Friday 4/15 against the Tribe
-3rd inning - 2 extra outs with the throw to 3rd that Reynolds dropped and the Brantley bunt that Reynolds needed to call Britton off on; I suppose we stole an out but that was a mental error and a heads up play by the O's
- first pitch strikes - in the 5th Masterson had thrown 11 first pitch strikes in a row
- for first 6 games we were getting nearly all the close calls and this losing streak drives home the point that you need to get some breaks
-I understand Vladdy is a free swinger but man, when he is not hitting there is no one more frustrating! Take a pitch Vlad, settle down and stop pressing; we know what you are capable of
- big break on Scotts single up the middle when Lee was dead at third but Cleveland didn't catch the relay throw, but
- huge play by Everett on Jones' ground ball to end the 4th inning and save a run
- Lee may not be hitting, but his glove is phenomenal; I have been preaching for years how underrate a 1st baseman's defense is, and when you have someone who catches nearly everything that is thrown over at him, you realize what we've been missing
- Nobody on the O's hits more balls hard that turn into outs than Wieters
- Wieters has a hose!
- Hafner's HR in the 6th was on a 2-0 and it was right in his wheelhouse
- Masterson 80 pitches through 6 with 60 of them strikes, 20 out of 26 first pitch strikes and 73% strikes total!
- no shame in Britton's night as the 3rd inning could have been considerably better
- with the lack of offense the starters have so much press sure on them, and b/c Tillman lasted only whatever number of innings it was, the pressure was that much greater
- not turning double play in the B7after Rupe gave up a leadoff single to La Porta on a terrible 2 strike pitch
- Rupe isn't good but our offense is worse%
- with one exception, Cleveland made all the plays; Markakis' 1 hopper that SS Azdrubal Cabrera made to start the inning ending double- play
- too little too late
- so far, the bullpen and offense have been awful
Many random observations watching the O’s and some of the Sounders match on Saturday, 4/16
- we are just missing a lot of great pitches to hit, Markakis!
- Vlad sits Sunday and Fox DH's
- first pitch strikes again – The tribe’s pitchers are doing a great job of throwing strike ONE!
- Guthrie didn't have the velocity and movement he has had and got behind many hitters
- I lack patience watching this team and frequently fast forward through, especially watching guys like Gonzalez throw
- I have the same problem when watching the Sounders, and after watching the FA Cup semifinal, it's even more painful
- Scott made a really nice catch in LF
- work on hitting the ball the opposite way and these guys will improve dramatically; come on Jim Presley!
- Reynolds has swung the bat pretty well overall; pulls everything though
- hitting with RISP has been pathetic; hitting into double-plays at a much higher rate
- great play by Reynolds on the one hopper in the 8th but Lee dropped the throw; in the little I have seen of Reynolds at 3rd, his errors and general struggles seem to be with his throws, not with catching the ball (see Monday night to support this thought from two days earlier!)
- Berken – looked very solid and may be next in line to take a crack at the rotation
Sunday 4/17 against the Tribe
Sunday – very abbreviated
- The Tribe play fantastic defense the entire series; they made both routine and tough plays throughout the series
- The Tribe missed very few good pitches to hit, b/c I thought Bergy pitched pretty well; he seemed to get ahead more than Guthrie did yesterday but I don't know the numbers
- The first walk Carmona issued was in the 7th to lead off the inning
The Tribe simply beat the O’s like a drum, playing far superior defense (and I think the O’s put more pressure on their defense than the tribe did on the O’s). Again, the offense and the bullpen have been a disaster. We are getting good hits to pitch and simply not hitting them. Not sure what the answer is and whether this is just everyone hitting poorly at the same time, but it puts so much additional pressure on a starting staff that has already lost their #2 starter. And with the knowledge that the bullpen is a disaster, that adds to the pressure.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Thursday, July 8, 2010
O's - No Fight, and the Win Loss Record Shows IT!
