McGregor on Waters
With the Aberdeen IronBirds inactive during the NY-Penn League All-Star break - expect for the three players who participated in last night's game - pitching coach Scott McGregor visited Camden Yards yesterday.
I asked him about Chris Waters, who pitched for Double-A Bowie last year while McGregor was on the coaching staff. McGregor said he always told Orioles executives that Waters wasn't on "the map," but the left-hander possessed "big league stuff."
Waters just needed to show it. He was 8-9 with a 4.49 ERA, 86 walks and 117 strikeouts in 152 1/3 innings at Bowie.
"Last year, he was still coming off Tommy John surgery and was inconsistent," McGregor said. "He would lose his release point at times. The big thing was repeating his motion. He said he never had that problem before. He's always thrown strikes."
Waters, who starts tonight for the Orioles, impressed McGregor with his arm action, work ethic, conditioning and athleticism.
"He had all the stuff," McGregor said. "He just had to refine things."
Waters drew comparisons to McGregor during his first major league start, when he blanked the Los Angeles Angels on one hit over eight innings.
"I guess because he was throwing 88 mph," McGregor said. "His changeup is harder than mine. He has a good breaking ball, and he's another guy who has to move the ball around and throw strikes."
Waters needs to do it tonight. He's had a great start, a bad start and a mediocre start that leaned toward the bad side.
Down on the farm, Carlos Rojas hit a solo home run in the 10th inning last night to give Double-A Bowie a 3-2 victory over Reading. Bowie's magic number is five. Akron also lost, giving the Baysox a three-game lead in the Southern Division with 12 to play.
Julio Manon recorded his 30th save, the most in the Eastern League and the most in franchise history.
Triple-A Norfolk lost to Toledo, 2-1, in 11 innings. An error by first baseman Mike Costanzo allowed an unearned run to score and break a 1-1 tie.
Tides starter Andy Mitchell allowed one run and three hits, with five walks and seven strikeouts, in seven innings. Jon Leicester followed with three scoreless innings, lowering his ERA to 0.69 in seven August appearances.
I thought the headline read "McGregor on WAIVERS". I need more sleep.
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If I lived in Hawaii, so would I. Speaking of which, if Matusz is assigned to the Hawaiian Winter League, I'm going to try to talk MASN into sending me there. I might need a place to crash. - Roch
Agree, release Cintron, that will open up the roster spot needed for Kam and bring up Fahey. I still have some concerns about bringing up Bergesen, he's pitched a lot of innings this year already and another move would have to be made on the forty man roster. There will also be a roster move next Tuesday for a starter. My thinking still is it will be Burres on Friday and Liz on Tuesday, both already on the forty man. As for Olson, starting in the minors should help him, if he starts Friday at Norfolk it would give him three until the end of the season.
Kiko - Good points on Olson and Cintron. It might especially help Olson(assuming Bergesen gets the call) to re-gain some confidence by contributing in the playoffs at Bowie.
Now that we've established that Castro is going to start 5-6 times per week at shortstop it's clear that Cintron serves no advantage for Trembly on the bench. A couple of times recently he should have used a pinchrunner late in close games, but didn't have anyone to turn to. Fahey is faster(can be used as a late game pinch runner) and is better defensively, so you don't have to worry about your defense imploding at shortstop(as it did Monday) after pinch-hitting for Castro.
One thing for sure, whether he's hindered by his bench or not, Trembley would not be a good manager in the NL. He often does nothing when he should make a change, makes decisions too late, or even after the fact.
Mike Hooper, it's that kind of "I'm impervious" thinking that always leads to people getting killed in drunken-driving deaths.
Roch...it looks like the Sun needs you back. Headline from baltimoresun.com: "Health, safety groups say 21 is a success, reduction would lead to thousands of additional drunken-diving deaths"
I drink and dive all the time. I'm still alive.
Regarding the 40 man roster moves, shouldn't it really be that we send Olson to Bowie (closer and they are in the playoff hunt) since we'll take Bergeson to start Friday. I think it important for those guys to win it all this year. Certainly helped Jeter/Posada/Pettite to learn how to play with something on the line in the minors...
To clear a spot on the 40 man for him, we designate Cintron (who has no future here) for assignment and call up Fahey who is already on the 40 man to replace him? If Trembley is for some reason soooooo attached to Cintron that he couldnt possibly part with him, then just call up Liz...The upside to Liz is if you play the drinking game where you take a shot of something everytime a O's starter goes to 3 balls on a batter, you'll be drunk by the second inning.....