He’s such a victim. All the Orioles are victims nobody should be held accountable for this season.

Pete,

I'm inclined to agree with you on this, although long term I think he's better off coming out of the 'pen. Seems to have a similar pattern to Hendrickson - OK the first and possibly second time thru the order, then trouble catches him the third time.

..............................................................................................
Pete's reply: Maybe the light will go on, but he does have that middleman look about him.

Hi Pete,

The way I look at this situation is simple, who else are you going to pitch? I would assume that the Orioles want to hold back on bringing any more young guys up to pitch and Waters, Mitchell and Pauley are not pitching well enough to justify a promotion. I am sure that the Orioles will keep him in the rotation. Hey there it goes way to go Huff!

another Roberts base-running blunder...what was he doing? He wasn't stealing or at least wasn't doing it actively...

After last night's debacle, you'd think there wouldn't be a near debacle again today.

..............................................................................................
Pete's reply: What, stealing third with one out standing up was a baserunning blunder?

what happened with Roberts? I can only follow on the internet today, dont see that he was picked off or caught stealing.

..............................................................................................
Pete's reply: He wasn't. He stole third standing up and Markakis was thrown out behind him for the second out. Good play by the catcher to go after the trail runner. Markakis didn't get the jump Roberts did.

Pete, unfortunately I have to disagree with you. On the season Berken has struck out just 41 while walking 28 in 73 innings with a 37% ground ball rate, which is pretty bad. Sure, he could have more wins if the bats could have scored more, but he also could have more wins if he was a better pitcher.

His last start was pretty good in Toronto, but it was just one start, and today was certainly nothing to write home about. I really think I've seen just about everything I want to see from Mr. Berken as a starter.

..............................................................................................
Pete's reply: You're not disagreeing with me. I thought he should have been sent back two weeks ago, but now they really don't have a better option.

These mopes are going to lose 100 games this season. They refuse to take advantage of anything!

Why did Berken get yanked after 86 pitches? I understand the need to keep pitch count down for the young ones, but Trembley needs to let these guys man up and see whether they have what it takes to be an effective part of the 2010 rotation. Pitchers these days are wimps compared to the pitchers of the era when the O's were actually winning championships. To quote someone else from this blog, "Fire Trembley now!"

I can't remember what inning it was, but Roberts was on 2nd, then just kinda started dancing towards 3rd, then sorta broke towards third mostly because it looked like he was caught sleeping, then with the throw to 3rd, went back to 2nd and slid in under the tag.

How appropriate that the letter to enter was "e".

Pete --

Safe to assume that Matusz will be sent down once Brad is able to get back on the hill? I'm guessing they don't want to tax his innings total too much in his first professional season...

............................................................................................
Pete's reply: I really am not sure. He's not going to be tired the next time out after pitching only a couple innings. They might go to a six-man rotation instead.

Hey Pete,
Called that double steal to my youngest daughter including the throw to second. Another brilliant Trembley move. Get brian over, and cause havoc with Nick. Make them think. no,lol
Pathetic.
And Berken is not major league quality. No giddy-up. Pitches up. No dominate pitch. Spells possible journeyman but little more. Good kid. Needs to pitch at knees or corners to have a prayer.
Look I do not hate Trembley.
And managers are truly overrated in terms of impact.
But Dave is like Berken,minor league. He will most definitely be gone as macphail will need a scapegoat whether he uses that term or not.

..............................................................................................
Pete's reply: Judging from Nick's jump, I don't think that was a designed double steal. I think he reacted to Brian and didn't get a good jump. Both runners aren't required to go in that situation and they got outguessed by the catcher. Either way, however, it's a bad, bad out.

thanks ugh.

Matusz isn't going anywhere. Bergeson will be lucky if he gets a start in August with his foot injury. He is still having problems, then once ok will have at least one rehab start so you are looking at late August before he is back, if not after Sept 1.

There isn't anything to gain with rushing him back. Supposedly then the Orioles will go with a 6 man rotation.

..............................................................................................
Pete's reply: Yep, I should have mentioned that, too. Bergesen is not close.

rich -

After 7.2 innings in two big league starts Matusz isn't going anywhere?

What if I told you that, back in 2000, there was a pitcher who tossed five innings and gave up just 1 run in his first start. Then in his next two starts, he gave up 13 runs over 7 innings. Total chump, right? Well, what if I told you that that pitcher's name was Johan Santana?

This is the problem with O's fans. And it comes directly from management. By forcing the expected success of "top prospects" like Sidney Ponson and Hayden Penn, previous Orioles management has made it impossible for fans to understand the how ridiculously good Chris Tillman and Brian Matusz are.

rich -

Just realized that your post was in reply to Mark's and that "Matusz isn't going anywhere" refers to the fact that Matusz isn't going back to the minors.

Sorry for the mix up.

Berken on the mound has the looks of a kid whose lollipop fell in a sandpit and doesn't know what to do with himself. Send this kid to the minors before he starts having Chris Ray like mental problems.

Some pitchers, like Bunker and Palmer, look good from the start. Others, like Dave McNally, took some time getting used to the majors. Bergeson is the former. Berken is the latter. We either need to be patient or send him back to AAA and let him get a few W's on his resume. But I predict that he will be a fine ML starter.

Berken is a fighter but he cannot survive the upcoming schedule unless the Orioles start scoring a bunch of runs. Send him back for the last month of Norfolk and give him a couple of more starts at the end of the mlb season. Let Andy Mitchell realize his dream even if it is only for a start or two.