Thank you Peter. Enough of the knee-jerk reactions. That's what got the O's into this mess.

As a person who was at the game yesterday, I'd rather complain about the crappy umpiring: phantom tags, check-swing calls that changed from inning to inning...

The discussion about yesterday is exhausting, I'm glad the O's don't play until 10 tonight so I can get away from it a bit.

DT will always be damned he does and damned if he doesn't.

Would of been nice to close out the series but all of the woulda, coulda, shoulda stuff is getting nauseating.

Oldetoys is always posting crazy stuff…

I am over the O's blown game already, but that could be because I am a Saints fan from New Orleans so I have a lot of practice when it comes to dealing with losing teams!!!

Pete,

I am totally with all your saying and think oldetoys is a total DB but George Sherrill was only an all star by default.

The difference, of course, Peter, is that Oldetoys and his ilk are FANS. You, on the other hand, are a professionals sports writer. FAN as we know comes from FANATIC which, roughly defined, means slobbering, screaming, speak-from-the-heart-not-from-the-head individual who uses his/her sport team as a way of transferring his/her own psychological distress about life, the universe and everything, living vicariously through people they will never know personally, equating the team's success with their own, and so, consequently, the team's failure with their own, so if the team sucks like a black hole in space, THEY suck like a black hole in space and obviously, well, that's not right and we're $**#*! unhappy about it. Wigginton got it right: That's just baseball. You win a game you shouldn't have won Tuesday, you lose a game you shouldn't have lost Wednesday. Is this a great sport or WHAT? God bless America, Happy July 4th, now let's go de-wing the Angels.

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Pete's reply: You're definitely on the money. I don't fault him for being a raging fan, but we have to be careful not to get so crazed that the team gets pressured into taking a step backward again.

In honor of Youtube.............

Leave Dave Trembley alone....NOW!!!!!
*sob* *sob* *sob*

But seriously, let the season play out and go from there. If the fundamentals don't improve, then a change may be necessary. But, this organization needs some stability. They appear to have it with Andy, so let's give DT a chance now that he has more tools to work with. It may benefit the organization more long term than firing him and having the coaching carousel we've had for years continue without success.

p.s. Pete - thanks for my dose of sarcasm for the day. Much appreciated!!

Pete, I think Trembley should have a quicker hook in the early innings and last night would have been a great place to use Chris Ray to give him some confidence.

LOL - now THAT is sarcasm! ( hope)

Okay Pete. Is Oldetoys your Felix Pie for the day, because he is echoing the sentiments of a lot of Orioles fans? Personally, I think he goes a bit far, BUT he is not THAT far off. You know there is a saying in baseball, or was it just a saying of Earl's? You don't take a pitcher out of the game unless you believe the one you are bringing in will be better. What irks me about Trembly and Perlozzo is that they are tied to some ridiculous pitch count notion. Where this bit of modern voodoo managing came from I don't know, but it is just plain stupid.

Since, you bring up what the Orioles did to Boston just the day before the Orioles got beaten in the ninth inning. The Red Sox troubles started when their starting pitcher came out of the game, ditto for the Orioles. The difference is the weather created one situation, and bad managing the next. There was absolutely no reason not to let Bergessen finish what he started. None!

I like Tremebly as a peson and he got off to a good start last year, but this year it is not the losing that is the problem, it is the way they are losing. This does not show up if you just want to simple - mindedly look at W's and L's. The Orioles are making fundamental mistakes. You can pass the buck to the players if you like, and they have to be held accountable, but baseball is no different from any other business. A manager that doesn't get good performances from his staff, and continues to blame the employees will not last (Unless they work for GM ;^)> ) Also it is Trembly who continues to bat Melvin Mora fith when he was not producing for months,

A great deal of sucess in sports is psychological , just look at the Serena Williams victory over Dementieva today. Dementieva played a great match, but when it came down to sudden death in the third set she caved to Serena's will. Serena has 10 slams because of this. The Orioles are Dementieva to the Red Sox and Yankees of the world. This means the culture in the clubhouse needs to change. Clean out the old veterans that have ingrained the losing psychology, and get rid of the manager that under cuts good performance, and does not get his team to excersize proper fundamentals. I have criticized Sun sports writers for being too negative in the past, and I don't want to sound negative. Actually I see a lot of signs of hope for the Orioles in the futeure, but they will only succeed if they change the culture in the organization as they change players. There is no way around it.

