Chris Tillman's start this afternoon began with such promise. He struck out four of the first six batters he faced and seemed to have a little more pop than the last time we saw him up in the majors. Then he allowed eight hits over the next 2 1/3 innings and left the game with one out in the fifth.

It was a tough assignment, of course, getting called up from Triple-A (where he's been pitching okay) to make a spot start against the Yankees, but Tillman was once considered one of the top pitching prospects in baseball, and not just by the Orioles scouting staff. It's just not happening.

That said, he's still quite young and I'm still of the opinion that the deal that brought him along with Adam Jones and George Sherrill for Erik Bedard was a great trade.

Now, for the second act of the Orioles minor league shuffle. Zach Britton takes the mound momentarily for the night portion of the day-night doubleheader at Yankee Stadium. I'm going to predict that he does better.

Update: Can't remember making a worse prediction than this. I'm going to go back to watching and waiting.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)
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It was great to get out and watch a Ravens practice this afternoon, though it would have been greater if it had taken place somewhere like San Diego. The temperature wasn't bad, but the humidity was as thick as a phonebook, which might explain why No. 2 draft pick Torrey Smith was battling calf cramps throughout the opening workout. Terrell Suggs also was hobbling with what appears to be a minor hamstring strain.

The local colleges were well-represented in the rookie receiving corps, with Smith and LaQuan Williams from Maryland and Hakeem Moore from Towson. The only other local player is veteran cornerback Domonique Foxworth.

The Ravens announced the signing of 26 undrafted free agents today. Only a couple -- Williams and Moore -- are likely to be familiar names around here. If you want proof that the Ravens scouting department throws out a wide net and is truly objective, consider that the 26 players come from 24 different college programs. The only colleges to have two players on the list were Hawaii and Auburn.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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Since I couldn't make up my mind about what to write for my Tuesday column, I went ahead and wrote two of them. The second one -- examining the decision to release Derrick Mason, Todd Heap, Kelly Gregg and Willis McGahee -- is up now on the Web site and you can read it by clicking right here.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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The NFL lockout is over and the Ravens players are filtering into to The Castle today in preparation for the start of training camp. So, if you click right here, you can have my instant take on the return of football to Baltimore. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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While I pass along the link to today's column on the Orioles pitching issues, I think it's only fair to explain why I'm dissing the starting rotation after a rare string of four solid starts. Part of it a matter of pure logistics -- I'm out of town for the weekend and the column was written before Alfredo Simon and Brad Bergesen pitched very well against the Angels -- but the fact that the O's pitched better for a few days doesn't really change anything.

It was great to see Bergesen shut down a pretty good Angels lineup on Saturday, which hopefullly will be a sign of things to come. If he can build a string of consistent performances, Bergesen could help the Orioles stablize the rotation and be much more competition down the stretch.

But the basic premise of the column is tough to dispute. The Orioles, who have drafted very high for a decade, still have serious depth issues and need to "buy" some arms to fill the void left by the slow progress of Chris Tillman and recent setbacks that have pushed Brian Matusz and Zach Britton back to the minor leagues.

There's hope that Matusz will regain his arm strength and the Orioles will be bringing Britton back soon, but the condition of the rotation in June and early July proved that the Orioles are not going to become a contender any time soon without spending some real money to upgrade their pitching. Teams in similar markets find a way to do that, and the O's will have to do the same if they are ever to be competitive in the AL East.

Unfortunately, even if they wanted to do that right now, there aren't a lot of trade options out there and the upcoming crop of free agent starters is pretty thin.

Glad I could cheer everyone up this morning.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
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The July 31 trading deadline is 10 days away and we're getting to the point where trade speculation will be flying fast and furious. Wouldn't surprise me a bit if the Orioles traded Koji Uehara, who has stepped up this year as a very dependable set-up guy who can close if needed.

He should have some real value because the O's hold an option on his contract for 2012, so a team would also hold the rights to him for next season at a reasonable price.

