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Roch:
Have you increased you over/under for tomorrow night? If the bar was set at 40,000, what would you take?
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We already set it at 30,000, so we'll keep it there. And I'm definitely taking the over. - Roch

Roch,
Yes Pie made a great throw early in the game, but grossly misplayed two balls in the six run inning Hill had to endure. When did we see players with "skills" not put there body in front of a ball which bounces in front of you. And to not catch a ball that hits off the base of the outfield wall? All you have to do is compare it to Markakis going up the wall and nearly snagging the fly ball of the scoreboard, that is a real player. Scrap Pie and let Reimold play every day.

I have seen him pitch many times at Bowie.
Let me enlighten the posters. A plus fastball and plus plus sinker. The sinker is his strikeout pitch. Throws in the low to mid 90s. Will average near a 100 pitches at 7 innings due to being a strikeout pitcher. Fields his position well also. Aggressive in terms of going after hitters while walking about 3-4 a game. Downfall, sometimes will lose focus and find himself behind in the count instead of always going after the batters. Averages around 8 K's a game.

Should be a fun game to watch. Nerves dont usually effect him in a big game at Bowie.

The call up of these kids serve as little more than a panic move by Pete’s minions in the accounting department.

Attendance is one of the primary sources of revenue for most teams and with the number of fans coming to the ball park at an all time low, something had to change.

Summer is just about here and Ole Pete wants to make sure he can afford to wine and dine on the French Riviera with other billionaires and oligarchs.

Plus with the lagging economy and higher property fees, those golf memberships for Andy aren’t getting any cheaper.

Calling up Weiters is a revenue injection, pure and simple. If attendance was at 40,000 per game, somehow I think Weiters et al would still be ordering lattes from BMS down in Norfolk.

Not many people were going to come out to a series against the Tigers. But now the kids are suddenly “ready” attendance will spike. On a short term basis this will give the team and Pete the cash injection it needs. But in the long term, once the novelty wares off attendance will drop back to 10-12,000 people per game.

I'm still thinking (and hoping) Ray goes down to make room for Hernandez. I disagree with John's post that Pie is a "luxury." He's the only other guy who can really play center and is not a luxury when our other reserve outfielder is the DH most of the time. Sure the pitcher could hit if there is an injury and Scott needs to go to the outfield, but why do that? The bullpen could use a rest, but Hendrickson is available tonight if Hernandez falters. Who keeps 13 pitchers?

Gotta love this....and playing better with them....just hope it continues to be like it has the last week...and we still have lots more bad a** young guys in the wings and did not bother the young pitching to much...excpet maybe Hernandez....he will go back when Uehara come sback....but how exciting.....

Thanks for the productive post Jack. Appreciate the scouting report.

Amazing how bad Pie looks in LF. I trust the numerous reports that claim he is a plus outfielder. I can't imagine why he's so bad out there. Scouting reports about hitting ability are often wrong, but outfield play is so much easier to judge. It just doesn't make sense. Any ideas Roch?
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He's used to playing center instead of left. That's the reason we keep hearing. You see flashes of his skills, and then a play that makes you shake your head. - Roch

Pie is a work in progress at best. He doesnt belong taking up a major league roster spot. The ML is not a place to learn as you go for POSITION players. That iswhat the minors are for. AAA is loaded with a lot of players who can play at that level but not transition it to the ML. Pie is obviously one of them.

Lets face it, he is here for one reason because Andrew brought him in. He is not going anywhere so get used to him being given a roster spot. There are such things as teacher's pets and Pie is clearly one of them. Lets move on to important things.

The trade deadline is coming up. I surely hope Andrew is working the phones to rid us of some dead or aging wood. Walker, Baez, Hendrickson, Zaun and so on. Maybe Andrew can trade them for a PTBNL or a free vacation for his family to be announced. Did we ever find out what we got for Bradford Roch?

Roch, you get a chance to talk to Millar while he was in town. Always a nice conversation.
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Just a brief exchange as we passed each other on the way to our respective clubhouses. Great goatee! - Roch

Brummie_Oriole said:

"Summer is just about here and Ole Pete wants to make sure he can afford to wine and dine on the French Riviera with other billionaires and oligarchs.
Plus with the lagging economy and higher property fees, those golf memberships for Andy aren’t getting any cheaper."