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Pete's reply: I'll throw your axiom back at you. If you only change pitchers if the pitcher coming in is better than the pitcher on the mound, then Dave made the right decision. there isn't a scout, manager or GM who thinks Bergesen is a better pitcher than Jim Johnson (though its apples and oranges) and I don't think anybody would claim that a tired Bergesen is better than a fresh Johnson. Just didn't work out.

Pete,

All teams go through this misery during the course of a season, it's just that the Orioles seem to go through more disheartening stretches (not to mention prolonged) and it sucks that our fans are so damn quick to "fire" the players and coaches. Seriously, people need to get a freakin grip. Did not the Rays blow a huge lead to Cleveland this year?

Point is, we need to be patient and realize that once this team puts it all together (and let me say I think Trembley is a guy who can manage this team to that point), we will have a major transformation like the Rays did last year, and sustain it like the Rays have. Until that day, I guess you and I have to deal with these bipolar bloggers

A lot of this talk against Trembley's management is disturbing. I'm afraid it may get out of control, take a life of its own, and eventually continue the carousel.

It's very clear that MacPhail has a plan in place. We are seeing a lot of Hill, Guthrie, & Uehara, but those guys will likely not be a part of that future core. Those players are around age 30 so they are peaking around now. When this team is successful those guys will either be somewhere else or depth. At the same time there are certain players who will be a part of that future core, so managing this team is a balance of giving the team a chance to win with protecting the arms we'll need 2 years from now. Firing Trembley because he's mishandling stopgaps is shortsighted.

Promoting our best arms to make the MLB team more palatable is shortsighted too. Our focus should be on the young arms but, as much as we want to see a successful Os team ASAP, it doesn't mean promoting them now will make them develop an faster. If we take pitchers like Greinke, who was an excellent high ceiling prospect, he developed at the pace he was going to develop no matter what the org did. And I think that's the case with most. Even Jim Palmer needed a few years and a demotion to the minors to work things out, no matter how young he was called up. In my opinion, in some cases, there is a risk of accelerating a chance of injury or extreme adversity that can result in a failed or stunted prospect. No ones talking about every pitching prospect as an All-Star or Hall of Famer. We're just talking about making a farm system that maximizes every players' abilities. Rewarding them with promotions as a PR gesture may run the risk of ruining the arms that don't nearly have the command yet. Our best pitching prospects are excelling but there's a big difference between what minorleague hitters swing at vs. what MLB ones do. It's pretty obvious when you see minorleague games and it greatly impacts the stats. We've seen what early promotions do to Liz, Penn, Olson, Maine, Cabrera, etc. We might argue those arms weren't very good, but we can also argue that their talents weren't nearly maximized like Bergesen and Berken are today, who in spite of their solid performance, some of those earlier-mentioned failed prospects may have had better stuff. The major difference is the emphasis on throwing strikes. Berken and Bergie can do it which gives them a chance at a big league career; those other guys, because most of them couldn't throw strikes, they were fringe players.

I am certain that Andy and Angelos have both read Dave the Riot Act, so to speak (probably with crook in hand).
And while I think Dave is gone soon, the bottom line is that players have to play, and managers take the rap for bad play.

Pete- this question is for you ( hypothecally ) . If Andy does knee-jerk and fire Trembley right now OR wait till end of this season to fire Trembley .
Who is out there or available who might be good fit to manage this O's team mix of vets and youngsters?

My opinion is to wait till end of this season before we/they get serious about firing Trembley . But question remains , who gonna replace him ?

