Rationalization #1 This is still about the owner. He's gotta go.

Rationalization #2 MacPhail sucks

Rationalization #3 We're doomed

I'm just as despondent about the O's as the next guy. But today I'm feeling optimistic for some reason. They'll win today and be back to .500 soon. Why? Because this jerk was tailgating me this morning, gave me the finger for going the speed limit, honked and screamed at his window as he zoomed past me, and I thought: it's good to go to the speed limit. It's good to be the guy going the speed limit, not the guy screaming and spitting and flipping the bird.

What else can go wrong? Well, for fans, the douche owner can start charging a surcharge for walk-up tickets. Oh, wait, he already did that.

Angelos seems intent on driving away every single Orioles fan left.

It's hard to believe that the dead weight players have been the one's "carrying" the O's offensively to this point. That can't last.

If the O's win 7 out their first 28, I will be amazed.

Very frustrated. I keep buying the line about building from within yet after 12 years, something is not working. It can't be that hard to create a team that plays at least .500 ball. At this point, that would be a milestone and I just don't see it coming. These e]late inning meltdowns are not a good sign. I guess it's more economical to have 10,000 fans buying beer and burgers at the park and a fan base of 2 million at home upset rather than a packed house everynight and 3 million at home(an extra 1 mil of bandwagon fans) exuberant, happy and buying memoribilia. I guess I didn't do the math correctly.

No way does a man who doesn't lose at anything, run a MLB team like this unless there is a purpose, and that purpose is to lose and make money.

Fire Trembley. Hire Regan.

Top 10 reasons Phil Regan should replace Dave Trembley as O’s manager…

10. He has the nickname of a ferocious bird, “The Vulture.” We could use a few ferocious birds around here.

9. He’s 73, so he probably needs something better to do than sit around watching “Matlock” reruns all day.

8. He’s associated with one of the best ass-kickings ever delivered by the O’s while a member of the 1966 Dodgers. When was the last time you read, “ass-kicking delivered by the O’s” in a sentence?

7. He displayed excellent penmanship on Cal’s 2,131 lineup card.

6. He’s bilingual, which I think means he can manage with both hands.

5. His surname is kind of like that of a former president, and he’d be about the same age as Ronnie was when in office. Mr. Angelos, tear down this wall!

4. His comments to the media were basically unintelligible, so he’d fit right in.

3. He’s pretty tall.

2. Stump Merrill is apparently unavailable.

1. The O’s finished two games under .500 during his tenure, which at this point sounds like winning the freakin’ World Series.

* Paid for by CREEP, the Committee to Re-Elect Phil.

if you have been under a rock for the past two weeks, and you turned Mark Viviano on 1057 the spin, you'd think the O's are leading the AL East right now.

Adam Jones reminds me of Pedro Cerano from "Major League". Throw him off speed stuff below the knees and it's a swing and a miss. Let the discussion begin as to who the 1 All Star will be for the O's.

can someone tell me why matt albers is still an oriole...i don't understand our relief corps...can we pull up fresh young-ins that could atleast get better...

the biggest problem i see with our relievers is that they know that they can't pitch...they have no confidence that they can pitch, no attack...they dance around the plate, tip-toe-ing around the corners, but they aren't accurate enough to paint them as strikes, so they get down in the count, then have to serve up a freakin' doughnut on a 3-1 pitch so they don't walk the bases full and the worst part is that these are the veterans...if it was some kid from the minors who need to come up and take their lumps before they settle in, that would atleast be better than a picture on the front of the Sun every morning of whichever crap bag reliever who blew the game before just hanging his head as a homerun flies out of the stadium with no chance of getting better...

and why is trembley leaving them in so long...matusz pitched a great game, but he needed to come out before he game up 4 singles in a row and left the bases full...give him 2 batters in the 8th, 2 singles, man on first and second, and pull him...not that johnson or ohman could have stopped from giving up 5 runs either way even if they came in with the bases empty, 2 outs and an 0-2 count on the batter, but don't put that on matusz, and then he leaves albers in after walking 2 in a row...no way...1 walk, start any arms in the pen...2nd walk, he's gone, homerun, he's off the team

my comments don't seem to find their way online but the O"s lack timely hitting and their bullpen is horrendous.

PETER ANGELOS YOU DO NOT CARE AT ALL ABOUT THE FANS OR THE SPORT OF BASEBALL SO SELL THE TEAM YOU POS! THANKS!

