Orioles Magic

This video is simply fantastic.



I think my favorite part is in the lower right hand of the screen 1:06 into the video...

As far as I can tell, the six O's in the video are Jeremy Guthrie, Kevin Millar, Adam Loewen, Adam Jones, George Sherrill and Dennis Sarfate.
 

A Personal Quest: Keep Dmitri Young and Kevin Millar in the area!

First of all, let me just say for the record (and for your convenience) that there are a couple places I go for trade rumors, and no, MLBtraderumors.com is not one of them:

Ben Maller's MLB Rumors page on Fox Sports.

Yahoo! Sports MLB Rumors.

That should be enough to keep you occupied for 20 minutes at work. On to the good stuff...

The Washington Post passively mentioned that Dmitri Young could be traded to a contender if the price is right.

Meanwhile, The Sun says what we already know, that Kevin Millar is "one of the Orioles most marketable players" (that they might be willing to part with, at least).

These trades simply cannot happen.

Image from MLB.com.

Young has to stick around, if only because he has the best screen name in The Dugout: SteakGrowsOnDmitri. That and If_Anything_I_Could_ Say_That_This_Cabrera are the only two on the site that I actually replace the player's real name with in my mind.

Also, when resident crazy man Jose Guillen was not re-signed by the Nationals after the 2006 season, I was so disappointed. Who else was going to call another team's manager "a piece of garbage"? Enter Dmitri Young.

Like Guillen, Young is a reclamation project who was given an unconditional release by his former employer. But Young is even crazier than Guillen. And he was an All-Star this year!

Image from washingtonpost.com.

Besides his .390+ OPS, Millar cannot be traded because, as SC at Camden Chat said, "Millar is kind of like the Rally Monkey, only he's a player on the team."

And because there's a corny between-innings video that they show at Camden Yards where O's players pick the best singer on the team, and after the majority vote goes to Millar, the video shows him in Benito Santiago shades going "DA NA NA NA NA NA DOCTOR FEEL GOOD!!!!!!"

And who can forget the Ray Lewis dance?

That's worth the price of admission right there.
 

What? The trade deadline is in eight days?

Being an O's fan (or a Nats fan for that matter), it's pretty easy to forget when the trade deadline rolls around. Because trade deadlines are for "good" teams that are "still in the hunt," or at least teams with good players that someone else might want.

So as I wake up from my month-and-a-half long sleepwalk through the local sports scene to realize that, hey, they're actually still playing baseball and someone I've heard of might change teams soon, it's time to take a look at who might get unceremoniously shipped away from our local losers.

With Miguel Tejada hurt everything gets real boring around here, because who's even worth talking about if not for destined-to-fail Tejada-for-so-and-so-pitchers rumors?

On the Nats all eyes are on Chad Cordero. And honestly who else is worth a damn? Jon Rauch would add bullpen depth to a contender and his name has been tossed around also, but trading away your two best relievers -- both of whom are under 30 -- doesn't seem real smart for a team that's building for the future.

Don't get me wrong, no one's building a franchise around a bullpen, but not having one will certainly slow the process (just ask the Orioles).

Allegedly Ryan Church is on the block, and if Jim Bowden had his way he'd replace Church with Adam Dunn. That's a great idea but I don't see any way that Bowden has what it would take to get Dunn from the Reds. Although I wouldn't have thought Royce Clayton and an over-worked Gary Majewski would have been enough to get Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez from the Reds, so I guess anything is possible when dealing with Bowden's former employer.

For the Orioles there are a few trade options I guess.

They could dump Kevin Millar off on some team that needs a DH or first baseman who gets on base at a .390 clip (that's what he's doing this season ... I didn't believe it myself until I looked it up). The obvious fit is the Yankees but he's said he doesn't want to go there -- or anywhere for that matter.

Steve Trachsel could get some looks from teams who are REALLY strapped for starting pitching (even Rodrigo Lopez got some looks last July). But his departure won't really be much of a loss for the starting rotation with Garrett Olson proving he deserves a shot, nor will Trax bring much of anything in return. So who really cares?

Other than that, there's your typical list of guys who are only in rumors in Orioles fan circles because we want to see them gone, not because there are actually any takers. Danys Baez tops the list of course. Jay Gibbons is a close second. Some have even suggested Chris Ray, but he's got huge upside so why trade him when his value's never been lower?

Yep. Nothing but questions. Boring questions that no one really cares to know the answers to.

Fun.
 

Kevin Millar Would Like To Know If There Are Any Dogs In The House

I once heard a pack of drunken frat guys doing their rendition of the Ravens pre-game ritual (I think it was while tailgating for a University of Maryland football game) and it effectively ruined it for me. Just to clarify, they weren't doing it mockingly ... they were serious about getting amped for that next Natty Light.

That being said, Kevin Millar went all Ray Lewis up in this joint on Monday afternoon before the home opener against Detroit. He busted out a pretty impressive rendition of the infamous Ray Lewis pre-Super Bowl dance.

