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Hey Roch. Question:
If you take away the 5 run third, what would Brian Matusz' stats look like?
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No runs. If he retired the side in order, no walks and eight hits. - Roch

None of these pitching prospects have impressed except Bergesen. Other teams seem to have AAA pitchers come up and succeed from the get go. Why not the O's?

Hey Roch, will you do me a favor which i am sure alot of us fans want to know. could you ask Ty Wiggy why he literally always swings at the first pitch in late game situations? Is he afraid of the pressure or something?
Thanks Roch

I have been a fan since '69 and have always stood by the team. But something has to be done with Huff and Wiggington. Huff should be moved way down in the order. You just can't justify him batting cleanup. And why was it not a surprise that Wiggington swung at the first pitch of a new pitcher? Every time up he does that. Let Izturis hit!

shern,

I would like to point out that Bergesen's first few starts didn't impress, either. It's going to take time for the young pitcher's to adjust, but they all have the makings of good pitchers.

Looking beyond the numbers, Matusz has the stuff and the makeup to be a big winner for the O's. He displayed his slider today to get Abreu out, and later on threw fairly decent curveballs.

sheets said:

Brian - Thanks for your post last night after Pie completed his cycle. I understand your concern about his occasional brain farts in the outfield and how they could cost us a game. On balance though, you have to realize he's also going to make plays out there that help us win games. He's easily got more range and a better glove than any other LF option we've got, and has a good and accurate arm when his head is screwed on straight. I really believe it's about confidence with him, and will quickly admit that there's a chance he never gets the confidence he needs to succeed regularly in the majors. My impression from his minor league track record is that he's never going to hit lefties well, and is better suited to being a platoon and defensive replacement guy (with the added advantage he can take over in CF if Jones has to miss some time).

My kid is watching cartoons before bed, so I can't see the game right now. Last night I was thinking Huff would be the guy to get beaned, for tagging up and going from second to third in the 8th with a 9-run lead.
August 15, 2009 7:47 PM

Your welcome. I don't hate the guy, I actually liked him last night after seeing the interview with Amber. I, like you, am an O's fan, bottom line. I just think he lacks some basic baseball instincts. I hope he's another "late bloomer", but I doubt he could be an everyday player. 4th, 5th OFer, probably, but I have said that before. I agreed with what you said above, mostly.
I won't comment on the ball in the lights. :-) I caught one today staring right into that bright sun. The ball was a slight black dot in the middle of the sun the last 25 ft to me. An OFer has to know how to shield the sun/lights with his glove.
BTW, I had the same issue here with TV viewing, ICarly was a must for my little girl, baseball had to wait. I sneaked upstairs a few times to see some of the game.

If Matusz didn't run into that 5 run third, he could have pitched a gem. The good news is that I did see progress and improvement because Matusz did not allow the game to get away from him, and he made alot of good pitches throughout the game, except for the 3rd inning. I am confident that Matusz will pitch a much better game next time and improve himself more. The bad news is again our inconsistent offense. Yesterday, our offense exploded. Today, our bats went to sleep again and we were bad with RISP. The O's have one of the streakiest offenses in baseball, and I don't like that. Our pitching will get better but our offense is still a question mark.

I just got back in town and have a comment from two posts ago about eric's critism of the pr and ushers. I brought my family of four to the Boston series Fri and Sat night games. Drove 7 hours to take my 9 year old son to see my beloved Orioles lose both games. The real downer was that Friday night the usher (a lady) told us to get an autograph of the players we needed to get to the game at 5:30. So Sat night we get to the park at 5pm only to be told that we're not season ticket holders and can't go down to the batting area and to come back down after the game. Well, after the game they scrammed both nights so I had a very unhappy son. Not very kid friendly, so much so that my son said he didn't want to come back next year. I spent ALOT of money driving a very long distance,staying in the new Hilton, buying many souveniers at the Oriole store, food, good seats off stub hub, etc... but what he remembers most is that he couldn't get anywhere near his favorite team! The nicest and friendliest person we met there was Boog Powell who I remember well but my son had no clue who he was. So I agree that if a fanbase is to be reestablished (especially when losing continually) much improvement could be made concerning accessability and congeniality.
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That has nothing to do with the PR dept. - Roch

How many have more than one that impresses? The Orioles have one right now.Give the others time.Geez man.

I'm going to the game tomorrow will I get to see you at the MASN booth?
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Press box. - Roch

i really thought after 2 innings that this was going to be the game that matusz was going to break through and pitch well over 6 or 7 innings. but i see that he has what it takes to be successful, lets remember how far he's come in just a short period of time. it was just a couple months ago that i watched him pitch against the lynchburg hillcats in A ball.

as far as the rest of the pitching staff, i disagree with you shernorioles. i have also been very impressed with bergesen but others have impressed me as well. hernandez has an era around 3.85, he has impressed me after a bit of a tough start. tillman has impressed me as well with his recent starts and i cant wait to see how he develops! what are your thoughts on the young pitchers, roch?
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I'll touch on that subject in a future entry. Sort of rushed right now and that's a big topic. - Roch

Ryan - I like Nolan Reimold a lot, and hope he will be the everyday left fielder for years to come. But he will never even sniff 40 home runs in a season.

