O's First Half Summary

Team Performance Overall Grade - C+

Pitching

McPhail did the right thing by staying away from high priced, mostly marginal FA's (save CC and Lowe, and perhaps Burnett, but with his injury riddled past I think the Yanks will get burned) and instead signed Eaton, Uehara and Hendrickson (though the plan was for him to be in the BP, where he is now and is pitching very well), Uehara, as well as Alfredo Simon, and trading for Hill to join the rotation with Guthrie. The Hill trade was low risk high reward (though how low the risk is yet to be determined both b/c Hill is still a work in progress, and I don't know who the potential pool of players going to the Cubs consists of). Simon pitched very well in Spring training and was cheap, and Eaton could have provided a veteran presence to a young/inexperienced rotation and also was cheap, but we saw how that worked out. With all the talent in the minors at EVERY level, McPhail did the prudent thing, even though the rotation has not been the teams strong suit, to put it mildly.

Here are some more individual comments about pitchers:

- Eaton is clearly done. It's too bad, but he is.

- Hendrickson - He's pitched very well as a reliever and is now 4-0 with a 2.79 ERA in the BP.

- Berken - He looks to me a long releiver or spot starter. Nice to give him a chance right now though, and we will see if they keep running him out there every 5days or he's replaced by Tillman or another young arm in the 2nd half.

- Hernandez - Just like most pitchers, when he has kept the ball down he's been effective. He too is probably more likely to wind up in the BP, but what a nice problem to have. I'd love to see his power arm in the BP with Sherrill, Johnson, maybe Hoey eventually, Mickolio, Sarfate?

- Bergesen - A Godsend, and he really looks like he knows what he is doing. Pitches quickly and throw strikes, and everything I've read indicates the team loves to play behind him. He's got good but no great stuff, however he has a great game plan and more often than not executes it. He really reminds me of Greg Maddux, though Maddux probably had considerably higher K number. Looking forward to seeing this kid continue to develop, as he is only 23.

- Baez - pleasant surprise though he has come abck down to earth, unfortunately, as I don't think he will command much in the way of a trade. Get something for him now and get rid of a little salary as well.

- Hill - The jury is still out on him but I am skeptical he will stick. Until he can consistently command his fastball he's going to struggle. Why ALL teams don't take more pitches early in games makes no sense to me. I think Statistically, the best game he threw was in Seattle in June, and they swung at anything and everything he threw. His breaking ball is an A+, but everything feeds off of the fastball. The nice thing though is this is his first year working with Kranitz, so perhaps we just need to continue to be more patient. Unfortuntaely, with the young arms in AAA and AA, his leash simply can't be long based on numbers alone. Here's hoping he makes the O's make a very difficult decision, perhaps allowing us to trade some of the surplus pitching to plug a long term hole at 3B, SS or 1B. Maybe he turns out to be a lefty specialist which would work too.

- Uehara - IMHO he's a relief ptcher right now and hopefully when he gets back from injury, we will already have Tillman up and he simply heads to the BP. He can still be a valuable arm in the pen, and again, this was a long term deal and first take on getting into the Asian market. I think it's been a success overall.

- Guthrie - Though he has had a number of quality starts, he's really done nothing to impress me this season. While of course there has been a lot of pressure on him, I've been very disappointed with his performance. His trade value isn't even very high so unless we are overwhelmed and can fill a position of need, he remains an O.


Everday Players


I think Scott and Bergesen are the CO- MVP's of the first half, and it was great see how well Reimold performed, though he is slumping a bit now, and how Wieters has come on as he ahs gotten more comfortable.

Here are some more individual comments about everyday players:

- Andino - what a great job he's done, and my guess is that the O's activated Izturis earlier than necessary b/c they want to see whether there is any interst in him at the deadline. - I think this is a good move, since we know Andino plays solid defense, and has a really good feel for the game (except bunting - why can't this team bunt?); I thought Izturis was unimpressive with the glove (that's why we signed him, no?) for the first month or so but played much better leading up to his injury. I’d chalk the slow start up to getting acclimated to a new organziation and working with a new 2nd baseman, changing leagues and just getting more comfortable. A very good signing IMHO, and if we can parlay it into another piece with a trade, even better.

