Halfway home .... but yet so far away .

Here's the soundtrack to that headline: Now playing...Talking Heads, We're On the Road to Nowhere.

Jim66,

I was thinking more like this:

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful
Wife
And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...

Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...

...........................................................................................
Pete's reply: I should have put that right in the middle of the column. Would have saved me an hour or two of work.

The "culture" of a losing team was never more evident than last night. We have no veteran leadership. All of the veterans(Markakis, Huff, Mora, Roberts and Wigginton), have always played for losing teams, Who demands these players to play hard? Who's the Varitek of this team. I think it will be Matt Wieters. Trade Roberts for some young, aggressive talent.

Never mind 'halfway home', the Orioles are already playing like it's late Aug/early Sept. We can look forward to a typical 4-32 swoon a little earlier this year.
We are all finger-pointing etc because most of us are clearly frustrated. Personally, I see the O's like a perpetually leaky roof. Do some 'repair' like bring in a few fresh arms/stud OF and then other parts break down.
Part of me thinks we are never going to compete and that we'll become the KC Royals/Pitts or heaven forbid Washington Nats.
At least the former bad Cubs teams were lovable; we have a lot of scowling and/or indifferent looking faces in our dugout, led of course by Trembley who looks like he is sitting at home on his porch.

...........................................................................................
Pete's reply: I'm going to go out on a limb and say they'll be better in August then they are now.

ESPN's accuscore giving the O's a 31% chance to win todays game hahah

http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/preview?gameId=290705103

What they dont think Rich Hill can be Joe Saunders?!?!? crazy!

He's done an excellent job in his career against the Orioles' Brian Roberts, who is 3 for 17 (.176) versus him, and Nick Markakis, who is 4 for 18 (.222)

YIKES!

please ask ted to just put a link to songs he likes. i'm getting harbor tunnel syndrome or whatever from scrolling down for a half hour to get past his post. no doubt despite the won loss record and the team era, the future looks so much better than the past 10-12 years and really the best for long term success since jerry hoffberger owned the team. solid outfield. strong up the middle, some very promising pitchers here already in hernanadez and bergesen and if 2-3 guys from arreita, patton, tillman, matusz, berken group can be productive the o's have a solid foundation for a while. need a 3rd baseman, first baseman and a frontline starting pitcher. the successful team is coming together. though i would think a new manager with a little more fire and better baseball instincts would help a lot.

Can the O’s go after Chien-Ming Wang?! I just want to be able to clown around like the NYers with his name.

I would say the O’s season is summed up by any bad song by the 90s band Live. First songs that come to mind are Turn my head and Dolphins cry hahahha

Ummm how about the song Loser by Beck?? Can the O’s adopt that as their new team song or do the Cubs own it??

Speaking about music I have to take this moment to ask what the $%^& is up with that Come on Orioles song they play at Camden Yards… That song is so bad I find myself instantly embarrassed. The Orioles magic song is much better why on earth don’t they play that?

I agree with Nick from Sykesville to a point. I think we should keep Huff, because he is the most professional hitter on this team, and I do see a fire in Huff. We won't get much for Mora in a trade, and he has that no trade clause, but the Orioles do need to separate themselves from him. He has been a good soldier for a lot of years so they need to do this in a tasteful way. Roberts is quickly playing himself into a situation where we won't get much for him in a trade, and we will have to take less than fair value. When Izturis comes back they should give Roberts an extended seat on the bench for like a month. His attitude right now really stinks. I think Markakis is young enough to come around when he is surrounded by a different atmosphere. Trembly is not the manager to do this. I think he has a bit more respect for the players and management than he does for his own role as manager. The Orioles need some inner fire from this position as well.

As for Pete's comment about the Orioles being about where they were expected to be in terms of wins and losses. This was a projection based on a assesment of the Orioles available pitching talent, not on any evidence of a bufoonish baserunning style or indifferent play from many of their veterans. The first scenario would be bit more palatable for a team in rebuilding mode. The second is never acceptable. I don't wan't to see the Orioles playing like the Dolts.