Ok Brummie, now step AWAY from the laptop and get back to your parent's basement. Good boy.

ROch

DO you think wieters will DH on sunday? Im going to the dugout club sunday, cant make it Friday.
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It's possible, since it's a day game after a night game. Or he'll be rested. Don't expect him to catch. - Roch

Brummie_Oriole said:
The call up of these kids serve as little more than a panic move by Pete’s minions in the accounting department.

What an Idiotic Statement! Move on people, nothing to see or READ from this Tool.

B_0 must not have been on the planet Earth in the 1990's. I remember every single game I went to was 40,000+ fans, every year, even when the O's were in a losing streak or not really in contention.

The fans come when there's a quality team on the field, or you're the Yankees. Heck, they didn't STOP coming even after the first few bad years, as attendance was still at a 40,000 average through 2000 (we averaged 40,000 from '92-2000). I think a lot of the drop-off in the early 2000's was due to Mussina leaving, and then it got even worse with the complete dismantling of any resemblance of a competitive team. Even with this decrease, we still averaged above 30,000 a game until 2006.

If the rookies play well, there's no reason not to expect the attendance to increase again. Probably not to those gaudy numbers of the '90s, but I'd guess around 30-35,000.

Plus, have you not seen how the rookies have performed? It seems to me they've all been ready to play at the highest level.

The Orioles are riding a winning streak right now and the players are happy. I know if I was a rookie, that's the environment I would want to debut in.

Brummie needs to come out of the closet and pubically root for the dreaded yankees.

Roch,

Kevin Cowherd has his over at 40k, I think you sandbagged your prediction.

it will be nice to see a legit strike out pitcher trying to make his mark. i cant remember seeing an orioles pitcher with high k rates since erik bedard. i hope hernandez sticks and i certainly hope wieters is signing autographs on friday!!!

jack the only one needs to be gotten rid of is walker and pie . andy has done a decent job but to me what we are starting to see is joe jordans 1st draft .i love zaun as backup catcher we could always have ramon for catcher .

I am so excited about what the O's are doing. They are putting themselves in a position to continue to develop their talent, but get some of those young guys experience in the pros, and possibly put together a really good second half.

They are going to run into a good problem to have when Koji's available to come off the DL. Hopefully Berken, Hernandez, Hill, Guthrie, and Bergenson are all throwing well at that point.

Hill didn't look good at all yesterday, but you can't make a judgment based on 1 bad start. I'm sure Kranny will get him straightened out.

I can't wait until Reimold and Wieters get comfortable at the plate in the majors, that is one nasty lineup. Dare I say rivals the yankess...

Roberts > Cano
Jones > M Cabrera
Markhakis > Swisher
Huff Mora Scott = Matsui
Reimold ? Damon (Damon is putting together a good season due to hitting
in front of Tex and ARoid)
Wieters > Posada (Hopefully)
Izturis = Jeter (That may be due to some of my YankHate but Jeter is
vastly overrated in the field)

Matt said:

Pie should never see an MLB batters box again unless he is raking it before Reimold comes up to bat.
May 27, 2009 5:50 PM

Funny one. If he fails at that, I fully expect to see him in his native DR one day, serving drinks on the beach or working the pool bar in Punta Cana.
Pie has to stay for now at least. He should count his good fortune due to Montanez's poor fortune...

It has to be Ray going to make room for Hernandez, he is the least effective with options left. I also say, let the competition between Hill, Hernandez, & Berken decide who stays when Koji gets well.

Big kudos to Baez yesterday too, former whipping boy of the masses here, he & Huff have turned the fair weather ones around...

ianz, think you are stretching just a bit with your Izturis = Jeter comparison? Then your overall comparison is slightly skewed when you conveniently leave out ARod and Tex, two of the top 5 hitters in baseball. The O's are coming but we have a long way to go to compete on a consistent level with teams like Boston and New York...

