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Love his motion. Looks deceptive. And seems like he has 3 or 4 effective pitches. So how fast is 144Km?

Roch, I read on the boards lots of speculation that Angelos won't trade Roberts. Do you know if there is any truth to this? Last year was heady with the Roberts' trade rumors, but when it was all over, I kept reading that it was PGA who nixed the deals; wouldn't give up Roberts because he likes him so much.

I can't remember if this was addressed by you or anyone else in the media last year. Sorry if this is a repeat question.
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Angelos didn't nix any deals last winter. MacPhail can trade Roberts if he finds a deal to his liking. - Roch

ven6 144km = 89.47 mph

Koji Uehara looks like a pitcher and not a thrower at least with these clip. Is it my imagination or do they have a larger strike zone on the corners (particularly the inside part of the plate) than the MLB does?

The New York Times has an update at 6 PM saying Bradley has signed a three year contract with the Cubs for $10 million a year. He is considered a "key acquisition towards advancing the Cubs in the playoffs." Busy day for sports.

Roch,
The 11 to 5 curve looks very sharp. Nice arm angle and very deceptive. The four seamer looks very flat and hittable. You might be able to make a living in Japan in the upper half of the strike zone, but Tex, Vlad and even the Millars will eat that pitch up. He does look like he has a mechanically sound motion which shouldnt lend itself to arm problems.
My guess McFAIL will offer him a 2yr/4 mil incentive laiden low ball offer and then cry....we tried.
How long does it take to sign a person trying to crack MLB out of Japan. Does McFAIL lack the ability to make a timely deal or what. this has been talked about for over a month now.
BUT AGAIN WE ARE DEALING WITH McFAIL and Good Ole PETE

Roch....I'm glad the O's are looking in Japan to help fill the rotation. It seems these Japanese pitchers like Uehara and Kawakami have control of their pitches unlike the youngsters like Olson, Liz, and others that had control issues.

What about Chris Waters joining the rotation? No one is talking about him. He did a decent job last year for the O's and looked better than Olson and Liz at times.
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He'll get a shot, as well. I just hope there are enough innings for everyone. - Roch

Holy smokes! What are we waiting for?! I didn't see the guy throw one ball, only strikes!!

Thank you. Must get tiring answering the same questions, hoping everyone read and remembered everything. Once this team starts winning, it's going to be whole different content to fixate on. Thanks again.

Ven6,
144 kmh = 89.477 mph
If you can throw where you want...
1 kilometer per hour - .621371192 MPH

Jack,
With fans like you, who needs fans.

Ven6,

89.477mph

Jack,

With fans like you, who needs fans.

Roch,

Any chance you could have someone reverse the order of the messages? i.e. list the oldest one at the top and the newest one at the bottom. It would make reading them easier.

While I agree with Mark C about the realistic expectations of pitching prospects I don't agree that you have to be terrible for 8 out of 10 yrs to get top prospects. Check out the Marlins. They have won 2 world series in their short existence (15 yrs). They manage to go out and get some FA to pair with their young players and win. Then they do dump salaries and start over. Still they have had only 4 seasons with 90+ losses, compare that to the Orioles never ending string of 90+ losses.

mark c while i liked your rant/posting what would it hurt to post it 5 or 6 more times?

on another note, burrell, yes thank you andy for not even looking at him. We don't need him. Also, Keith Law on ESPN is predicting Weiters as ROY.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?page=predictions09/mlb

Roch, can we depend on you to be objective when Angelos is the one signing your paycheck? We all know how he has tried to influence the media in the past.

Respectfully yours,
CB
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Angelos isn't signing my paycheck, and I've answered that question so many times that I'll just respectfully ask that you check the archives and scroll through the comments. I'm sure you'll stumble upon a few responses around the Teixeira signing. - Roch

It would be nice to be able to scroll down through the messages rather than scroll up. But the guys who could fix it are asking for too much money from MASN and they don't want to come here anyway.

Sign them both, what could it hurt?
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That's not out of the question. Doesn't have to be one or the other. - Roch

Hisbreaking ball looks like it has nice movement. The fastball looks a little hittable. Every batters' stride foot seemed to indicate that he's the kind of pitcher who relies on reading the batters' timing and throwing them what they're not expecting. The big problem with MLB jitters can be that they are excellent with keeping their batspeed in between the fastball and offspeed pitch. That being said, he was really catching guys late or early on their swings. I like how he uses the outside corner to augment his changeup's velocity differential too.

