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Bummer. I'm going to tonight's Tides game and was hoping to see Tillman in his final AAA start. This doesn't make sense.

I expect Tillman to be pulled after 3 innings tomorrow and make his MLB debut on Monday.

Yay!

Interesting? He could replace Berken on Tuesday. But i doubt that. Nothing will change because we werent suppose to win this year anyway. Maybe that is why the team plays so sloppy. Especially on the bases. Keep Hill and Berken in rotation. Fans shouldnt expect any better..........

Hmmmm. I surely hope they are using Tillman tomorrow so he is on normal rest for a TUESDAY call-up.

I offer no rationale for hoping that he replaces Berken instead of Hill other than the following:

I have good tickets to Tuesday's game. If they have him start for us on Monday, I will have just missed it.

Actually, there is a possibility that they will use left-hander Chris Waters against KC on Monday and Tillman on Tuesday. The use of Waters might buy some time for Arrietta. Wouldn't that be great?

Now watch Berken throw a no-hitter today and spoil all my plans....

Hmmm, if Tillman pitches tomorrow, then his next turn will fall on Tuesday which is the day that Jason Berken is going to pitch against KC. The possibilites are that Mcphail wants Tillman to replace Berken and not Hill. I just hope that Tillman is okay. But, what if Berken pitches well today? Wait, Norfolk's game is 7:00 today. The O's game is 1:00. If Berken does pitch well today, then Tillman might pitch for Waters today and take Hill's spot. But, if Berken implodes, then Tillman pitches tomorrow and takes Berken's spot. This is confusing. I hope that we can get to the bottom of this.

Wow, that is an interesting move. Did they move Tillman back a day so that he could pitch on four days rest Tuesday? Right now, I would be inclined to think that both Hill and Berken are removed and Waters and Tillman enter.

I really hope he is pulled early tomorrow.

My friends and I will be at the game Tuesday night. I would be thrilled if we lucked out and got to see Tillman's debut. Woot!

Back to my last post . . . . but then againm maybe Hill stays and Tillman pitches Tuesday for Berken. Hill, I believe, pitched very well against KC earlier this year.

Meredith just said on the pre-game that Cal Ripken was his idol growing up. It's where he learned to throw side-arm, emulating Cal throwing the ball from deep at short. I like him already!

Ray:
That's what I expect will happen. Looks like they're trying to line up Tillman and Berken's slots, and had to make this adjustment due to the off day tomorrow. If Tillman pitches tomorrow, he's right in line with Berken's next turn on Tuesday. Berken definitely needs some more seasoning in AAA.

I'm doubtful that Hill makes his next start. Depending on if any trades or moves are made, they may try to stick him in the bullpen. Even better would be to send him to Norfolk, and if anyone claims him, good luck.

Well, I'm from CT, making a trip to Baltimore on Wed the 29th and watching games wed and thurs, so I hope we have a rainout or something, and Tillman gets pushed to Wed, and then Bergy on Thurs. That would be ideal for me!

Going back to the steak comments.... I am so glad I got a chicken cheese steak for lunch before reading that too.... Roch did you know that a regular sized prime rib has about 210 Grams of fat in it? The prescribed daily amount of fat intake is generally about 40 grams a day, that is if you wish to avoid triple bypasses before you turn 50. So right there you have eaten almost a weeks worth of fat with one prime rib. I read that about 15 years ago & never ate another prime rib again, even though I loved them. The thought of dying young or of having my chest ripped open & having to eat salads the rest of my life made it an easy choice.
The center cut sirloin supposedly has the least grams of fat, but even that has 40 grams. I eat that one when the urge for a steak is too great to ignore.
I also saw a story on 20/20 about fat in certain meals about that same time. They tore the Outback menu a new one. The steak figures almost matched the above numbers, PLUS they said eating one of those blumin' onions was the equivalent of eating 6 Big Macs, about 240 grams of fat! Never liked em anyway...
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I have a sudden urge to open a can of tuna for lunch. - Roch

Steve in Phx. and Jw - I hope each of you read TomC's response to Steve's post. I don't think anyone expected this team to be a playoff team this season, but as Tom states it shouldn't be too much to ask for the players to hustle 100% of the time. Maybe you are young fans and have never seen a winning O's team, but accepting the kind of play we have seen from this team under DT's direction, is the first step to slowing any kind of future success for this organization. Let me know when you see Pedroia and Youkalis, the Red Sox team leaders, not hustling.

They obviously moved him back so he wouldn't be matched up against Bruce Chen.

You had me for a sec roch. I thought for sure this meant Tillman was coming up Monday until you mentioned he'd pitch tomorrow.

