fire trembley

Mickolio is yet another positive from the Bedard trade. Too bad the Tejada trade didn't go quite as well.

The Orioles are not lacking good players and good prospects. They lack bonafide difference makers and depth at good players and good prospects.

This offseason will be particularly challenging for MacPhail

waspman,

Challenging for Trembley also. He has a lot of microwave pizza and Notre Dame football to watch

really anonymous either just read the blog or GTFO.

I cried foul on this web site when they sent Mickolio down the last time when people like Baez were getting hammered. I guess the next excuse to send him down will be he is making management look bad by showing them how wrong they were to send him down in the first place. Or will it be the tired old line that "he still had options" while other pitchers didn't which really means they don't have the balls to put the best players on the field who could win ball games. This organization is a big bunch of losers.

Yea, but can he go a whole year without giving up a run?!! :)

Let's get a good look at Aubrey and see what he can do this time around. Also, lets look, now, at our young 3rd basemen for the remainder of the season. Sorry, Mora, its been fun.... but the future is now....

Donald,

You are exactly right this organization is a bunch of losers.

The only way the Orioles will beat the yanks and sox is if we send Peter Angelos disguised as an employee and let him do his thing and F-up those teams like he’s done to Baltimore. This guy is baseball herpes!!!!!

Right on re Mikolio. But the O's are in for a long, long season (from here on) and into the future if their batters don't learn a little discipline. Haven't they, in ALL the years they've been in baseball, heard the term "Take a strike!" After Howell made two Orioles look like minor leaguers whiffing at his changeup and after Scott lays off and works him for a walk, Weiters walks up to the plate looking to duplicate his 7th inninh HR. Swish at the first pitch (almost in the dirt), swish at the 2nd pitch (IN the dirt) and SWISH at the 3rd pitch (which would have made the count 3-0 if he had had any baseball sense). Don't those on the bench, Trembley, Jlauss, Crowley, etc. ever offer advice to these players who have all of one, or part of one, year's experience in the majors. This, and other instances of lack of MANAGING, is what should earn Dave Trembley a trip down, much like first year players are sent down to gain additional expertise. I'm surprised that the ex-players on the broadcast staff aren't more vocal about these obvious faux pas' committed game-in and game-out. Now I'm not suggesting that they hasten their termination as possibly(?) happened in the past but they could at least "tsk, tsk" over some of the basic rules of the game that are regularly ignored by the O's young phenoms. Might even lead some of the players to take note. Couldn't hurt.

Great Post Andrew

Thanks for the nasty details as I wasn't able to catch the game.
(Dang work and all, better off it sounds like)

You summed up my feelings on Mora to a tee. I couldn't of said it better

Maybe his boss needs to see Andrew's post. It's nauseating to watch him.

Donald;

Like you, I wanted to see the Os give Mickolio a longer shot earlier in the year and was disappointed when he got sent down. I would not go as far as you though in ripping AM for making that decision.

What you, and me too for that matter, do not know is what AM hears from his minor league managers and pitching coaches about a guy who is under consideration for promotion. Maybe the reports he got before he brought him up in the first place said it was okay for a short run to give him a taste of the majors, but that overall he still needed development at AAA.

Who knows. I sure do not, but with the deepest of respect, I do not think you do either.

YEAH why hand Jim Johnson the closer role bty default? let him EARN it ! If this Mickolio kid can repeat the performance he plays for my club. They need to send Berken down keep this kid and put jonson back at middleman what have we got to lose?

Well Bob, with all due respect, I might not know all the facts but I do know these facts: 1) Mickolio had dominated triple A for six weeks prior to his last promotion and he dominated in 4 appearances against 4 different teams when he was promoted but yet he was sent down at a time when the rest of the Orioles bullpen was imploding and 2) he was just named Internation League "reliever of the year" before he was brought up this last time. In addition anyone who watches him pitch can see he can command the fastball at 97 in the strike zone while almost everyone else in the Orioles bullpen has to go to secondary pitches to try and trick the hitters to get them out. No Bob I don't know all the facts but these facts are obvious for all to see or look up.

Andrew, re: Mora...

I usually watch the games on DVR and have resorted to fastforwarding thru all of Melvin's at bats to get to the inevitable strikeout or pop up. just less frustrating that way, I suppose

I am cautiously optimistic about our young rotation for next year, and maybe our bullpen would be better if they hadn't been so overworked, but where are we going to get a big bat? Markakis is an excellent hitter, but has only marginal power. Jones may get there. Reimold and Weiters might too, but we need that guy in the 4 spot like a Pujols, Dunn, Fielder, etc. that will hit 30-40 dingers.

Can anyone speak to the viability of Bell or Waring being ready in a year or two?

Donald;

I am aware of all the facts you cite. That was why I wanted to see him come up. The point I am trying to make is that there are more things than just stats that determine whether someone is ready for the majors.

Mental makeup is a big one. How is a kid going to react if he comes up and gets knocked around. Some go back down and use it as a positive in terms of understanding what went wrong and putting in the work to correct deficiencies. For others, the experience can be soul destroying, something they never recover from.

It is that aspect that you and I do not get to see. The only ones who do are the coaches who are around him every day.
There is possibly a good example if you go back and look at Berken and Bergesens 08 stats at Bowie.

Berkens number were almost identical to Bergesens, except a little better by striking out a lot more guys than Bergesen did. He was also a year older. All of that should have meant that Berken comes up first and ends up having more success than Bergesen. Yet, it sure has not worked out that way.

Stats can only show so much. The mental side of things is huge and that is something you and I cannot see and are left to cross our fingers and hope that AM and the others involved in those decisions get it right.

BTW, thanks for the civil discussion. It is appreciated. Now let us sit back and watch this guy live up to how highly you and I think of him. Personally, I think this kid has a shot at being a closer in a couple of years. Do you think he is that good.