The Orioles will attempt to recover from their first loss of the season tonight when they face Brad Penny and the Tigers. In the meantime, here are some links…
- Victor Martinez tells Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun that he appreciated the Orioles' interest in him this offseason, when they offered $48MM over four years to become their first baseman. "It was a pretty tough decision," Martinez said. Instead, he signed with the Tigers for $50MM.
- Orioles pitching coach Mark Connor told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports that catcher Matt Wieters is "by far the most amazing 'feel' guy at that age" he has ever seen. Wieters' tempo and game-calling are impressing the Orioles. Those skills were a big reason the Orioles weren't interested in Martinez as a catcher.
- Peter Schmuck of the Sun isn't looking to nitpick, but he says Adam Jones' approach at the plate is one potential area of concern for the Orioles early on.
- After a surprising 4-1 start thanks to their impressive pitching, the Orioles are 15th on WEEI.com's power rankings.
Red Sox should have resigned this guy, without question and as the guys on Baseball tonight mentioned last night, the Red Sox should have read the flyer on Buck a little more closely. Guy is paying serious dividends in Florida right now. I’m not going to argue this, but man..shoulda coulda woulda..V-Mart looks like a relative steal for the Tigers with that contract. Good for them to add a quality player at a quality price..
And yeah, Buck rules..I hope he wins a championship with the O’s. I can’t imagine one person (player or personnel) currently in baseball who is more deserving of a ring than Showalter. Shoot, since it’s such a beautiful park, I may get tickets, hop on a train from New York and go see a game this summer..
Why do you like Shoewalter so much?? Every team he’s been to, wins AFTER he leaves…
Also John Buck stated he wanted to play in Boston, they def should have picked him up
Why do I like Showalter so much? It’s because I am a die hard Yank fan and have been to every ticker tape parade dating back to 96. In a large part, I credit Buck with much of the Yanks success in the 90’s. He is that intangible many neglect to mention when people discuss the Yanks dynasty and run of dominance. The same could be said for other teams he has managed too. Exhibit B is the Rangers.
I also truly appreciate his candor and the way he speaks. Never sugar coated.
Why do you hate the Orioles so much? Its getting sad now.
I didn’t like Shoewalter BEFORE he went to the Orioles.. The only thing thats sad is your blind bias.
Pot calling the kettle black.
yes my unbiased baseball opinion on a team i’m neutral with is completely blind and biased. great work
Are you also unbiased and neutral regarding the Rays, Soxs and Yanks? Just curious if you’d say you have some biased there …
You thinking you’re unbiased is as sad as you trying to make a linguistic argument.
okay… we’ll see if your still here when the O’s fall back under .500 .. or if you’ll run back under your bridge!
I notice you’ve responded to all of the personal comments, but ignore much of the baseball talk … interesting.
I’ve been a die hard for 25 years. You have no idea what you are talking about. Also you are the one trolling these boards, don’t be confused.
yawn.
Give it up Rabbitov, this troll is always right, just ask him. I’m sure he’ll give you an unbiased opinion! Lol!
hahah wow! hilarious!
I`m glad your not still bitter for all the 100 times i`ve schooled your baseball knowledge…
keep following me around hoping to embarrass me. haha
Oh Lunchbox45, thou art the definition of a Stalker. Remember you’re the one who went the extra yard to look up my Facebook account a few months back cuz you just had to see who was getting the better of you here. Getting a Stalker on MLB Traderumors is rare but getting under your skin is Priceless!
lol I don’t even remember that to be honest. but the fact that you do and still harbour a grudge is pretty pathetic. Essentially what your telling the world is that you have no life and the social interactions that happen on mlbtr actually have influence over you.
Which is actually pretty sad in its self.. I actually sincerely feel bad for u :/
Lame try deflecting your creepiness! Is stalking what all Canucks do when none of their hockey teams make the playoffs?
It was a gamble for sure going with Salty as the starting C. So far it’s not looking good but it’s early. Russell Martin having a hot start probably isn’t making Theo feel any better.