- Jones - obvious improvement and needs to hit the ball to RF for him to be and remain a star (could pretty much say that about any hitter). He needs to keep his head in the game more as well, but I suspect he will do that. First time making the All-Star game is a great accomplishment and I hope it's one of a dozen, or so.

- Wieters - He should be playing 6 days a week, period. He's 23 and he can do it, so write him in the line-up a little more. His opposite field power really impressed me and with all the ridiculous pressure on him as the next big thing, I think he's done pretty well. One thing that he needs to improve on is recieving the ball on plays at the plate. As a buddy pointed out a few weeks ago (Heinze), it's clear that Wieters was taught to keep his mask on when recieving a throw for a play at the plate. This really seems to limit his ability to see the ball as well as required, and he needs to drop the mask. Obviously there is a risk of getting hit in the face, but that's a risk I'd be willing to take, as should the O's.

Pie - He's still been a positive acquisition and, at a minimum, hasn't become a problem in the clubhouse despite the O's signing of Wiggy after we traded for Pie and the unanticipated call-up of Reimold, which subsequently created far less playing time than he probably anticipated. Kudos to him for keeping his mouth shut and doing what has been asked of him.


Salazar - the guy can hit and he needs to stay on the ML team. He's so valuable, especially with all the lefties we have in our line-up and the fact that he can play both the IF and OF. We need to find spots to get him in the line-up 5 times a week, so figure it out McPhail

Andy McPhail has the team on the same course as he wanted at the beginning of the season; the Bedard trade and Tejada trades were nothing short of a smashing success, and the farm system is in very good shape. He gets an A in my opinion, but still has plenty of work to do, especially leading up to the deadline at the end of July.


I'm really looking forward to seeing Tillman called up and my guess is that Arrieta may get a September call, but I don't think Matusz. Matusz will likely be near his innings threshold for the season, so that may be the biggest reason, though I'd expect him in AAA soon after the break. He's been truly dominating and we need to see what he does at AAA this year so he is nearly ready to make the rotation out of spring training next year.

Nice to see Trembley recently address some of the issues we've seen all season, specifically relating to playing sound fundamental baseball, that there would be an emphasis on this in the second half and that lapses won't be tolerated. Great news indeed, but I am confused as to why he needed to be a spectator during his 2 game supsension to see some of these shortcomings. As fans, we've been noticing them all season, in particular the base running which has been truly atrocious. Night in and night out we give up runners on the base paths, shortening innings for the opposing pitchers and making things much more difficult on ourselves. I've never seen a worse base running team, and overall fundamentals (bunting, throwing to the right base or cut off man, etc) need to improve dramatically in the 2nd half or I believe it will cost Trembley his job (so does Alex). Sadly, I think it should. Trembley really needs to convince me that he IS the right guy to continue moving the O's forward, and he has his work cut out for him. I'm not convinced that he is the man to take the O's to the next level, but I am pulling for him.

Other personnel decisions to be made:

- what to do with Huff? (trade him then sign him back would be my preference)

- Luke Scott - can the guy play 1B? FT DH?

- How can Andino fit into the plan, beyond being a back-up? - I think the O's activated Izturis to see whether he is ready in the hopes of trading him. With Blake Davis back from injury and in AAA, and having ready that his glove is ML ready now, it makes sense to me to have Andino at SS and Davis back him up. If we can get something good for Izturis than I think we need to entertain the thought of trading him. And he's not too expensive so many teams could be interested.

I could go on and on but I am hopeful that we see a lot of positive things from the O's, despite the tough schedule ahead. If we can go, say 35-39 in the 2nd half (with I think 39 games against the AL East), I think this season would be a pretty big success based on all the young players we've started to integrate (and I'd win my bet with Mandalay Bay!). Here's hoping it happens. Go O's