5 in a Row

Nothing like a series against the Royals to give a team a boost. The Orioles followed up taking the final two from the A's over Memorial Day weekend to sweep the Royals in KC. The best thing about this win streak is that each starter has gotten a win over the last five days. Erik Bedard was great last night. The great thing about yesterday's win was that he outlasted Gil Meche, who was just as good as Bedard until the Orioles produced a run with some small ball in the 8th. For those who criticize Sam Perlozzo, I think you have to agree with his decisions late in the game last night. Having Bynum pinch run and the bunts by Patterson and Roberts were the difference in the game. As Perlozzo has said before...his decisions come down to the players getting it done, and that is certainly what they did last night.

With the possibility of getting back over .500 this weekend, I saw some good news for the Orioles on the bottom line of ESPN last night. Apparently Bartolo Colon will not be pitching Saturday because of an injury to his triceps. Right now it looks like Joe Saunders(2-0, 1.96 era) is scheduled to go in Colon's place. Saunders initial stats look good, but he does have a WHIP over 1.5, and a mediocre BB/K ratio.

Playing the Angels certainly won't be easy, because they have been hot lately, and are currently the 3rd best team in the AL. Their pitching staff is very solid. John Lackey is having an extremely good year, and their rotation is one of the tops in the AL. Their bullpen is also tough with guys like Rodriguez and Shields to close out games. Hopefully Brian Burres can be tough against the Angels tonight, and get this series off to a great start.

Guthrie

I don't think I'm alone among O's fans when I state that I am starting to love Jeremy Guthrie. He has been absolutely spectacular in his 6 starts this year, and is performing better than any of our starters over that stretch of time. His era is currently at 3.02, but that includes several lousy bullpen performances at the beginning of the year. With my math, his era has been 1.91 as a starter. With a .232 BAA and 1.02 WHIP, it certainly doesn't look like an aberration that he has given up so few runs. His BB/K ratio is good and so are his homerun totals. At some point Guthrie may drop off in his performance, but I don't think he will slide far. He appears very athletic out on the field. I loved watching the O's game against the Nats when he almost beat out an infield hit by busting his ass down the line. At the same time though, he seems to be a very cool guy on the field. He doesn't seem to get worked up, and has a very efficient business-like approach on the mound.

Its amazing to me that the O's got this guy for practically nothing with the way he has been playing. I understand a bit why Cleveland couldn't keep him. They have a pretty good rotation, and Guthrie didn't really show them much according to his stats.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/guthrje01.shtml

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Jeremy%2520Guthrie&pos=P&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=425386

However, he had a good year in the minors in 2006. Perhaps he just wasn't accustomed to coming out of the bullpen, which is all he did with Cleveland besides 1 start.

Guthrie is making it very easy for O's fans to forget the O's acquired Jaret Wright this past offseason. I truly don't care about the progress Wright may be making, because his spot has been taken by somebody who is pitching like an All Star lately. Its pretty impressive that a guy who was waived back in January is now proving his worth as a big league starter.

Memorial Day Wrapup

Well Memorial Day weekend is over, and the summer tourist season is officially under way. The standings in baseball are beginning to separate the contenders from the back of the pack. Currently the Maryland area's 2 teams are both outside of the contender region. The Nationals have been playing their best lately, but still can't make any headway in the standings. They have won 10 of 14 games, but still find themselves last in the NL East, 12 games behing the Mets. They are also 3 games behind the Phillies for the next spot in the standings. So the Nationals right now appear to be headed to another season in the cellar. I truly hope the team is able to make some big moves this offseason in anticipation of the increased revenue from the new stadium.

The Orioles are 2nd in the AL East. The problem is that 2nd in the AL East doesn't appear to signify what it has for the last decade. The O's are 3 games under .500, and are barely performing better than the other mediocre teams in this division. Two days of play could easily put the O's last in the division. So the current 2nd place standing is not much to cheer about. The O's are currently 5.5 games back in the Wild Card after Detroit was swept by the Indians, so while they are not out of conention, they certainly have a long way to go as well.

It was a good thing to see the O's score 8 runs in 3 straight games over Memorial Day weekend. Hopefully the Royals continue to play like the Royals against Baltimore, and the O's can even themselves up in the standings this week.

Orioles Win and College Lacrosse

Saturday was the semi-finals for Division I lacrosse at Ravens Stadium. I watched the first game on TV between Delaware and Johns Hopkins. I really liked the Blue Hens' aggressive style. They got after the Blue Jays early, and tried to put a hit on their offensive players any time they went for a shot. They pushed around the Blue Jays for a while, but really didn't have an offense. While a combination of Delaware's aggressive style of play and missed chances by Hopkins kept the game close, it ultimately was won by the better team.

I missed most of Duke and Cornell in the other semi-final, but did catch Duke's dramatic goal to win the game with just seconds left. This just seems like a fairy tale story for the Duke program. Previous season was cancelled over false allegations, and now they come back to win the National Championship. Sounds like a movice script. I truly hope Hopkins crushes them today. As a fan of the University of Maryland, I have learned to hate Duke. Maybe the hatred starts with Coach K, but it definitely spreads to the rest of the University as well. So combine the Duke hatred with the support for the Hopkins team from Baltimore, and I will definitely be looking for a Blue Jays victory.

Now while I was watching the lacrosse games on Saturday I thought what a great day it would be to be tailgating at the stadium. You could start early before the Hopkins game...Take a break before the other semi-final matchup to fill up on food and booze, and then head over to Camden Yards for the O's game that night after a couple lacrosse games at M&T. That would truly be a great day of sports watching in Baltimore.