Pete i am sorry if you injuried yourself yesterday, i certainly know what it's like to get old and not do the things that we just took for granted.I am not going to come on here the day after and tell you i told you so about Brian Roberts that is not my style. I admit all my life i tried to force my opinion on other people and that has always been a trait i wish i never had. Pete i know it's hard for you and maybe even the organization to understand and that is Brian Roberts truly doesn't want to be here.The argument against that is why did he sign that extension, and there are 40,000,00 reason why he did. When a player who is starting to turn 32 gets a chance for that last great payday he just can't walk away from it. This isn't entirely brians fault as i have so readly stated many times to no avail. Losing takes all the heart out of you and eventually no matter what you do you lose your focus and desire.I truly believe with all my heart the best thing for brian and the best thing for this organization would be to trade him before it becomes to late. I never want to be right on something when in the end it winds up hurting the thing i truly love and that is home town team.

BR should have been benched weeks ago when we first started seeing signs of him being all emo

Are they going to wear those stupid red hats again today? They clash pretty badly.

Justin,

Hats are the biggest scam in all MLB.. Its all marketing soon teams will wear another hat every day of the week to get people to spend 40 bucks on each.

Justin,

Hats are the biggest scam in all MLB.. Its all marketing soon teams will wear another hat every day of the week to get people to spend 40 bucks on each.

Justin,

Hats are the biggest scam in all MLB.. Its all marketing soon teams will wear another hat every day of the week to get people to spend 40 bucks on each.

errr sorry i posted so many times..

You only had to say it once.

Hey Pete: This is the short story.
The O's are where they should be at the half way point. The good is Bergessen, Hernandez and Berkin are in the rotation, learning on the job, instead of the rotation they came north with after the exhibition season ended. Jones, Scott, Huff and Markakis have been very good at times and one day this lineup will succeed. Reimold has been very good, and should have been on the team at the beginning, but better late than never. Sherill, Johnson, Albers and Baez have been very good out of the pen. Andino looks like an excellent pickup for the O's and looks like he could have a future as a starting shortstop, at minimum an excellent utility fielder.
Middle ground
Not so sure if Hill is the guy for the job, he will be replaced anyway even though he has looked brilliant at times. Wieters got his call up and he will succeed over time, and having Zaun now as a back up is a huge plus. Guthrie has had some rough outings, but he should be okay for the second half. Roberts has been excellent at times and had some rough performances but he is still on pace to score 120 runs, 50+ doubles, 70+ rbi and will steal 30-40 stolen bases. Izturis until hurt was a good upgrade at SS and hope he will be ready soon. Hendrickson was suffering as a starter, but back in the pen he seems to be having more success. Wigginton has been good at times and Salazar has been taking advantage of his opportunity.
Below the line.
Chris Ray has been awful in his comeback, hope he can improve, but seems to be a long way off, I was hoping the O's would keep him in the minors for a while longer and rehab there. Pie was awful as a everyday player but off the bench he has had e little success, but really is he better than any of the prospects we have down in the minors? Mora has had a slow start, but he has been there before, and I think he will have a big second half.

I am sure the Orioles will be looking to deal several players over the next month. Among them I believe they will listen to offers for Albers, Bass, Baez, Wigginton, Zaun, Izturis, Hendrickson, Huff and Scott. Mora will not be dealt. I hope that some of the other pitchers that are doing well in the minors get a call up and work out of the bullpen, the way they should get broken in.

Anyway you look at it, there are so many bright sides to the O's at this point you really cannot be too critical, and there will be times when they are beaten badly. Believe me I was more than shocked when they did not obtain starting pitching that could protect the young arms, but now they are here, it is all good.

Anyone see Mora take a swing at that flying plastic Angels logo thing last night?? Was I having a residual??

...........................................................................................
Pete's reply: Yes. It's the hardest he has hit anything in a month.

I just looked up Bench's stats on the Baseball Cube website. By the time he was Wieters' age (22), Bench was already an allstar with 3 full seasons in the major leagues. That year he hit over .290 with 45 HRs. Pretty high standards for Wieters to match if he is of the mindset. I remember that old timers were saying Bench was the best defensive catcher they'd seen since Mickey Cochrane. For those who remember seeing him play as I do, the things that stand out were the quick, sure hands, the cat like moves behind the plate, and an arm like no other. I remember his defense and leadership more than his considerable offensive skills. I hope Wieters can take command of the team like Bench did with the Reds in his haydays.