G,

None of these bums deserves to go to the all star team. I would say pick an Orioles season ticket holder and bring him to the all star game for like an AB or BP because they are the ones that really deserve it.

I think the MLB has to impose some kind of fine on the orioles for putting out such a bad product. Maybe even suspend them nest season or put the team in norfolk to put pressure on the greek to play fair.

Maybe put them in the NL or a really bad division so Angelos can just bank off the sox and yanks. He is really pimping out the team and stadium to other fanbases... its sad..

FREE THE BIRDS

Nothing to worry about Pete! I'm ducking out of work early to go watch the O's ( on TV at home--I live in Tampa), and proudly sporting my Big Schmuck Fan shirt. How could they lose? Isn't this the type of game you like to call a reverse lock?

(Speaking of blog shirts, don't you think we should make some kind of super-tight muscle shirt for Roch?)

Also, the camera should never show David Price close up. He spits like a freaking llama and it's really gross. Even for a baseball player.

Oriole fans all over need to blog, youtube,facebook etc ESPN and all sports writers to get this story told about Angelos. Hopefully it will start to get national attention when the Orioles get killed on this upcoming roadtrip but we need to put pressure on Angelos to sell the team hes made enough money off us and its time to move on.

Last night was purely a managerial issue. Trembley should NEVER have let Matusz go out there for the 8th. I realize our bullpen hasn't been great, but there was no reason to leave him out there.

I guess everyone has to have their chance to blow a game... last night it was Dave Trembley's.

I would say that we should be seeing some outbursts, some outward displays of frustration from the manager, or some clubhouse veterans, at the level of lackadasical, ininspired baseball we're seeing out of this team right now.

But then I remembered that these are the Orioles. Trembley will continue to sit motionless in the dugout with a look on his face that looks like he's either trying to read small print or take a dump. Kranitz will be MIA, as usual. Juan Samuel will be reading his braille baserunning manual. Adam Jones will be chewing Dubble Bubble and reading Alfonso Soriano's Guide to Humble Baseball. Markakis will be busy with his human statue side-gig at the circus. Roberts will be tearfully stroking his Cubs cap while dreaming of what could have been. Tejada will retire to begin a lucrative career as a salesperson at GMC. Albers will eat another meatball sub and it will somehow end up in the outfield bleachers. Gonzo will be in the bullpen receiving counsel from Stuart Smalley. Amber Theoharis will join a nunnery. The Oriole Bird will develop a crippling gambling addiction revolving around the Crab Shuffle, taking bets from nearby fans and getting hauled to Central Booking. Rick Dempsey and Jim Hunter will move on to become suicide hotline counselors.

Who will we rely on?

The Orioles need to get some long ball and more offense out of the third and first base positions. Atkins and Tejada are hitting a combined .230 with one home run. Typically teams have some of their top power and run producers at these positions.

Was Mr. Macphail lying when he said this year it was about wins and losses? Did he mean to say the more losses we pile up, the safer it is to say Trembley will forever manage this team until the end of time. Excuses and more excuses Mr. Macphail. Man up and fire Trembley. Credit is due where it is due. You have to put accountability on Trembley. He is the manager. Period. Us Orioles fans deserve better than this and we all know it. This team is too good to be going through this heartache every game, every day, every night.

Peter-

I don't see how anyone can't put the blame on both Macphail and Trembley here.

Macphail, really only did what GM's are SUPPOSED to do in getting the prospects in the system. That does NOTHING except make the potential for the big league club to maybe, be good. No one knows if they will pan out. Its just that we had total nubnuts running things after Wren left.
Wren did the same thing in getting all those draft picks in 1999, and they blew the picks.
Now, Macphail, was NOT able to get Texiera, because they were never serious and didn't even make a legitamate offer. You gonna tell me Scott Boras doesn't get Texiera here if the O's would have been the high bidder? lol. If you buy that, I'll tell you another one. NOW, we went from Texiera, to ATKINS!! A total bumb, who hasn't hit since they put the humidifyer at Coors. Gonzalez. NOT trading Roberts when he should have. NOT trading to get offense because he totally had no clue how far advanced the starters are.

My dad called me last night to point out, how the talent evaluators for the Orioles are no where near where they were back in the day.
ALbers, Johnson, Berken, etc. These guys are just plain average at best. AAAA players. They NEVER come up big when they really are needed.