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Pete's reply: Well, first off, if the Orioles show improvement in the second half and end the season looking like they are on the verge of being competitive, Dave has a chance to stay. That's the criteria. If the team regresses, then the search will begin. I am not advocating a change. I think Dave has done a very good job with the young players, which is what he was brought in to do. Now, to answer your question in a vacuum, if the Orioles were going to hire a manager right now from what is available, I would look at Bob Melvin.

Had to go re-read the comments from earlier, excellent replies, I couldn't agree more for the most part and i was cracking up for the other...props.

It's one thing to question a manager because of a teams lack of hustle or good decision making. But it's another thing entirely to question his decisions when managing his pitching staff. The former he has more control over. The latter, he has very little control over whether or not his pitches can execute. Leaving Bergesen in their doesn't guarantee that he wouldn't have blown that game either. Besides, with the focus on Trembley's poor decision making, where the hell is all the talk about the offense getting set down TWENTY FOUR STRAIGHT TIMES to end the game! That's three outs short of a perfect game if it wasn't for the first 4 innings.

Pete - Another thing I like to add is I CAN SEE light at the end of tunnel .

Nolan Reimold ? Brad Bergeson ? Robert Andino? Matt Weiters ? These guys are breaking out as rookies this year . Now we and O's have some new additions to last year's rookie Jones . I am very excited to see these youngsters blossoming . Of course its not fun to watch the losses or the way they been beating themselves . But I for one , will contiune trust Andy and attend some O's games this year .

Pete,

First, thank you for your patience dealing with all the knee-jerk whining that goes on around here after a loss.

Second, thanks for having the courage to call an idiot an idiot. Nice to see that for a change.

Finally, Tom your arguments regarding learning to pitch in the 9th inning (for Game 7 of the World Series no less) were really out there. Much like your thought that the Bedard trade wasn't a steal. You need more than an all-star closer, future star in CF and one of the top 5 pitching prospects in minor league baseball? Even if Bedard pitched more than once every other month it would still be a steal.

let's look at the silver lining here -- Bergy manhandled the evil empire2. He has 19 walks in 92 IP! now that's something to get excited about.

Meanwhile, did we finally find a way to get vlad the (Oriole) impaler out (wait til his overall production drops off the table)? tune in tonight

by the way, I watched the Tuesday Night Triumph on NESN b/c I was in Connecticut and I have to say, the sox announcers were giving the O's some credit. I found it hilarious that they were giving us the 'last time the sox lost a 9-run lead' stat (june '89) BEFORE we even took the lead.

Dude, ease up on Trembley. The problem with this team the last decade has been personnel, not the manager. We finally got a good (actually great) personnel guy in McPhail and he is steadily turning this thing around. The way the younger home-grown guys have been playing speaks to Trem's and Crow's guidance (but what's up with the baserunning boners?) Until we get a legitimate rotation (which is now split between AA and AAA and maybe Brad Bergeson) you can't expect any manager to milk 90 wins. (Just look at Torre's record in St. Louis back when they wouldn't spend any money)

If there had been a blog in the 70's and oldetoys contributed he'd be calling for Earl Weaver's head.

162 games, people...

How can you give that idiot"Oldetoys" so much ink? I hate it when jerks move themselves to the head of the line.

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Pete's reply: I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Pete is Ken Rosenthal making this stuff up? Have you heard anything today?

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9757324/O&;s-may-not-be-dealing-closer-Sherrill

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Pete's reply: I don't know. That rumor has not gotten to my desk.

I think David puts it better than I did. The problem we've had for the last decade is lack of MLB talent. It's not the manager, a questionable pitching move, pitching coach, clubhouse chemistry, or etc. Those issues are valid ones to raise if we were 5-10 games back, but not 20 games. We can make every move the public clamors for, but if it doesn't include adding MLB-ready talent to the roster, then it won't make any difference. The current regime has recognized this, so it has put into effect policies that are slowly changing the culture and personnel of the whole franchise.

