Uehara pitched in just 89 2/3 innings last season in Japan's Central League and 62 innings there in 2007. Our relief pitchers pitch more than that! And we will plug him back in as a starter even though he has already pitched more than 50 innings this year?

Unless one of the new guys falters, Uehara should be in the pen (and backup starter).

Oh yea, despite an upcoming slump by our offense, the starters will dazzle and therefore......2/3 and 2/3 = 4/6 games won on this road trip. (really, do the math if you dont believe me!)

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Pete's reply: Thanks. Simple single-digit addition has always beguiled me.

If this O's team can't beat Oakland, they might as well throw in the towel for the year.

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Pete's reply: I thought you already threw in the towel for this year?

If the pitching holds us we could get four easily. Seattle and Oakland are not very good offensively so I think these are good matchups for our young kids.

im predicting 4 wins and wieters goes ballistic on the opposition going 6-11 with 2 homers and 8 rbi.

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Pete's reply: I like the way you went specific here. If you're exactly right, I will not forget. Well, I might forget, but you can remind me and then I'll give you major props.

Hello Peter,
I've been saying all year that we weren't going to suck as bad as everyone(including most of the posts on this blog) thought we were. I see some exciting baseball coming up, .500 isn't out of the question. The kids in the rotation look great. They're pounding the strike zone, much better then the cannon fodder that we had earlier in the season. It's great not to be watching some moron walking the bases loaded with a nine run lead. We have a shot to beat anybody at anytime. I can't wait what comes next.
Oh, BTW we win 5 of 6 on the coast.

According to how they have performed this year, they should be glad to take a slpit. They are still playing .451 ball. Seattle has a better record than the Orioles.

I was disappointed that Jamie Walker was not out when the Little League parade was going on. My kid is having trouble hitting lefty pitchers.

I think the O's will win one against the M's and take two from the A's.
Why hasn't Patton moved up to AAA or even the O's? I know they're trying to stretch him out since the surgery but he needs some real competition. I know the organization isn't trying to ruin him but i just don't understand why a hot, proven pitcher isn't at least in the conversation of call-ups. Ray and Baez are pitching...

Pete,

3/3 on the coast would be a win.

I'm with Keith Rowe on this one. Now that we have the talent on the field, it's time to upgrade the talent on the bench. Give Trembley the year, but a new Major League manager should be in their immediate plans.

No, this has nothing to do with their 2 Detroit losses, they have a fantastic pitching staff.

The Front office should take their time with this one though, and pick a manager who can pursue a long term "on the field" strategy.

AND FOR HEAVENS SAKE RELEASE WALKER

That's easy - yes, they can. The more difficult thing to predict is whether or not they actually will. I'm going to go way out on the limb and say I sure hope so!

Haven't had a chance to read all the recent posts yet - is anyone complaining that Wieters is a bum because he's hitting .182 - even less than Pie! - and is just the latest example of the failure of "The Plan"? I wonder what some of these guys will complain about when - not if - the Orioles actually get back to the playoffs?

Pete -

I threw in the towel before Reimold, Berken, Hernandez and Wieters made things a lot more interesting. I didn't expect the prospects to make much of an impact this season.

That said, I got my towel back, but I had a hard time finding it with all the other ones that were in there...

One more thing: Any word on Matusz moving to Bowie, Patton and Arrieta to Norfolk or Tillman to the bigs?

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Pete's reply: I've got to believe that Patton will move up pretty soon. Matusz, too. I think they'll try to split the season a little more evenly. Tillman is not out of the question here late in the season.

Wow. Impressive 6 for 11 prediction for Weiters. If this happens, though, McPhail will be forced to fire Trembley. After all, why would someone that hot get only 11 AB's in a six game trip?

Peter, I think the O's take games 1 and 3 of the Seattle series and win the first 2 of the Oakland series.

I am troubled by the fact that on days that we sit Wieters or DH him the drop off in offense for the catcher spot is so enormous. Zaun is perhaps the worst hitter I've ever seen with such a long career.

I also am not at all a fan of Wigginton. Typical NL bomber turned to AL bust. I love the young guys the Orioles have brought up thus far. Its very encouraging.

Pete, I think the O's will take 2 out of 3 against Seattle including beating Bedard, but losing the Wednesday game. I'm also predicting a 3 game sweep of the A's. The series in Oakland should get about 9-10,000 a night so our pitchers will feel like it's a home game.

There's no way the O's beat Bedard but they should win at least one in Seattle and maybe 2 of 3 in Oakland. Billy Beane doesn't look like much of a genius now! What was he thinking-signing retreads like Giambi and OCab? Holliday is showing that maybe his stats were inflated playing in Coors Field.
The pros and cons of signing Pedro were noted in another thread. Mark me down as one who is very opposed to bringing him on board. The O's should be doing what they said they'd do-rebuild. No room for Pedro and the remaining starts in '09 should be given to starters who figure in our long-term plans. I 'm actually hoping that for the first time in ages we end up having more qualifed arms than spots.

