Big plane, small world
MASN studio host and play-by-play man Jim Hunter boarded a flight out of Tampa this morning and noticed that quarterback Chris Simms was sitting in the seat in front of him.
Simms also is heading to Baltimore, though for an entirely different reason. He's meeting with the Ravens, who, like the Orioles, could use a healthy and accurate arm. (click for update on Simms)
And speaking of left-handers, Aberdeen's Rick Zagone, a sixth-round pick in this year's draft out of Missouri, tossed seven scoreless innings last night. He allowed three hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out 10.
As I mentioned last night, Jim Miller will join the Orioles in Boston today, along with left-hander Garrett Olson (we have a theme going here), who gets the start. Miller was 3-5 with a 3.09 ERA and 10 saves in 49 games at Triple-A Norfolk.
You'll recall that the Orioles obtained Miller from the Colorado Rockies in the Rodrigo Lopez trade. Miller will wear No. 25, which still hasn't been retired in Rafael Palmeiro's honor.
Nolan Reimold hit his 24th home run for Double-A Bowie, and Matt Wieters added his 12th. Chris Tillman won his fourth consecutive start to improve to 11-4, allowing two runs and striking out seven over five innings.
The Single-A Frederick Keys have posted their highest attendance figure since 2002, drawing 285,184 fans to Harry Grove Stadium. The figure has gone up in each of the last four years.
Roch,
You brought up an interesting point. At one point Raffy might end up in the HOF, and he said he'd go into the Hall as an Oriole (though I'd look for him to go in as a Ranger now). If he does get elected, and as an Oriole, do you think the O's would continue the tradition and retire #25?
I guess since he's not in the O's Hall he stands no chance of getting his # retired but it is an interesting thought.
Roch-- curious about your perception of the Orioles' general management during this current season. After a undeniably successful offseason, I was hoping for two things during this season: 1) a productive July trading deadline and 2) a team that used the final two months as a stepping stone towards 2009. So after a salary dump of one of our only productive relievers and no deals in July or August and a team that gives up 7-14 runs per game, can't throw strikes and has reverted to the second worst team in baseball (Pirates are the only team currently playing at a lower level), what do we make of this season?
Should we be satisfied that we may win more than the 65 predicted victories? If you were Brian Roberts, are you convinced there is a chance of contending in the next few years? Still playing hardball with Nick and watching that pricetag do up and up? Are Millar and Payton moving on? What is the plan with JJ? Similarly, what is the point of a good middle reliever when you are no longer in close games (although we aren't in close games because we have no starting OR long relief). There are lots of pitchers on this team that I like but not a lot I have confidence will ever figure it out. Quite a combinations of pitchers with Maddux like speed and Cabrera (who incidentally has go to be closing in on some sort of record for wildness from a non-knuckleballer). Anyway, just looking for a few reasons to be optimistic about 2009.
I haven't seen much talk about this but I was just looking at Aubrey Huff's numbers. If the O's were playing above .500 ball, they could be MVP worthy. 4th in homeruns, 2nd in doubles, 5th in RBIs, 8th in runs scored, 9th in batting average, 3rd in slugging, and 5th in OPS. And he seems to be climbing in all of those categories. He seems to be the only hitter consistently in the top 10, mostly in top 5, in all of those categories. Too bad the pitching couldn't help him out with some support. He's having a pretty amazing season. Too bad you don't get any votes though if you play for a bottom dweller unless your name starts with a Rip and ends with a ken.
If only Ben W. had asked you to deliver his message to the pitchers earlier in the season.
I totally agree with you on the huff comments. I have to admit last year I kinda hated him but this year he's redeemed himself and is having as good if not a slightly better year than A-Rod and the local boy Texeira. As for the pitching side, do you expect them to make any pushes for signing free agent starters, Roch? Even with the success stories at Bowie I wouldn't expect half of those guys to have a significant impact on the rotation next year and judging by what Olson, Liz and Burres and have done this year it doesn't look like we have the kinda depth to fill a major league rotation. I'm not a huge AJ Burnett fan but if there's one thing we do need it's someone to eat some innings. I know he's overpriced but is it there any possibility he might come to baltimore? At this point I don't care what it costs us, we need some pitching!
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The club will absolutely look to add a veteran starter. There will be lots of talk about A.J. Burnett, but he'd have to come at the right price. He's not worth the cost of a No. 1 starter. - Roch
You have to love a classless act like Gruden eh? Simms had zero chance of making the bucs this year but Gruden just held onto him to make it more difficult for him to have success elsewhere.
I was at the Aberdeen game yesterday and Rick Zagone was awesome, and his last inning was his best. After giving up a leadoff triple in the seventh, he struck out the next three -- on nine pitches.