the team could fire trembley

Angelos could be diagnosed mentally unfit for duty or sells the team. That could be something really positive we all could rally around.

The Yankees plane crashes

hey, pete
if you are nuts, then you've got company. i agree with nearly every word of your take on the potential good that can be accomplished from here out. but they do call me 'bellevue bob'.
i just wish that bergensen could have finished the season. that is a real 'what could have been', although i realize that caution now is better than screwing him up permanently.
good article.

they will be lucky to win 4 of those those 18 pete. And that will be a postive thing to finish the season with won't it There is still a possibility that they could finish with over 100 losses and finish with the worst record in all of baseball. Hey bellevue bob isn't that a name for a mental hospital maybe you and pete can share a room.

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Pete's reply: Four wins out of those 18 games? I'll take the over.

Well, the Kool-Aid you could be drinking could be spiked. Drinkers beware.

blancione,

Any stakes if someone wants to take you up on holding you to your prediction?

Yea we can do something what odds to i get .

My wishlist going into September-
1. Roberts gets to 60 doubles
2. Markakis ends up 20+hr, 110 rbi
3. O's play about .500 ball
4. Reimold finishes hot, wins ROY (prob too late, think Bailey or Beckham win it)
5. Matt Wieters finishes hot, pops 5-6 more home runs.
6. Chris Ray finishes strong, goes into next year as closer.
7. Melvin Mora tanks the season so AM doesnt get any funny ideas to resign him
8. Guthrie wins 3 more games to finish strong.
9. Rookie starters pitch solid.

they have to have a solid finish going into the off season. They need to show promise to lure a big RH bat here next season. Plus, a strong finish snaps the past 5 or so years of god awful finishes.

First steps to becoming winners, stay in games to build confidence. No more blow out losses. Win games you are supposed to win, no melt downs. Its OK to get beat by better teams, just stop beating themselves.

Guess we'll probably be bringing up Fiorentino since Gathright was traded to the Sox. And who is this Robert Spencer guy? Where'd my pregame show go? In the middle of Baines' induction ceremony we get C-SPAN??

AIn't the Kool Aid cold! How do you know you're an Os die-hard? That hr Johnson gave up the other night ripped my guts out. I sooooo want to not care how they finish...not happening. I soooo want to be a yanks or sux fan...can't do it. I'm an Os lifer. And yes, Fielder or Gonzales would look great and fill a need, but if you want em, you better talk Arieta to start and maybe another position player you're in love with (Reimold), along with Hernandez and the A ball pitcher. HR champs aren't cheap and the guy would hit 50 in Camden. His value is peak now because he has 2 years til FA. The Os can find a LF to replace Nolan (I do love him!) and sign a P to take Arrieta's presumed spot in the rotation. Fielder would be great too, his nastiness is what this team needs.

I think what you were saying, Peter, is that the Orioles should look on this 18-game stretch as an opportunity to define their season. Play some good ball in games that matter, and establish a positive direction for the team going into the off-season. If they take that attitude, and are able to steal a few close ones, that could be a great way for a struggling team to salvage some hope from a long season.

is something wrong with tillman?his fastballs only at about 89-90.

Whats the deal with all the change ups by Ray? Shoot, even I could hit one if he throws me enough of them.... Ok, maybe I could hit a fout if I got lucky but.....!!

I have seen some of our other pitchers get burned when they suddenly rely on their change ups.....

This game tonight is a train wreck. It sums up this season perfectly.

Be honest...Was anyone surprised when Chris got tagged on a 3-2 pitch, after being ahead 1-2? I told my wife to look right before the pitch because I told her it would be sent out of the park. I wasn't a bit disturbed when it went out because I've seen this before.

Obviously, Trembley is coming back next year. If Bass is in the game then the W-L record doesn't really matter.

I have no clue - if they get .450 for victories I would be happy. Breaking even just doesn't seem to be there, to be honest.

I swear, listening to some sports fans (and some who post here) makes me sick - their attempts at humor or their rants and criticisms. Some of them are the very sick people in our society, no doubt about it.

Phil

This O's team will make anybody a little batty. You have to be a sick person to still root for this mess.

how bout jinxes?

6. Chris Ray finishes strong, goes into next year as closer.

oops! they should get a practice inning after long rain delays. Ray clearly needed it. I call for a redo!

The sun could fire Mike Preston

shamrock
heres #10
blancione writes
"i think things are really looking up for next year and Pete is really being balanced and fair and you know.... if Tampa could do it why not us?.....
everyone have a great day!"

They should fire Preston... what he wrote recently was little more than smack talk. he also tried to stir the pot about Flacco not looking good in camp.

I hope Kyle Boller takes StL to the playoffs this year and signs a Matt Cassell contract. Preston's head would explode.