This sums up the 2010 O’s - The Orioles dropped to 0-51 when trailing after eight innings. There’s no fight in this team, and while I understand losing day in and day out gets tough, come on? This team has not came back in ANY of 51 games after the 8th? It’s not like we haven’t been in close games, though the offense is as pathetic as any I have ever seen, on ANY Team. Hitting with RISP also has a component of luck, and perhaps we’ve been more unlucky than most, but good teams make their own good fortune, which explains a great deal. It’s just a pathetic display of professionalism, and we really need a manager who isn’t going to take any BS and who gets in players faces. This team continues to make base running mistakes and to not make plays that major leaguers must make. On a national level and on a daily basis this team is the brunt of jokes (see Jay Leno last night. Jay F’in Leno!), and deservedly so. Yes, the team has some talent, but I’ve seen nothing to convince me that we are within a decade of competing. The other thing that frustrates me beyond belief are the continued comments from Samuel and the players, like these from Izturis: "That's the game; somebody had to lose," Izturis said. "We played great games. We played to win the game. We lost all three, but we have to forget about this series and focus on Texas." - We played great games? Until the O’s convince themselves that they aren’t playing good games, that they don’t always get the bad calls, and they are in the major leagues, getting paid a fortune to play a game, this franchise will continue to “play” baseball at the historically poor level they have in 2010.
I’m just glad I’ve had the World Cup and Hawaii to distract me from the horrible weather in Seattle and the pathetic baseball being played in Baltimore, and Seattle. Beat the Yankees tonight M’s!
I’m just glad I’ve had the World Cup and Hawaii to distract me from the horrible weather in Seattle and the pathetic baseball being played in Baltimore, and Seattle. Beat the Yankees tonight M’s!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
How About Some Facts with that Statement, Buster Olney?
I really do get tired of the talking heads on TV and the radio siting things that have no factual basis. Buster Olney from ESPN was asked his thoughts on why there have been two perfect games this eyar and really a third, but for the blown call. Olney indicated that since MLB instituted steroid testing, which I’ve concluded from a quick search on the internet started in the Spring of 2004, power numbers are down and that’s what’s contributing to the perfect games and recent no-hitters, including Ubaldo Jimenez no-no earlier this year. So, when I hear stuff like this I start to think of what goes into a no-hitter or perfect game. First of all, it has little to do with power numbers; it’s all about hits and getting on base from the offensive perspective, and defense behind the starting pitcher. So thanks to baseball Reference.com I did a little research on my own, and determined that there has been little to no change in the number of hits/9 innings over the course of the last 15 years. Sure power numbers have fluctuated over this time period, but a hit is a hit is a hit, so who cares if a guy drives a ball 500 feet over a wall or dribbles a ball off the plate, down the 3rd base line and beats out an infield hit. Personally, I think that the increase in no hitters and perfect games recently is an aberration, and more luck than anything. Go back and do some research Buster, and then let me know what your theory is! Go O’s, heading to the top of the AL East in the next half century!
Worst Team Ever?
When you think the worst is over, think again, b/c this O's team is sinking to new lows on a daily basis. Tillman looks like a 4A starter, and the O's offense is more inept than ever. Bobby Valentine will NOT be the O's next manager, and while of course all potential managers want a "challenge", but this manager’s job is more than a challenge, it's like trying to put a man on the moon using a bottle rocket. The development of this team seems to not only have stopped, but dramatically regressed. I can't recall a season in which I became so apathetic so quickly and thank God I have the World Cup as a distraction. Good luck O's, it's going to be a very long summer!
Down With Jim Calhoun!
Jim Calhoun is, as has been expected for some time, for lack of a better term, a dirt bag. We all knew it, but at least the general public is beginning to realize it, along with the NCAA, finally! We knew he wasn’t much of a straight shooter when Rudy Gay decided to go to UCONN after a basketball game was scheduled through Gay’s AAU coach whose organization got something like $25K for playing the Huskies, Connecticut Huskies that is. It stunk then and it still stinks now, but I feel like the 8 violations that the NCAA has cited is a little vindication. As the NCAA continues to investigate Calhoun’s basketball program for recruiting violations, I found this story very interesting: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5272784
It concerns a former business advisor to NBA player Richard Hamilton, and UCONN”s compliance officer issued a memo back in 1999 saying that no contact should be made with Nochimson and that he was off limits. So, this kind of shadiness has likely been going on, at some level or another, since 1999! That’s over a decade, and man, it was a pretty successful decade for UCONN. I wouldn’t want to speculate (though I will), but my guess is that there are other players who played at UCONN who received some type of illegal benefit. How else did Calhoun put UCONN’s men’s basketball program on the map? Of course I might be way off base here, but having watched and listened to Calhoun for many years now, I suspect that this is the tip of the iceberg. UCONN has already fired their basketball operations director along with one of the assist coaches who had improper contacts with recruit Nate Miles. And, in trying to get my facts straight, I did a Google search for “UCONN basketball firing” and I found this: http://jay-mariotti.fanhouse.com/2010/05/28/calhoun-should-be-fired-amid-the-uconn-stench/
Great minds think alike I suppose, though Mariotti’s story is a bit more substantive than my rant (but I got the facts right! they weren’t both asst coaches who got fired, I mean resigned, Jay) but still went so far as saying that Calhoun should be fired. And I agree, he should. But whether the NCAA has the balls to demand it, or the University has the balls to do it, I won’t speculate (yes I will, again!), but my guess is no. Here’as another one from the local CT paper too.