I'll leave it to Buck Showalter and Andy MacPhail to decide what they want to do with Jim Johnson. He also would be a very valuable trade chip either at midseason or this coming winter, but I like the idea of giving J.J. a few starts in September to see if he can settle into the rotation. That would certainly help the team as it tries to get out of its current pitching crisis.

Even if he were to do enough to win a place in the projected rotation, however, I still think the Orioles need to acquire more pitching, since the guys out of their own garden has not been very productive lately.

I'll weigh in more on that in my Sunday column.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (39)
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The Dodgers announced that they will celebrate the 30th anniversary of "Fernandomania" with two events next week. The team will honor Valenzuela for his magical 1981 season on "Viva Los Angeles Day" at Dodger Stadium and give away commemorative "Fernandomania" bobbleheads next Tuesday night.

Really, it's been 30 years? Really?

Of course I wax nostalgic, because that was my first year covering the Dodgers and Valenzuela's performance was otherworldly. He pitched a shutout on Opening Day after filling in for injured veteran Jerry Reuss and went on to win his first eight starts -- five of them shutouts. Combined with his performance of the previous September, he was 10-0 with an 0.40 ERA in his first 90 innings in the major leagues. Simply amazing.

What people don't remember was how good of a hitter he was. He also helped his own cause during that early run with some big run-scoring hits. Every start was a party, with mariachi bands playing in the parking lots and the stands full of delirious Mexican-American baseball fans.

Here are some Fernando facts from today's Dodgers news release:

-- Since 1945, Valenzuela is the only player in the Major Leagues to win his first eight career starts.

-- In his first 90 innings with the Dodgers from September 1980 through May 14, 1981, Valenzuela posted a 10-0 record and 0.40 ERA.

-- At home, once fans knew Valenzuela’s next start date, the former Stadium Way box office would sell out that game within 24 hours. In 1981, on a game where Valenzuela was not pitching average attendance was 35,000-40,000, while his starts saw an attendance of more than 50,000.

-- On the road, Valenzuela’s starts would also sell out. In anticipation of a May 1981 roadtrip to New York, the Mets built two extra ticket booths near the subway entrances to accommodate the anticipated rush of fans. The crowd of 39,848 was the Mets' largest of the season, they had been averaging 11,358.

-- Also on the road, the Dodgers’ PR department had to set new media guidelines due to the overwhelming media attention Valenzuela garnered. One press conference was scheduled on Valenzuela's first day in each city on the road and another after he pitched.

-- Valenzuela’s starts also affected television ratings. His May 3, 1981 start at Montreal drew a 19.6 Nielsen rating and 59 share in Los Angeles, an estimated 1.2 million adults watching at home. By comparison, the Game 7 Boston-Philadelphia NBA Eastern Conference final that night drew a 3.6 rating and 10 share.

-- Valenzuela remains the only player in baseball history to win both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards in the same season.

-- Valenzuela became the first rookie pitcher to lead the league in strikeouts since Herb Score of the 1955 Cleveland Indians.

-- Early in the 1981 season, reporters called 76-year-old Hall of Fame pitcher Carl Hubbell, the former New York Giants lefty known for his screwball pitch. “The first time I saw Fernando, I knew he was a natural,” Hubbell said. “His delivery is just about perfect.”

-- In early May 1981, Valenzuela was invited to appear on the national television program “Good Morning America” even though he did not speak English.

-- Exactly two months after his Opening Day (4/9/81) shutout in his first Major League start, Valenzuela traveled to the White House in Washington and attended a luncheon hosted by President Ronald Reagan for Mexico’s President José López Portillo.

In the accompanying photo, former Orioles star Dennis Martinez, Valenzuela and Seattle Mariners star Edgar Martinez hold up their trophies after being inducted in the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame earlier this year

Reuters file photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
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Got so caught up in the fantastic World Cup final today that I forgot to post my Sunday column here. Like a lot of you, I've been hearing whispers about possible changes in the Orioles front office, so I thought I'd try to attach some insight based on conversations with the principals and other stuff I've heard around the ballpark.