It's ridiculous to think perfect managing from anybody can overcome personnel deficiencies at 20 games back. And for the ones who call for speeding up the growth process, just because you call kids up early doesn't mean they get a headstart as majorleaguers. Prospects get ruined too by receiving too much too early.

Pete Thanks for running this column. The pitching changes yesterday made sense. They were good baseball moves and Johnson and Sherrill success rates are pretty good. Most closers have good and bad moments. Papelbon got beat the night before. Only Trembley and his staff know if Sherill had enough in the tank pitching on less than a days rest. Papelbon did it, so we should assume George could do it as well. What I would question is trading Sherrill, we do not have a better closer and if we do we should be grooming them to fill the role and move Sherrill into the set up / lefty specialist role. I also have not seen much discussion on the failure to use a full bench after the game got tied up. Zaun and Andino both batted with Jones, Salazar, Wieters and Mora on the bench. I still believe as I noted yesterday that Salazars PH appearence in the big comeback game was designed to give Salazar an AB and plying time in a throw away game rather than a strategy to get us back in the game. Speculation on my part but seems to be the way Trembley is managing (which is as if this is extended spring training). perhaps you can offer some more insight into usage of the bench. Thanks

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Pete's reply: I would agree that Dave probably wasn't looking to Salazar to turn the game around, but it sure looked like a brilliant move afterward, and he can use a few of those right now.

managing is overrated in my opinion in many cases. Sure, it's easy to look at trembley as a lame duck because he never shows his emotions in front of the camera, but let's face it, this team doesnt have the pitching talent to win right now. In a couple of years, it is a possibility that they will, but most of it depends on the young arms in the minors. Also, ignoring his bad outing in yesterdays loss, i would love to see Jim Johnson be given an oppurtunity to be a starter. I love his arm and personally believe that he is used poorly in the bullpen and should be given a chance to start. I understand that he found his way by pitching in the bullpen, but giving him possibly the rest of this season to start and see how it goes couldnt hurt could it? I mean, they started sarfate last year....and although it was in an injury situation if i remember correctly, we all new how that was gonna go. What do u think about johnson as a starter pete? he has golden movement on his fastball.

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Pete's reply: He's capable of being either a starter or a closer. I don't think they have any plans to move him right now, but you never know.

So I am in LA....driving on what they call the freeway system....we would call it a parking lot. I am listening to the Angels station....sports talk radio.
You will never guess what they were talking about. The Angels blew a game to Texas last night, and the fans were bitchin up a storm about....stupid base running by the Angels, blown safe by the bull pen, bad decisions by their manager (i don't know how to spell Mike Scioscia).....all this was about last nights loss to Texas. It was pretty much the same stuff that everyone was talking about for the last 24 hours in Baltimore. I thought it was really interesting. The only difference is the Angels are in first place, the Birds are at home in last place. The We can't even say the O's are renting last place.......they pretty much own it, and have for quite some time.
I mention all this because it is interesting to me that it doesn't matter if you are on the East coast, or the West coast....in first place, or last place, won 100 games last year, or won 60 games. Passionate fans are just that.....passionate and fans.
As a fan we like our teams to be perfect.......we hate to lose....we love to win.....and most of all we cannot understand how grown men can get paid millions of dollars to play a game and still can't give 100% effort every day. We, as fans, dont expect players to be perfect....we just expect passion and hustle......every day, every play. 4 game series starts in few hours. It should be fun....both teams coming off very similar losses...lets see who has the most character tonight.

I think we need to forget about what Earl used to do back in the 60's and 70's, and what Jim, Brooks, Frank, and Boog did. That was a different era, the economics were different, the way the game was managed was different.

For a different take on letting young guys stay in the game and pitch complete games consider what Billy Martin did to his staff at Oakland. All these complete games by these young guys - seemed really impressive at the time. Till about three years later when they were all burned out with arm problems.

