Comments for Oriole Central

Comment on Randor hits the DL by Heath

Heath — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:14:09 +0000

re: bullpen

I don’t know. The relievers have not been in as many games as last year and when they have been, they haven’t been in as long. I think keeping a shorter leash on Walker and Bradford isn’t such a bad idea. They were ridden hard last year.

Time will tell but I think Trembley is doing OK handling the bullpen given the starting staff he has. It’s at least better than Perlozzo’s bullpen deployment…

Comment on Catching up by Heath

Heath — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:39:33 +0000

And look at what else your “Garbage Home Run” has inspired:

http://dempseysarmy.blogspot.com/2008/04/sweet-swings-or-garbage-kings.html

Just for fun but early results show that it’s a good way of looking at it…

At least for Gibbons, I came to the same conclusions as Daniel did.

Comment on Catching up by Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:08:39 +0000

Just FYI, I looked at the home runs Gibbons and Patterson hit.
http://frostkingbaseball.blogspot.com/2008/04/taking-out-trash.html
Conclusion (sort of):
Gibbons: In general, he does worse in “clutch” situations than his usual production, but I would have to say that the evidence doesn’t support him hitting too many “garbage” home runs.
Patterson: CCorey is “unclutch” and does hit home runs more frequently late in the game and in non-high leverage situations. The home runs came more often when the game was out of hand than when it was close. Could potentially be a “garbage” HR hitter.

Looking at the pitchers they homered off of, there are some bad ones (both got to Corey Lidle pretty good) but also some good ones (Clemens, Halladay, Santana, Peavy, Schilling ). I think both guys “sucked” from our perspective, so we remember the things they did that padded their stats but didn’t help the team. People remember David Ortiz hitting a game-winning HR, but not him homering twice with the game already in hand.

Comment on Ode to the Garbage Home Run by Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:49:40 +0000

If I may propose a reason for this…

Perhaps Corey Patterson and Jay Gibbons just aren’t very good hitters (shocking, I know) so when a team has a huge lead, the opposing pitcher is OK with throwing fastballs in the zone (which these guys can actually hit) and when the game is close, they throw breaking-pitches and paint the corners (which they can’t hit). I don’t think it has anything at all to do with “clutchness” but is rather a general lack of talent. I question whether or not it is actually the case that these players do hit a lot of “meaningless” HR, so I’ll take a look at that sometime soon and post something about it. If you already did that, then I will defer to your conclusions (I assume it’s just your impression of what happens).

Comment on Where do we stand with Adam Loewen? by Scattered Thoughts « Oriole Central

Scattered Thoughts « Oriole Central — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:59:23 +0000

[...] ratio is still not good….but beggars can’t be choosers. He had a decent night. As I said last week, this season will go along way to show where Adam Loewen fits into the future of the [...]

Comment on Where do we stand with Adam Loewen? by Heath

Heath — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:50:44 +0000

The guy just came back from elbow surgery. I think we need to give the guy a full year in the majors before we start making projecitons. Scott Kazmir walked a ton of guys when he first started in the league. Loewen won’t be that good but he’s going to pitch until there’s a better option to replace him and even now we don’t have that level of player.

Comment on Trembley thinking of adding a 13th pitcher by Roland Via

Roland Via — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:34:36 +0000

I am also a Scott Moore fan having followed him since he was first drafted and played high A ball for the Daytona Cubs. Check out http://www.ScottMooreFans.com . I truly beieve Scott is the future and the trade the Cubs made last year will be remembered as one of the biggest blunders ever made in baseball. Hail Andy MacPhail for getting Scott.
Yes! Scott can play SS as he came up as a shortstop and he takes practice there. Before long, his bat will force his every-day presence in the line up.
Scott cannot go down to the minors.

Comment on Trembley thinking of adding a 13th pitcher by Heath

Heath — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:30:24 +0000

I don’t even like carrying 12 pitchers but the reality is they’re going to have to do it this season, at least until someone steps up and shows they can consistently pitch past the 7th inning.

Comment on Trembley thinking of adding a 13th pitcher by Desert O

Desert O — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:50:44 +0000

I wouldn’t want to do it over the long term, but we only have one day off until May 12. I don’t think its a bad idea for the next few weeks.

Comment on Gibbons RELEASED! by Opening Day Duck Snorts

Opening Day Duck Snorts — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:00:43 +0000

[...] ANOTHER STEROID ABUSER GETS HIS JUST DESSERTS: Former Baltimore Oriole slugger Jay Gibbons finally got what was coming to him, just like hundreds of steroid users before him. Gibbons, who was named in the damning Mitchell Report earlier this year, was finally released by the Baltimore Orioles just before the season began. It’s a strong statement from the Orioles organization, a team that can use all the hitting help it can get. While Gibbons gave Baltimore three 20-homer seasons, his wanton use of illegal performance enhancing substances lead to three injury-plagued seasons, which surely offset whatever good the drugs did. In addition, his performance while drugged influenced the Orioles in signing him to a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract that they’re still paying for — even released, Gibbons will earn another $11 million over the next two years. Just another example of how these drugs have tricked yet another unknowing franchise into throwing away their money. If the players had any scruples at all, all current contracts would be made null and void, and each player would be signed only to a one-year deal, with next year’s salary based solely on what the player accomplished the previous year. This is how contracts used to be handled once upon a time, back when the sport was clean. Given the embarrassment that owners have had to suffer these past few years, I think it’s only fair. Which leads me to my next item… [...]