Yeah Russell and that $4m deal is looking really REALLY good so far. Hope he can sustain his production. More importantly, based on the posts in the papers. Pitchers are really liking his game calling. Salty and his weird crouch, sitting, laying (whatever the heck that is he does) is not helping matters. Isn’t that what they call tipping pitches? Theo essentially put the integrity of a $200mm team in the hands of a young, 4th tier (on the Rangers) catcher. Let’s face it, the catcher is one of the most important aspects of the game and team. Variteck is really no better. The Sox have some real problems with their behind the plate situation right now. I’m not worried about their offense. It will come and it will be big, but if the pitchers don’t get their mojo down with Salty, they should kiss the season good by.
complete overreaction
156 games left…
157*
Not for everybody lunchbox.
The story is on the O’s. They have played 5 games.
anything else?
Not just fans of the orioles come to the comment section.
I accept your apology
Ha, yeah right.
Close enough, point stands.
wieters has exceeded expectations defensively and with his game-calling/handling of pitchers
now… if that bat would just get going
It’s not polite to poke fun at someone for their name, but ‘Peter Schmuck’ just might be the funniest name I’ve heard since ‘Lucious Pusey’.
It is funny, until you read his blog, which is horribly unfunny.
You should read some of his stuff.
So if the Sox started 6-0, everyone and their mother would predict 105 wins and bla bla bla. But they start 0-6 and its no big deal? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think they will finish under 90-92 wins but what the hell?
i don’t understand your question
So you WANT people to over react and make a big deal? Just like last year when Teix was hitting .200 and everyone said he sucked then he finished with his usual numbers? Theres just no point in over reacting in baseball. theres 156-7 games left just enjoy the ride
How is this the best story of the season so far?
KC = 4-2
Tor = 4-1
Pirates = 4-2
SF= 2-4
Sox= 0-5
point being. its 5 games yo
I’m as excited about them as I am the Royals and Pirates..
1995-1999 Yankees (still paying dividends with his imput on MO)
2001 Diamondbacks (yeah Brenley was at the helm, but)
Present day Rangers – enough said..
These things don’t happen overnight and the pieces take years to build winning franchises and I don’t think there is a person in baseball that would argue how important Showalter was or is to these teams..
mighty mitch talbot and the cleveland crew
the people that fired him from all of them might
Absolutely. It’s really naive to pretend that Showalter didn’t play a hand in building those organizations before he left. The teams that “won” weren’t thrown together after Showalter left, they were years in the making and included a nucleus of players that he helped to assemble.
What are you talking about? JD built this Rangers team not Buck i like the guy but he had as much to do with the Rangers going to the WS as I did.
Here are some examples to show that he had nothing to do with this Rangers squad
He was fired as manager on October 4, 2006
Rangers drafted Borbon and Hunter in 2007
Aquired Josh Hamilton for Volquez in 07
Traded Mark Teixera for Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harisson etc.
CJ Wilson was drafted in 01 Before Buck came to TX
None of the Core players have Bucks finger prints on them so i dont really know how he could have built the Rangers team that went to the WS
if they weren’t my team it would be a lot less annoying. it’s quite a spectacle, though, watching that much talent play that poorly all at the same time
other than the fact that it’s happening at the beginning of the season, it’s hardly unique though:
April games (with longest streak):
NYY 2007: 9-14 (w/ 7 losses in a row)
NYY 2006: 13-10 (w/ 4 losses in a row)
NYY 2005: 10-14 (w/ 4 losses in a row)
Each of those Yankee teams won at least 94 games and made the playoffs
You are also a bona fida Orioles hater.
Don’t feed the troll.
He’s a longtime Orioles-hater/Toronto fan. In other words, part of how he’s a baseball fan has to do with how much hate he can pile up on the only immediate rival team his team has a chance at beating.
My Cal Ripken Jr. jersey begs to differ.
Don’t mistake criticism of direction for ‘hate’. I don’t agree with the directions the O’s have taken in recent years, especially this off season. Not to mention I’m not sold on a team that when already way out of contention gets a new manager and wins in september.
I would be saying the same things about the Jays or any other team, so because of that somehow I’m a hater and my opinions not valid?
nice.
someone here does seem to be trolling yes
Your opinion is invalid because you are a red sox fan.
I don’t think your opinion is invalid, just misplaced. I can’t understand what motivates you to post on every single O’s topic something disparaging, also in an incredible arrogant way. I think you’ve made a lot of valid points, and usually i “like” your points when they are valid.