I'd take JJ and Sherrill with a four run lead and one inning any time. If it had gone the other way, and Bergey had started the 9th and they'd lost, there'd be just as much screaming about leaving him in and not bringing in Johnson to start the inning. Hindsight always seems to be so clear.

Pete, As a follow up did Trembely discuss anything or was any insight offered on not using his bench. Ie was the Jones day off related to an injury worst than reported? Has he lost confidence in Wieters and Mora? or did he just see Zaun and Andino as better match ups? Sorry to seem persistant but not making a move seems against the norm? Am I out to lunch on this?

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Pete's reply: No, those are fair questions. Generally, when he uses Zaun, he does not hit for him late. That's probably because Zaun's numbers are actually better than Wieters since Wieters came up. Zaun is 10 for 27 (.370) with a home run and five RBI, while Wieters is batting .247 with two homers and 7 RBI in three times as many at-bats. I believe he stays with Andino for the up-the-middle defense.

Peter--Nicely handled response to Oldetoys and earlier to Jack, who I see has moved his Troll Show over from Roch's blog. (For those who don't visit Roch over at MASN, there's a mantra for whenever Jack and his clone, Brummie Oriole do their Grumpy Old Man/Debbie Downer act--Scroll the Trolls, meaning if you see them posting, just sail by till you get back to the sane comments.

I do, howevver, want to take you to task a bit for jumping Tom over comments he posted on your "Mothers Day "massacre" revisited" entry although I disagree with the way he described Trembley's decision and your backing of it as unworthy of his "toilet bowl." (Tacky, Tom, very tacky.)

(I won't even attempt to defend Tom's denegrating the Bedard for Jones-Sherrill-Tillman-et al trade, because it's so nonsensical. Hey Tom, go check the Mariners' roster and see who's on the DL yet again!)

Getting back to the point. For those who didn't read it, Tom argued that letting Bergy go out in the ninth was in principle a good move, because it would prepare him to finish games should the Orioles ever make it to the World Series.

Peter countered rather incredulously, writing: "You're the first person who has ever told me that the way to learn how to pitch in the World Series is to pitch tired in the ninth inning of a game in early July. If you pitch young starters tired in June, they won't be around in October anyway." (There's a difference between being tired and gassed, Peter, but I'll leave that for another time, except to say that we know the latter is when a pitcher starts losing the plate, getting his pitches up, consistently getting behind in the count, and getting hammered. None of that applied to Bergy last night)

There are plenty of examples to prove Tom has a good point on this issue. One pitcher in particular comes to mind immidiately in this regard, who I present as Exhibit A: Jack Morris.

In 1984 Morris helped pitch the Tigers to a World Championship over the Padres, starting and winning two of the five games in that Series; both of them were complete games, During the regular season he threw nine complete games and I imagine he may have been "tired" a few times. (Four years earlier, Morris was 25 years old--Bergy's age--and he had 11 CGs.)

As a member of the Twins, Morris would post one of the most memorable pitching performances of the past 20 years in the 1991 World Series. He pitched Games 1, 4 and 7, picking up the win in his first outing and a no decision in the second, neither of which he finished, pitching seven and six innings respectively.

In Game 7 he faced John Smoltz a classic pitchers' duel. The two exchanged goose eggs for seven innings, after which Smoltz gave way to Mike Stanton, who threw a scoreless eighth. Alejandro Pena pitched in the ninth for Atlanta and shut down the Twins yet another time, forcing the game to extra frames. Minnesota manager Tom Kelly brought Morris out yet again in the 10th, who kept the Braves scoreless, after which the Twins pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the inning. During the regular season the 36 year-old Morris had 10 CGs and I imagine he may have been "tired" a few times.

One year later Morris would have his last hurrah pitching for the World Champion Blue Jays, though for once he wasn't the hero, going 0-2 without finishing a game versus the Braves. He did complete six ganes over the regular season.

