Welcome back, Peter. Your comments were missed.

If Matusz is correct that his arm angle is back and he's getting good movement on his pitches and locating them as he wants, then it won't matter much if he's throwing at 88-89 instead of 91-92.

It's a little early to look ahead to 2012, but it sure would be nice to think the "Big Three" of Matusz, Arrieta and Britton would be healthy and strong next year. Guthrie is still effective enough to stay in the rotation if not used as trade bait. Hunter might be OK if he can learn to change speeds.

The blame for the O's demise this year can be laid mainly on the starting pitching. When your pitching staff is ranked 30th out of 30 major league teams, you can expect to finish about 30th.

There are a few guys down on the farm with potential, and the Bundy Boys will be knocking on the door soon.

Hope springs eternal.

Would love to see a strong Matusz return to the top of the rotation. Any word on Brian Roberts.

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Pete's reply: Jeff had a nice update on Brian on the Web site. Here's the link: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-roberts-0817-20110816,0,5149721.story

I have all the faith in the world in them. I hope they can turn things around and start dominating. I don't know what it is, but there is a stigma around the O's organization. It's almost like no matter what, we are built to lose. I think they will put the hammer down and start winning for us in the next year or two. By then we'll be adding the Bundy's, Machado, Esposito.... I like that we build from within instead of buying titles like boston and NY

And don't forget about Tillman, it's way too early to give up on him.

Hey, I didn't carry those two bobbleheads back to Canada for the fun of it. My wife tried to give hers away (she doesn't believe he's a real player)! I'm expecting a great outing tonight.

Really Peter. Depth? Hunter maybe a number 4 or 5. I mean he won last night but he allowed 11 baserunners in 6+ innings. A better team would have crushed him. Reyes might not start for a real orginizations single A club. The pitching is a mess. Even if they all max out, you might get kucky abd have 4 or 5 number 3-5 starters just good enough to lose with. By the way, McPhail needs to go now. Why hasn't anybody written this. The worst four year run in Orioles history. A farm system worse now than when he took over and not because the O's brought up all these successful major leaguers. 90+ loses every year. he is a disgrace as a GM. Yes he had one very good trade and the Hardy trade looks promising right now, but other than that he has been garbage. Buy him a new sweater vest and kick his rear end up or down 95.

Peter - nice entry, and I agree that the return of the young pitching is critical to next season and beyond. Just wanted to make a point on Matusz velocity. Yes, currently pitching at about 88 is 3 mph (maybe even 4 mph) below his best, however (according to PitchFx) it is only about 1 mph below where he was pitching at the end of last season when he had so much success. I think the key for Matusz is at least league average velocity (89 - 90), good command, and good secondary pitches. If he can command his stuff tonight, he will be well on his way to coming back.

Based upon the August thru September 2010 run from this young staff, I considered the starting pitching a strength this year. Ooops.

My only suggestion I feel comfortable with at this point is if MacPhail is gonna keep growing the arms he better change fertilizer.

Peter I agree with your line of thinking re: Matusz but I'll go steps further by mentioning that Tillman, Arietta and Britton must also show some positive progress down the road as well. Yes, Arietta is recovering from surgery but the other 'young guns' must bounce back or we have no hope of moving forward.
Being an O's fan since the early 60's, I have stuck with the team through thick and thin but this year really disappointed me as I got caught up in the strong finish in '10. We really have moved backwards and when I think back on the moves made by MacPhail, it's no wonder!
Let's start with Kevin Gregg, didn't anyone watch the Jays games last year? I called this debacle in spring training...
Vlad, Reynolds and Lee collectively tanked and right now, the only productive run producers have been Hardy and Jones. Weiters has about 5 RBI since the All-Star break & Markakis in nothing more than a highly paid singles hitter.
The rest of the roster is filled with role players/mediocre talent so unless macPhail can find 4-5 everyday players between now and spring training, this team will continue to struggle to hit the 70 win mark.
Personally, I think it's time to end the MacPhail 'era' and bring in some new blood-how much worse could that be anyway???
In the meantime, I'll take occasional glances at the scoreboard(sort of like looking at the accident scenes or the hefty girl in tights that deep down you know you should avoid but don't!) hoping that a miracle ensues...

"the future is still built around Matusz, Jake Arrieta and Zach Britton"

Is this a way of saying that Tillman and Bergesson missed their shot? Bergy came up unheralded which is too often death knell for pro athletes. If you happen to remind the scouts of another great ballplayer they'll give you every shot possible, especially on the Orioles where Daniel Cabrera scored a five season stint in the big leagues just because he reminded the organization of a young (wild) Randy Johnson. Bergy's proved himself before, hope he can put it all together again.

Tillman's prospects look bleak, but he's still only 23. Our current "ace", didn't make his first major league start until age 27. That Tillman's in the big leagues at all is a testament to the lack of talent on the roster.

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Pete's reply: I'm not dumping on Tillman or Bergesen. That was just my handicap of the top three.

Pete, sadly I agree that Matusz returning is a big story for the Os, for the lack of anything else meaningful. I'm wishing him the best and hopefully he's able to create some momentum/confidence for himself heading into the offseason. And hopefully it's an offseason where he kicks his conditioning into full gear and comes into spring prepared to be a major league pitcher.

Speaking of O's news, any murmurs starting about trades with guys who have cleared waivers?

I'd love to see the O's ask about Logan Morrison. He'd be a nice 1B/LF option for the O's next season, as the Marlins have a knack for purging talent for silly reasons.

Break the arms and buy cracked bats.

We should have a lottery to guess the year newly signed Dylan Bundy has arm surgery and as a bonus play, whether Dr Yocum or Dr Andrews performs the surgery.

What over the hill bats are we likely to get this coming off season?

I, personally, think you are selling Tillman short by not including him in the future being built around. He is still a very young and very talented young man that I think the O's have misused and caused some of the confidence problems. Hopefully he will get it together and become an important part of the Orioles future staff.

Pete,

Concise. Never better said than with such few words.

Jeff, Not too much talk about Steve Johnson. I followed him through high school and the minors. He dominated AA this year and had a rough start in AAA. Since then, I have seen his last 10 starts have been pretty good. Any idea if he gets a look in sept? Or does he walk as a free agent?

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Pete's reply: I think it's possible, but he's not on the 40-man, so somebody would have to be designated or dealt to make room for him.

Sorry Pete, I had flipped over to your blog. What do you think?

Hopefully Mat, Jake and Zach will take the off season more seriously next time around and not take anything for granted. Then, we might see them pitch to their potential next year ... if they stay injury free....

Hunter will be a "reliable" starter next year unless the injury bug hits him...but we still need another vet then the 3 amigos can battle it out for 2 spots...

Hey Pete...thanks for taking a few minutes to chat the other day (I'm the Canuck you humoured before the O's-Tigers game on Sunday).

Any suggestions on who might be a good pitching coach for the O's next year? For once we need someone, like a Nolan Ryan, who emphasizes throwing strikes, attacking hitters and getting out of jams to go deep into games.

Has the team ever shown interest in Palmer? Or does he not have any interest in being a coach? I think he'd be perfect. He'd give these guys a strong philosophy and wouldn't take excuses.

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Pete's reply: It was great to see you at the ballpark. Thanks for stopping by. I don't know who's coming back next year, but I assume Adair will get a chance to continue. Palmer would never take that job. He loves what he's doing, and the freedom only to do it for a certain number of days each season.

Matusz's foreseeable future with this ballclub was defined when his former pitching coach quit the team only 2 short mos. into this season.