Oh well, another day of indecision for ANDREW!
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But even if he's coming up Monday, you'd still want him to pitch today and stay on normal rest. That's the confusing part. Maybe he comes up Tuesday, maybe he doesn't go very deep in tomorrow' game, maybe we're over-thinking it. - Roch

"Today's starter at Norfolk"

There isn't actually a starter at all AT Norfolk today Roch ;-) You had me all confused for a quick second.

I am a bit concerned about Troy Patton at the moment, he's kind of getting lit up.

Oh no, lets hear more expert prospect analysis from Jacko. Isn't he the one who was calling for Berken to be called up as he ready...after all he dominated at Bowie!

I think people should get off Wieter's back also about days off. I seem to remember he had leg problems and it makes no sense to aggravate them. Besides that catching is the most difficult position in the majors to succeed in. I think they just don't want him to be overwhelmed.

They aren't gonna replace Hill because he is out of options. Besides that, the Orioles actually have a winning record in games that Hill starts. He obviously doesn't have much to do with those victories, but they are still wins! Berken, on the other hand, is not out of options and has lost a lot of games. If you're going to replace one it makes more sense to replace Berken. My guess is that we see Tillman on tuesday. It will probably be announced in the next few days, to increase ticket sales. (like the Wieters call-up)

Roch,

Looking at the upcoming schedule, if Tillman is going to replace Hill, then the move could make sense if you want to keep Berken on a normal rest with the off day tomorrow. Berken would start on Monday and Hill/Tillman on Tuesday. Looking down the road this would also put Hill/Tillman in line to miss the Tigers in Detroit and the Angels at home and instead get the Blue Jays on the road and the A's at home.

Hey Roch,

Thanks for all the work you put in. I thought the O's we going to skip Hill's next turn anyway or am off a week?
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The skipping part already happened. - Roch

MacPhail had better hope Tillman pitches well when he makes it the majors. He's been feeding us a lot of stories about how all we're waiting on are these 3 pitchers. If they turn out bad he can kiss his job goodbye. Actually on second thought, he'll probably get to keep his job. Angelos doesn't care about winning and MacPhail seems to be all about running a cheap ball club. Match made in heaven.
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Yeah, such cheapskates...except for all the money given out to draft picks in signing bonuses, and the Dominican Academy, and the extensions for Markakis and Roberts... - Roch

berken on normal rest for monday and then tillman tuesday? i guess it depends how well he does today.

Whats up with Arietta? Is there any chance he comes up? All the talk of Tillman and nothing really about Arietta. Just curious.
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Tillman's pitching much better. - Roch

Maybe so roch. I just want to see him up here ASAP in place of Hill.

Man, the new Yankee Stadium is a dump! Did anyone else notice that like 2/3 of the $1400 seats are empty?

Don't know if anyone else saw this quote about a week ago from the Carroll County Times:

MacPhail confirmed Sunday that Tillman, a 21-year-old right-hander acquired in the Erik Bedard trade, might soon be on the way.

“That is likely accurate speculation if he stays healthy,” MacPhail said. “When you think about it … Tillman was at Bowie last year and in the rotation with him was Hernandez, Bergesen and Berken. They’re all up here already. He’s the late man.”

Can Pie run any slower to that hit by Jeter? He looked like he was going for a Sunday stroll out there.

TERRIBLE!

Wow, our 2, 3 and 4 hitters had 1 pitch at bats. Something really needs to be done about this. I can't take much more. Can we maybe get Burnetts' pitch count into double digits by the 5th inning?
Jeter doubles on Berkens' first pitch. Just when I though this couldn't get more painful.
Rebuilding phase or not, this team does not play the game the right way and people need to start being held accountable. Whether it's Crowley, DT or some of the players, I don't care, but they need to make an example out of somebody.
Ok, rant over - I'm off the store to look for some Oriole brand heart medication.

Who did the pirates get from the red sox for LaRoche???
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It's reportedly pitcher Hunter Strickland and shortstop Argenis Diaz. - Roch

Sano is spotted with an O's cap in this New York Times article, talking about baseball's use of DNA - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/sports/baseball/22dna.html?_r=1&ref=baseball

Look at the picture - Sano is wearing an O's cap. Is there something to this or what?
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He worked out at their Dominican Academy for 3 days. I'm sure they gave him a cap. Probably not worth getting too excited about, except that he wouldn't be wearing it if he had no interest in them. - Roch

Its only the first inning and i'm disgusted already!
What do Hill and Berken add up to? Two days in a row the bullpen gets overused and two losses unless the offense wins the game.

Here's hoping he makes his debut on Tuesday - I'll be there, so that works for me! :)

Roch.... LOL. I do that too. You just can't smother the tuna in mayo, kinda defeats the purpose... I used to joke with my GF she should just apply the mayo directly to her thighs , bypass the digestive system at least, that way it isn't doing harm to the arteries too.

