Not much to say
Manager Dave Trembley's post-game session with the media lasted about two minutes and didn't include the usual opening statement.
The counter on my recorder says 2:05, but that includes the amount of time it took for Trembley to take a seat after entering the room.
Honestly, what's he supposed to say? I'm impressed that he keeps showing up.
Trembley confirmed that reliever Jim Miller won't pitch again this season.
As for Radhame Liz's performance, Trembley said, "First three innings, he had command of his fastball and used his fastball. And he got away from it in the fourth."
Is he disappointed to see his club take a six-run lead and then be dominated by the Rays?
"Well, the disappointing thing is, it's not the first time I've seen it."
How much does a loss like this drain the life out of a team?
"I thought you saw the resiliency of our club in the first inning, when they came out and banged the heck out of it and put five on the board. But you could just sense and feel, and you can imagine what it's like when you're standing out there and you're walking people and hitting people and giving the lead right back to the opposing club. And it's not as if it's the first time that it's happened."
We can only hope it's the last.
I have had my critical comments for this organization over the last couple years, but even I did not expect a collapse of this magnitude THIS year. I expected to finish out the season with slightly below average play. However...
WE HAVE A .176 WINNING PERCENTAGE IN THE LAST 34 GAMES!!!
That is insane. Sorry to raise my keys. No team comprised of professionals who are prepared to play this game at the highest level will sustain lower than a .400 winning percentage. As the season ends we appear to be the worst team in professional baseball (perhaps tied with Seattle and Pittsburgh).
Again, I have to say I did not expect that this year. I don't blame injuries. I don't blame the offense (although baserunning and intelligent managerial decision making would have improved them as well). It goes deeper. It always goes deeper when you have this level of dysfunction. We are the Arizona Cardinals, the New York Knicks, Newcastle United, and I don't know when it will change.
Roch
So since all our starers can only go about 3 innings with command of their pitches then just do each 3 innings but have a rotation for each game...
I was at the game tonight and I sat in section 4 where the corner is...
It was me and like five other people there and we asked Nick Markakis if there was any more pitchers left and he shook his head no in disapointment ... Then we asked if he could pitch but that's when he caught the fly ball to end the top 9...
by the bottom of the 8th there was like what 4 or 500 people there maybe not even that.
What's changed since the first half of the season, aside from now having the certainty of finishing in 5th place, that the team no longer has the ability or will to stage a comeback? It seemed like earlier in the season the Orioles were never out of a game. Now is it just that the pitching can't keep them in the game? Players have too often seen their runs negated that morale is down?
It's easy to get dicouraged by the way this team has played down the stretch. I use the word stretch because it has a dual meaning here. Pitchers and players must not be stretching properly or the strength and fitness folks in the organization have to be replaced. Injuries killed this once-promising pitching staff. The team was winning whenwe had Sherril and Johnson at the back of the rotation and Braford getting people out in the middle. Loewen went down early, as did a slew of other pitchers--Troy Patton, Matt Albers, Dennis Sarfate, (all from the Tejada trade); Hayden Penn, etc. Olson and Liz weren't ready, but we had no choice. When Guthrie went down, everything fell apart. Whne you are putting guys like Burres, Bass and Simon out there, you know it's bag. Heck Chris Waters shouldn't be here either.
This game is all about pitching and defense. The bats usually take care of themselves and this team certainly hit this year. The arms and all the injuries killed this season. There were a few bright spots, but mostly desperation on the part of an organization starving for top-shelf pitching talent above Double-A. Most of these pitchers will be healthy for Spring training and the team needs to chase some free agents to plug into the rotation, but we can no longer relax on the pitching depth issue. Too many injuries. Most teams can withstand a few key injuries, but go look at the injuries tab on www.baltimoreorioles.com. This isn't a baseball team, it's a M*A*S*H unit. Next year will be different because the pitching should be healthier.
JPA: Dysfunction is the key word and I think it’s something that most of us would probably just deny. After all, the club has taken steps in the right direction with some big trades in the offseason and has done some decent drafting, and the major league club played well for a good portion of the season. But there’s something wrong when a club goes 6-28 at the end of the season, defying all percentages and reason. 34 games is a significant portion of a season; the pace of that stretch of games would lead to a horrifying 29 wins in a 162 game season. They could probably pick players at random from colleges and independent leagues and get a similar result.
And, of course, we’ve seen this type of late season meltdown before. Last season, the club ended 11-28 (.282). In 2005, 14-28 (.333), and, even further, went 32-60 (.348) after starting out 42-28. In 2003, they finished 14-32 (.304). In 2002, the infamous 4-32 (.111). So, with 2008, 5 times in recent memory they’ve ended the season in catastrophic fashion, and they’ve managed to do it with many different players. Are they just overmatched every time, or is everyone just geared to give up, consciously or not, once it’s mid-August?
Some will shrug it off and say it’s not such a big deal because they’re rebuilding, they weren’t supposed to be good, they’ve suffered too many injuries. But there’s bad—like playing at .400, as JPA mentioned, which would be about 13-21 in this stretch—and there’s just plain catastrophic, which is where the club is now. Catastrophic just calls into question everything about this organization—front office, managers and coaches, players, development—and makes it difficult to gauge any progress. Catastrophic also has a way of chasing away already beleaguered fans, keeping free agents from answering your phone calls, and having your good young players thinking twice about staying here long term.
And to amplify on CRB's post, I'm cancelling my DirectTV Extra Innings package for 2009, not going to any O's minor league games (1 and 5 on my summer road trip this year), etc., until this mess is straightened out. And believe me, Andy McP is only one person, and he can't do it by himself. Plus, I won't have to listen to Buck's nasal twang and Thorne constantly mis-pronouncing players' names.
And while I'm at it, isn't it a real joy (or embarassment) watching other teams' true prospects perform (Snider, Price, etc.) while the O's trot out never-has-beens or never-will-be's? The state of the organization (if that's what it is) is truly dis-functional. I've been a fan since '58, so I'm not just venting for the hell of it.
B/T/W Roch, you're the man. Keep up the good work. Your roadtrip blogs and insight are where it's at. That's the kind of stuff most fans really like.
D/P