Winning four out of six is not out of the question...The Mariners have been hitting lefties pretty good thus far but i think Hill can get the best of them. If our young starters continue to impress i think we have no choice but to place Uehera in a more familiar role...he has barely logged any innings the past few years so maybe asking him to pitch 160-200 innings this year was a little unrealistic. i think he would solidify our bullpen as soon as we get rid of Jamie "the muerto" Walker. The youth movement through the organization has O's fans rejuvenized and hopeful for OUR future. I am an extremely devoted O's fan that lives in Miami, Fl but that has not stopped the locals from talking about how we are headed in the right direction...We are one or two years away from contention and after waiting so long im more than happy to wait....GO O's

Pete i have a question for you...If a pitcher is dominating a certain league as Chris Tillman is doing what is andy looking for before a promotion? Consistency, durability what????

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Pete's reply: Could be a number of things, one of them being a pressing need at the big league level. I think they feel he still has some areas to work on, and it's better to work on stuff in an environment where you don't get beat up doing it. It's not financial, because all those deadlines have passed.

I predict the O's bats will come to life and take five out of six with the lone lose coming on of course Sunday....

I'm sticking with my prediction that the O's will finish the year 80-81 with a rain postponed game that will not be made up due to it having no playoff implications.

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Pete's reply: I admire the specific nature of your prediction.

Best case scenario is Wigginton gets hot right before the trade deadline and they come to their senses and FINALLY release Walker. 4 wins on this road trip isn't asking too much. Why are so many more Nats games in HD and can we PLEASE keep Dempsey out of the booth. It's painful to listen to.

Does anyone wonder how long it will be before they release Walker and bring up Wilfredo Perez? A lights out lefty fireballer who is only 23-24 is hard to ignore.

Any bets on how much longer Radhames Liz stays in the organization?

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Pete's reply: They'll keep him around awhile.

Pete, Roberts has poor stats against Washburn, so wouldn't it make sense for DT to give him the night off? More generally, DT has to learn to use all his players and make sure even his stars get an occasional rest. Looks to me like he's running Markakis, Roberts, Huff and Jones into the ground.

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Pete's reply: He may do that, but I think he let's Brian have some say on when he takes days off.

I forgot to ask about the MASN issue this weekend. What low IQ programmer at the network thought it would be a good idea to put the Orioles on non HD all weekend and the Nats on HD? Nats baseball is ugly enough without having such detail revealed. The Orioles OWN MASN. We should never be on the non HD channel. Both games were filmed in HD so they could have easily switched knowing the 25 people watching the Nats on television would not have been that mad. Dempsey is painful. Surprisingly the most knowledgeable baseball radio/tv guys are Palmer and Dave Johnson.

Since most fans are predicting 4/6 or 3/3 on the road trip, the O's are now going to shock us all by going 1/5, with the bullpen blowing late leads in 4 of the 5 lossess. I love what I've seen out of the young starters, but can't say the same for the bullpen. Besides Johnson and Baez (Gulp, did I just type that?) every other arm in that bullpen scares me.

Only reason we're in HD tonight is the Nats are off. Tuesday and Wednesday back to MASN2.

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Pete's reply: That stuff is scheduled in advance and it is split evenly.

Pete,
That prediction of 6 for 11 is a bad prediction. 11 AB's means Wieters has only started in about half of the road games.

Lets think 8 for 20 (accounting for BB's) and that would bring his average to something more realistic .322

Remember, he's Matt Wieters not Superman or Chuck Norris.

6-0; Hernandez chucks a no-no; Weiters hits 3 HR, including two-out GS in 9th in Oakland to break up an A's shutout: Sherill K's the side in a 4-3 win. And, oh, Jonesie goes 16-25 and Nick 14-27. Not a bad trip.

Did anybody that was watching tonight’s game notice in the top of the 5th after the double play that very bizarre commentary? Creepy laughing, bad jokes and a terrible rendition of love is in the air exchanging love with coffee. If the show Cheap Seats comes back to ESPN we might see this game on it….

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Pete's reply: I think there were some punchy announcers after the coast-to-coast flight.

I still like Bedard, but how fitting would it be to see the O's demolish him for the first time this year?

Props to them if they draw out vintage Erik...5 IP, 2 hits, 3 ER, 4 BB, 8 K and 130 pitches

"It's not financial, because all those deadlines have passed." I know you
were referring to Tillman but the reason Patton has not been promoted to the O's is 100% purely financial! He has major-league time and was very successful (3.5 era). He is fully recovered as demonstrated by pitching into the 8th inning in his last outing. He would've gotten the call before the other 3 if it weren't financial.
Once again, it's money before winning

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Pete's reply: Far be it from me to discourage you from being skeptical of this ownership, but you're way off on this one. Not everything is the Lincoln conspiracy. Patton's a good prospect, but he's not that hot that they need to do anything like that.