Why can't roberts hit anymore? how are you going to get to 60 dubs going 0-5?

Peter-
I thought I would chime in on some of these trade talk debates.
Adrian Gonzalez was claimed on waivers, but then pulled back.
San Diego WILL be shopping him this offseason.
MLBtraderumors reported that it was an AL EAST team that put the claim on Gonzalez.
It had to be the O's. Tampa, NY, and Boston are set at 1b. Toronto is in dump mode.
The O's tried to get Gonzalez about 4 years ago and the deal was killed.
Ofcourse you HATE to give up young pitching, but, that is the whole point of hording it.
If you never trade, you will never get better. Unless you are the greatest talent drafters in MLB history.
The O's have PLENTY of money to lock up Gonzalez after 2011. However, say we flop, then we can just trade him to a contender.
I would be willing to agree with Roch that the O's will pursue him HEAVILY this offseason.
What do you think?

Hey when is Rick “wild Thing” Vaughn coming in??

PS That dude in the Adam Jones MASN commercial is horrible

Disturbing throwing motion...

Annoying lines like he can flat out fly and WOW

I am all about helping animal charities *wink wink* but an Orioles 2010 Pet calendar? Do other major league teams do stuff like that? I could see the Tides maybe

Leadoff walk! Its time the get BASSED people!

Never a big Chris Ray fan. But I am glad to see him back from the injury and pitching well. Ecstatic that he got it figured out. Fastball moving, Curve. Slurve. Slider. Change.
Cut fastball. Yep, he's got an arsenal all right.
Please. He's a relief pitcher. And an Oriole relief pitcher at that.Just another mistake-prone fastball pitcher with no movement. Tired of his act. Next.

fire jim hunter ASAP

Laporta is the flippin man!

Do they have a reliever with an ERA under 5? It would not be a a stretch to see five new guys in the pen next year.
How the heck do you get beat by Marte twice in the same series? This is laugh out loud funny.

I think that if the Orioles continue to be last in the league in pitching I don't care who the first baseman is. Well I guess we can return to the days of 12-9 and 17-11, 30-3.... Those were the good ol' days after all.

The Kool Aid thing is just wrong.

I do not believe that will happen. I really think that Matusz will be shut down soon and there may be some other changes. You said it 18 games against the best. I am willing to bet that the pitch count for the starters will be less than 100 after this weekend, so it will be up to the bullpen to make any kind of streak happen. Not saying it cannot happen but it will be tough. At this point they need to bring the young starters into a cool down period. Maybe Berken, Guthrie and Bergesen (when he comes back) can handle it. I really believe that Hernandez, Matusz and Tillman will have strict limits on pitches and will be limited to 80-90 pitches. So the bullpen has to carry the team, I do not see it especially without Sherril, a slumping Bass, erratic Ray and the up and downs with Meredith. You see tonights game they limited Tillman to 90 pitches and that got him through 5 good innings. The bullpen pitches four innings four runs. Ugly is not the word for it, and there will be times the bullpen will do well. But the only pitcher that will go more than 6 innings in a game for the rest of the year will be Guthrie. I would rather see the Orioles bring a few of the guys that started last year up to start and simply sit the future pitchers, someone like Waters could start so the Orioles can take one more look at him.

Pete
You are into the Kool Aid indeed...with special hallucinogens if you think this team is going to found anywhere except last place for many years to come.
Just because these players are younger, does not mean they actually win..it just means that you think they will be better in the future..unlike older bad players, like Mora, who doesn't give you the false hope possibility.
The entire "plan" that the Orioles will somehow compete is based on Chris Tillman becoming Greg Maddux and Brian Matusz becoming Tom Glavine...good luck with the "plan", because that is exactly what it would take for this team to be anywhere close to competitive by 2011.
The fact is ...with our current owner and the financial disparity that is ruining baseball, this team will be in last place for many, many years. In 2011, when these young and "coming stars" are now older and simply adequate major leaguers, then Macphail will be history as well.

I just got home from District 9 which might be a nice place to send Dave, Juan and Hunter (I'm with you Anonymous on your stance on Jim Hunter), but I am curious why was Michael Aubrey, not in the line up? What the hell, do we have to lose by letting him play and see if the guy is part of the future or just a 4A player. Wiggy made a nice play defensively, but this guy isn't a starter in my book, as he has no patience at the plate.

I am not going to pull a Juan and throw Ray under the bus, as it's pretty clear that after nearly 2 hours of rain, it's not like any player is in game time mode, but why didn't Kranny or Captain Kirk, go out there when it was clear that Chris, wasn't on his game?

