ORIOLES

The Orioles have surprised the heck out of all of us long time fans who haven't given up on the team.  Everyone I've talked to is just enjoying the season for as long as it lasts.  And, for me, that's lasted about 2 months longer than I thought it would, so I can't complain about anything!

Another crazy stat - the Orioles have had 12 left fielders this year.

TWELVE.

…..and most of them sucked.  Imagine how good we'd be with a decent LF and 3B.

Chen was due for a bad night, I suppose.  You know the white flag is up when Kevin Gregg gets the call.

StoneTheCrow wrote:
  Imagine how good we'd be with a decent 3B.

Let's be honest.  We haven't seen a decent enough sample size to see if Machado is as good as Mike Trout, but after last night it's clear he's way better than Bryce Harper.

vansmack wrote:
Let's be honest.  We haven't seen a decent enough sample size to see if Machado is as good as Mike Trout, but after last night it's clear he's way better than Bryce Harper.

I was wondering how we'd be able to steer this conversation over to Mike Trout.  Well done, sir.

HoyaSaxa03 wrote:
I was wondering how we'd be able to steer this conversation over to Mike Trout.  Well done, sir.

Well, I was going to continue to post Buster's blog, but today's was all about Trout vs Cabrera for MVP and how Harper might not finish in the top 3 of the NL ROY voting, and since it's Friday, I decided I didn't want to get everybody upset with a legitimate source, so I opted for my own brand of hyperbole instead.

Thank you for noticing.

vansmack wrote:
Let's be honest.  We haven't seen a decent enough sample size to see if Machado is as good as Mike Trout, but after last night it's clear he's way better than Bryce Harper.

Impossible to argue otherwise at this point. At least about Harper anyway.

MANNY!

Machado is a stud.

I love that the same fan caught both home runs (his first two).  How amazing was that?

vansmack wrote:

James wrote:
Assuming they hang on tonight, 1.5 ahead of Angels.

You never learn, do you?

12-17 since the break.

O's: 35-39 since their hot start.

Shemp wrote:
12-17 since the break.

And 16-21 to start the season.  And yet they're only 2 back.  If anyone doesn't think the Angels are going to rattle off a couple 8-2 stretches in a row and be one of the wild card teams, let's put some money in a pay pal account.

I am just happy they're still in the hunt in August. 

K8teebug wrote:
I am just happy they're still in the hunt in August. 

As usual, you've got the proper attitude.  What the O's, Pirates and A's are doing has been fun to watch.

vansmack wrote:

Shemp wrote:
12-17 since the break.

And 16-21 to start the season.  And yet they're only 2 back.  If anyone doesn't think the Angels are going to rattle off a couple 8-2 stretches in a row and be one of the wild card teams, let's put some money in a pay pal account.

The world is a better place when big money teams fail.

vansmack wrote:

K8teebug wrote:
I am just happy they're still in the hunt in August. 

As usual, you've got the proper attitude.  What the O's, Pirates and A's are doing has been fun to watch.

So the 3 teams you mentioned should just be happy to be in the race while your Angels are predestined to win it?  How condescending.  I guess the Angels are now the Yankees of the West.

I'm not alone in this line of thinking, and I'm certainly not saying this without a lot to back it up. I'm not just trying to piss off Orioles fans, because I rather like them.

This will come down to pitching, and neither the A's nor the Orioles have a single pitcher with 170-200 innings pitched in a single season (save for oft-injured Brandon McCarthy who did it only last year and has spent 2-months on the DL this year and Bartolo Colon who hasn't done it in 7 years).  The longer the season goes, the more these tired arms are going to start showing kinks in the armor.  Only a foolish man would bet against (LAA) Weaver, Wilson, Haren, Grienke or (TB) Price, Shields, Hellickson and Moore or (ChiW) Sale, Floyd, Liriano, Peavy or (Det) Verlander, Fister, Scherzer, Porcello.  The AL Wild Card Race is deep with strong arms….the question is who's the odd man out between the White Sox, Tigers, Angels or Rays?  My hope is that the Central teams beat each other up and only one makes it. 

I'm sorry, but I just don't see how Oakland's staff or Baltimore's staff has the horses to go the last 45 games.  Especially the Orioles - they're the only team in baseball with a +.500 record and a negative run differential, and it's not even close at -43.  That stuff catches up to you eventually.

The NL race is a little different.  The Pirates actually do have some arms with experience in Burnett, Coreia, Bedard and Rodriguez.  Even Karstens and Macdonald have thrown 170 innings in a season.  They just might not have the offense to contend with Atlanta or St Louis.  The Giants pitching staff is coming around and Dodgers all of a sudden have some depth.  I would love to see the Pirates break the drought, but I think Lincecum will save the Giants and the Cardinals and Braves battle it out for the second spot.

But hey, I've been wrong once.  Ask hutch.

You're not pissing me off by saying that.  I think most of us Orioles fans, especially those of us who watch (almost) all the games have been wondering when this will end.  But, it's not ending.  They're scrappy.  And Hamel is probably going to come back in a few weeks.  We've got a great bullpen and we've got a manager who knows what he's doing.  Plus, the Orioles have fight.  They have scrappiness like I haven't seen since the late 90's.

As they said in 1989 - WHY NOT?

At the Jane's Addiction show last night in bmore, Perry Farrell gave the Orioles a shoutout last night for doing well, heh