I was just sifting through some old issues of Baseball Digest earlier today, when I came across an article about the huge class of “sure-thing” Hall of Famers playing in the late 1990’s. The issue was dated July 1999, making it just 10 years old. I looked through some of those names and found Cal Ripken Jr. to be among the few that stood the test of time. Others from that article that are in the Hall of Fame or are likely to get inducted are Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, Derek Jeter, Craig Biggio, Barry Larkin, and Frank Thomas. Those that won’t be getting in include Andruw Jones, Nomar Garciaparra, Juan Gonzalez, Albert Belle, Jose Canseco and Scott Rolen. That’s actually skipping over a few names.
It seems that nearly half of the people in this future Hall of Fame group have the career stats to qualify, but probably will never get into the museum in Cooperstown without a ticket because they were involved with steroids or cheated the game by taking performance enhancing drugs. They include Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens. I think Bonds and Clemens will be a true test for the baseball writers who vote players into the hall. I know many see Bonds as no different than McGwire and won’t vote for him. For some reason I don’t sense the same resentment towards Clemens. If I’m fortunate to have any baseball writers reading my measly little Orioles blog I’d like to give them a warning: if you vote in Clemens, you MUST vote in Bonds as well. To do otherwise would be an embarrassment to both the writers and the Hall of Fame and all of its members. The cries of racism would not be as quite as they are now.
I wonder how many “sure-thing” Hall of Famers playing today won’t even garner 25% of the vote when they become eligible (75% is needed for induction). Evan Longoria? Ryan Howard? We’ll just have to wait and see.
The Baltimore Orioles used the #5 overall pick in the MLB amateur draft to select Matt Hobgood, a pitcher from Norco High School in California. Hobgood is a right handed power thrower with decent size; he’s listed at 6′4″. He’s really a bit of an oddball pick, as I hadn’t seen any mock draft boards with Hobgood in the top 10, or even the top 25 until the past few days. I’m not sure what caused his sudden climb, but let’s hope it works out in the O’s favor. One of his favorite pitchers is Tim Lincecum, and you’ll see some influence Lincecum has probably had on Hobgood in the following video clip. Watch how he really explodes towards the batter as he brings his weight forward:
The Orioles are ready to give Matt Wieters a more permanent position with the big league club. Wieters himself has been ready for a long time coming. Orioles fans have been waiting for the call up that came this week that brings the 6 foot 7 inch catching phenom to Baltimore to hopefully revive a club that has been in the gutters for a long time. The attendance at the last Orioles home game dipped below 11,000, the lowest figure in the history of Oriole Park.
Wieters might be the most talked-about minor leaguer in baseball right now, but the Orioles organization has been very slow to bring him to the majors. For one thing, they didn’t want to rush along a player who is going to be helping to guide their pitching staff. There were other skills they wanted him to polish in the minors as well, but it seems the number one reason for keeping him out of the big leagues is money. Wieters will lose some arbitration options because he didn’t get in a full season this year. For an Orioles team that seems to be going nowhere fast, that could mean millions of dollars saved down the road. Let’s just hope that it didn’t cost them millions of dollars worth of fans.
Back to back home runs in the 7th inning put the Angels ahead for good as they beat the Orioles 3-2 on Wednesday night. Koji Uehara probably shouldn’t have gone out to pitch that 7th inning, as Torii Hunter and Kendry Morales hit consecutive home runs against our starter who otherwise pitched quite well. Uehara stayed in the game after that, but he probably shouldn’t have. A couple batters later, Gary Matthews Jr. struck him right in the middle of the chest, sending Uehara to the ground in pain. He was able to get back up and leave the field on his own, and x-rays were negative. It appears he just has a bruised sternum.
Nick Markakis had a hit in the game, extending his hitting streak to 16 games. One more game will be a career high for Markakis. He’s still a couple games behind the Yankees Robinson Cano, who has the longest active hitting streak in baseball.
The Orioles lost to the Los Angeles California Angels of Anaheim via Hollywood and Beverly Hills (if you’re in Brentwood you’ve gone too far) by a score of 7 – 5 on Tuesday night. It might just seem like another game in late April, but it was just another clear sign to me that the season is slipping away from the Orioles. We can say that it’s early all we want, but the fact remains that by the time August rolls around we’ll probably be behind the pack by at least 10 games and the playoffs will no longer be a consideration. It’s these early season games that have so much more importance than we realize. This is not the division where a team will be able to charge hard at the end and take the crown.