But there’s a line between disliking Orioles moves and bashing every single thing they do without fail. Your haven’t missed a topic, no matter how small or large the move is.
We don’t go on Toronto boards and say “oh they haven’t won the playoffs in 20 years, they are awful.” We can have an informed discussion about the Blue Jays, its a shame you can’t do the same.
The recent years, as in the rebuilding effort under Andy MacPhail?
Does that imply that you were in favor of their direction from 1997-2007ish? I’m just trying to understand what you’re trying to say here …
I don’t know, but I was impressed that Showalter took a team that was on a historically bad pace, and somehow managed to go 34-23 down the stretch.
And please don’t pretend that the games were handed to the O’s because they weren’t contending; a majority of the teams they beat were contending, or at the very least playing respectable baseball.
If your opinions had an ounce of intelligence behind them they might be valid so, yeah, you’re a Hater! The O’s look good so far so let’s see what happens!
I would have to agree with Rabbitov’s assessment of your posts.
Maybe you just like to play Devil’s Advocate, tending to be aggressively critical, on everything? Or, that’s just how you justify it after the fact? But I guess it’s just your style of analysis. That said, an objective opinion is neither negative or positive by definition. It just seems that a lot of times, when there’s Oriole news, you go out of your way to post the negative at every turn. And, that’s fair when it’s granted. But, it’s one thing to say that a team is just bad (which the Os admittedly have been for a while now); and, it’s another thing when someone takes facts as a starting point to construct an insult towards its fans, farm, organization, and/or whatever else. If I just had your posts to go by, I’d think that anything associated with the Orioles is such a loser, that one can extract how something as ostensibly extraneous as the concession hotdogs or Camden parking lot management contributes to the losing? I mean–everything associated with the Orioles can’t be so monumentally bad, that each point points to a larger conspiracy of losing, can it?
Just because we call you out on biased negativity doesn’t mean we’re invalid for doing so. Also, just because you use the same style for Jays-related posts doesn’t absolve you into being an objective commenter either.
I mean, typically, the most rational, unbiased opinions of a particular team comes from fans of rival teams …
That might just be in my experience though …
Way to add to the conversation genius!
I go on Jays boards and call them awful, and critize a lot of the comments and moves. So whats your point? Am I jays hater too now??
Also because you only see me in Orioles posts doesn’t mean I only post there, I post in whatever I have an opinion on, which is a lot of stories. So your analasis of your perceptions is off. You’re being defensive and assuming too much
hence the sarcastic tone of my previous post.
Then why do you keep insisting how neutral and unbiased you are? … Completely over your head I guess.
lol reading comprehension is completely over your head apparently.
I’m loving it that the Red Sox are 0-6 to start the season and the Boston media is ready to go Bonkers any minute. Alas, it will soon be forgotten when they go on some eight game winning streak and erase the memory of 0-6. Most likely againist the Yankees.
I call it like I see it.
you’re probably right, but it’s not unique to boston media (and boy do i hate me some boston media). during each of those spring streaks, there was a huge stink in new york – people calling for torre’s firing, etc.
classic small sample hysterics from the WATCH THA GAMES crowd
thats cuz your a tool.
Or, you’ve failed to realize that I was mocking the notion that rival fans are typically objective and without bias … The fact that you believe this, or went along with it, says it all …
well spoken
I would say that, people can and will criticize the managerial mistakes that have been made under MacPhail’s stewardship, but if you witnessed the farm and system management of the late 90s and early 00s (Shoot, even mid-90s too. It just wasn’t as noticeable until the lack of farm talent hit the majors later), I think most people would say that the overall direction has been positive under MacPhail.
Before him, there was honestly a pretty schizophrenic management style. During those years the front office would go all-in and try to spend their way out of it; and, the next, they’d decide to replenish the farm. In the meantime, they couldn’t string together a good series of consecutive years of focussing on the draft and development. Also the farm system was in such disarray that prospects wouldn’t have proper equipment, facilities, or gear. It was embarrassing. Since MacPhail, these problems have stopped. Now, what people talk about isn’t the lack of equipment or player development infrastructure. It’s about picking which players, and developing them.