I missed it because I was in the District looking at overpriced apartments, but the good public has been kind enough to hold a digital camera up to a television and post the results on YouTube. So here it is for you to enjoy ... all seven seconds of it!

That's worth watching a good 10 or 20 times.

Orioles Get Serious About Fixing The Bullpen

If you're big starting pitching acquisition is going to be five-inning-Jaret Wright, you're bullpen needs to be better than the 5.25 ERA and 21 blown leads that the O's 'pen posted in 2006. Toward that end, the O's are apparently on the verge of signing their third and fourth veteran relievers of the offseason, Chad Bradford and Scott Williamson, according to ESPN.com.

While the Orioles front office has admitted a need to focus on the holes in left field and at first base/designated hitter, so far the offseason has brought nothing but pitching ... not to say that's a bad thing.

The O's bullpen ranked next to last in the majors last year, and adding Bradford (2.90 ERA, 1.16 WHIP in 62 innings with the Mets last year), Jamie Walker (2.81, 1.15 in 48 innings with Detroit in '06), Williamson (3.32 ERA in six big league seasons) and Danys Baez (2005 All-Star with the Devil Rays) should be an improvement over the retreads and call-ups that the Orioles cycled through the bullpen last year.

Before the Williamson/Bradford double-signing, The Baltimore Sun's Roch Kubatko, purely speculating, projected the 2007 Orioles bullpen to be:

Chris Ray
Jamie Walker
Danys Baez
"Another new guy (Dustin Hermanson? Joe Borowski? Chad Bradford?)"
John Parrish
Kurt Birkins
Hayden Penn

Well now it's clear that there are TWO new guys, which means Parrish, Birkins or Penn is likely out, barring a trade.

I'd like to see Aaron Rakers get a shot, but it would probably be better for him to start out in AAA Norfolk after missing all of last season with a torn labrum.

After the Baez signing, some -- and by some I mean one -- is speculating that the Orioles may now look to shop young stud closer Chris Ray for a power bat.

The good thing about adding a bunch of relievers, besides immediately helping the bullpen, is that relievers are relatively unheralded in the offseason but when the trade deadline rolls around contending teams suddenly find themselves in desperate need of the bullpen help that will nudge them into the postseason (see the Reds sending Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez to the Nationals this past season for Gary Majewski and Bill Bray). If the O's find themselves out of it in July, guys like Williamson could fetch a high price.

On the other hand, Bradford, Baez and Walker are all looking at three-year deals, which would make them more difficult to trade at the deadline to a team looking for a rental.

Meanwhile, Ken Rosenthal says the O's are close to re-upping with Kevin Millahhhh and that he could find himself as part of a platoon with Aubrey Huff or some other lefty batter. I'd like that idea if Millar hit lefties (.244 AVG, .722 OPS last year) better than righties (.283 AVG, .845 OPS). But he doesn't. So that idea is stupid.

The Orioles were also linked to the Manny Ramirez conversation, but apparently those talks never really got anywhere.

The real question is can the Orioles pry a power hitter (of course I'd love Manny being Manny, but for the sake of sanity let's say Adam Dunn) away from someone without parting with Erik Bedard?

The bullpen help is nice and all, and will probably be worth a solid 5-10 wins next season, but the O's need a real power bat and Aubrey Huff is not the answer.

For You Orioles Stat Geeks

With the Orioles having some marginal success (15-14 from May 28 to June 28), I decided to look at some numbers. With everyone focusing on the improved pitching, I noticed that a lot of the hitters have stepped it up in June as well.


As I jinx everyone on the Orioles...

PLAYER		SEASON				JUNE
		AVG	OBP	SLG		AB	AVG	OBP	SLG
Jeff Conine		.254	.333	.424		59	.305	.379	.492
Brandon Fahey		.264	.315	.347		46	.261	.333	.413
Jay Gibbons		.274	.312	.495		7	.429	.429	.429
Razor Ramon		.287	.351	.524		93	.290	.356	.613
Javy Lopez		.276	.323	.429		90	.289	.319	.467
Nick Markakis		.250	.326	.337		59	.322	.385	.390
Luis Matos		.205	.282	.339		47	.255	.352	.383
Kevin Millar		.242	.349	.376		71	.254	.357	.408
Melvin Mora		.290	.355	.427		93	.247	.311	.301
Scorey Patterson		.282	.324	.429		100	.270	.305	.330
Brian Roberts		.314	.383	.415		109	.303	.374	.394
Ed Rogers		.211	.200	.211		9	.111	.100	.111
Miguel Tejada		.314	.367	.517		99	.293	.343	.404

An interesting thing that this table displays is that the guys who are having better-than-their-season OPS months (with more than 10 ABs... sorry Gibby... and Kris Benson) are Conine, Fahey, Hernandez, Javy, Markakis, Matos and Millar. Surprisingly absent from that list are Mora, Tejada and Roberts.