Read it right here and let me know what your think.

Good to see Cowherd back in action. He's got an interesting column up on the Web site right now about the start of another series against the Red Sox tomorrow night. Check it out, too.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
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Once again, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I was feeling merciful today and thought I'd sit down first thing in the morning and point out on this blog that the Orioles -- for all their deficiencies -- deserved a tiny bit of slack because they might be playing the toughest schedule in the major leagues.

They might, when you consider that they played the Cardinals, Reds and 52-win Braves in interleague play, and the supposedly easy interleague teams are a lot tougher than usual this year. That, combined with the perennially torturous AL East slate, certainly puts them right near the top of the sport in degree of schedule difficulty.

I was going to do that just to be nice, but when I woke up this morning, I realized that the Pittsburgh Pirates were tied for first place in the National League Central. That pretty much did it for me.

The Pirates were one of the last remaining teams that Orioles fans could look at and say "Well, at least we're not them." Now, all we've got left are the Kansas City Royals. I know the Astros are the worst team in baseball this year, but they've had a winning record in 11 of their last 15 seasons, so they don't count.

This is enough to make me go out and drink a case of Iron City beer.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)
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I'm trying to make sense of the suspensions announced by MLB for series of purpose-pitch skirmishes in Boston over the weekend. This kind of thing is usually pretty routine, but I raised an eyebrow at the fact that Kevin Gregg received the same four-game suspension as David Ortiz.

Not to let Gregg off the hook for knocking Ortiz off the plate, but he didn't ever hit Ortiz with a pitch and he wasn't the one who charged the mound and started the brief melee. He did yell at Ortiz for swinging at a 3-0 pitch in a blowout game, but that happens all the time in baseball. It appears that he was punished heavily because Ortiz took offense. If you watch the replay of the confrontation, Gregg gave Ortiz a shoulder to stop his charge and dodged a haymaker before taking an ineffective swing back.

I don't see where that rates an equal suspension, but I guess the fact that they were the two main combatants -- and perhaps the recognition that four days for Gregg may only cause him to miss one or two appearances -- creates a somewhat logical framework for that decision.

The only other multi-game suspension was assessed against Michael Gonzalez for throwing behind Ortiz, and that one is hard to argue. Several other players were fined for their roles in the bench-clearing incident.

We're still waiting to find out why Buck Showalter was suspended and -- apparently -- Terry Francona was not. I always thought that when the manager gets an automatic ejection after both benches have been warned that it came with a one-game suspension. Dan Connolly is trying to run that down and will have an update on Orioles Insider.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
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Maybe I got up on the wrong side of the bed, but I've finally grown tired of all the reasons why the Orioles can't compete when teams of lesser economic circumstance (the Tampa Bay Rays are the best example) find ways to build minor league depth and compete at the major league level.

If you want to hear me rant some more on the subject, you can check out my column for the upcoming print edition -- as well as a video in which I try to articulate the concept further -- right here.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)
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Can't say that was the most entertaining All-Star Game I've ever watched, but at least future Oriole Prince Fielder had a big night. The thing that stood out for me was the number of very good and very bad defensive plays.

Jose Bautista's catch was a true Web Gem. Matt Wieters' passed ball wasn't pretty, but I'm fairly sure he got crossed up, since he went to the wrong knee on the pitch and couldn't cross over to reach the ball. Oh well, I'm sure he had a great time anyway and he'll have a lot more chances to make a big All-Star impression.

Here's a prediction: The Phillies will win the World Series because they sent their best starters to this game while C.C. Sabathia and several other top A.L. pitchers did not post. There's probably a lesson in there somewhere, but it just reminds me that the sports' championship series should not be impacted by the sport's highly commercialized midseason exhibition game.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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The headline refers to something that former American League president Dr. Bobby Brown said to me once to explain his lack of concern for a minor beanball incident back in the day. The attitude toward aggressive pitching has changed over the years, but it was refreshing to see Kevin Gregg take an old-school attitude to the mound on Friday night.