Jones is the only player on the current big league roster with a shot at 35+.

George Sherrill has been outstanding for LA. He is growing a goatee / stache unburdened by facial hair policies.

I saw Salazar play 2nd base last week for the Padres.

It wasn't pretty. To start, he had liner( routine for Roberts/Andino) go off his glove for two runs and then was late getting to first on a cover for a bunt/comebacker which led to another run. He's hitting .240 or so. Believe it or not ,on San Diego ,this is good.

Fortunately shernorioles is not the one evaluating the young pitchers. Tillman is all of 21 years old? Matusz has show flashes - he was in A ball at the start of the year---words can not express how ignorant such statements are...everone who is in the business of baseball would disagree with you. Go back and look at Matt Cain's first 3 seasons? He is now perhaps one of the three best in the NL...okay, I said words canot express how I feel and I continue to type...I'll just end with this - "Dumb"

Shernorioles:

What about David Hernandez? I think he's pitched fairly well. With the O's, keep in mind that even while Matusz is supposed to be our best pitching prospect, we still have guys like Arrieta and Erbe waiting in the wings.

That 2.40 WHIP for Matusz shows he needs a lot mroe seasoning. He may be fooling Abreu with the curve, but with that WHIP he's not fooling a lot of batters yet. Probably needs to go to AAA ball for awhile.

ANYONE who says "other teams have AAA pitchers come up and succeed right away", just isn't paying attention.
Zach Greinke, Lackey, Santana, Volquez, Kershaw, I can go on and on and on, all took years to develop.
RELAX.
That curveball shows me how good Matusz is going to be.
Erik Bedard is one of the best lefties in baseball when healthy, and he struggled his first 3 seasons.
9 out of 10 prospects don't even make it. That is why it is so amazing that the O's have called up Weiters, Reimold, Bergy, Tillman, and Matusz and none of them look overmatched.

Even BERGY took 6 or 8 starts before he learned how to pitch. Grienke is the best example because he has been in the league 6 years. But, it probably takes 150 innings before a pitcher gets into his zone of dominance. But, give the kids at least 10 starts before you start crying.

Roch- Tyler Stampone went off again tonight going 3 -4 with 5 RBIs and 2 triples. He can rake.

Shernorioles,
I just wanted to say thank you for typing in normal letters instead of ALL CAPS as you had been doing a while ago. A delayed thank you, but one said with sincere appreciation. :)

that's an easy one to answer, its the AL East!

I know you can't blame everything on the umpiring but i thought the strike zone was terrible tonight. Matusz didn't do much to help himself tonight but in 3rd on a 3-1 pitch to Abreu he took a pitch that he clearly thought was a strike and even hesitated, who knows what would have happened on a 3-2 pitch but he didn't get the opportunity. Then when Reimold batted, I think in the bottom of the 4th, there was a slider that broke about 4-6 inches off the plate that was called a strike and during the all this, the talking heads...Thorne and Palmer seemed oblivious to what was going on, just carrying on their own converstation on who knows what. Speaking of Thorne, Roch I don't know if you're ever in the booth during broadcasts but do they look at the monitor, live action or even the board to determine a pitch. I don't know how many times a night he calls a fastball a curve or an inside pitch, low, etc. I never realized how bad he was as an announcer until we've gotten him as the O's announcer. You see him every once in a while on an ESPN broadcast and you figure it is just a bad night but he is announcing for ESPN so he has to be decent. You watch him every night and he is horrible. Hunter isn't much better calling balls hit to right but really it is in left or pop up's that surprisingly make it to the warning track. I think they get to caught up talking about other things that they don't pay attention to the game. Any opinions on the topic or does that put you in a bind since you work with them????

Hey Roch,

I was at the game tonight and I have a funny story. Before the national anthem and the end of it it looked like near the press box reporter amber theoharis was texting. I thought it was pretty funny. I also think the Manger Dave Trembley should have gone right to the umpire after Pie was thrown at. The umpire should have known that the Angels manger tried to stare down felix Pie after he hit his triple to finish the cycle last night. Also I was jumping out of my seat when bobby abreu struck out 3 times. Then the pitcher has him 3-0 and I'm thinking I hope the pitcher comes back here for Abreu to get the Golden Sombrero tonight. As bobby abreu swung through the 3-2 pitch it was freaking awesome!!! In all of my years in playing and watching baseball only about 3 times have I ever seen the Golden sombrero and it was something to see.

shernorioles, I dont see how you can say none of the pitching prospects have impressed. David Hernandez has an ERA in the 3s, Tillman just picked up his first win last night, and Matusz pitched a great game his first outing and has made some hitters look silly with his breaking stuff (see Abreu).