This is an exciting time for Orioles fans. The whole roster is just turning over and looking brighter and brighter everyday. Yesturdays was jus amazing and I was proud to be a ball girl in that!
If this is now ... I can't wait for the future!!!

I watched the previous start against Louisville in which he won 1-0. David went 5 1/3 innings, walked 4 with 6 k's but the thing that stuck out with me was that he threw so many off speed pitches that when he threw a 94 mph fastball no one could catch up to it. Let's hope for the best but 5 innings may be all they get from him tonight. Hopefully the Tigers are aggressive at the plate and help keep the pitch count down.

He reminded me a little of Pete Harnisch.

So our regular lineup after Friday should look like this:

2B Roberts
CF Jones
RF Markakis
LF Huff
3B Mora
DH Scott
LF Reimold
C Wieters
SS Izturis

Bench: Wigginton, Pie, Andino, Zaun

Starters: Guthrie, Hill, Bergesen, Berken, Hernandez
Pen: Albers, Hendrickson, Bass, Baez, Walker, Johnson, Sherrill

I like the right/left balance in the lineup and wonder if any team has had three switch hitters bat in a row? I also like the versatility of the bench with guys who can play multiple positions, plus the balance there between lefties (or a switch hitter) and righties too.

When Koji is ready to return, I guess one of the young starters gets sent back for more seasoning unless someone gets traded and Koji or one of the young guys goes to the pen (I think unlikely). If Ray goes down and excells, then maybe they move Bass or Baez near the deadline and bring Ray back.

Hey Roch,

First-time poster, long-time reader. Where do you predict Wieters will hit in the order on Friday night? I'll be late arriving to the game. So is it wrong for me to hope he's hitting 8th and we have a couple of quick innings against Willis?
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I'm guessing eighth. I'll try to come up with a mock lineup later. - Roch

Ted, I understand there is some fan sediment for zaun. But his personality is NOT going to lend itself to being a bench player. He will turn into a clubhouse distraction by August 1st. I hope I am wrong, but we shall see.

I disagree with a poster's comments regarding the trade deadline and only needing to get rid of Walker and Pie. We are in a rebuilding stage. And if Andrew does have a plan (which I doubt) a committment should be made to also ridding ourselves of Huff, Mora, Baez, Hendrickson and likes. They are not part of the long term future of this club. They are better served obtaining prospects then eating up spots for the likes of Arrietta, Tillman, Snyder & Rowell.

As with the attendance and drawing fans. Lets be honest, bringing up Weiters was a "Fan hype" move. He is ready now but wasnt a month ago? Yes the poster was right when they said that we use to fill the stands with 40k a night. Filling the stands doesnt matter if you are losing or winning. You fill the stands each night if the fans feel the team the O's are putting on the field is a) a respectable team and b) the best team available. The reason we have only been averaging 15k or so is because of the likes of Eaton, Hendrickson, Pie and so on. Lets get real, give the fans an ounce of hope, they will show. If you dont and give the perception the team has lost before they take the field.....THEY WONT.

Jack said:

Pie is a work in progress at best. He doesnt belong taking up a major league roster spot. The ML is not a place to learn as you go for POSITION players. (unless you're Nolan Reimold, Matt Wieters, or Lou Montanez...or Nick Markakis or Adam Jones...Pie is just as accomplished a minor league player as any of those) That is what the minors are for. AAA is loaded with a lot of players who can play at that level but not transition it to the ML. Pie is obviously one of them (Obviously! Just like it was obvious after the same number of at bats that Markakis or Jones could play in the ML either).

Lets face it, he is here for one reason because Andrew brought him in (um, he's on the roster because the GM put him there... aren't all the players on the roster because the GM put them there? I'll look it up in my Baseball Dictionary, but I think the GM is in charge of the roster). He is not going anywhere so get used to him being given a roster spot. There are such things as teacher's pets and Pie is clearly one of them (there are also such things as jack...ah, I digress, this is family blog). Lets move on to important things. (Finally!)