I love the way these guys call strike-outs.

HAI!!!!

Roch, obviously the only way you can be taken serious is if you take a vow of poverty, sleep in the gutter, and blog your baseball news by randomly squatting unlocked wifi signals. Otherwise you will always be a stoolie of Peter A.

Jack,

You need a hobby or something.

The Japanese pitchers are being courted by several teams other than the O's so it might take a while. But then that's a good thing because it will give Jack, our Assistant Secretary of Sarcasm a better opportunity to evaluate Andy's every move. Uehara does look like he can throw strikes, so, that in and of itself would be a welcome sight.

Go O's!

I'm watching the O's vs. KC from 1990 on ESPNC. The announcer (not ours) was just discussing why the O's used Sam Horn and not Stan Jefferson as DH against Saberhagen.

What a choice.

Yes, Bo Jackson is in the game.

Roch,

I think we should sign both and throw in the announcers too, their much better than Palmer, Martinez and Dempsey!. Also I heard today that contrary to earlier statements by the O's that were a small market team, much like the Rays and Twins, the Warehouse has now declared us a Sub-Small Market team. This is just actually code for being really cheap! So in lieu of Burrell for $16M were looking at Richie Sexson at $1M per. And in lieu of Carl Pavano with an incentive laden $2M contract, we contacted the agents for: Steve Trachel, Paul (I only want to pitch a half season) Byrd, Brad Looped Again Looper! I can't wait til opening day to see CC and Tex, just a shame they'll be in the wrong uniform!

Roch.....What is up with our fans calling McPhail, "McFail?" I'm sure everyone thinks they know how to be a GM in the MLB. McPhail pulled off some trades that will benefit the O's in the long run. Got rid of Tejeda and Bedard for great prospects that will help the future of the O's.

After reading your update on Burrell, I wanted to ask you about Scott Moore. What is up with him and how does the organization view him? He came over from the Cubs, he was seen as a prospect that could help at the infield corner spots with some pop in the bat.
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He was tearing it up in spring training before injuries hit. I hear he didn't handle his demotion to Triple-A Norfolk very well, then got hurt again. But a big spring could put him in the club's plans again. It sure would benefit Moore to show the Orioles that he can play shortstop, which he hasn't done in a while. We already know about second and third base. - Roch

I'd like to see Andy trade the whole Orioles team for the Yomiuri Giants team straight up. I'd be there for opening day. We'd have the whole world watching.

Roch-- Especially like the strikeouts of Bonds & Giambi in that video-- nice.

Any idea if we continue to pursue others, like Redding, Martinez, etc.?

Oh-- and did you see how JACK typed our GM's name McFail, not McPhail? I've just never seen that before. Man, that's funny. What a hoot. I've just gotta write that one down and use it sometime. Man what a card. Oh, that Jack...
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I don't think they've moved on from Redding and the other pitchers that you've read about, but I think the odds are much better that they sign Kawakami or Uehara before anyone else. - Roch

Hey Roch watching the Japanese footage got me thinking. Is Larry Bigbie still playing over in Japan? Last I heard he was playing over there. Wasnt sure if you knew he still was? You da man.
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Come on, Tom, how can I be da man when you da man?! Last I heard, Bigbie was still in Japan. - Roch

I'm not so sure about this Japanese fad. So far Dice K has been pretty good, not unbelievable. He's supposed to be the best, and then our old foes the Yanks stumbled into this fad feet first and got Kei Igawa. He appears to be an OK AA pitcher.
It's like the teams would rather be desirous of someone they don't know well, as to someone they do know well. Uehara looks like Rodrigo w/ a split...could be worse I suppose.

PS.
To those who think Roch's a schill for Peter, look at the blasts that get through regularly. The only time I remember being edited, I was railing against Kenny Williams! Come on Roch...let me at 'em.

Jack, this is an O's fans message board just making sure you know that. People on this message board will start typing your name as "Wack" as annoying as your McPhail thing is (its not clever or funny or cool).

Roch, rather than answer the same questions all the time, maybe you could consider a list of readily seen facts:

1. PGA doesn't sign my paycheck
2. PGA did not block a trade of Roberts
3. I do like the Orioles
etc.

Might be easier and it could go on beneath that nice photograph of you on the side.