So on to the O's. They managed to get a win on that Saturday night game...even with Danys Baez pitching. I'd love to say that Baez pitched well, but he did give up another run on 1 hit and 2 walks. Luckily the O's bats finally came alive for 8 runs. So the O's got the win, but Baez has now given up runs in 6 of his last 7 outings. His problems certainly don't appear to be solved.

Great news however is that Miguel Tejada seems to have figured things out a bit. In his last 4 games he has 3 homeruns and 8 RBI. This is a big turnaround after hitting just two long balls in the first 6 weeks of the season.
The other guy that is playing where he is expected to is Brian Roberts. His OBP is now over .400, and he continues to steal bases and give the players behind him a chance for RBI. If these two guys can stay hot, then the O's offense will definitely pick up.

While the O's only went 3-3 on their homestand, they did win 2 out of 3 against the A's. It feels good to beat a solid team, even though they aren't the A's of a few years ago. Hopefully the O's beat up on the Royals in KC this week, and get their long road trip off to a great start.

Baez does it Again

Danys Baez's right arm is killing the O's all by itself. 1 inning...2 hits 1 run...and Baez is 0-4 in the month of May.
Is there a record for losses by a reliever in a single month? Baez has to atleast be in sight of that record! Maybe its time for the O's to create an injury...send him to the DL..and give him a week off to get himself together before having him rehab in the minors for a little while. Something has to be done, because he cannot be trusted in a high pressure situation right now.

Its also upsetting to see that the Orioles blew it for Jeremy Guthrie again. What does this guy have to do for them to give him a win. His 4 May appearances have looked like this...

Innings Earned Runs
6 - 1
8.1 - 0
7 - 1
7 - 3

Thats an amazing month for a guy just working his way into the rotation. He should be 3-1 or 4-0 over that span, but instead he has settled for 3 No Decisions and just one win. Hopefully the guy stays positive and keeps pitching like he has. I love what I've seen so far, and will be a big fan of his if he can stay in the rotation.

Other O's notes...Great to see Tejada with a 3 run homer. Hopefully he will pull out the power a little more often in the future.
Bad News... O's continue to hit into double plays...3 more tonight, including two by Melvin Mora...who has looked awful at the plate lately. He isn't taking pitches and seems to be swinging at everything. In his last 10 games he has just 2 walks, 3 RBI, and his average has dropped 21 points. Hopefully Melvin turns things around soon, or the O's might need to start thinking about who will be playing 3rd in 2008.

Georgetown Wins One and Loses One

Georgetown had a great basketball season in 06-07, largely in thanks to the play of Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert. I think they would have been frontrunners for the National Championship next season if both guys came back next season, because Ohio State lost Oden and Conley, while Florida's starting 5 are all gone. Yesterday it was announced that Hibbert will return for another year while Jeff Green will enter the draft. While it certainly won't help Georgetown to lose the current Big East POY, it seems to be a good decision by both players.

Green is ready for the NBA. From what I've seen in draft write-ups, experts think he will go between 10 and 20 in the draft. While I think it would be more advantageous for a player to come out next year instead of now because of the Oden-Durant effect, Green's game doesn't have a ton of room for improvement. He is a polished player who is likely to have a similar draft potential next year as well. He can handle getting minutes off of the bench in the NBA next season, and won't have to risk getting hurt in college before his pay day.

Hibbert is a slightly different story. While some people have him ranked higher on draft charts than Green, he still has more room to develop than Jeff. He has a lot of skill for a guy his size, but he wouldn't be able to get away with a lot of his moves with the athletic big men in the NBA. Another year in school will provide him with a chance to hone his skills while getting stronger. The possibility of earning National POY will also increase his exposure before next year's draft. I don't think there are a combination like Oden and Durant who will be draft eligible next season, so Hibbert will also have less competition next season for a top draft spot.

Both of these guys seem like quality guys and quality players. Its great to see two Maryland high school products get the chance to star close to home, and also move on to the Pro level. Either one would probably be successful with any decision they made, but I think they both chose well for where they are right now.

Baseball is On...Everything else is Off

At this time of year there really isn't much going on in sports in this area besides baseball. The biggest news recently in local football is that Clinton Portis thinks its acceptable to hold dog fights on private property...even if it is a felony. Clinton should have went with a "No Comment!" when asked about Mike Vick, and went on planning what he will do during his weekly news conferences this fall.

The Ravens are having a mostly quiet offseason...except for Steve McNair getting into a little trouble with his brother in law. Can't wait to see if Willis McGahee can really bring some explosion back to Baltimore's running game.

I watched the NBA Draft Lottery last night expecting to see the Wizards represented. With the way they finished their season, they felt like a lottery team. The Wizards greatly need an impact player, especially down low. Hopefully they can find that player outside the lottery, and don't keep drafting projects like Andray Blatche and the 2 Russian guys they selected and haven't even signed yet from 2006. The Zards are a playoff team, and need help now...not 5 years down the road. I'd much rather have a solid player who has proven himself in the NCAA than a guy who is playing in some obscure foreign league or not living up to his potential in college.

The Nats are proving to be irrelevant this year. Even with their winning ways of late, they are still 5.5 games behind the 4th place NL East Phillies. Ryan Zimmerman has been heating up lately, but nobody else on that team really interests me much.

The Orioles lost to the Jays again last night. O's are really bumming me out right now with how they are playing, because each loss seems to be by just 1 or 2 runs. They are capable of winning these games, but are really not coming through in tough spots. Particularly disappointing is Miguel Tejada. Not only is he not hitting homeruns(2), but he isn't hitting anything for power with just 6 doubles on the year. I love the high average, but he is supposed to be an RBI guy for this club. Not an average guy.