Keep in mind that Tuesday is Nolan Reimold T-shirt Tuesday! Starting Tillman on Tuesday, plus the giveaway, would get a good crowd to the Yard!

I have not exactly been a Rich Hill apologist, but I had been hoping he could get things together and be a productive starter. However, I've pretty much given up. I think it's time for the experiment to end. If the Orioles put him on waivers and somebody else picks him up, so be it. If he gets through waivers, maybe he can work things out in the minors.

Of course, I have a selfish motive for wanting him out of the rotation: I've got tickets Monday, which is his next scheduled turn. I had been thinking that might be the night for Tillman's debut, but it doesn't look that way now.

Ugghhhh. This makes me want to cry.

Bonehead play after bonehead play.

Come on Berken.

Who feels good about our lineup "rallying" for five runs?

Yes, but who replaces Berkin?

GEEZ!!! Cant pitch,field or run the bases. Blame the manager I guess. Well no more posting from me today i'm headed to Charlestown to bet on the ponies and try the one armed bandits. Pathetic! You cant be a winning team when you cant score when you have runners on base or field a stupid ground ball. They dont get it do they?? Do they care? Maybe they all want to occupy the Norfolk roster.

Berken getting shelled in the first inning. This stinks. After more than a decade of terrible baseball Orioles fans deserve better.

Nice start for Berken. He got out of the first giving up only five hits. Ouch. I think you see Pauley Monday and Tillman Tuesday.

Jay - I understand, you think I'm not frustrated with the lack of hustle too? Just sayin, when the pitching is horrible on a bad team it tends to bring out the worst in everyone. It happens...All I was sayin was people need to chill out on all the negativity goin on around here because this team simply wasn't supposed to be contending this year.

Brummie - Good call on rushing Berken up here because he's sooooo much better than Hill. It was you wanting him up here so bad right?

Either fess up and tell us all what you would have done better than MacPhail or shut up dude. Seriously.....

Got them right where we want them. Complacent with a 4-0 lead.

Zaun, Pie, Andino...

Awesome that we decided to field the B squad today. No point in actually trying to win a game against a division foe...I'd call them a rival but that would just be wishful thinking. It would seem that Trembley is conceding defeat today before the game even started. This is new for him. He usually waits until the 7th or 8th inning to concede defeat.

Berken's season ERA soars over 7 - looks like Rich Hill may have bought himself a little more time in the rotation.

Hey Roch,

Would you say today's trade of Adam LaRoche to the Sox sets the value for Aubrey Huff?
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Don't know much about the players headed to the Red Sox, but Huff in a normal year would bring you more than LaRoche. But he's a free agent after this season and scuffling bigtime at the plate. - Roch

WTF was Pie doing?

I've seen little leaguers play better in LF.

It's going to be so hard to convince ourselves that the Birds aren't going to go into their typical 2nd half swoon when we're on our way to falling 4 games under .500 just since the All-Star Break.

It will be nice to see Tillman soon. Let him cut his teeth for the remainder of this season so he's a little more prepared for next...can't have the cavalry all arriving at the same time, now can we.

Roch they could be using the day off to bump the starters back, keep Berken in the rotation and have him pitch on Monday, which would be his normal day, without a day off, and then have Tillman pitch Tuesday, essentially for Hill but after Berken. Tillman pitching tomorrow would put him on normal pace to pitch Tuesday.

Does anyone else feel like Juan Samuel is the most conservative 3rd base coach in the world? Just watching the top of the 3rd when Markakis lifted the fly ball to left with Roberts at 3rd. It wasn't deep, but consider the situation: Roberts (with speed) at 3rd, Damon with the candy-arm, and a horendously-slumping Aubrey Huff coming to the plate. Send him! Get the run! Lord knows they've not been easy for this team to come by. Huff follows with a strikeout and Wiggy lines out to right. Inning over with no runs scored... again.

To Kevin:

Regarding Juan Samuel's conservativeness...

For most of the season the guy has been overly aggressive with his signs. We've had an embarrassing number of our guys gunned down at home and 3rd base. He probably recently got a call from up high in the warehouse telling him if he didn't shape up he was gone.

See you in Norfolk next week Jason. It's Tillman time.

Roch,
How long does Trembly last? If he makes it through the season, is he our coach of the future? Legit questions at this point.
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Manager, not coach. Important distinction. He likely makes it through the season, but let's see how the team is playing in August and September. - Roch

It's surprising to me that the Orioles are one of the best teams with runners in scoring position. They had runners on on 1st and 3rd with 0 out but can't score a run.(In the 3rd). They had runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out in the 2nd but can't score a run. How are the O's one of the best teams with RISP? They can't even score a run from 3rd or 2nd with even 1 or no out. We need better offense.

