Final words from Brian Burres
"It definitely didn't start out how I wanted it to, and I never really got a hold of it from there, giving up runs pretty much every inning. I never really gave my team a chance. I didn't do a good job of keeping us in the ballgame."
That pretty much sums it up.
Burres couldn't get the ball down. He was the opposite of Severna Park native Gavin Floyd, who continues to make the Phillies look like idiots for giving up on him so soon.
More from Burres:
"I was behind most hitters, and when I did throw strikes, they weren't very quality."
Can't argue with that, either.
Burres wasn't going to use his changing role - starter to reliever to starter again - as an excuse.
"I felt good the whole time I was in Triple-A and I felt good today, too. I was just a little bit off. My pitches were getting away from me a lot and I didn't really get in much of a groove."
The man speaks the truth.
We won't know for at least a few more days whether Burres stays in the rotation. In the meantime, enjoy Radhames Liz tomorrow night as he goes against John Danks, who's 10-6 with a 3.16 ERA.
It all starts with starting pitching. And that's a fact that keeps manager Dave Trembley awake at night.
Greg, Millar and Payton won't be on the 40 man roster.
It was my understanding that Reimold, Bergesen and D. Hernandez all need Rule V protection and would have to be placed on the 40-man.
Unfortunately, there's only four players left on the 15-day DL we could move to the 60-day DL to make room for those three: Aquino, Ray, Sherrill and Jones. Obviously you can't move Sherrill and Jones, Ray is healthy I guess, Aquino has no options? Penn to the 60-day?
Someone has to get moved.
Don't be silly. Phillies front office always looks like idiots.
We need Teixeira...Sign the petition!
http://www.bringmark.com
2009 will be year 3 of the great Liz, Olson, Burres experiment and year 6 for what or however you want to categorize Cabrera. I can envision the baseball pundits in Baltimore early on getting all ga-ga about how good this young pitching staff is.... then fast forward to a year from now and I'll post... 2010 will be year 4 of the......
Roch,
Call ups in Sept. are inevitable, and much needed right now. But they have to make room for anyone not on the 40 man roster. Won't that slow down some call ups, it would seem, regardless of how inept the starters are right now, as will "getting the clock started" on arbitration. And with the rule V and minor league drafts to deal with, how does it work as to who is "safe" and who needs to be protected among our pitching prospects over the winter? I think draftees from the last 2 years are exempt but am not positive. Will make for a very interesting issue for AM as to who to cut, who to protect and who to expose over the winter.
Hey Roch, Reimold will be up on Sept. 1st right? I don't understand why he's still in double A (nor can a few ESPN "experts"). For the record Trembley was the one and only person on the top step of the dugout during the entire 9th inning of tonights(Tuesday) blowout/game... gotta respect that
The Baltimore Sun's website for Peter Schmuck's blog mentioned this:
"Meanwhile, the Orioles have lost their offensive edge at a time when they need all the runs they can get to prop up a rotation that is 60 percent Triple-A call-ups, 20 percent Jeremy Guthrie and 20 percent what the heck is wrong with Daniel Cabrera.
"You need better starting pitching is what you need. It starts with starting pitching. That's the name of the game: starting pitching,'' said manager Dave Trembley, who obviously was hoping that if he said "starting pitching" enough, some might fall from heaven."
I said this:
"Well, 4 of the "heaven" starting pitching is at Bowie. Why don't they have a divine intervention and call them up?
It's painstaking clear and obvious they need replacements for Waters, Cabrera, Liz, and Burres. When the Bowie season is done, call these 4 starters up, and see what they can do, and see if they're a major major step up from these so-called starters we have in the Majors."
Rough game tonight. I was there tonight and will be there tomorrow night. I do not expect better results. Saw you in the press box tonight when that foul ball came that way late in the game.
With the way the O's are pitching right now combined with our upcoming schedule, there's a very realistic chance that we'll be staring down a 12-game losing streak by the time by the time they return from Tampa and Boston.
As for the O's and their young pitchers, every "prospect" the O's call up from the minors seems to be nothing more than the so-called AAAA pitcher (i.e. dominates AAA but not good enough for the majors). Olson, Liz, Burres...
Another thing that infuriates me about these guys is that I look at the minor league stats for each of those aforementioned players, and none of them seem to have control problems in AAA. However, put them on a major league mound, and they miss their spots by 2 feet! Perhaps Liz is explainable because he has hard breaking stuff that AAA guys might chase off the plate more often. But Burres and Olson are supposed to be control pitchers more in he mold of Jamie Moyer. I have a hard time believing that they're missing their spots in the same way in AAA as they do in the majors.
It's just exhausting watching the same old shhhhtuff over and over again. Hopefully our AA guys will finally produce the real deal for us in a couple years...
Hey Roch,
What is up with all these video blogs first Brian then Rick and now Buck. You should complain and try to get one. But you should wear the red shirt...
Delmarva Dale - Like your thinking on Orlando Cabrera. Everywhere he goes, teams win. Red Sox, Angels, and now White Sox. He's still very good defensively and as you mentioned would fit well in our lineup in the two hole.
Lineup for next year:
2b Roberts
ss Cabrera
rf Markakis
1b Huff
3b Mora
cf Jones
c Wieters
DH Scott
lf Montanez/Reimold
Sign Mark Texiera and the lineup changes significantly. Now, if we can only fix the starting pitching!
Roch - Have you found it strange at all how far Jay Payton plays in right-center against many right-handed hitters? The ball that Cabrera hit tonight was an out had he been playing straight away or slightly to left-center.
I understand that you need to see the ball off the bat as a centerfielder, but he often seems to be in right-center against right-handed hitters, even against a soft tosser like Burres.
I've been reading lately that the Marlins will deal starter Scott Olsen this winter to cut salary. He makes $405,000 this year. His numbers aren't great(just under .500 for his career), but he is left-handed and only 24 years old, so he's nowhere near his prime. Kranitz also knows him well. He may not be exactly what the O's are looking for, but knowing that MacPhail shys away from free agent pitchers this is the kind of opportunity I'm sure he is looking for.
Signing Orlando Cabrera to play shortstop next year looks better than ever.
Roch:
If the cornerstone of an organization is pitching depth and we have stockpiled the young arms, what do we do in the interim, while these youngsters grow up in the minors? Potential starters lost to injuries: Troy Patton, Adam Loewen, and Matt Albers. Cabrera is pitching like he's hurt (waiting on the MRI). Olson is afraid to throw strikes. Liz can't find the strike zone, and Burres is a batting practice pitcher. The Sarfate-as-starter experiment ended with his return to the bullpen. That leaves Guthrie as the only real starter of Major League caliber right now.
What next? Double-A arms rushed to the show? AAAA arms limping along? Waiver wire pickups? The strength of this team was supposed to be its pitching and now the bullpen is looking roughed up because it has been over used. Answers? Bergusen, perhaps. Hayden Penn? This is getting ugly, very much like the tailspins of 2005, 2006, and 2007. How do you stop the bleeding?
Roch- It was like batting practice tonight against Burress. Why do we waste time on these type of players? I look around the league and I do not see other teams doing that.
Also, Reimold is not gonna see action at OPACY this year is he? Another disappointment at the front office.