http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-men/hc-jacobs-column-calhoun-ncaa-0610-20100609,0,557333,print.column
It concerns a former business advisor to NBA player Richard Hamilton, and UCONN”s compliance officer issued a memo back in 1999 saying that no contact should be made with Nochimson and that he was off limits. So, this kind of shadiness has likely been going on, at some level or another, since 1999! That’s over a decade, and man, it was a pretty successful decade for UCONN. I wouldn’t want to speculate (though I will), but my guess is that there are other players who played at UCONN who received some type of illegal benefit. How else did Calhoun put UCONN’s men’s basketball program on the map? Of course I might be way off base here, but having watched and listened to Calhoun for many years now, I suspect that this is the tip of the iceberg. UCONN has already fired their basketball operations director along with one of the assist coaches who had improper contacts with recruit Nate Miles. And, in trying to get my facts straight, I did a Google search for “UCONN basketball firing” and I found this: http://jay-mariotti.fanhouse.com/2010/05/28/calhoun-should-be-fired-amid-the-uconn-stench/
Great minds think alike I suppose, though Mariotti’s story is a bit more substantive than my rant (but I got the facts right! they weren’t both asst coaches who got fired, I mean resigned, Jay) but still went so far as saying that Calhoun should be fired. And I agree, he should. But whether the NCAA has the balls to demand it, or the University has the balls to do it, I won’t speculate (yes I will, again!), but my guess is no. Here’as another one from the local CT paper too.
http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-men/hc-jacobs-column-calhoun-ncaa-0610-20100609,0,557333,print.column
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Throwing Another Game Away, But It Happens!
When I got home from dinner I couldn’t bear to watch the O’s game, knowing full well the outcome. So I turned on Baseball Tonight to see David Price blowing Blue Jays away and the D-Rays (they’ll always be the D-Rays to me!) reeling off another impressive victory, further cementing MLB’s best record. Next up were the Yanks v. O’s highlights, and as they began to show them, the disastrous 6th inning to be exact, with an error and a failed DP (or more, I have tried to block it out), John Kruk says “Orioles baseball at its finest!”
Poor defense and not making plays has been one of many things this team has consistently done at a little league level for years now. It's an absolute disgrace! Fundamental baseball should be ALL this team talks about but it can't even get out of its own way! This quote from Wigginton, describes perfectly why the O’s are by far the worst team in MLB.
"Tillman did his job," Orioles first baseman Ty Wigginton said. "You have an inning like that, it happens. But at the same time, we have to find a way to get the job done."
Talk about a defeatist attitude. It just seems like this team simply accepts losing. “It happens”? It doesn’t just happen Wigginton, you players make it happen by seemingly not caring! There is no fight at ALL on this team, top to bottom. There is no leader. This team is disgraceful, and I still think there is a ton more talent than their record indicates, but until they prove me right, we will remain the laughingstock of MLB. Tillman pitched a pretty damn good game under the circumstances, and this is how our defense plays behind one of our young pitchers? It happens? I just want to scream! And Lugo’s error was inexcusable too. Actually, I just looked at the play by play on ESPN and it was actually ruled a hit! OMG I am going to have a coronary. Anyway, real baseball people know it was an error. He let the ball play him on Teixeira’s grounder and it hit the edge of the infield grass so Lugo didn’t make the play. THINK!!!!! Maybe that’s the problem, these players don’t have their respective heads in the game and don’t think about what they need to do if a ball is hit to them. They don’t think about what happens when they are on the base paths, and a ball is hit to RF, do I go halfway, tag up, what do I do?? This has to be one of the dumbest teams I have ever seen in my life. And, it’s as much or more the veterans than the young guys, but when young guys see veterans make these types of plays, it doesn’t help the youth movement and their professional baseball growth. I can’t write any more about this, it’s far too upsetting and downright depressing. Go Jake Arrieta (that means get out of the organization ASAP!) Go O’s!
Poor defense and not making plays has been one of many things this team has consistently done at a little league level for years now. It's an absolute disgrace! Fundamental baseball should be ALL this team talks about but it can't even get out of its own way! This quote from Wigginton, describes perfectly why the O’s are by far the worst team in MLB.
