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I'll admit that I had already switched to another channel and only came back to see if the game was actually over and was astounded to see Nick Markakis batting with the bases loaded and one run in already in the 9th. This Orioles team can be exasperating...yet they keep you coming back and checking "just in case" because they'll throw just enough of these type of games at you.

Good job tonight guys...I'll forgive you for the leaving the bases loaded with no one out against Garrett Olson back in the 7th -- though that one does still sting a little.

Roch,

Great Game! But what is up with the mustache on Huff and Roberts?
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I haven't heard a reason for it. Not a good look, though. I think most of us would agree. - Roch

Great comeback!!

Jose Lopez - if you are reading this blog. Thank You!!

Roch - Brian Roberts looked like he was growing a mustache too. Is there some reason they are doing that?

Thanks
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I haven't heard of any reasons, but if it's leading to comeback victories or 12-run outbursts, I'd hide the razors. And the shaving cream pies. - Roch

First Huff, now Roberts. Who else is joining the moustache club?

Another comeback...why this team can drive you nuts, but what a great win! I will take them anyway we can get them.

That's what happens when you do stupid things on the base paths.

Brian Roberts upper lip is being attacked by some kind of small, hairy insect. Somebody warn him.

orioles scared ne there for a second when they didnt score any runs with the bases loaded the first time. orioles roared back and got the victory git r done orioles

Roch, a few of your headlines have made me shield my eyes and shake my head.

But none of your puns have ever been so bad as when Trembley just told Jim Palmer that pitching in the big leagues is a real "learning CURVE" and then chuckled at his own joke.

Yikes.

I hope huff is okay that will probaly make his stock go down a tide bit
(we still won) why didn't brob start day he is our lineup starter in hiting when he did hit he got on base

What is this, Freaky Friday?

Luckily it is only the offense of Jose Lopez that counts for my fantasy middle infield backup.

Good win- it stops the bleeding before the AS break. I know it took until the 9th but I think the team may be responding to Trembley's fire. I am not exactly a fan of grown men throwing a tantrum in a public setting, but for whatever reason it seems to help inspire baseball players. If DT can develop a hard edge with the umps and the vets I would be tempted to give him a much longer leash. THe fundamentals including Huff's boneheaded pickoff need to be addressed by someone though!

Also, I like Hernandez but odd to see so few K's. Have there ever been 5 rookies in one rotation (besides the first year of baseball of course)?

This might be a good time to see if Scott can play 1B. If so, then Huff is expendable (although he has to be healthy to be traded).

BRob's moustache makes his face look like a clenched fist...with a moustache.

if they added a 5th base Aubrey Huff would get picked off it tomorrow.

Guess who said this:

"Good thing we gave up "nothing" to get Pie. Man Olson sure would look nice as the long man in our pen instead of Hendrickson or Bass."

**********************

Now guess who has won the past 2 games with great efforts out of the bullpen? I'll give you a hint, their names are Mark and Brian. And hey hey guess who scored the tying run today? No hints here, well I guess all 3 have had important roles the past 2 victories and then some. Oh and some dude named Ty who can play anywhere confidently, apparently. That was potentially the best break up the DP move I've seen all year.

tHIS TEAM'S HITTING IS REALLY A CONCERN. Especially, against lefthanders! Good thing their closer wasnt on....the o's would of been shut out for the 2nd time in the last few days!

Wow. I left the television and went out to play tennis very frustrated at the Orioles' inability to get a hit with runners in scoring position. I'm pretty sure they got a runner to second base each of the first seven innings. I walked onto the tennis court right as I listened in the car to the O's get dominated in the eighth inning and the O's boot it around in the bottom half of the inning. I was VERY frustrated. Most of my anger was directed towards Ty Wigginton, who bounced into a rally-killing DP in the seventh.

Then, after tennis, I get in the car and hear that the O's won, 5-3, and the Mariners committed two errors and big hits by Jones and who else but Wigginton.

Great Win! I don't know what kept me watching the game, but I'm damn sure glad I kept it on after turning it off 2 or 3 times especially when the bases were loaded and no runs scored. These come back wins have leveled off some of the frustration of losing.