ALL STAR SELECTION DAY!!! I have been thinking and isn’t it odd how even though Sherrill got selected last season nobody knew who he was? He almost didn’t even get to play. I remember rooting for the NL to tie the game to give George a chance to pitch.. Also Joe Buck kept saying the AL only few guys left to pitch is blah blah and GEORGE SHERRILL like in a tone saying who the $%# is George Sherrill. Even though Tito selected him to be on the team. I am glad he pitched well but the O's still lost overall by him pitching 2 innings... ahh I hate the all star game..

Jay Peterson: Bench didn't spend 4 years in college. I don't think it's fair to compare Wieters to one of the greatest ever when he's only been in the majors for a month. Some of the posts I'm reading today are just ridiculous. It seems like everyone expected the kids to turn this team around overnight. Newsflash: ain't happening folks. This is going to take a couple of years. If you want instant gratification, go root for the Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, whoever. Just quit whining. Pete's posts are very intelligent, and obviously he enjoys getting the great amount of responses. but some of you just go way too far. You call yourselves Oriole fans, but so many of never have anything positive to say about the team. There IS progress going on here whether you can see it or not. And yes, the baserunning has been atrocious and yes, some veterans need an attitude adjustment and yes, the manager situation should be evaluated, but firing Dave Trembley is not going to change where the team finishes this year. Get rid of your unrealistic expectations for 2009 and enjoy seeing these kids come up and get some experience. Reimold, Wieters, Bergesen and Hernandez have all shown great promise. Berken has struggled and probably needs more time in the minors. Everybody who wants to trade Luke Scott.... why?? All he's done is hit .300 and lead the team in homers. Yeah, he's streaky...so what? They score early in the games and then stop. Why? If I could answer that, maybe I should be the manager. Well, I can't answer it and it's a damn good thing I'm not the manager. It's just tiresome to read all this whining and carping every day. Therer are many intelligent posts here, but it's like finding a needle in a haystack when you have to wade through all the BS to find it. OK, that's enough. I just stepped off my soapbox and threw it into the fireplace. But I sure feel a whole lot better. And thanks Pete, for doing such a great job on this blog and in your articles!

By the way Jay Peterson, only the Bench/Wieters comment was directed at you personally...the rest was just a general and very verbose blast at some of the posts that appear here. Sorry if I offended you.

Dave Taylor,

Your a loser dude hahahah

dave taylor: BLOG POLICE

stop drinking natty boh so early and chill out.. its just a game

HELLO .....anybody out there???

A team takes on the personality of its leadership.

Dave wanted to come in and put the fun back in the game.

How nice is that....

Get somebody in here that has passion....that doesn't accept losing.
That gets these millionaire ball players hustling.

When you watch us play we cant keep our concentration all game.

Roberts especially is disappointing. He is suppose to be the leader. He looks like he is bored......his nonchalant play is embarrassing.....and it is rubbing off on other team mates like Nick M.

I tell you something. Enough is enough. I am not going to take it anymore. I would rather see players with less talent play hard then to watch what i am watching.

Losing breeds losing. It is a virus. It has just about ruined Brian Roberts....its about to take hold of some other young players.

i dont care if you like Dave Trembley or not....MaPhail has to make a change, and he has to make it now in order to set the tone for next years quest to get out of the basement.

Enough is enough.......management needs to put the US back in Hustle.

The team has the ability, they dont have the desire.

The secret ingredient to life is PASSION...it makes everything better.....i promise it will make the O's better for the short and long term.

This has truly gotten ridiculous. I am not trying to get on the "fire Dave" bandwagon, but the problem with Trembley is that he simply is too accepting of losing and for a manager that stresses basics, he sucks.

Is Markakis in today's line-up? He shouldn't be. Now maybe Billy Martin was a little extreme pulling Reggie, but I just looked at that replay 10 times and Markakis clearly was dogging it. Roberts was out in Markakis land and Markakis should have called him off. The fact that Dave allows this to just continue and doesn't call out his players, is akin to having a little kid misbehave and the parent say "please try to behave for me". Send him to the corner for Pete's sake (sorry Pete).