Mind you, I wouldn't have been in his corner if he had thrown a headball at David Ortiz. That would have been bush league and nobody should be out there trying to hurt an opposing player. But he has a right to pitch inside and Ortiz has a right to swing 3-0 in a six-run game and they both have a right to get mad at each other.

Ortiz probably should have been smart enough to restrain himself, because the Red Sox have way more to lose when he gets suspended for charging the mound. He's having a great season and they are in first place, so a suspension could cost the Sox an important game in the standings. Gregg will probably get a day off, but he's a closer on a losing team who has only about a 40 percent chance of playing in any given game anyway.

Anyway, their little shoving match added some entertainment value to an otherwise uninspiring evening and will add some suspense to tonight's game. Who knows what Alfredo Simon and John Lackey are going to do with all that pent-up emotion from last night.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
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Maybe I'm the one providing the negative energy during the game and it's going right through the television and depressing the ballclub, because I already knew what was going to happen after the Orioles started tonight's game with three straight singles. Adam Jones had just squeezed Red Sox starter Andrew Miller for an eight-pitch at-bat that ended with a run-scoring single when Vladimir Guerrero came up and grounded the very next pitch into a double play.

The second run of the inning scored off that terrible, selfish, not-a-clue-what's-going-on-in-the-game at-bat, but I don't care. Miller was trying to implode and Guerrero bailed him out, like he has done over and over the past couple of months. Then it became a matter of just waiting for the roof to fall in, which was facilitated by Jake Arrieta's wild third inning and the usual array of misfortune that always follows.

Please disregard my previous blog entry. When is this horror movie going to end?

Total Mid-Atlantic Meltdown: While the Orioles pitching staff was giving up six home runs in Boston, the Nationals were busy blowing an 8-0 lead against the Cubs at Nationals Park. The Cubs just took the lead in the top of the eighth on an RBI single by Aramis Ramirez. Amazing.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
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The shroud of fatalism has settled over the Orioles the past couple of weeks has gotten almost suffocating, but everybody who has spent any time watching baseball knows that momentum can shift at any time. The Orioles have been streaky during the first half of this season, so it's fair to assume that they'll have another good streak before too long.

Will it start in Boston? There's no logical reason to think so, but this team has defied any attempt to figure out why it does anything. The O's pitched pretty well during the early weeks of the season, but didn't score a lot of runs. They got the offense in gear for a while in June, but stopped pitching effectively. Even the individual players have been enigmatic -- most notably Mark Reynolds, who has 20 home runs and 20 errors entering the four-game series that starts tonight at Fenway Park.

The pitching staff has struggled badly over the past nine games. The starting rotation has an 8-plus ERA and manager Buck Showalter has had to plug holes in it with Triple-A callups Chris Jakubauskas and Mitch Atkins. The hitters have been absolutely pitiful with runners in scoring position.

Things look so bad that Rick Dempsey just said on the pregame show that tonight is probably the Orioles' best chance to win one more game before the All-Star break, and Rick's a pretty positive guy.

I'm not quite so certain that the O's are overmatched. I think they'll at least split this series, because the Red Sox are having pitching problems of their own and -- though there is no logical basis for this -- the pendulum has to swing back at some point. It always does.

Once again, I'm looking for Nolan Reimold to continue to make a case for more playing time. This is his opportunity to make some kind of statement with Luke Scott on the disabled list. I think he knows that and isn't going to pass it up.

First pitch awaits.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
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I don't know if the Orioles are seriously considering trading either J.J. Hardy or Mark Reynolds at the July 31 waiver deadline, but I just threw up a column warning the Orioles that I -- and Orioles fans -- would prefer that they keep both players and continue to improve the veteran talent of the club.

If you want to take a look before the print edition comes out tomorrow, you can read it right here.