Also, I'd say very few pitchers make the jump from AAA without some rough spots. These guys have to learn how to pitch at this level and they will. We've seen some bright spots and over time the not so bright spots will be fixed.

Didn't see the game tonight, but I am watching the replay on MASN. I may have missed it, as I stepped away from the TV just before Vlad Guererro came to bat, but did Rick Kranitz visit the mound at all during the five run 3rd inning?
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I'd have to go back and check the play by play (which I won't be doing), but I'm almost certain that he did. - Roch

Roch,

Question for you that I was thinking about tonight... What are the qualifications for ROY, and what effect would injuries have on those qualifications? Basically, what I'm asking is, assuming that Bergesen misses the rest of August... He won't be eligible for ROY voting next year, will he? I've got to assume that this injury has cost him any shot at being a candidate this year (although I'd love to see him have a dominant Sept. to prove the critics wrong). Thanks.
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He qualified this year as soon as he joined the roster. He's a rookie and technically can receive votes. But missing this much time will likely cost him any chance at winning the award. Guys have passed him. He won't be eligible next year. - Roch

shernorioles said:
None of these pitching prospects have impressed except Bergesen. Other teams seem to have AAA pitchers come up and succeed from the get go. Why not the O's?

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What do you want to hear, negatroid? Because they all suck? Because every talent evaluator in major league baseball (not just ours, but EVERYONE) overestimated how good Matusz and Tillman are? Because they were invited to the Futures Game, with Tillman getting to start it, just to feed into the conspiracy against Orioles fans?

Go ask Oakland how running five rookie starters has worked. Go ask the Nationals. Take a look at Rick Porcello from Detroit, he's been knocking them dead every time out (hence the 10-7 record and the 1.4 WHIP).

It seems like no matter how well an O's pitcher does in the minors,they completely fall apart once they're called up. Bergy's been successful because he keeps the ball around the knees,the rest of these guys pitch up in the zone and get hammered.The O's haven't developed a stud starter since Mussina and who knows before him..Dennis Martinez or Flanny?

I think Tillman and Matusz both look like they'll be excellent pitchers. All we need to see are glimpses of their potential now. And the secondary pitches of Tillman and Matusz are pretty impressive. Look at Clay Bucholz (spelling) in Boston. If you take away the no hitter he threw against us, his results aren't great. But the Red Sox wouldn't trade him unless it was for Doc. They have no problem being patient with him and neither should we with our guys.

I've yet to see the "good". Izturis bailed him out big time in his debut with two web gems, or he's lit up early on in that game as well.

Right now he looks exactly like you'd expect a kid to look that missed a stage in his development (AAA). You see that flash of brilliance in the 1'st inning, but he's not a finished product. This kid should be in Norfolk, not Baltimore.

Shernorioles,

One of the reasons that other teams bring up triple A pitchers who are more successful is that they may get greater run support than the Orioles can muster. I dare say that if the Os scored five runs in every game started by the Call-ups, they have a distinctly different record. I think most of these pitchers can be winners in the Big Leagues, provided they don't have to pitch a shut-out every time out.

Jim

Roch,
Any word on if Felix Pie did end up apologizing to Scioscia yesterday? Do you agree with them even feeling like they should? The Orioles could use a little more fire and emotion. If Scioscia didn't like the show of emotion by Pie, he can suggest to one of his pitchers throw at someone. Then we can find out more about the Orioles. If my memory is correct there has not been a bench clearing since Daniel Cabrera vs. the Yankees two years a go.
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Scioscia said it's a dead issue. I wrote yesterday that Scioscia over-reacted. Pie shouldn't have to apologize. Not sure that he did yesterday, but it wasn't necessary. - Roch

We should spend money on big market free agents thats how you win trade arietta and tillman and snyder for adrian gonzales and then trade patton erbe britton and wieters for pujhols!

It may not be a direct reflection of the pr staff Roch but it is a perfect example of not putting much effort into luring fans back to the stadium. Much more effort should be made to become more "kid friendly" to grow young fans. Maybe we just had a bad experience but it made a negative impression on my son.
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That's unfortunate. I bet if you placed a call to the Orioles and relayed your story, they might do something to make it up to him. Or at least try to. - Roch

I wanted to comment on two earlier blogs from Alex & Ray, because I went to the game last too.

Alex - After the second pitch to Pie (fastball inside), the home plate umpire said something to the Angel's catcher, who then went to the mound to say something to Lackey. The Angel's bench did not like it at all and then Scioscia went to the mound and had a brief argument with the home plate umpire.

Ray - during the 3rd inning last night Kranitz did visit the mound right before the at bat by Vlad.

Hope that helps, Roch.