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Win two in a row?
It's been a long time coming for these 2010 Orioles. Win a road series? That hasn't happened all year. Couldn't do it today either at San Diego.
I thought with a 4-0 lead and Jake Arrieta on the mound, maybe, but........
Since winning three in a row vs. Seattle and Cleveland from May 12-14, the Orioles have not been able to win even two in a row.
Here is what happened after each recent win:
5-18: Beat KC 4-3 in 11 innings, then lost two in a row.
5-21: Win 5-3 at Washington, then drop two in a row.
5-25: Beat Oakland 5-1, then lose ten in a row.
6-6: Beat Boston 4-3 in 11, then drop next two.
6-10: Beat Yankees 4-3, then lose four straight.
6-15: Win 4-1 at San Fran, then lost next two.
6-19: Win 5-4 at San Diego, then lose 9-4 today.
Today was the Orioles 50th loss of the year and they have a record of 19-50. Last year they didn't lose number 50 until game number 90, when they were 40-50 on July 18.
Matt Wieters delivered a three-run double in the first inning today. With that one swing he matched his RBI total of his previous 19 games and topped his RBI output of two for the month of June.
Maybe that will get his bat going and is about the only thing to take away from this latest loss.
Pitching matchups for the Florida series:
Tues, 7:05p: Jeremy Guthrie (3-8, 3.97) vs. Annibal Sanchez (6-4, 3.22).
Wed, 705p: Brian Matusz (2-7, 4.67) vs. Ricky Nolasco (5-6, 4.90).
Thurs, 7:05p: Kevin Millwood (1-8, 5.12) vs. Nate Robertson (5-5, 4.44).
Coming tomorrow: I'll have an interview and update with Tyler Townsend. He has missed most of this year injured, but should return soon.
It seem like the Orioles collapse after the All Star break every year, my God what are they going to be like after this All Star break.
I just got back from the Ironbirds Game and they won 4 to 0. The Ironbirds play ago game no stupid mistakes, no lapses in memory, no errors. They have a nice big 1st baseman David Adderson.
Omazing: Matt Angle might be a useful player at some point, and maybe he can take Lou's place eventually, but I don't recall Baseball America listing him very high as a prospect. Although he's fast, his defensive ratings are mediocre and he has very little power (6 HR in 1600 AB). An awful lot of the stats you cite involve very small samples. Cherry-picking the good ones and counting on them to hold up is a quick path to heartache.
Steve, MacPhail's "rebuilding plan" is a big joke. Year Three of his "Great Plan" and this team is on pace to lose 120 games.
Three of the worst seasons in Baltimore Oriole history under MacPhail and his "leadership" and "vision."
The Front Office has no commitment to winning, evidenced by Peter Angelos himself. Look at the facts: three winning seasons since Peter Angelos purchased the team in the 1990s.
How low can they go ???
so if reimold regains his stroke, jones gets better, wieters regains his stroke, tillman learns to throw his fastball with movement and commands his breaking ball, matusz keeps pitching steady, guthrie doesn't get traded, hernandez, berken and simon pitch consistently well from bullpen, nick continues to play consistently, arrieta pitches more like his first 2 starts than his last, roberts comes back healthy, bell is ready to play 3rd. britton is ready to pitch in the majors and the orioles find a decent first baseman and decent shortstop which right now may be andino....next yr might not be too bad. right now there are an awful lot of holes on this team, very little in the minors particularly position players and not much to trade unless you trade matusz, nick or arrieta. i don't think millwood has great value and with lee and oswalt probably on the market those 2 will go first thus taking away from millwood's value. i don't think jones would bring in a great deal if he was traded and i wouldn't be comfortable putting pie in center. pie gets hurt a lot, not established and doesn't seem to have a "feel" for the game. miggy doesn't have a lot of value. nor does lugo or isturis. unless you package an erbe with guthrie, arrieta or tillman or some combination of 3-4 young pitchers you can't expect much back in any trade. atkins is worthless. scott won't bring in much. so tell me unless almost everyone who went backwards this yr reverses their play and unless 2-3 guys from the minors step up big next yr. what can you expect from the o's in the near future. plus i can't see any top tier free agent wanting to come to baltimore so no help there.
I am reading a great deal of depressed thinking on the O's pitching. Who thought by brining the youth up a magic pill would be in place to make the pitching look better in statistics. They need to get their feet wet. This will take 1 to 2 seasons. Just as with a hitter to take 1000 ab's a pticher takes time to find his way. Remember when Palmer came up. He also went back to minors and took all of 2 seasons to develop to the hall of fame career beginning.
No one likes the word that is needed. Non one wants to invest more because of the 10 wasted seasons before McPhail. But PATIENCE. It sickens me as well. But it is necessary. The clock began to run 3 years ago with McPhail. He told us this would be a rocky road. When setting a plan in action not all movement is vertical. Some is missteps and downward. So PATIENCE. I still think the plan is in place and working. Just a little clouded now because of the w-l record.
I will be the 1st to go on record. After the trade deadline you will have more youth in the lineup. There will be a decision on the long term manager ( I think a name we have not heard yet).You will see a nearly 500 w-l record the balance of the season. This would be a break thru season if this happens. Ending the season has bee a abysmal process . It will begin 2011 on a positvie note. Keep the faith ( I am not drinking the cool aide).
Do not be surprised when McPhail pulls a very surprising trade. This a a very paitent and anyltical manager for the organization. He is a quiet and decisive mover. He will shake this organization lose of it muddy recent history. PATIENCE.
Scot, you actually expected the O's to be contenders after three years of rebuilding? Wow.
I don't think the general idea of the plan is a joke. It's actually pretty good. The problem is/was the execution of the plan. Our talent evaluators or our development guys (or both) are truly terrible at their jobs.
I think being in the AL East is ensuring our run to the overall worst record. Both the Pirates and the Astros are playing statistically worse than the O's and they both play in the dreadfully bad NL Central.
I keep trying to convince myself that all this losing will help us bring in more quality players to help us reload for a long run, ala Tampa. But then I think how badly this team typically plays later in the season and that the sell-off of our better players hasn't even started yet.