Thanks in advance.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)
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Mitch Atkins is scheduled to take the mound in a few hours against the Texas Rangers in the most homer-friendly ballpark in the major leagues this year -- an eventuality that probably doesn't fill you to the brim with confidence heading into the second game of the series.

Can't blame anybody for being fatalistic, but Atkins will have unfamiliarity on his side, so he might be able to sneak through that lineup once or twice. Does anybody remember when Chris Waters made his major league debut against the Angels under similar circumstances in 2008 and gave up just one hit over eight innings?

Does anybody remember -- without looking it up -- who got the only hit off him?

I realize that Atkins will not be making his major league debut. He had a few relief appearances in the National League. But that doesn't change my point, which is that an unfamiliar pitcher with poise can be dangerous.

I'm not going to make any predictions tonight, though I have a good feeling about Nolan Reimold, who is in the starting lineup for the second straight night and should match up well against hard-luck left-hander Matt Harrison.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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If you haven't read my column in today's print edition, you can read it right here, but I have to explain something.

In the interest of advance planning for the holiday weekend, I wrote the column a couple of days early, and it's amazing how much has changed since then. It wasn't a positive column to begin with, but the Orioles were only a couple of days removed from winning that series over the Cincinnati Reds. Suddenly, their in the throes of a five-game losing streak and the rest of the division stopped cooperating a few weeks ago. They have fallen 14 1/2 games out of first place and are now 10 games under .500.

The point of my column remains the same. They are vastly improved over last year if all you look at is their won-loss record, but that doesn't mean they are one day closer to being a playoff contender. It's a pretty discouraging picture.

I will say this in their favor. Mark Reynolds, who was the subject of some serious bashing here because of his high error total, has delivered exactly what the Orioles hoped for when they acquired him. He's on pace to hit 35 home runs and strike out a lot less than last year. J.J. Hardy has been terrific and should be re-signed for the next two or three years before he realizes how much money he'll get as a free agent if he keeps playing like this. And the Orioles still have a nucleus of talented young players -- particularly Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Zach Britton, Jake Arrieta and (we can only hope) Brian Matusz. I'd throw Nolan Reimold in there if he ever got to play.

I'd like to see Buck Showalter move Reynolds into the cleanup spot and -- like everyone else -- I'd like to see how this team would play if a healthy Brian Roberts were at the top of the lineup. Hardy has done a fine job there, but it would certainly be nice to have both of them.

Sadly, it's going to take a lot of good things to happen for the O's to rebound in the second half and finish above .500, and good things don't exactly follow this team around. Last night's game was another example of that.

They played good, exciting baseball for eight of nine innings, but Luke Scott's miss in the outfield and Arrieta's poor command during two crucial at-bats were all it took to cost them another on a long lists of games they should have won this year.

So, I'm going to try to cheer you up by guaranteeing that the Orioles will win the finale of the three-game series at Turner Field today. I don't do that very often, but -- even if you don't eat your pre-game meal at McDonald's -- you deserve a break today.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (30)
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The Orioles dropped nine games under .500 last night and 13 1/2 games out of first place in the AL East. Does that mean they are "hopelessly" out of contention?

Not in the wild card era, because it's early July and a run like they had in August and September last year (with a lesser team) would put them in range of the extra playoff berth. But don't construe that little bit of mathematical logic as an argument that they are going to pick themselves up off the mat again this year and make a run at respectability.

It looks to me like they are falling off the competitive cliff as we speak. I realize that they faced the best pitcher in the National League last night, but Jair Jurrjens isn't the only guy who has overmatched them lately. The offense just refuses to click on the most basic level and the pitching is deteriorating rapidly. This is where organizational depth comes into play...if you have any.

This is an ugly picture that is about to get uglier. I'm usually the most positive guy in the room, but the Rangers and Red Sox are waiting in the wings and the Orioles -- barring some unforseen change in aptitude and attitude -- will not have an answer for them.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (55)
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