So ranking OPS for June, you get:

1) Ramon Hernandez .969 (and that was including an 0-for-23 skid)
2) Jeff Conine .870
3) Miguel Tejada .802 (even on a "down" month, Tejada's one of our best players)
4) Javy Lopez .786
5) Nick Markakis .774
6) Brian Roberts .768
7) Kevin Millar .766
8) Brandon Fahey .746
9) Luis Matos .735
10) Corey Patterson .635
11) Melvin Mora .612 (Melvin what are you doing down here?)

Granted, from June 1 to June 28 the team is two games under .500, and that's when these stats were accrued, but with Tejada and Roberts not on their normal pace and Mora scuffling, it's good that the O's have some other guys stepping it up, because every team is going to have stretches when their top guys aren't red hot and typically over the last 8 or 9 years the Orioles have been the kind of team to let those stretches crush them.

Combined sucking of Nationals and Orioles threatens to engulf P.G., Montgomery and Howard counties in powerful vortex

So the first "Battle of the Beltway" has come and gone. The Nationals took a 2-1 series win in what truly was an epic battle of "who can suck less this weekend," and the biggest news to come from the whole thing is that I didn't post about it once.

Yeah, that's kind of self-important, but I figure my apathy is pretty representative of the apathy of the population as a whole. The area didn't exactly get worked into a frenzy over that weekend-long Quadruple-A baseball showcase at RFK. (They even held a minor league/major league day just to emphasize that what you were watching was not Major League level ball.)

Here's the problem: These teams aren't good. Maybe saying they "suck" is a little harsh, but... wait, no it's not.

Keven Millar said it well: "Nobody's interested in two teams that aren't winning ... Once you throw winning into the equation, it becomes a rivalry."

If the match-up came in April it could have been compelling. The Nats were coming off a .500 season and the O's were cautiously optimistic with several additions and the hope brought by pitching coach Leo Mazzone.

But no. Instead the rivalry came more than 40 games into the season. The O's had lost four of five and 15 of 23 going into the series and the Nats had dropped six of eight and had a sparkling 14-27 record on the year before the teams faced each other.

It's hard to stay passionate a month or two into a long season. It's actually taxing to be a fan of a bad team, because the schedule is such that you're constantly reminded that the team you love sucks. Even if you stop watching the games, the reminders are unavoidable. You turn on ESPN at any time, and "The Bottom Line" tells you that your team lost. You open the newspaper in the morning and the box score lets you know how bad your team is. You load up Firefox and your local headlines give you the miserable details.

SC at Camden Chat said it best:

"Baseball fandom is a love affair unlike any other sport. There are 162 games. No once a week, no 81 or 82, no chance to really catch your breath like you can with other sports. Even basketball and hockey have a bunch of days off. If you're a diehard fan of a bad baseball team, it is a constant bludgeoning for six months. The days your team isn't playing start to look like relief, and even then, if you're like me, you kinda wish you had a game to watch."

Deep, brother. Deep.

Plus, it's just not enticing when two cellar-dwellers duke it out, especially at a dump like RFK. Maybe a few more fans could have been baited to the park by the promise of some Boog's Barbecue, tasty Esskay Oriole franks, Uncle Teddy's cinnamon sugar pretzels and a beautiful evening at one of baseball's premier ballparks, but instead MLB decided they wanted the "rivalry" to kick off in a soccer stadium.

Getting the fans into the game was impossible -- the Orioles have spent the last eight years breeding apathy toward them and Washington fans are notorious for sitting on their hands -- but better scheduling could have at least gotten fans into the stadium.

The old and heinously overused addage is, "You can't polish a turd." But Major League Baseball has been doing just that for years. What's that? The Pirates have sucked for 20 years? Build 'em a shiny new ballpark! The Reds haven't been worth anything since Jose Rijo was on the team ... the first time around? NEW BALLPARK! The Phillies are the losingest franchise in any of the four major sports??? NEEWWWWW BALLLPAAAAAAAAAAARK!!!!!!

The Nats brass should know this all too well. Expos fans would still be dancing on the dugout with Youppi if the city of Montreal had agreed to put Le Stade Olympique out of its misery.

But starting the rivalry at Camden Yards would have just made too much sense. Sure, attendance has been low at both parks, but fans still love the atmosphere of Camden Yards and go when compelled. People actively avoid RFK.

And don't even get me started on the Nationals policy of charging "premium" prices for the games at RFK against the Orioles, Yankees and Cubs. (Cubs? Be serious.) Yeah, $5 to $10 more per ticket if you want to Metro to D.C. United's home field to watch a baseball game against a popular team. (How do they take the mound off the field for soccer games, anyway?) It's one of the more deplorable schemes I've seen from a pro sports franchise to squeeze every last dime out of its fan base, but why would I expect any less from a team collectively owned by the 29 other team owners.

Now we've got to wait until June 23 to renew the rivalry at the better ballpark up north, and by then both teams could be 20 games out of first! ("Could be..."? Ha! Ever the optimist, I guess...)

But Nats fans, consider this your open invitation to come on up anyway. I personally guarantee that the tickets will be the same price as every other game, and we certainly don't discriminate... just ask Red Sox and Yankees fans who make Oriole Park their home stadium 9 or 10 times a year.