PFTME!

Hey Roch,
Looked to me like the issue might be Huff's knee - it certainly looked like it buckled underneath him. Didn't look good.

The porn staches are the key to comebacks apparently. Remember a couple of years ago when the bullpen had a great run while the guys all grew the stache? Well, the guys that could at least.

The staches must stay!

markakis cant seem to get the big hits anymore.huff getting picked off was dreadful.we got really lucky today.

Roch,

Great win today first off! Secondly...any possibility the O's look to bring B.J. Ryan back home as a "lefty specialist"? Last I checked we didn't have one of those, and we'd only be on the hook for league minimum while a division opponent pays the rest.
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I'd seriously doubt it, given his numbers, but I haven't spoken to anyone about it. When the team gets back home, I'll ask around. - Roch

Was at the game today. Thank goodness for the 9th. Was pretty hard to watch otherwise. Mariners really threw in the towel. Was ready for Wiggy to hit into his 3rd DP, and amazingly, he put some seeing eyes on his grounder finally. I can't stand his plate approach, or his swing, but occasionally he gets a good result. Best thing about Wiggy is it seems like he can play anywhere. Doesn't look like a SS or 2B but he sure comes in handy when we pinch hit for our SS and Huff gets injured. Salazar really proved he's not a SS today. Both of his throws were awful. Very tentative. Too bad, 'cuz he sure can bat. Hernandez deserves some props for keeping us in the game.

Agreeing with a previous poster. Markakis seems uncomfortable with the bases loaded.

Brummie - Garrett Olson was terrible in his two seasons as an Oriole. I'm talking Adam Eaton terrible. Maybe you weren't aware of that. In 2007 he had an ERA of 7.79 and a whip of 2.165. Last year his era was 6.65 and a whip of 1.734. He gave up 168 hits in 132 innings. I can only imagine the field day you and Jack would have had with him had you been blogging here at the time.

Though his numbers were better last season, he went through a stretch last summer where his era was close to nine runs a game as a starter. I know, because I begged on here to see him removed. By the time he was mercilessly removed from the rotation his pitching psyche was destroyed. Palmer did say today that Olson has great stuff, but what you forgot to mention in your post is that he had no command. We're talking zero command and zero confidence.

Andy MacPhail may have saved his career by trading him. He definitely has benifitted by a change of scenery, you know that West Coast ball is much more sedated, relaxed, and less pressurized. So the Pie for Olson trade was an example of two players who needed a change of scenery.

P.S. - A comparison of the numbers for Bass Hendrickson, and Olson shows little difference. However, remove Hendrickson's numbers as a starter and he has been far superior in the role of long relief.

Sayanara Pie.

If he goes on the DL, at least Salazar gets to stay and maybe he can get more reps at first.

I blame the stache! SHAVE IT! SHAVE IT! SHAVE IT!
It doesn't look good on him, Ew.

I said last night during the game that he's not getting hits cause the stache is weighting him down.

Roch,

Is Tillman on a pitch count? Most of his innings are 6 or less per start
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Because he's only 21, he might be a little more limited than some others, but I'm not aware of it being a drastic difference. - Roch

AK - Thanks for the moral support on the facial hair thing. I had to google "Generation Kill" to know what it was about. You suggested, according to the movie, that a mustache kept just under the limit is meant to be a protest to the rule. My natural istinct and years as a teacher and coach told me the same thing. It's why I mentioned a mini-revolt to begin with.

Unhappy players do these things when a team struggles.(Didn't we see players do exactly the same thing towards he end of Sam Perlozzo's tenure here?) They test the rules and often go beyond the rule. Aubrey's is already at the corner of the mouth. How long before it goes past?

It may be Huff's way of saying, "please trade me at the deadline". As for Robert's, I see three possibilities for his lack of focus in the field and continual inability to run out groundballs.

1) He's tired of losing and wants out of
Baltimore. (I see this as unlikely,
because he just signed a multi-year
contract which is a pretty clear sign
that he wants to be here when the team
finally wins. Someone needs to tell Brian
that he needs to be part of the solution
not part of the problem).