I'm just starting to feel bad for you.
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That's not a bad idea! - Roch

Does anyone out there know WHY ESPN classic was broadcasting the Orioles v Royals game from Opening Day, 1990? Did anyone out there besides Mrs. Aldrich remember that Jay Aldrich got the win?

Jack made me understand why I got a warning on Oriole Hangout for calling Andy "McFail". It's stupid,sorry Mr.MacPhail.----I still want both of the Japanese pitchers!

I'm in favor of signing both Kawakami and Uehara if the $ make sense. Uehara has walked less than 30 batters in a season (160 IP per season on average). Kawakami has kept his walks under 40 every year since 1999. Both have good K/BB ratios. Would be quite a change from Cabrera, Olson, Liz et al... walking 6+ batters per game.

Brian--That's a great list of readily seen facts for Roch. Here's one more: 4) His name is spelled "MacPhail"

Tom... re: Bigbie, yeah, he didn't even finish the season in Japan, if I recall. Lots of injuries (imagine that). They've got a creative list of "reasons/excuses" to be DL'd and moving back 'n' forth to the minors over there. I blogged about it on facebook and someone asked me if I was drunk when I wrote it. Apparently you can get "called up" to play on your birthday. Huh. I can't even make that stuff up.
Here's his injury list for 2008:
Aug 17, 2008 - Sprained left ankle
May 08 - Fully recovered from right let peroneal muscle contusion
Apr 26 - Damaged the peroneal muscle in right leg
Apr 13 - Activated as pain in right side has healed

I have since tried to call in sick with a pain in my right side, but was told I was already a pain in someone's @ss so I had to go into work anyway. The Japanese have all the fun. P Matt White was DL'd for "inflammation of lip to left shoulder joint". Oh, the images that conjures up....

Sorry to stray off topic. I do that.

Roch

This isn't a comment about the blog entry, it is a question- What school did you attend. (no not high school)

-Thanks-
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Ridgeway Elem., Old Mill Middle School South, Old Mill High and Univ. of Md. You? - Roch

Jack, If you were half as funny as you think are; you'd be twice as funny as you are.

I'd still be playing in Japan too if I named a bunch of my former teammates to the Mitchell Report providing little evidence other than hearsay.

MLB Network reported tonight that Jason Giambi will sign with the A's by the end of the week. Losing both Giambi and Bobby Abreau from the middle of their lineup will hurt the Yankees. I can't think of two players on the same team who saw more pitches. They constantly turn over the lineup.

Roch,
Did you see Scott Boras on the Hot Stove Live program on MLBNetwork tonight? He talks about the Teixeira negotiations and his decision for NYY rather than BAL or DC.
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Didn't see it. What did he say? - Roch

Hey Roch...have you ever seen the way that they have "baseball fights" in Korea??? Do yourself a favor and youtube 'Korean Baseball Fight'... it's hella FUNNY!!!!

Oh and Happy Birthday to Brian Bass!! ( i was just scanning the 40 man roster, and happened to see his birth date January 6th)

Maybe Daniel Cabrera should pitch in Korea...he might have a leg up on the other fellows

Roch -

Belated Happy New year!

Gotta say I'm glad the O's didn't show interest in Burrell, and hope they do the same with Dunn.

You think that if they miss out on Zaun they might consider Pudge? I mean even I-rod has to know that at this point in his career he's not going to catch 125 games a year. I think we give Pudge a 2 year deal. I'm thinking that Weiters doesn't come up until later this summer at the earliest, and that still gives the majority of starts to Pudge. Thinks there's a chance?
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There's a chance. - Roch

So he is basically a Japanese Josh Towers.

Roch,
Tommy has it right. I'm sick and tired of the 'McFail' references. People can criticize all they want, but to show such blatant lack of respect for someones's proper name is, to me, disgusting. Jack, you can get lost - you have no one's respect.
Roch, may I suggest editing out these references, like with '***' or something. I'm fast losing interest in the blog when people continue to do this. Or maybe the guilty parties are not true Oriole fans?

Roch,
Tommy has it right. I'm sick and tired of the 'McFail' references. People can criticize all they want, but to show such blatant lack of respect for someone's proper name is, to me, disgusting. Jack, you can get lost - you have no one's respect.
Roch, may I suggest editing out these references, like with '***' or something. I'm fast losing interest in the blog when people have no respect.