Now, Trembley, for NOT telling Roberts to stay in extended spring training and letting Roberts tell him what he was gonna do. THAT might have cost the whole season. Not only did he cost 2 game in Tampa, but now, not having him in the offense is gonna kill them.
Trembely NEVER steals or hit and runs. Things that you just have to do to spark offense.
He is a robot manager. Everything laid out in the manual and he NEVER makes a decision for himself.
The cliches are so getting old.

Bobby Valentine should be packed and on his way RIGHT NOW!!

The long term effects are this.

Not only will they not come close to 500. But, since Macphail sits on his hands and will not trade for that marquee player, he just keeps getting retreads and losers.
The only way to change the offense is to get that marquee player. I personally don't think you will EVER see them "buy a bat" because everyone is going to be out of their price range, simply because I really don't think they care. I think they have everyone bamboozled. But, by not getting any better, they wouldn't be able to attract a free agent anyway. So losing will just be the theme.

Terry Crowley has a horse shoe up his ass. Different teams every year, and the same offensive problems. TERRIBLE situational hitting. Can't bunt. LONG TEAM SLUMPS. yet Crowley is still here. NO WHERE ELSE does that happen. Murray was out of LA after 1 year. Mattingly the same. The good teams are patient, and work the counts. We have over-rated Jones hacking away.
Markakis's contract right now looks like a HUGE mistake, and he hasn't progressed at ALL in 3 seasons almost. Crowley just plain sucks.

Anyone who doesn't see everything I just pointed out as fact and true, you are FOOLING YOURSELF

When Andy MacPhail said that this season was about wins and losses he was only half-right.

Barry M,

Do you mean to tell me that Terry Crowley is the hitting coach?

I thought he just liked to travel with the club and was allowed to sit in the dugout because he was an ex-Oriole.

I'm perplexed - I feel confident the guys we have in the lineup and on the mound are a significant improvement from 2-3 years ago (still nowhere near good enough to contend) but results are just as bad. Am I wrong? Are all these young guys no better than the washed up vets we used to throw out there?

Barry, I agree that the O's are terrible at situational hitting, but Crowley seems to know how to teach mechanics. For example, Felix Pie is much improved over one year ago. Wieters is also much better, although I'm not sure if Crowley deserves the credit for that.

I agree that a lot of blame must go to McPhail and Trembley, but we can't let the players off the hook for failing to put up good numbers.

I also would love to see Valentine sitting in our dugout, but, 1) I doubt that Angelos would even match the $3.9 million that Bobby V was getting in Japan, and 2) I doubt that Bobby V could make this team win many more games. They stink.

My optimism has all been exhausted. I stayed upbeat all the way through Spring Training up until the second blown save of the season. This will be another dreadful season. At least maybe we'll get to watch Matusz put together a ROY season.

Shame to say Bergeson put in a sub par performance when he should've had a quality start were it not for an Adam Jones dropped fly ball. AJ makes that play- and he should have- Bergeson only gives up 2 runs.

Not sure why Matusz is getting all of the mentions for ROTY and people have forgotten about the Wonder Kid, Matt Wieters. Seems like Matt will never be able to live up to the hype that this city has produced for him. He'll be great, you'll see. Look at the job he's doing already both with the stick and with the glove.

I agree Matusz is awesome- Remember just 2 nights ago I said to look forward to his start last night - and was he ever great - but they may wind up being 1-2 in the ROTY standings. How nice would that be? Anyone remember who Baltimore's last ROTY was? It seems as if the O's never even have anyone in the running - remarkable for a constantly rebuilding team.

Kenny from Pikesville
http://oriolesshallreturn.blogspot.com/

More people would be mentioning Wieters for ROY, were it not for the fact that he no longer qualifies as a rookie.

A rookie can have no more than 130 at-bats in the previous season. Wieters had over 350.

What we have here is the cross-currents of two very different discussions. One is the eight games played thus far -- which is a tiny sample size. The other is 12-plus straight years of losing more than winning.

From a hitting perspective, the Orioles aren't getting it done. I could quote some stats already quoted or throw in some new ones I just looked up, but the general gist is known to all already.

From a historical standpoint, the hitting with the players we have now will get better. The only caveat to that statement is if the Orioles get injuries to any of their current core of 3-4-5 hitters -- namely Markakis, Tejada and Jones. As stated by me on numerous occasions, the Orioles are woefully thin on depth.

