safe and sound. That means he will get FIRED on Monday when they get back from this road trip.Even you can just how disinterested this team seems to be. Everybodies body language is terrible which is a sure sign th troops have started to give up. I think you will come back with YES I HAVE NOTICED THEY HAVE BEEN A LITTLE FLAT LATELY. Flat isn't even close to the right word to describe this team.DAVE t needs to go and the sooner the better.

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Pete's reply: Teams that fire managers after a 1-6 run are teams that lose every year and never get better.

When does football season start? It is usually mid-July before I give up on the Orioles being anything other than a misery to watch. It seems whenever the Orioles give any indication of turning things around they find a new way to head backward. Before Trembly became the manager they were terrible defensively, among other problems like pitching. The defensive play got better after Trembly, but now they give away runs every game by running the bases like morons, minimizing the impact of the improvement in the team hitting. Recently the young pitchers were pitching well, and the Orioles actually were able to win a few games where they scored 3 runs, or less. So now, they have just stopped hitting, except for Jones, Scott, and Huff.
The Orioles need to do some housecleaning if they are ever going to
be a succesful team. Get rid of Roberts, who seems to think he is a power hitter, whose mastered the strikeouts, but without the power. Mora, who is a beserunning nightmare, and is not hitting anymore, and Guthrie who always seems to pitch just poorly enough to lose. I think these guys have been losers for so long that hey are uncomfortable with winning. They just can't do it. McPhail should put them on notice, because they do have some ability. Maybe the knowledge that they have no future with the Orioles will get them to play well enought to be traded, so we can get some guys who know how to play to win.

Peter- How much of a TOTAL shock would it be if the O's signed that 16 year old kid?
It would definitely show that winning is the only goal of the Baltimore Orioles and that Angelos knows that now. Especially with the draft coming up.
I personally feel they will never do it. This kid could be the next ARod as I have heard some say, and it ain't gonna matter.
This is the kind of move that would show the world of MLB that the O's are "in it ta win it".
I read that this kid is not really that far off either as 16 year olds go.
That he could play later this summer in a short league and maybe make a jump to A next year. Than a split of A/AA the year after. Then AAA if he is still looking good and could be in the bigs around age 20 or 21 like Andrus. Which would be 2012 or 13.
PLus, like the Uehara deal, it puts the O's name down there. Why open the Academy if you are not gonna sign some top notch kids.

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Pete's reply: I'll be interested to see what happens. Don't have a clue what they are thinking about that situation.

Seems like every time I start to excited about the O's, they go into a serious tailspin. I haven't been able to watch the finish of the last two ball games. Ugh.

I've always liked Dave Trembley, but any coach who allows Greg Zaun to bat with the bases loaded when you are down five runs deserves to be fired. How do you not use a pinch-hitter at that point? Is anybody really shocked he struck out in three pitches? And although Wieters was available to bat, I would have even settled for Brad "Big Bat" Bergesen taking a few hacks. At least he would have made it interesting.

I am gonna say that, if they can manage a win today behind Rich Hill and salvage a 2-4 West Coast Swing, then road trip isn't disaster.

5-2 at home; 2-4 on road, would be about right for young Team such as ours.

But of course it's Sunday so .... well we'll probably get whipped.

Hi Pete:

Your miscalculations do not affect the team but the scouts and coaches miscalculations are the cause of over ten years of losing.

When a team pitching staff gives up 18 runs to the worst hitting team in AL, I do not think we have seen any change. I find hard to believe that other teams( Oakland Seattle) can bring pitching prospects up from the minors and totally baffle our hitters. The only conclusion one can logically have is that this team is in need of a complete change of talent evaluators.

A George, Harrisburg, PA

Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Geez..
"check with somebody else on whether to buy GE when the market opens on Sunday."

You are really on a roll. The market never opens on a Sunday. You might as well pick the Expos to win it all. LOL.

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Pete's reply: Don't know how I made that goof. Brain cramp.

It has been my opinion since mid 2008 that manager Helmsley doesn't know a pitcher from a volley ball player. I am now fully convinced that he still don't and is playing Russian Roullette with good talent as if he were still in Spring Training. When the players are unaware of their position with a team they are accident prone and "disasterous Dave" better start to realize that. What in the world will he do with all the good prospects on the farm? Wait for a stimulus.

A hockey player has an appendectomy and is back in 3 days. A baseball player has one and is out 3 weeks. Maybe, it is true that baseball players are wimps when it comes to playing hurt in the era of big, guaranteed contracts. I know that it is just a coincidence that the Orioles went into a tailspin when Matt Weiters came up and that the term "team chemistry" is a myth.

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Pete's reply: There is nothing more ridiculous than trying to judge people's illnesses from 3,000 miles away. My daughter had an appendectomy and was laid up for weeks. I had one and was up and around in 24 hours. It really depends on how the surgery went and how severe the case was.