The trade deadline is coming up. I surely hope Andrew is working the phones to rid us of some dead or aging wood. (I'm sure he's sitting in his office reading all of our lame posts and coming up with ways to annoy us like deciding who is on the roster and who is not). Walker (he's not worth anything), Baez (the most important piece of the bullpen this year), Hendrickson (the only remotely effective lefty), Zaun (a switch-hitting, popular, back up catcher who knows how to call a game and block the plate...please, can we get rid of him!) and so on. Maybe Andrew can trade them for a PTBNL or a free vacation for his family to be announced. Did we ever find out what we got for Bradford Roch? (More cash then you'll see in the next decade, my friend.)

Red hot Tigers coming into town. I fear we are due for a clown-stomping. Pretty sure the Tigers line-up will be a bit tougher to K than the scrubs Hernandez faced at AAA. I believe Andy is working feverishly on a deal to move either Scott or Huff. Someone from the bench needs to be sent down and it appears that everyone but Reimold would need to clear waivers. And we all know we don't want to see Reimold go back down.

Roch, do you know the pitch arsenal that David Hernandez has? And the pitch speed of each pitch?

Just wondering if the Orioles provided a basic report of what Hernandez has, since we always see these pitch graphics of every pitcher's pitches with the grips.

Thanks, Jack, for that report. I knew he was throwing heat but didn't know what other pitches he had.

I am very excited to see Hernandez's debut tonight, and see what he does. I have never seen him pitch, and am seeing if he can be our power pitcher.
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I hope to gather more info on him today once I get to the ballpark. - Roch

Pie has done a complete 180 in the field (and I don't mean how he used to circle fly balls) since May 1st and is making the great plays look routine in left. I'm sure he'll still make the occasional mistake but some defensive metrics have him as the best left fielder in the league, even though he's no longer a full time player.

He's also hitting .250 and slugging .444 in May, not great but moving in the right direction. He'll be fine as a 4th outfielder.

Thanks for the shout out Roch. Was coming over to chat when the Wieters news hit. People were scrambling for their laptops/sources/phones after that!

Oh... and I also wanted to know - how is it possible to meet you? I've seen several people on here being able to meet you, and I'd like to say hello at least once.

I'm going to the game on Friday night. Where are you mostly situated, Roch?
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I'm in the lower press box, behind home plate. Just walk up to the front and get my attention - without throwing anything at me, of course. Yell out my name. That usually works. - Roch

Hey Roch,
All of the Orioles buzz has really gotten me excited! I saw you a couple of weeks ago at the local super market and wanted to ask you about the Orioles organization. I was curious as to which prospects could be sent up in the next year for the corners of the infield? I realize that Mora and possibly Huff aren't long term solutions.

Also could you touch on where they could go with their first round pick in this years draft?
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Probably best pitcher available. As for the infield, Brandon Snyder is the top corner infield prospect. If he keeps hitting this way, he could be the first baseman. Not so sure about third. Scott Moore is injured again. Billy Rowell moved to right field. That's a tough one. - Roch

As far as trade bait I'd say the 2 biggest veterans with value are Huff and Baez. I'd hate to trade Huff because he's been pretty solid at 1st and he's been hitting well for the past 2 years. But you have to dangle them out there to see what we could get in return. I dread the thought of seeing Wigginton at 1st for the next 2 years though.
Baez has value but his salary is pretty high and we would probably have to eat some of it to move him. And I will say that it's amazing how a few good outings can change your opinion of a player. Coming into the season I couldn't stand the thought of him coming back to pitch. I had a chance to meet him briefly while in the parking lot in Fort Lauderdale, getting autographs. He seemed like a really great guy but I was hoping that he would be an a-hole so my previous opinion would be justified. He has me converted and I'm on the Baez bandwagon.
Walker has no value to another team, especially with his high salary.
And anyone that thinks Mora is going anywhere in a trade is delusional. The man is going to retire as an Oriole, plain and simple.

Jack said:
Pie is a work in progress at best. He doesnt belong taking up a major league roster spot. The ML is not a place to learn as you go for POSITION players. That iswhat the minors are for.
-------------------------------------
True, except he is out of options and if you don't think another team would grab him, just take a look at where Adam Loewen is playing. The reality of the rules sometimes means that compromises have to be made. Now, he does not deserve much time right now as Reimold is playing great but it would be a mistake to let him go without being sure. Does he look good? Not at all. He is hopeless? He could be, but it is too early to tell. Baseball is a real hard game you know.