The problem with the O's, again, is that they suck mentally and it will spread if Mr. Nice Guy DT doesn't put a stop to it. Bergenson, Reimold and Wieters will lower their bar since Markakis, Roberts and Mora don't have high expectations nor anyone to hold them accountable. There are no physical problems. Markakis and Roberts are "stuck" here for the long term so let's put pressure on them to lead and perform like leaders, otherwise we can make their stay uncomfortable. This has gone too far. Enough already.

I think it is pretty apparent that DT is unlikely to be back next year. Just too many mental mistakes being made and someone has to be held accountable. DT can only make excuses so many times. Obviously the players (veterans, anyhow) aren't really afraid of him or take him that seriously. I had hoped after the team got rid of Tejada (notoriously late) and Hernandez (Ramon who hardly ever made any effort) things would be improving but they are not.

Pete,

I will take the contrarian approach from most of your bloggers in that BROB is slumping but certainly no reason to abandon ship. The ball was clearly the right fielders ball to take charge of and the manager should have pulled both aside as soon as they arrived at the dugout!

The nucleus of this team is strong, really, Reimhold, Jones and Nick are one of the best OF's in all of baseball. SS is adequate, Huff is very good and BRob is certainly in the top 5 at his position, top 3 for leading off and just slumping. Melvin has worn out his usefulness, he's had a nice career and will forever be remembered on Father's day! Our catching is above average and getting better. Our bench is ok and could be strengthened. It is our pitching and Managing where I see the greatest potential for improvement. They need to abandon the players manager for a kick ass kind of manager in the mold of Leyland or Showalter who doesn't accept pitiful performance and effort!

The surprising, but right decision: Adam Jones is an all star!

Pete,

Who is Blake Davis? How old is he? Could he possibly be the SS of the future for the O's?

............................................................................................
Pete's reply: Blake Davis is the O's Triple-A shortstop from Cal State Fullerton who broke his foot during spring training when it looked like he was making a real move in the organization. Don't know where he stands right now, since Andino looks real good and Izturis is going to be here awhile.

Glad Adam Jones got the pick

This team is exactly what they are: medicore. Medicore meaning of moderate or low quality, value, ability, or performance.

I know everyione sets up their performance by saying 'they weren't going to compete', and even though that is a realistic assesment, it ultimately an excuse.

And please don't use the excuse of playing in the AL East. There are for other teams that play in the AL East and they play the same schedule. Garnted they have the Orioles on their schedule, so there is an adavantage there.

The Orioles have the financial ability to compete and stating they don't is pure speculation. The Orioles are not a public company and we will never know the financial situation, but relaiable sources including Forbes magazine have the Orioles as making over $30M profit. The Orioles have reduced their payroll by $25M over the past year. They have additional revenue from MASN, which in itself is a secret society, and the reduction in revenue from attendance is self induced. It has been declining for years and that is no one's fault but the Orioles organization.

Keith Rowe,

The Orioles will not get the" kick ass kind of manager in the mold of Leyland or Showalter" at this time. If Trembley goes its going to be another in house hire to keep the rebuilding process going.

Please excuse the spelling error; mediocre

Congrats Miggy hahahahahha

WITH APOLOGIES TO KENNY CHESNEY:

Saw a team at the ballpark that didnt have a heart
How I wish I could give them mine
Then I wouldnt have to feel it breaking all apart
And this emptiness inside would suit me fine

A what point do call out this team for what it is? The pitching is poor but the offense and defense is underachieving.

hey, pete ,
just read your article that evaluates the o's at the halfway point and i disagree with you that we don't know about mora's future. we do know about it. he is too expensive to trade and his option will not be picked up. i'm sure that salazar, wiggington,and scott moore will all be considered next spring and further out until brandon snyder or brandon waring can play themselves into consideration.
i'd also like to say that if trembley is fired before he gets a chance to have tillman, at least, in his rotation he will have suffered an outrageous injustice. as far as i can see he has done as well as anyone could with the players the front office has provided since 2007 and for him to go now that the talent is coming up would be absolutely unfair.
i think that people do not easily realize that trembley has to walk a fine line right now. he has players (many of them young) who are being told that they are garbage (some of them on these previous posts) so if trembley also goes negative, or 'kick-ass', then that would put him in the same camp as the whiners, howlers and the other negativistas. how do you expect players to play for a man who agrees with the critics? i think that the players know what trembley wants out of them and this will not be an issue when the pitching comes up and more wins are the result.