"Tillman did his job," Orioles first baseman Ty Wigginton said. "You have an inning like that, it happens. But at the same time, we have to find a way to get the job done."
Talk about a defeatist attitude. It just seems like this team simply accepts losing. “It happens”? It doesn’t just happen Wigginton, you players make it happen by seemingly not caring! There is no fight at ALL on this team, top to bottom. There is no leader. This team is disgraceful, and I still think there is a ton more talent than their record indicates, but until they prove me right, we will remain the laughingstock of MLB. Tillman pitched a pretty damn good game under the circumstances, and this is how our defense plays behind one of our young pitchers? It happens? I just want to scream! And Lugo’s error was inexcusable too. Actually, I just looked at the play by play on ESPN and it was actually ruled a hit! OMG I am going to have a coronary. Anyway, real baseball people know it was an error. He let the ball play him on Teixeira’s grounder and it hit the edge of the infield grass so Lugo didn’t make the play. THINK!!!!! Maybe that’s the problem, these players don’t have their respective heads in the game and don’t think about what they need to do if a ball is hit to them. They don’t think about what happens when they are on the base paths, and a ball is hit to RF, do I go halfway, tag up, what do I do?? This has to be one of the dumbest teams I have ever seen in my life. And, it’s as much or more the veterans than the young guys, but when young guys see veterans make these types of plays, it doesn’t help the youth movement and their professional baseball growth. I can’t write any more about this, it’s far too upsetting and downright depressing. Go Jake Arrieta (that means get out of the organization ASAP!) Go O’s!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Thanks Griffey Jr!
The news of Ken Griffey Junior's retirement has made me surprisingly sad, but not b/c it wasn’t time, more b/c it ends a brilliant career of a guy who was easily my favorite player who never wore an O’s uni. More than that though, I’m sad for him, that he never got the chance to take the ceremonial bows at each and every stadium the M’s visited this year. He deserves that, despite everything else that may have tainted one’s feelings towards him. Junior always had this infectious smile and played the game with incredible enthusiasm. He was by far the best CF I have ever seen play, and was as good an athlete as anyone who ever played the game.
Aside from saving baseball here in Seattle with the comeback from 0-2 down against the Yankees in ’95, my fondest memory of him was in 1999. I attended the last game at The Kingdome on June 27th, and after Freddy Garcia fell behind early 2-0 in the 1st, in the bottom of the inning Junior hit a 3 run HR to go ahead 3-2. Then, in the bottom of the 4th with 2 on and 2 outs, Juan Gonzalez hit a bomb to LCF that Junior caught above the wall, preserving the 3-2 lead. The M’s went on to win the finale at the Kingdome, one of the biggest dumps in all of sports, was as loud and raucous as ANY arena/stadium I have ever been to in my life! It was magical!
I also recall him making a ridiculous catch against the O’s in 1995, I think, breaking his wrist as he crashed into the wall but still holding on to the ball. He was a daily highlight reel in CF, and a joy to watch whether I was cheering for the Mariners or my O’s. I hope he has an opportunity to look back on his career and smile, b/c he brought so much happiness to Mariners fans, and baseball fans generally, and he’s still bringing joy to Mariners fans (even as the team struggles), b/c he’s the reason there is still a baseball club in Seattle. Best of Luck Junior and thanks for all the memories!
Aside from saving baseball here in Seattle with the comeback from 0-2 down against the Yankees in ’95, my fondest memory of him was in 1999. I attended the last game at The Kingdome on June 27th, and after Freddy Garcia fell behind early 2-0 in the 1st, in the bottom of the inning Junior hit a 3 run HR to go ahead 3-2. Then, in the bottom of the 4th with 2 on and 2 outs, Juan Gonzalez hit a bomb to LCF that Junior caught above the wall, preserving the 3-2 lead. The M’s went on to win the finale at the Kingdome, one of the biggest dumps in all of sports, was as loud and raucous as ANY arena/stadium I have ever been to in my life! It was magical!
I also recall him making a ridiculous catch against the O’s in 1995, I think, breaking his wrist as he crashed into the wall but still holding on to the ball. He was a daily highlight reel in CF, and a joy to watch whether I was cheering for the Mariners or my O’s. I hope he has an opportunity to look back on his career and smile, b/c he brought so much happiness to Mariners fans, and baseball fans generally, and he’s still bringing joy to Mariners fans (even as the team struggles), b/c he’s the reason there is still a baseball club in Seattle. Best of Luck Junior and thanks for all the memories!
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