Jack Morris was one of the great big game pitchers of his generation and his stats for three World Series speak for themselves: 4-2, 2.96, 7 GS, 3 CG. During the regular season in those years he completed no fewer than 25 games, which certainly helped build his stamina for the Fall Classic.

So please stop imbibing on the pitch count Kool Aid, Peter. Yes, there are times when a starter is really spent and needs to be pulled, but when, like last night, he still has something in the tank and has significantly outpitched an AL All-Star-to-be and Cy Young Award for eight innings against an above average lineup, then he's a manager's best option, not someone out of the bullpen, no matter how good he might be.

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Pete's reply: You state your case well, but I don't know if it's ever fair to use Hall of Fame-caliber pitchers as the example for how rookie pitchers should be handled.

lighten up francis...the pitching decisions can be argued either way for centuries. I watch a lot of games and see pitchers that get extended pitch counts to win games or complete games seem to suffer in the next outing, Bergy got pulled too late in the Phillies game, ad I am sure there ENOUGH EXAMPLES THAT PROVE YOU ARE RIGHT AS WELL.
In short there is enough to pick on Trembley about, this is not one of them. Also who is your closer if not Sherrill? No one is ready and Sherrill is still agreat set up man.

'I don't think anybody would claim that a tired Bergesen is better than a fresh Johnson. Just didn't work out."

Granted he threw 103 pitches but you honestly don't know how tired he was. When you have a pitcher that retires the side the previous inning (with 4 outs as Roberts committed an error on a routine grounder) on 8 pitches, and cover your managers butt by saying it was his decision was ok with him, effectiveness needed to be taken into consideration.

Pete's reply: I'll throw your axiom back at you. If you only change pitchers if the pitcher coming in is better than the pitcher on the mound, then Dave made the right decision. there isn't a scout, manager or GM who thinks Bergesen is a better pitcher than Jim Johnson (though its apples and oranges) and I don't think anybody would claim that a tired Bergesen is better than a fresh Johnson. Just didn't work out.

I will agree that Jim Johnson is a very good pitcher, and Sherril has also performed well. There is no reason to expect they would cough up the lead. However Bergessen has also been a very effective pitcher. He has shown the ability to finish games. Trembly was supposed to be emphasizing that the starting pitchers should pitch deep into games in order to prevent a late season melt down of the pen. So. here he has his most consistent starting pitcher, who has shown the ability to finish games, mowing down the Red Sox, he has just had a 1,2,3, inning. How is J.J, or GS supposed to improve on that? Where is the evidence that Bergessen was tired?

I have seen every pitcher no matter how good get shelled at one time or another, Where is the evidence that J.J. or G.S wouldn't have one of those days? On the other hand there was ample evidence that B.B was pitching well. What is the logic for the move, pitch count? This is populist foolishness. I don't know where this came from, but there have been a lot of very succesful pitchers and managers for most of the history of baseball that didn't make decisions based on such artificial criteris,

As for the argument about scout opinions of Bergessen vs. Johnson, basically who cares. This is an empty argument.

Peter, Regarding Morris, please note how I pointed out that when he was Bergesen's age he threw 11 complete games for Detroit.

He had to be really good to get that many as the Tigers' manager was Sparky Anderson, who was known as "Captain Hook" for his quick calls to the bullpen.

I may end up totally wrong, but I think Bergy has a bright future ahead of him as a key member of the Orioles' next great rotation. Really, there's no harm in letting him attempt to finish, especially in games like Wednesday, where he had a four-run cushion heading into the ninth. Again I harp on the point: Don't take away an excellent opportunity to help build confidence and maturation.

The kid just subdued a tough lineup and outpitched an elite hurler, so let him go out with a flourish. If he allows a baserunner, then the plan may change, but don't undercut his development as a quality big league pitcher by anguishing over a few more pitches.

Let that Bird spread his wings!

BTW, I posted a comment on the "there isn't a scout, manager or GM who thinks Bergesen is a better pitcher than Jim Johnson" quote, mistakenly assuming it was yours. That's because I saw someone else misattributing to you. Normally, I research to verify, but in that case I didn't, My apologies.

