Recent losses, injuries don't overshadow winning June for O's
The Orioles say goodbye to one of their most successful Junes in the past 15 years on a down note. For the 2nd day in a row the ever so dominant closer George Sherrill paid for making a bad pitch, and the Orioles lost a heartbreaker 6-5 to the Royals.
It's too bad because Sherrill has been the most reliable pitcher out of the pen for the Orioles; but everybody has rough stretches in a long season.
The two deflating loses shouldn't overshadow how successful June was for the Orioles. They went 15-12 last month. Just one win shy of the 1994 mark of 16 wins in June. Perhaps the most noticeable Orioles accomplishment last month was the surge in offense. The Birds' team batting average for June was .281. That's remarkable considering O's pitchers hit in 9 of the 27 games played. That's always sure to lower an American League team's batting average.
It's a good point in the season to reflect on just how much this club has turned around in one year. This time last year the O's went 8-18 in June and fired manager Sam Perlozzo on June 18th. As a reporter covering both clubs, the experience has been like night and day. The best way to sum it up is that last year's team seemed to enter games hoping for wins. This year's team enters games expecting to win. This year it seems the bar has been raised.
Watching Jamie Walker go on the DL yesterday with what he called arthritic spurs in his throwing elbow and watching Alex Cintron blow out a hamstring running to first, it occurred to me that the Orioles have been very lucky as far as injuries are concerned--until those two bad breaks.
Cintron's injury really straps the O's as far as the shortstop position is concerned. The club is left with Brandon Fahey as their starting shortstop right now. Dave Trembley has acknowledged the club is very much in the market for a shortstop. I'd bet the house the O's will make some sort of trade by July 31st to fill that hole.
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Categories (click for archive)Amber Theoharis | MASNblogs |
It's not as bad as it sounds... Why not just call up Freedie Bynum or Luis Hernandez... Wait scratch that. What about Scott Moore?? He had a decent start and I'm sure he could play short. If he can't, just move Melvin Mora over from 3rd and let Scott play 3rd. Ummm as for the bullpen goes. Leicester? Aquino? Cherry?
Looks like they will be getting Bynum back for a bit. Hopefully his batting improves while he's back. But yes, we have been fortunate with the injuries. I hope this is not what de-rails us. I still feel that we have a good chance to catch up in the division. Trading would make sense to get another shortstop, but we'll see. To get a quality shortstop, what would we have to give up?
1 game over .500 at mid-season. Better than what we expected. It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the season turns out.
IMO, Luis Hernandez should be given another shot before Bynum... don't quite get that move... but I hope our sights are set higher than Philipe Lopez.
Amber!!!! Love your work on MASN, u do a great job and give some tremendous insights on the behind the scenes stuff with this club.HUGE fan, keep up the good work! Great, great work on the George Sherrill situation here....I write a blog about the Os--- earlweaverrules.com.-- so be sure to check it out. I watch about 75% of the games on MLB extra innings out here in Michigan, u, Mr Hunter, Gary, Rick, Jim and Buck make my job fun. One problem though- could u find this team someone to play SS? Call Cal!!!
Keep it up and lets hope the team keeps playing well....
J in Ann Arbor
Amber,
I want to thank you very much for your autograph today (7/4). I know at the end of the game a several guys asked you for one as well, so just so you know which one I was, I was the very first one that came down to ask. As silly as this may sound, it took me all game to get up the nerve to come down and ask you for it. You looked like you were pretty busy, so of course I didn't want to interfere.
Of course the autograph means more to me because I want to go into what you are doing, and would be if I were not in the Army right now. I would love to be a sports journalist. I'm 28 at the moment, so I'm starting pretty late, but I watch a lot of what you do and some others so that when the time comes, it's not entirely brand new to me and I have learned a little bit.
Again, thank you very much for your autograph and for the superior job you do of covering the O's.
Steve,
The O's probably see more in Bynum than they do Hernandez. In my honest opinion, he plays better defense than Hernandez. That's just me. I would go with Bynum also. As far as hitting goes, not sure if either of the two jump out at you there. You always want that player that gives you the best chance to win...otherwise, they would have taken Hernandez.
With the trade deadline coming up, what do you think, if any, would be some good moves we should make? I mean that we realistically could make?