Roch, I caught this snippet on Yahoo! sports:

"1B Aubrey Huff hit a solo shot 398 feet in the second, which looked as if it was off the warehouse in right."

This didn't actually happen, right?
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Not even close. - Roch

ok normally i dont respond to trolls like brummie and the other guy. and Roch i'm sorry for using your comment space like a message board but..

BRUMMIE

please please please tell me what you would rather the club and ANDREW be doing. if you were the GM please tell me how your plan would differ from McPhail's. are you saying you wouldn't bring up the best prospect in baseball? are you saying we shouldn't go out to the park to welcome him in? are you saying he's not as good as everyone says? please Brummie explain to everyone what good ole Brummie would do to improve this team.

Or.. do you have the driest sense of humor ever and are shining everyone on here and your posts are entirely satirical of the eternally pessimistic? are you a martyr? have you decided your role on Roch's blog is devil's advocate?

Lost in all the Pie-should-be-cut talk: who is the Orioles' other contingency at CF besides Pie? Would they try to put Scott out there? Obviously we love Jones but he's not exactly made of steel.

To the person who said we could still have Ramon, the 2 prospects we got for him are tearing up pitching in the minors.Turner started slow but he is over .300 now and Waring has been around .300 all year.

Thanks, Roch! I'll make my way through the crowd, flap my arms, and try to get your attention!

I'm gonna be in the left-field, lower box seats, and probably will try to be there a bit earlier. As usual, love your updates, and keep 'em coming like bottles of champagne!

"ianz, think you are stretching just a bit with your Izturis = Jeter comparison? Then your overall comparison is slightly skewed when you conveniently leave out ARod and Tex, two of the top 5 hitters in baseball. The O's are coming but we have a long way to go to compete on a consistent level with teams like Boston and New York..."

For some reason, the post did not save anything after the less than signs. I had
-Tex better than Huff (except when Aroid isnt in the lineup)
-Aroid better than Mora (because of Roids)

Right now Tex and Damon are purely products of Arod being in the lineup. The only time Tex produced without a ton of protection was in Atlanta, and he still had Chipper there. He has always been in the middle of the best offenses in baseball (Texas, Anaheim, now NY). I'm tarting to realize that he isn't the hitter we've built him up to be.

This is the exact motion that MacPhail had mapped out early on. The team needed this kind of shakeup to mix in the competitive youngsters with the valuable veterans. It is already starting to show progress by the fight this team has. So exciting to see everything falling into place. Our lineup is exciting. The young pitching is exciting. This is great! Go Baltimore!

Jack is actually posting with some sense...can't say I'm not surprised, but Brummie is being his usual self.

As far as Pie goes, I still think there is a lot of negativity towards him because of the Lou Montanez debacle, but there isn't anything that can be done about it. Do you want Joey Gathright? Or how about Jeff Fiorentino? Those two are the only ones fit to be 4th or 5th OF for the O's right now, and I don't think anyone can say that they are better or have more upside than Pie.

On trading Huff--don't do it. The guy wants to be here, and he is a good veteran presence for the team. Since he wants to be here, he will take the money, run around the bases and pump his fists for a few more years in an O's uniform. He's committed only 2 errors at first base so far, and I know everyone thought he'd be a tornado short of a disaster. And there isn't a good option at first right now if he goes. Sure, Snyder can rake, but his defense isn't there yet. He will get promoted to AAA at the break most likely, and may even come up when the rosters expand. But I think he's going to benefit from more time at AAA next year.

Walker isn't worth squat right now, and needs to be released. Today, I see either him getting cut or Ray being optioned. This team doesn't need 13 pitchers right now, especially with the majority of the bullpen pitching well as of late. If these rooks justify the hype, MacPhail is going to have some hard decisions to make once Uehara is ready to pith again. I say either he or Hernandez go to the bullpen, but I think the pen would benefit Uehara more.

I'm going to go out and say for Hernandez tonight 6IP 5H 3R 2BB 5K and gets the win!