It was another competitive game with great D from Jones and a nice start by Tillman, but watching this game, it's clear that if the O's, don't go all out for a 1B and a 3B, no matter how good the pitching might be, they wont win. Those are power positions that have to be filled with guys that can knock in runs. No way can anyone in the warehouse, say that we have people that can play those positions because we don't. You get some older vets for two years till guys like Bell, are ready.

Scariest thing about those MASN commercial, aren't those two girls wanting to get it on with the Bird or that nutty kid and his dad, but that in all those commercials, the seats are all filled? What's up with that?

The only good thing that will come out of September is a No. 1 draft pick and a bit more seasoning. Other than that, I have no expectations of this club at THIS time.

On an unrelated note, sometimes I wonder if Andy Machphail shares a weakness with his papa. With starters only going 5 innings, it is essential to have a bullpen that is as deep and strong as the starting rotation. Lee never figured that out, and traded away a pennant in 1964 when he traded Wes Stock for an aging Gino Cimoli, and similarly saw a season come close to imploding when he held onto an aging Stu Miller in 1965.

Bulk the pen, if you want to win. It has to be the O's mantra in the current era.
The folks who go the last 4 have to be as good if not better than the folks who go the first 5. It is a nine inning game.

I really think you should switch assignments with Jeff Barker On tracking the terps. That way you can start out fresh pete and not be wrong so many times. 32 games left pete. they have to win 10 out of those 32 games to avoid 100 losses.Adam jones might be lucky to finish batting 265 for the year.And please don't even mention the orioles organization and the raven's organization in the same article again even if it's just joke.

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Pete's reply: So you'd like me to shut down the blog, Bob?If I did, where would you go to bring everyone down?

blancione,

We can do a donation to charity for the winner if you want. I'm kind of partial to the MDSPCA. We'd just do the over/under, with me obviously taking the over.

cb coach,

I think it'll be a tough stretch too, but no one's going to be packing it in this month. As for Tillman, the rain delay is why he was stopped at 90. On a related note, David Price had his longest outting ever in the majors at 7.1 last night. That crazy old man Maddon.

Ok for $100.00 donation to the MDSPCA you have to win 5 games out of 18 against the yankee's red sox. tampa bay and the rangers.

blancione is being a little extra pessimistic but he’s not too far off I see 5-11 more wins for the O’s. I know you never look at the schedule like NFL games but if you do we play all highly motivated and competitive teams looking to feast on the orioles for playoff spots. Also take into account day games those are automatic losses for some reason. Of the teams we have coming up we might see some wins playing Toronto we have a couple series with them and we both are in similar situations but they have a better team and a guy named Doc. Todays game to me is a real indicator because we play the Indians again before the season is over and if the Indians win today I don’t think we can beat them in September. Hopefully I am wrong and they beat up on Texas and steal some here and there from the Yanks and Bosox but the situation is pretty bleak especially now Bergy is shutdown, we are going to limit the rookies pitches to under 100 (which isnt a bad thing) and our pen is fried.

Pete,

September swoon, how about a season swoon! The O's have many things to look forward to, 2011 will be one of them. However, in a end of season assessment I will start at the top:

PA needs to get his pocketbook out and fill in the holes (1B, 3B, DH, front end SP)

AM I don't actually think ANYONE in the world could have done a better job, the two trades last year, Andino, Isturis, Pie. He will have to get over the idea of raising all his own pitchers if we are ever going to win! But overall very fine job, just needs to committ to quality pitchers.

DT - needs to be fired or reassigned to Minor league director. Nice guy, players manager but lacks the respect and his line-ups, substitutions, pitching changes and indirectly fundamentals and baserunning have been horrid! Adios amigo!

Mora should have been dumpted when he felt he was getting no respect, DT reinforced the wrong behavior!

Wigginton and Scott are part time pieces, anything more than that and we'll finish below ,500 in the AL East.

Catcher - Matt is a phenon waiting to happen, that is if he played most of the time. Moeller might have been around a long time, he should catch one of every 5 or 6 games, not one in three. Besides we should seek a better back up for 2010.

1B - free agent or trade
DH - free agent or trade
3B - free agent of trade
SP - John Lackey free agent

2B - BROB the engine that makes us go
SS - Isturis - quality and steady
OF - Best young OF in baseball
SP- Matusz, Guthrie, Bergesen, TIllman and Hernandez - needs a quality front end leader

BP- Berken, Bass, Koji, Johnson, Ray, Michilio but need a proven shut down guy to develop or Free agent.

AM has plenty to do, find a new manager that commands respect for his proven success, filling the holes and getting PA to get the checkbook out! But overall, were heading in the right direction!

It must be exhausting to be as chipper and perky as you've managed to be for this season! Nicely done. You've been the only source of fun.

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Pete's reply: Thanks very much, but I haven't been chipper and perky. I've been laid up here in a cast/boot for two months and I'm starting to get cranky.