Which brings us to the greater overall view. The Orioles are not only woefully thin on depth, their current 3-4-5 hitters are at least one difference-maker short of being what it ought to be. Markakis will likely still bat around .297 with 19 HRs and 89 RBIs. Tejada looks like .305, 17 HRs, 84 RBIs. Scott's stats are improving by the year so I will put him down for last year's .258, 25 HRs, 77 RBIs.

This is not happening now. This may be an expectation by the end of the year, however.

I did a random cross-section of the 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 Orioles teams looking specifically at the 3-4-5 hitters in six randomly chosen games -- the first games in April, May, ..., September in each of those seasons. I won't go into the details but not surprisingly our current 3-4-5 hitters mostly resemble those of 1960, 1990 and 2000.

The O's wnt 89-65 in '60 on the backs of some outstanding pitching. Jim Gentile/Walt Dropo combined for five appearances in those six games for a .284, 25 HRs 119 RBIs. Clint Courtney was .257, 13 HRs, 66 RBIs in five appearances batting 3rd, 4th or 5th. Brooks Robinson, Jackie Brandt and Gene Woodling had three apearances each.

The 1990 squad (76-85) had five appearances by Cal Ripken (.250, 21 HRs, 84 RBIs), five by Randy Milligan (.265, 20 HRs, 60 RBIs), and four appearances by Mickey Tettleton (.223, 15 HRs, 51 RBIs).

The weird footnote to the '90 team was Steve Finley was second on the team with 142 games played but was considered a reserve outfielder. Craig Worthington, Joe Orsulak, Sam Horn and Ron Kittle had one appearnce each in my cross-section of games.

The 2000 team (74-88) had Albert Belle batting fourth in all six games that I looked at. He batted .281 with 23 HRs and 103 RBIs. BJ Surhoff (3), Delino DeShields (3), Jeff Conine (2), Will Clark (2), Harold Baines (1) and Carlos Casimiro (1) completes the list of players batting 3-4-5 in the six games.

Carlos Casimiro? He played in two MLB games -- both with the O's -- and the August game I looked at was his second and last game. Coffee anyone?

This doesn't address baserunning gaffes, pitching depth, use of roster or any other arguments that have contributed to this 1-7 start of the overall mess.

The historical context still suggests my 72-89 prediction may be in order. The pitching has improved but is neither deep nor great.

I resist criticizing Andy MacPhail on what he has done. The above evidence suggests maybe we should have gotten more quality in the quality/quantity ratio but the O's lacked quantity, too.

I will continue to criticize MacPhail (and Angelos by rhetorical osmosis) for not doing enough, however.

I have made my past wish lists known. So have others. Don't ask me to go back and relist because I won't do it and it doesn't matter anyway since MacPhail didn't pay attention to me or others who had suggestions.

Making moves between now and at least the All Star break typically are few and with differnce-makes involved, even fewer. The team is what it is going to be for a little while (with "little while" being used in the 12-plus seasons sense).

As for Terry Crowley, I looked at a cross-section of players comparing their stay here versus their previous or subsequent stats. While the discipline of some of the hitters deserve mention, I found no statistical evidence Crowley's tenure contributed to more downfalls than improvements. In fact, the evidence may suggest otherwise.

might want to know some things like that before you go pimping a blog.

Anonymous may have an idea there. MLB needs to do something to punish teams that consistently field bad teams.

I've always enjoyed the European soccer leagues where they demote the bottom 3 or 4 teams each season to a lower league and promote the top 3 or 4 teams from the "minor league".

Perhaps MLB should look into a similar format. Bottom 3 teams get demoted to Triple A, top 3 Triple AAA teams get promoted to Major leagues. I think this would force owners to invest in players and coaches to avoid having to be demoted and lose out on game-day fares against Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers, etc. Instead the teams like the Orioles would be playing teams like Rochester, Durham or New Orleans in the minors trying to win their way back up to the majors the following season.

Good point J,

Why should Angelos care about a balanced schedule, re-alignment, or winning for that mater if he is guaranteed 18 home dates of near sell-outs when the RedSox and Yankees come to town?

mike mussina for manager.

J, Since MLB orgs have a significant amount of control over their AAA affiliates, wouldn't we just end up with the same team in a different town?

Not really, Garry, but J's plan is pretty ridiculous anyway when it comes to baseball.