I don't know what tomorrow night lineup going to be but down the road from now I expext the lineup to look like:

Brob 2B
Jones CF
Nick RF
Huff 1B
Wieters C
Remiold LF
Luke DH
Mora 3B
Izturis SS

Sometime in the near future I see lineup becoming this!

I'll be the first one to admit that I advocated cutting Baez at the end of spring training, saying they should keep Bass and/or Penn over him. I was wrong. I also love what Huff has done since rebounding from the Bubba the Love Sponge debacle. That said, unless we suddenly go on a run that puts us in the thick of the race in July, I think you have to see what you can get for those guys at the trade deadline. Mora too, although his right to veto trades may keep him here. Scott? You have to listen. I would listen on Roberts too. Someone quoted an article on the internet about the Cubs needing to trade for Roberts and possibly offering Samardzija and a top pitching prospect. I don't know if they would actually offer that, but wouldn't you have to consider it if we're out of the race? What if you could get Samardzija and Josh Vitters for Roberts? You would have to do that wouldn't you? I absolutely love Roberts and doubt Angelos will ever part with him, but we're still building here; and, outside of Jones, Markakis and Wieters, is there anyone on (or soon to be on) the active major league roster who is untouchable?

On May 12 Brummie_Oriole said (speaking about Rich Hill):

Allow me to explain Richard: Andrew does not believe in bringing these prospects up to develop in the majors. He would rather leave them in the minors and continue to march out retreads like Eaton, Hendrickson and the author of the above quote. Sensible ideas are thrown out the window here. These prospects will only get here before 1 September if someone gets injured or a full blown clubhouse coup occurs.

In September all these guys Richard mentioned will suddenly be "ready" according to the baseball genius in the Warehouse and then next year we will be graced with two more pitching retreads while the prospects continue to "develop."

===========================

On May 28 Brummie_Oriole said:
The call up of these kids serve (sic) as little more than a panic move by Pete’s minions in the accounting department.

Attendance is one of the primary sources of revenue for most teams and with the number of fans coming to the ball park at an all time low, something had to change.

===========================

It's obvious that Brummie_Oriole is only spouting out controversial remarks to get a rise out of the more naive readers. Folks need to stop getting into a lather over his posts and ignore him. His goal is not honest dialog, but garnering attention for himself.

LOL at Ianz' comparison of the O's lineup to the Yankees. What a homer. Here's a dose of reality for you.

Jeter >>>> Izturis
Damon >>>> Reimold, Scott, Pie
Teixeira >>>>>>>>>>> Huff
Arod >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Mora
Matsui = Scott, Wigginton
Cano >>> Roberts
Swisher Cabrera Cervelli >>>>>>>> Zaun

So it appears only Jones and Markakis would be the better players at their position.

We all now know for sure that Jack & Brummie are the same. Reference these posts from the previous entry; three minutes apart at nearly 3:00am. I'm guessing Roch wasn't approving entries at that time, so how would Brummie know what Jack Posted? Very interesting yeah.

jack said:
To all the bloggers out there, I have been totally wrong on many of my posts. Please forgive my negativity. I will try to be a positive fan for now on.
May 28, 2009 2:56 AM

Brummie_Oriole said:
After this game, I like Jack was thinking that I would put all my negativity to rest and think positive thoughts for my team. Even though most of you think I hate the O's. I really do like them.
May 28, 2009 2:59 AM

I agree with Chuck. The O's should be trying to lock Huff up for another 2 years at this point. If we go past the trade deadline without trading Huff and he's still raking his asking price is going to be even higher. The waiting game cost the O's millions of dollars with Roberts and Markakis. I would hope they have learned their lesson by now.
Huff has gone on the record as saying that he doesn't want to be traded again. He wants to be here and see this thing through. He was in Tampa through all of the bad years and was traded right before they saw the playoffs. He doesn't want that to happen again.

To quote Larry KGB from the movie Rounders, "Pay him. Pay dis man his money."

mab - ALERT -
Dugout club game is Saturday - not Sunday - I'm taking my grandkids -planned well in advance....Friday I'm taking my sons - not planned well in advance but I couldn't help myself - the new baby birds are just exciting -anybody else who can get tickets for Friday should - a sellout would be a great shoutout to anyone whose listening!!!