Kevin, you don't send a guy home on a short fly ball with none out, down four runs. The problem wasn't that, it was that the meat of our order cannot get anyone in with second and third and no one out.

Maybe the other prospect that the Red Sox send to Pittsburgh for LaRoche will be solid, but the one that is named in reports is a singles-hitting defensive specialist. With all that protection in the lineup, LaRoche will probably go in there any light it up.

And the Bowie Baysox starting pitcher for next monday's game is currently pitching at Yankees stadium this afternoon.

The O's are about to start hitting Burnett hard. His velocity is dipping and the differential between his heater and changeup is about 7mph. Watch it. The time is now 2:15pm.

Kevin said: Does anyone else feel like Juan Samuel is the most conservative 3rd base coach in the world?

No Kevin, I most certainly do not. There was a reason that Aubrey didn't believe Samuel yesterday when he was being waived around...and that is because over the past two seasons Juan Samuel has gotten several players thrown out at the plate for being overly aggressive with his slower runners.

As far as Markakis' shallow fly ball, even Damon with his "candy-arm" can make a pretty acurate throw to home plate from about 20 feet behind the grass at 3rd base.

Roberts couldn't be sent home on the Markakis fly to LF. Roberts would have naturally slid closer to the dugout than the plate, to ensure that he didn't touch the C & in any way disturb his concentration on catching the throw.

Hey Kyleproboller, if Zaun, Pie, and Andino are the B team, what good has the "A" team done against the Yankees in the first two games of the series?

Zaun just threw out a would be base stealer at second base; something Matt Cannon Arm Wieters hasn't done since Bowie.

Truth be told, Wieters threw out A-Rod last night... but hey, let's not pay much attention to the facts.

This obviously means that Tillman will be recalled to replace Berken and they shockingly haven't seen enough of Rich Hill, I guess.

If Tillman replaces Berken and Hill stays, that'll be my first major strike against MacPhail. It's very obvious that Rich Hill doesn't have a clue about his delivery and he cannot possibly be part of the plan going forward. He's got nothin'.

Steve - What would you rather see done? Keep running Hill out there to get pounded and cut him later in the year. Or....keep running Berken out there and ruin his confidence?

Berken is clearly NOT major league ready. That said, he has options, he is young, his career is far from over. Send him down, get him straightened out and let Hill take the heat. No point in cutting Hill and letting Berken get ripped every week and ruin him at his age.

Again, we all KNEW we weren't going anywhere this year, so why does it matter what the score looks like?

I like to see the O's win just as much as every one of you but you can't just bring every guy up in the minors because the guys we have aren't getting it done.

It sounds a lot like a bunch of you are suggesting shipping out Hill and Pie. Who should come up? Apart from Tillman, no one in our minor league system should be up here to replace anyone we already have. Get a grip guys, we can't just ruin younger pitchers confidence because you want to see Hill outta here. Think long term.

Can I say this in advance?

"Dummie and Jack - save the Cla Meredith statements after this inning. No one cares and we lost a 31 year old bench player for him. BIG DEAL!!!"

TruthBeTold said:

Zaun just threw out a would be base stealer at second base; something Matt Cannon Arm Wieters hasn't done since Bowie.
July 22, 2009 2:35 PM

I guess we should be starting Zaun full-time then...He is the future after all...

Brummie, On what basis do you call the new Yankee Stadium a dump? Have you been there, or is this just another dream conjured statement? I have been there and as much as I dislike its tenants, it is a thing of beauty.

i couldnt watch todays game but i saw some of the comments about pie...why is he still here? we have reimold, scott, and wigginton who can all play LF so why do we need him? he's not worth putting in the lineup every now and then just to get him playing time.

im glad to see tillman get his chance! i cant take hill and berken 2 days in a row because neither one of em give us a chance to win. i'd rather see berken sent down because i think he can make something out of himself, just needs some work. hill on the other hand...

Hi again Roch....i am going to see Bowie play in New Britain, CT..friday July 31st...it will be my first Oriole minor league game...pretty excited..then i am hopping on Amtrak and coming to Baltimore either Aug 14th or Aug 28th...any ideas on a nice dark saloon type atmosphere i can go to within walking distance of the inner harbor??? just looking to drink Budweiser in a bottle and some Crown Royal on the side
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There's always Sliders and Pickles Pub across the street from the ballpark. And the new bar at the Hilton Hotel, though I haven't checked it out yet. And Max's on Pratt St. I'm sure plenty of readers will chime in here. Keep checking the comments. - Roch

thanks man...keep up the great work

thanks for the info Roch....i'll keep ya posted when i am going...if your available we'll meet for a few cold ones!!