GregB,

You make fair points about the O's and MASN but as Pete pointed out it seems that PA is ready to pay the bill when AM gets the ship back on course.

Hey Pete Bryan Fuentes made the All Star team and George Sherrill didn’t!!! OMG!!!! Hahaha jk man

............................................................................................
Pete's reply: Well, that settles it. Sherrill really hadn't saved 13 in a row when he came into that game on Wednesday. He really hadn't given up one run in his previous 21 innings while Fuentes gave up six runs over 21 innings. This definitely wins the argument for you. I apologize for not recognizing your brilliance.

My biggest complaint with the O's is their lack of hustle and desire. Errors of commission are one thing. Errors of stupidity and laziness is another. Robert, Markakis, Huff and Mora are the worlds worst at running balls out. Mora must have a brain the size of a pea. I say trade Mora for a can of pine tar and Roberts for a bag of lime. Losing when playing hard can be forgiven. Losing by bonehead plays and the lack of hustle is unforgiveable. Where are the old days of fines and benching?

Butch

I was playing Pete.. I’m sure the California market factored in more than just stats. I hope somehow the Wakefield pick ends up costing the AL the game but Adam Jones hits a homer or robs someone.

.............................................................................................
Pete's reply: Me too. I like Fuentes, but it would have been great for the O's to get Sherrill on the team. It would have increased his trade value.

Other than the Orioles I find myself hating the AL and rooting for the NL. What’s it been 13 years?

Is it true that Roberts and Markakis signed their contracts in front of a huge MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner?

The only thing ACCOMPLISHED was them robbing the O’s of stockpiles of money they were probably going to waste anyway

why no Wigginton or Salazar against a lefthander? Why not Mora or one of them batting 4th against the lefthander? Mora 8-16 against Saunders. Just another example of Trembley not willing to shake things up after another meltdown. How long do you go with the status quo when at best you are treading water or drowning?

A comment on the manager: My memory goes back to Hank Bauer as manager. Hank was a 1 & 1/2 yrs. removed from a World Championship when they fired him at mid-season. Why? Hank hadn't changed. The roster had barely changed. The team was in second place. They fired Bauer because they had a guy named Earl Weaver waiting in the wings. Earl had been an outrageously successful manager in the minors and had coached most on the Os player when they were in the minors. There is no way you can be certain a manager will be a success, but Weaver was about as close to sure thing as you'll ever find. Is there a guy like Weaver in the organization today? I don't know of any. Why bring in another manager unless you have good reason to believe he will a major improvement over the one you have? Weaver immediately inserted Buford and started platooning his catchers. The 2009 Os don't have enough bench players for a manager to make moves like that. Going outside the organization for a manager has always been a disaster, e.g. Regan and Mazilli. The glory days came from former players and guys in the organization, e.g. Weaver, Altobelli, and Johnson. Even if they didn't win big, Os favorites like F Robby, Ripken, Sr., and even the Rabbit were at least respected. Interviews are misleading. The beginning of the end was letting Dauer, Murray and Dempsey hang when they hired Maz.. Keep Dave!

I am a patient fan , I understand it takes time for Mcphail to rebuild this great franchise with talent. But the Mantra of setting my expectations low will only hold me over for another 2 years. I personally feel that the players on this team Now can win Now and be competitive. I don't get the feeling the managers feel that way and that's the problem we have at the moment I think. I would tell them myself if I could but I think this team needs a coach that can inspire someone to play to their potential when things are bleak John harbaugh should come give the boys a pep rally over all-star break!

Did I sleep through June and July?

Based on the way the Orioles or playing it certainly seems like it's August or September already ...