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Pete's reply: I think I did say that, but no worries. I respect your opinion, as I said, but Bergesen isn't Jack Morris and there certainly can be harm in pitching guys too long. Billy Martin burned up some of the best prospects of the 1980s and they were never heard from again.

Wayne,

Your evidence is in the Rockies game last night or about a million other games in history where the starter gets extended one inning too many. Pitchers hit a wall and can hit it hard without notice.

Pitch count is a rough guideline. Keep in mind this is a rookie. A rookie putting the most strain on his arm than he ever has in his life. Why push your luck that he can close it out? Is it a cute little morale thing and fun for the fans? Sure. It's a dumb*** idea for your investment though. If you buy a brand new car, you don't go out and just red line it nonstop and say that the red line is just populist foolishness. Because if you do that, you'll ruin the car and it's stuck in your garage while you try to fix it and meanwhile you're either stuck going to buy a new car or taking the bus to work.

Ken,

You're comparing a ROOKIE to Jack Morris. Are you freaking kidding me? Daniel Cabrera struck out 10 batters twice in 2006 and it sure didn't make him any Nolan Ryan or Curt Schilling now did it?

Okay. I will say there is no real evidence to support your argument. A pitcher can hit a wall at any time. Usually it is in extended innings, where their pitch count goes high for THAT inning. But, also remember athletes/pitchers are not standardized machine parts. Individuals have different capabilities. (I won't talk about my own personal endurance when I was Bergessens age, because basically I'd just be some old man, reminiscing, and shooting my mouth off :^)>.) But seriously don't listen to me, listen to Jim Palmer talk about how pitchers pitched when he was coming up? Think about how often those guys threw complete games. What's changed? Nothing of substance; just a basically viral thought process that's done away with what was done very sucessfully for a long time in favor of some new "google" based pitching philosophy.

To Ken and Pete,

I am posting here as Tom RR, but I posted as Tom in the Mothers Day 'massacre' revisted. I needed to revise my screen name because there were two different Tom's posting yesterday.

I posted three times yesterday. First one started with the toilet bowl comment, second one about Bergy pitching in the ninth to get him prepared for the World Series, and the third was asking Pete about Bochy and Lincecum. The other Tom was questioning the Bedard trade. I think it is obvious that the O's made out well with the Bedard trade.

Pete, I want to apologize for the "toilet bowl comment". These posts should not be personal. Those posts were my first ever posts on your blog and I have rarely posted on anybody's blog. Tacky comments like that take away from the main focus of my post. 10+ years of watching the O's lose can make a person nuts.

Ken, thanks for backing me up with your Jack Morris example. You stated your case well.

Pete, I have generally enjoyed reading your articles and listening to your talk show. I also think you do an excellent job on Friday afternoon with C4 and Kendall on WBAL. I just disagree with you on the Bergy ninth inning issue.

Take Care

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Pete's reply: That's fine. Glad you altered the screen name. I've had so many posts, I didn't notice that or would have altered it myself, since I can see the email addresses are different.

Bob Melvin? great choice! advocate, man, advocate

If listing the exceptions to the rule proved anything, every NFL coach would stockpile no name RBs like Timmy Smith for the Super Bowl, MLB would be full of crippled ex Michigan QBs as pinch hitters and pitchers would all look at the sun before letting loose like Valenzuela.

Every post here is meaningless because losing teams can't do anything right.

If Bergesen had been allowed to pitch the 9th and he got rocked, fans would have been calling out Trembley for NOT bringing in Johnson.

I know its a different sport , but maybe we could look at the management change the ravens made last year for guidance with this issue? Did Brian Billick really cost us a playoff berth? He def made some questionable calls and his conservative play calling reminds me a lot of dave trembley. My point is we are playing with a lot of young players and up and coming rookies who want nothing more than to win and will happily have have a manager take them there. we are a new school team with a old school manager maybe the players are not taking in his message?