Example:

Let's say just the worst team, based on winning percentage, gets demoted from MLB. After 2009, the Nats (.364) would have been demoted and the Sacremento River Cats (.601), the A's AAA affiliate, would have been moved up. So, basically, you'd have two Oakland A's teams in MLB, which already makes no sense. But moving past nonsense, where do put the River Cats? They would need to go to the NL, to keep an even number of teams in both leagues, and the only division that makes sense is the West. So that would leave us with six teams in the NL West and only four in the NL East. So which NL Central team is going to agree to move out of perhaps the softest division in the game for probably the second best? And the owners are going to have to deal with these issues every year? Yeah, right...

That plan works just fine for European soccer, J. But for MLB, it's just not going to happen.

gonzo on the dl for 15 days. i feel a couple of wins in the next 2 weeks.

The second three-run homer has just been rung up by the Rays due to our great strategy of walking a man to first with 2 outs. Wow! What can they do next to turn off the three people who went to today's game!?

peter, what else can go wrong. well i guess that is the 64 dollar question. adam jones needs to stopo swining at those sucker pitches because we all know he is very capable of putting the ball into play. felix pie to me looks like he could be a bood lead off man if he just can get his baseball instincts together. i don't quite remember how it goes. a team is never as bad as it looks,but not as good ?? then again if anyone remembers the tv show he haw if it wasn't for bad luck there would be not luck at all.

peter, what else can go wrong. well i guess that is the 64 dollar question. adam jones needs to stopo swining at those sucker pitches because we all know he is very capable of putting the ball into play. felix pie to me looks like he could be a bood lead off man if he just can get his baseball instincts together. i don't quite remember how it goes. a team is never as bad as it looks,but not as good ?? then again if anyone remembers the tv show he haw if it wasn't for bad luck there would be not luck at all.

Obviously the demotion-promotion of teams in MLB could not be adapted the exact same way it is done in European soccer, but some sort of system could be, and should be, adapted.

I am no schedule maker or claim to understand the dynamics that would occur if a team, using not brooks' example, the A's, had 2 teams in the majors. Obviously something would have to be worked out, without penalizing the A's organization for having 2 teams in the majors (they would double the revenue sharing take they get). I also wouldn't know how the call-ups system would work, because then an organization could just swap their players from team to team within the major leagues or how the alignment would work (perhaps do away with divisions and play every team in the league an even amount of times), again this part would need to be hashed out with a standard set of rules.

Point is - a promotion-demotion strategy would make things a little more interesting, and C'mon, who wouldn't root for the River Cats to upset the Yankees for a chance to stay in the major leagues at the end of the season!

So far, it's the Rays, 9-1 in the bottom of the 7th. If the O's were up 9-1, it would be a nail biter all the way to the last out.

Camden Yards is called "Birdland." I guess that makes Peter Angelos the bird brain.

I thought it was Turdland ?

Somebody please explain to me how a guy who's a professional athlete can look like Matt "pass me another doughnut" Albers? A lot of us are older (considerably), have families, homes and jobs to take care of, make a small fraction of the major league minimum salary, and still manage to stay in decent shape. Of course, if he was getting the job done I wouldn't care, but he stunk it up so I'm picking on him!

Where's Phil Regan when you need him?

Thank you clfrd. I have been saying that all along. Matt Albers looks like the Pillsbury doughboy. I just want to poke my finger in his tummy and have him giggle.
Seriously, I cannot believe how doughy he is. It's not even solid fat, but flabby fat. So out of shape! Not good at all!

Thank you clfrd. I have been saying that all along. Matt Albers looks like the Pillsbury doughboy. I just want to poke my finger in his tummy and have him giggle.
Seriously, I cannot believe how doughy he is. It's not even solid fat, but flabby fat. So out of shape! Not good at all!

Baltimore Orioles + Washington Wizards = Murphy's Law

Pete , you ask 'what else can go wrong?'
Not much. As Tevye ponders the question from the movie/play "Fiddler on the Roof" as he talks to God about why his daughter, Zeitel should not marry the poor taylor, Motel, not withstanding that she just loves the guy. After wrestling his thoughts, he finally concludes to himself and to God, and says,' Well, things can't get any worse, they can only get better!' And then gives Motel his daughter hand in marriage.
So things really can't get much worse for the O's, they can only start getting better.
Play Ball!

Rationalization #4 - Gonzalez almost blew the save in their only win, so the Orioles could very easily be 0-8 (now 0-9).

Rationalizations and hypotheticals work both ways, so making "but for" excuses simply makes no sense. The Orioles are 1-8 which means based on that record, they are not very good. No what ifs or but fors.