O's tidbits

[voodoomon1jd]

The Orioles may be the surprise team of the league thus far, but apparently the news didn't make the short trek to Philadelphia, as the Phillies were able to come into Charm City and take 2 of 3 from the Birds, while the Yankees and Red Sox both gained a little ground and cut the O's lead in the East to 2 games.

Sammy Sosa is expected to come off of the DL and possibly play as early as Tuesday night at home versus the Mariners. The O's will sure be glad to have that right handed bat back in the lineup, and hopefully Sammy is ready to heat up with the weather as he has done throughout his career. Not sure what roster move will come as result of this, perhaps James Baldwin will go back down as he was brought in to basically cover for Long man John Parrish whom wasn't available the last few days.

Eric Bedard continues to dominate hitters and is arguably the best left handed pitcher in the AL right now, yes even better than Santana and Randy Johnson thus far. His 2. 08 ERA would be under 1.00 if not for one start versus Detroit earlier this season, only once has he allowed more than 2 runs in a game this season and has won 5 straight decisions. We all had high hopes and noted other teams persistence in aquiring the 26 year old Canadian this past offseason.

Rodgigo Lopez, Daniel Cabrera and Sidney Ponson have all struggled in their past few starts, a trend they will undoubtedly need to reverse if the O's have aspirations of making this pennant race.

Tony "screech" Fiorentino continues to impress after his call up last week from single A Frederick. He hit his first home run over the weekend and added a bases loaded clutch 2 run single in the O's 7-0 shutout of the Phils last Saturday. At 22 years old, and 11 months removed from being drafted in the 2004 draft, Screech's unlikely rise to the majors continues to be lesson to all of the O's minor league talent, if not an inspiration.

The O's have Monday off, and will begin a 3 game series with Seattle on Tuesday, with Mike Hargrove set to make his return to Baltimore, and then a 3 game tilt with the Tigers to cap off a 9 game homestand. The O's have played much better on the road thus far, and need to change that trend in the next week before a show down at Fenway to end the month.

[Steak]

God I hope the Orioles keep it up.

As much as I want to see Grover win against his old team, I do care about the Orioles maintaining first place.

[love_that_reefer]

Sosa IS in the lineup tonight. Much needed OFer for the Orioles.

[Steak]

Great win tonight. Orioles gave the Red Sox the smackdown at Fenway. This was a very big win for them.

Chen has been a godsend.

[voodoomon1jd]

CHen has been good, however the bullpen was not good to him Sunday as he had a solid effort, 1 earned run and left with a 4 run lead only to have the Tigers come back with 6 runs and the sweep. Rodrigo Lopez did a nice job of stopping the Sox and taking game 1 of the 4 game set. That is what an ace is supposed to do, not since Mike Mussina could we count on our #1 starter.

[Steak]

Nice to see the O's give another smackdown to the Red Sox.

I would like to see the O's somehow to take the series. That would be great.

[Steak]

Well the O's got the split against Boston. I expected it. As long you can win two games out of a four-game series, that's fine. Let's hope the Orioles can give the Tigers a well-deserved payback.

[voodoomon1jd]

The O's should have won that game yesterday, I am dissapointed but moving on.
Several players last week said that they took the Tigers lightly, that is also a dissapointment, don't know if they were just resorting to making excuses, but to me to say that is inexcusable. THe O's have lost 4 starters in the past 14 days, we have to keep clawing and fighting through this!

[Steak]

How about Lee Mazzili trying to imitate Lou Piniella by throwing tantrium and then throwing a bucket in the field on Sunday. Nice. Not bad to get his first ejection of his managerial career.

[voodoomon1jd]

Yeah the fans and media have been on Lee about his laid back approach, it figures the first time he gets thrown out, it was a foul ball. There have been plenty of instances this year where he had a real strong argument and elected to take the high road and not try and show up any of the umpires. I like Mazzili, people here just need to realize that he is NOT Earl Weaver.

[Steak]

Lee knows when to react and when not to react. He is un-Art Howe IMO. There was no one worse than showing a lack of emotion than Art Howe. Watching Howe with the Mets was painful. The guy looked dead and there were too many times in which he looked lost out there in his time in NY. Art's lack of passion got him fired with the Mets. I don't think Lee has that problem at all.

Gardenhire gets tossed a lot, but you know what. He knows when and when not to tossed. I was okay with him being tossed when Jason Davis started up with Shannon Stewart this year and I was okay with him being tossed when the home ump screwed Johan on Sunday in the seventh inning in which Johan was not happy and you know when he is not happy, something is wrong since he rarely argues with the ump.

You gotta have a reason to be tossed and you better do it based on your gut.

Sounds like Baltimore fans want to judge its managers in the standards of Earl Weaver the way Stl fans want to judge LaRussa based on Whitey Herzog's standards. That's so absurd. You are going to tell me that the late Johnny Oates, Davey Johnson, and Mike Hargrove were lousy managers because they were not Earl. C'mon.

[Providence A's]

Good win by the O's last night...hopefully they can hang in and at least not either the Saux or the Yanks out of the playoffs...if not both

[General]

I gotta tell ya..I was rootin for the O's..but you started falling apart.

[voodoomon1jd]

We are indeed falling apart, 11 0f last 13. Nothing seems to be going right, listless play, you name it. With the Red Sox coming to town for 4 before the break, this series is gonna show if we can turn it around or not. I am not giving up hope, but it isn't looking good. We need to take at least 3 of 4 from the sox b4 the break and get Bedard and Lopez back. I have really learned to appreciate Javy since he has been gone.

[General]

The O's are still rumoured to get Burnett from the Marlins. That would be a sweet deal and it would greatly improve their SP by giving them a number one starter.