2) He has determined that DT is not the man
to make this team a winner and this is his
way of expressing it. I'm sure that recent
events have gone into this, but I am certain
that he was ticked earlier in the season
when DT told the press after a game that he
had a little talk with Brian about improving
his leadership. When questioned, Brian
seemed to have no recollection of that
"little meeting".

3) Things aren't going as well as planned at
home. Also, don't underestimate the
influence that a significant other can have
on a player's performance. Keep in mind he
now has someone to bounce ideas off of when
he comes home after a game.

Maybe it's a combination of all three, but something is definitely wrong.

Nice win. The bats finally woke up in the 9th. Great job by Salazar. I would like to see what this guy could do w/ everyday AB's at 3B. I also think Pie needs to spell Reimold here & there. Reimold seems to be in a funk.

Roch,
Maybe you can answer this question. Why was Tillman pulled after 6 innings with a shutout? I though the plan was to have starters work deeper in the game?

"We'll know more about Huff's condition later, but his mustache already is listed as day-to-day."

ROCH, you are the man. Got a good laugh off that one! Well played!

Ray: Sorry to misidentify you. Maybe it was Ryan who had the conversation with me about Mazzilli. Anyhow, I agree with your assessments of the O's managers, including Oates, whom people seem to agree became a good manager by learning from his mistakes with the O's and probably didn't get a fair shake here. I didn't dislike Grover, though I didn't have much of a feeling about him one way or the other. I just figure that the most important stuff a manager does is impossible for fans to assess, so they're hard to evaluate unless they really screw up the game management, like Sam, or do dumb stuff like throwing players under the bus.

Jackdunn'sbaby: Thanks for the Caleb info. He sounds like a nice kid. He has good things to say in his blog about several of his teammates. Not sure he'd say bad things about anyone, although his comments about Rowell are pretty circumspect.

Bert: You're hilarious!

Lucky H: Insulting literary references are wasted on trolls, as are your energies generally.

terpfan: My point wasn't about Berken v. Hill but about using win-loss records as a measure of a pitcher's value. The whole idea of stats is to predict future performance. That the Orioles have won most of Hill's starts belies the fact that his performance has been very poor. Unless you think the team somehow plays better for him because they hate to see him lose, the fact that they've happened to score lots of runs in games he starts has absolutely no predictive value about the runs they'll score in the future when he's pitching. What does have predictive value is his lousy pitching, which predicts that he's going to lose. A lot.

In a similar vein, the O's started the season 6-3, but their run differential predicted they were playing over their heads. You simply can't play .666 ball for long if you give up more runs than you score. Sure enough, they fell off a cliff very quickly. If Rich Hill continues to pitch to a 7+ ERA, he'll do the same. To believe otherwise is to engage in magical thinking.

I thought Palmer's comments tonight about Olson over-thinking were interesting. He thought Olson might do better in the bullpen, where he can't think so much. In any case Olson sure got out of a jam in the 8th, although the Seattle bullpen and infield got back into the exact same jam in the 9th. I still have trouble getting over how badly Seattle played at the end. They blew up to six outs if you include the two double play balls, Bazooka's roller, and the bad throw.

I'll be interested to hear what happened on the Salazar throw. Add in the missed pop up in the first and that was one ugly game, albeit with a happy ending.

Bring on the (Ryan-less) Jays!

Remember when the relief pitchers all grew mustaches as some sort of male bonding experiment? Someone tell me that our infielders haven't decided it's now their turn.

Hey Aubrey and B-Rob, for the love of the Orange & Black, please buy a razor.

Not only did Huff get hurt but he gets picked off first when the Birds have Markakis on 3rd. Not only does he get picked off first but he gets caught with a play that "never" works. Where did Huff think he was going? Reminded me of the Sunday game with the Nats when he killed a rally trying to turn a single into a double. Huff may not know that he is slow. Hustle doesn't make you fast or smart. He looked like T-Rex at 1st Base on Salazar's wide throw.