I'm with ya Pete. Just when you start to think that maybe this team is starting to play some good ball and look like a genuine major league team, they fall apart on us yet again. I know, I know, they were never expected to be contenders this season yada yada yada, but with a nearly completely retooled rotation and some new young faces in the lineup, I at least expected to see some small hint that they might be contenders in the near future.
Instead, all I see is the same old "find a new way to lose everyday" Orioles.
This is getting very discouraging. If they continue to look as sad in the second half of the season as they have in the first so far, it's going to be awfully hard to think of them as right on the brink of being contenders.

Hey Tom C from Frederick-
Get a clue dude! ANY team that suddenly forgets how to hits and squanders winnable games is going to look down. Would you rather they look happy?? Last I checked- Trembley isn't batting for these guys. Maybe he's been a little too aggressive on the bases at times- but you know what- when things are going badly- everyone tends to force the issue and press a bit much. This team is flat out horrible right now- and there is nothing Dave Trembley can do about it.

I guess you were one of the guys that wanted Joe Girardi right? Look what he did last year with ALL the talent in the world. Sure does make a manager look good when 1-9 in the lineup can be a hero on any given night- and every starter you throw out there has the potential for a shutout.

I'm tired of listening to overcritical chumps like you who actually think they are speaking from an opinion based on any form of intelligence.

My content of my email was because this team has gone 1 and 6 it's because dave t is not a good leader of men . If you can't see that this team is playing uninspired baseball then you are not only doing the sports fans of thsi town a injustice for not reprting factual sportcasting, but you are certainly doing yourself a injustice for continually picking up for a nice man who is way over is head being a manager of a major league team. When is anybody going to start talking about ineffective brian roberts has been, when he is down to 240. He took the 40,000,00 because it was way to much to turn down but his heart and his mind is not with this team.

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Pete's reply: I've been talking about Brian all along. I was the one who kept pointing out to the people worried about Wieters that he was 3 for 17 while Brian was 0 for 17. Here's what I won't do that I'm afraid you might. I won't say they ought to get rid of Brian and bring up Justin Turner because Brian had a couple of bad weeks. You don't make judgments in baseball on a handful of games. This is not the NFL.

Pete,,i am not saying that they should get rid of brian roberts , what i am saying is he doesn't want to be here. He wanted to play for a winner and the constant losing has finally caught up to him.My point was that just because you make 40,000,00 it doesn't make you happy. You can look at his body language and tell he doesn't want to be here.

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Pete's reply: I'm not seeing that. I'm seeing a guy in a slump. I've never seen a guy in a slump look happy.

Pete I want to reply to this post you made:
Pete's reply: Teams that fire managers after a 1-6 run are teams that lose every year and never get better.
Okay Pete the Orioles lose every year anyway and have a current manager that’s only success was in the minor leagues PA probably likes the guy because he’s more cost effective than brining in someone proven in the bigs and will speak his mind. The O's have some talented players and seem like they are going to waste them because the business side of the club has seriously deep rooted internal problems. I don’t care if we fire Trembley at the end of the season but in order to compete we need a real manager and we shouldn’t just keep him around to justify the hire because it’s just not going to happen. This is just like the Walker situation.

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Pete's reply: No comparison at all. This is a stability issue. The Orioles won seven of eight before this slump. Didn't hear a lot of calls for Dave's head. This is a developmental period and he's been chosen to preside over it. I think, on that level, he's done a great job. You're trying to judge him on wins and losses. I don't think that's fair at this juncture and I don't think it would be good for the team to throw the baby out with the bathwater right now.

But there were calls for Dave’s head all season even during that stretch when all the rookies got promoted. That week just minimized the fan frustration. The time you mention was a great time for all the fans seeing the minor league promotions but it makes it frustrating knowing the talent is here and we can’t win games even to so-so teams. There is no stability anywhere to be found on this team. That win streak was great but we were still in last place Pete. The reality is we are 9 games behind and own a run dif of -57. Where is the urgency? How long of a developmental period is this going to be? If there is little to no major improvement statistically from previous seasons the logical move would be to make changes and not hold on to a failing dream.

Pete,
Are you technically a MASN employee?

J.R. from NoVa

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Pete's reply: No, but thanks for asking.

Some interesting things to note:
Orioles run DIFF over the last 3 years:
07JUNE2007 +9
07JUNE2008 -11
07JUNE2009 -60
O’s pitching so far in 2009 is ranked 29 in MLB and has been since in 2006.
Just from looking at the stats the team seems to be getting worse...

take a look if bored or at work:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggregate?statType=pitching&seasonType=2&group=9&typereg&split=0&season=2009