Hey Brian, that Pie serving drinks comment wasn't funny the first time you said it a few weeks ago. So you were advocating Baez at the end of ST? Really? That's right, I forgot you know more than everyone else. You told me that too.

Jack said:
" Pie is a work in progress at best. He doesnt belong taking up a major league roster spot. The ML is not a place to learn as you go for POSITION players. That is what the minors are for".

And that is why Matt Wieters started the year at AAA! Now your learning Jack!
BTW-I like the way you stuck in for POSITION players, sounds like you realized mid-sentence what an idiotic statement you were making.
Also, that was a great report that you gave on Hernandez, to bad it was right off the Baseball America webb site(just about word for word) I read it a couple of days ago. Well at least we know you know how to cut and paste!

I think McPhail has already begun to think about the possibility of DFA'ing Pie. I don't think it will happen for another month, but I think there's a reason he brought in Joey Gathright to play down in AAA. I actually like Gathright and while he's not the long-term answer, I would call him a more competent Pie.

Is it possible for the light to go on for Pie? I mean, I just don't know.

Funny stuff about how well you know David Hernandez...but we all know his brother, Ramon. Too bad he's not here --- could have been another brother battery.

Unofficial StubHub analysis of Friday night's potential attendance to go over 40,000...

# ticket listings on Stub Hub:
Tonight - 51
Friday - 34
Saturday - 99
Sunday - 133

Looks to me like the natives are gearing up for Mattie's debut.

Cardwell said:

To quote Larry KGB from the movie Rounders, "Pay him. Pay dis man his money."

May 28, 2009 10:36 AM

Cardwell, you were close. It was Teddie KGB played by John Malkovich "Pay him, pay dat man his money".

Bucktail (10:31 AM), those Jack and Brummie posts were obviously fakes, they would never apologize for their idiocy. I don't know why Roch even approved that junk. Any Jack or Brummie posts containing apologies or saying they were wrong about MacPhail are clearly not actually by them. People need to stop wasting their time because it won't deter the losers. Only a ban will get rid of the trolls.

While most of us know this it bears repeating. When scouts rate prospects, one non statistical category they use is ceiling or upside. There is a reason that kids like Pie or Daniel Cabrera get an extra long look before throwing in the towel on them. It is worth the gamble or cost because their ceiling is so high. Everyone sees that that they havent yet achieved that level and recognizes they might never do so but because of how high their ceiling could potentially be, you have to give them more of a shot than someone whose upside projects to utility player or long relief. THAT is why Andy is going longer than some might like with Pie, not because of any silly pride issue. If Brummie or Jack had ever accomplished anything in their lives, they would not transfer their own feelings of inadequacy on Andy. He has actual accomplishments (built world series team), is highly respected within his field and is accomplishing a miracle with this team so the last thing he needs to worry about is admitting a mistake on something as risky as individual personnel decisions. No one is perfect in the draft or on personnel decisions so it is no slight to admit a mistake.

As for the revelation that the business entity called the Baltimore Orioles is making decisions based on creating revenue . . . who'd a thunk it? A busniess trying to make money? Could it possibly be true? Weiters was going to come up some day. If it was ONLY about revenues, he would have come up last year to get the revenue earlier. Holding him down was clearly NOT about money as the time/value of money equation says a dollar earned last year is worth more than a dollar earned this year due to the lost utility of that dollar over the time between the two dates. So as usual the arguments made by these fools make no actual sense.

There are plenty of examples of players being rushed up to please the fans (David Clyde) or boost attendance. Bringing Wieters up a week or two earlier than expected is hardly anything to prompt speculation of sinister motives.

Hey Roch, just a shout out the pieces of the puzzle is slowly getting in place,maybe .500 ball this year.(82-82) WATCH OUT NEXT YEAR!!!!!

Hey Roch, just a shout out the pieces of the puzzle is slowly getting in place,maybe .500 ball this year.(82-82) WATCH OUT NEXT YEAR!!!!!