Adam Jones had his 5th home run of the season and Melvin Mora added 3 hits, but Orioles starting pitching continues to have trouble. Adam Eaton gave up 5 earned runs in 6 innings of work.
After a good start to the season, it looks like the O’s are heading down the path of mediocrity once again. Oh, how I long for the good ol’ days.
It looks like our early season hopes of making the postseason were a bit premature. The Orioles lost 12-1 to the Red Sox yesterday on Patriots Day in Boston, garnering just 4 singles and 1 double off Boston pitching. Boston didn’t even have one of their regular starters in, but instead had Justin Masterson replacing the injured Daisuke Matsuzaka. He gave up the 1 run in 5+ innings of work, while the fabled Boston bullpen came in and gave up just 1 hit to the Orioles in nearly 4 innings of work.
The Orioles are now back down to 3rd place in the AL East, and the only team behind them is last year’s AL champion Tampa Bay Rays, who are likely to start playing a lot better soon. I don’t want to be a downer, but things have really fallen apart in the last week and I can’t help but feel this 4-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox is something we will probably get used to as the season wears on. When, oh when, will management learn from their past mistakes and start building a franchise for the future? The Marlins/Rays formula works so well. Don’t go after guys like Mark Teixeira in the offseason, but look to trade any big name players for prospects. It took real guts for the Marlins to trade Josh Beckett in his prime with Mike Lowell to the Red Sox for Hanley Ramirez and prospects, but now the Marlins look like the team to beat in the NL East and they have a team set-up for many future playoff runs. If you can’t afford to buy a team like the Yankees can, don’t pick and choose at a couple star players.
Adam Jones hit a 2-run homer as the Orioles exploded for 4 runs in the top of the 10th inning and then held on to win 7-5 on Tuesday night. Luke Scott also had 2 RBIs in that 10th inning as the Orioles batted around. Brian Roberts was 3 for 5 on the night and his batting average on the season now sits at .441. A total of 6 Orioles pitchers made appearances in the ballgame, including 7 2/3 scoreless innings from Dennis Sarfate, Chris Ray, Jamie Walker and Jim Johnson in relief of Alfredo Simon, who is experiencing arm problems and will be examined in Baltimore on Wednesday.
The Orioles are now 6-2 on the season and hold a half game lead over the Blue Jays in an AL East that is currently upside-down compared to preseason predictions. The Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, and Red Sox are currently at the bottom of the division.
Prized Orioles catching prospect Matt Wieters went 0 for 4 in a game against Rays lefty phenom David Price this weekend for the Durham Bulls and also had an error in the field, but there was plenty of good to take away from the game. In his second at bat against the major league-caliber lefty, Wieters managed to work a walk after a 12 pitch at bat. He got to see an entire toolbox of Price’s pitches in that AB, ranging from a 96 mph fastball to a 84 mph changeup, with some high-80’s sliders mixed in between. I’d expect to see Wieters get the big league call-up sooner rather than later. The Orioles are off to a fast start, but they know they’ll need to bring out all the weapons to hold off the rest of the AL East.
Somehow I just knew the Orioles wouldn’t be going 162-0 this year. They took their first loss of the season yesterday at the hands of A.J. Burnett and the New York Yankees, 11-2. Their bats looked dead, scattering just 7 hits. Their pitching wasn’t much better. Alfredo Simon looked like crap, and Brian Bass looked even worse in relief of Simon. Chris Ray gave up another 2 earned runs in just an inning pitched, which actually helped bring his ERA down to 27.00. He’s looked awful so far.
There really are no highlights to mention from this game other than a Luke Scott solo home run. The Orioles host the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays in a weekend series starting tonight.
Nick Markakis is living up to the hype in Baltimore, going 3 for 3 today with a 2-run homer off Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang as the Orioles earned their second straight win to start the season. Koji Uehara looked good, giving up just 1 earned run in 5 innings. The only Orioles pitcher who struggled was Dennis Sarfate, who gave up 3 earned runs in the 9th inning to give O’s fans a scare.
The Orioles have Alfredo Simon starting tomorrow against A.J. Burnett, an overrated pitcher who just happens to collect a lot of strikeouts.
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