We hear that Mr. MacPhail is looking into trading Pie or Oscar but I'd like to see Huff traded. I realize time is an issue with the SS coming off the DL. I'd like to think there would be a better market for Huff's lefthanded bat. Also I'd like to see if Oscar could play 1st Base if given a legitimate opportunity. Manipulate the roster with relief pitchers until after the All Star break to buy more time considering there is not an immediate need for a 5th SP. Easier said than done.

Between Pie and Salazar I'd like to see Pie stay. He's a good 4th outfielder and can play a nice CF if something happens to Jones. Wigginton makes Salazar more expendable.

From the "Don't Look Now...People are Getting Released all OVER the Place" Department:
Ryan Bukvich was released by the Newark Bears today. I'm pretty sure someone (the Jays? the Nats?) can field a "Former 2006-2008 Oriole Team". I don't recommend it for fantasy ball, though. Although, my All-Canadian Team (The Eh's) finished 4th a couple of years ago in my league...

Roch- Who do you think is pulling that Row womans strings? Some attorney? Going after the money. God I hope a judge sees through that crap.

Looks like Brian Roberts' mustache will try to fill in.

I love the Charlie Finley celebration.

Who will grow the first handlebar?

Let's get the warm ups going with orange baseballs.

I think that I figured out the "Why?" of the mustaches. The Blue Jays are coming to town, which means, hello Kevin Millar. There must be some kind of "Worst Facial Hair" Competition going on between Huff, B-Rob and Millar. Right now, I think Kevin is winning.

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Millar
http://www.daylife.com/topic/Kevin_Millar

"The O's DL Huff and activate Ron Jeremy to play 1st."

Now let's sweep the Jays.

P. Rose is indeed related. It's his son.

despite not having real good stuff hernandez, like bergesen in his last start, kept the o's in the game. other o's pitchers without their best stuff give up 5-6-7 runs,and he should have never had to face lopez in the first because reimold misplayed the fly ball. so good job by hernandez. neither team really wanted to win yesterday. in the 9th it was as if seattle said to baltimore.....we insist you take the game. we not only give you infield hits and walks but costly errors as well. but a win is a win.

Not mentioned was another good pitching performance by Hernandez, who made only that 1st inning mistake to Lopez but got over it. Still, he throws too many pitches for his own good.

Roch- Is it just me or, where I see that Bergy will probably be the most reliable of the kids we have seen so far (like a Scott Erickson or Kevin Millwood type sinker baller workhorse 200+ Innings guy), but Hernandez to me looks like he has the best stuff. He seems to be able to go up and down in the zone so effectively it realy confuses hitters. Has he really had a "bad" start at all? I mean, that 1 game he gave up 4 in 4 innings, but, it wasn't like 9 ER in 2/3's or whatever.
I just think he is the type pitcher that will flirt with many a no-no's. Once Tillman gets here, I think we really might se some progress as far as the Rotation is concerned, and when you think that Matusz and Jake are waiting in the wings for next year,.....ooooooo boy. I could almost pee my pants.
p.s. if I was Macphail, I would really be looing at Garret Atkins.

JPA - Could it be too late for Dave Trembley to develop a hard edge with the umpires and veterans on his team? Seems to me that the horse may already be out of the barn.

Even his ejection Tuesday night was prefaced by the words "You know me, you know me . . . . I'm not one to complain, but . . . . ". Those were his words on the way out of the dugout. It's been said here before, but I believe that the players are too comfortable with Dave. I believe, this is true of the umpires as well. Sometimes it's important for the workers to have a little fear of the person in the position of leadership. Out of the fear, comes respect. The same can be said about the relationship between a manager and umpires. It's the hard edge you speak of.

Any idea what BJ Ryan's numbers are against lefties? Not saying that we could use a cheap lefty specialist but they have to be better than our last two lefty specialists.
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Lefties batted .250 against him, with nine hits and seven walks in 9 1/3 innings. Righties batted .333. - Roch

It's pretty obvious that Markakis needs to grow a mustache.

I think the mustache is a tribute to the fallen chad bradford - just a hunch though
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Anybody know the PTBNL in that deal? - Roch

I personally like seeing a funny side to the players sometimes. If Huff wants to grow a Sherlock Holmes, let him. But nothing could top Jason Giambi's porn 'stache from last year.