It’s only the first week of June and the 2010 season is already finished for the Baltimore Orioles, the worst team in Major League Baseball.
One third of the way into the 2010 baseball season, the Baltimore Orioles are the worst team in major league baseball. Listen up, once again, the Baltimore Orioles are the worst team in baseball. Even the Pittsburgh Pirates whose leadership has no intention of attempting to make competitive are a better team. The standings speak for themselves, but watching the way this team plays, the way they carry themselves, and the total lack of accountability on the field all help explain how this can be so.
We’ve already expressed our frustration, the word, “win,” doesn’t come up very often when anybody on this team is interviewed. Are we finally where we can assume Dave Trembley’s dismissal is a foregone conclusion?
It damned well better be. The talk of what a class act he is and what a great baseball man he is rings hollow. He has a job to do. He’s not doing it. He should be fired. While it might be true, a good manager might only make the difference of 5 to 10 games during the course of a season, that’s a good manager working with a decent team. A poor manager can destroy a good team. The Orioles, at best are an inexperienced team with a lot of potential. A bad manager destroys confidence, arrests development, and creates false expectations. Trembley is portrayed as a good roll model. Well, as an authority figure, at his best, he seems like a good Boy Scout Troop leader; however, more often than not, today he looks like a besieged substitute teacher in a rough schoolhouse.
Changing managers will not be a panacea. He can no longer be the team’s fall guy. Whatever deficiencies the team continues to exhibit will no longer be excused by a burned out manager.
There’s not much to look forward to in 2010. Bringing Garrett Atkins in to play first base has proven a total failure. Don’t look for Brandon Snyder who was touted as the first baseman of the future to sail up the Chesapeake and help. He has been a pure disaster in Norfolk. The bullpen is a mystery. However, can anyone honestly say Dave Trembley has a clue how to utilize relief pitching? He doesn’t. He opts for the text book, cover your ass approach, making way too many changes when not mandated and leaving starters in where their great efforts turn into failures. Last year, with Nick Markakis joined with Adam Jones and Norm Riemold coming on strong, it looked like the Orioles had an outfield to be reckoned with. Jones has been a total failure this year, and Riemold is down the bay, struggling severely in Norfolk. Felix Pie, the wildcard in the outfield mix is on the 60 day disabled list perhaps gone for the season.
Brian Roberts has just started his rehab at the Orioles Florida minor league facility. Best case scenario, he could be back with the team by the 4th of July. His presence could put a little spark into the offense.
How are Matt Wieters and Brain Matusz supposed to come of age and move toward the potential they clearly have in these conditions?
Look at the case of Kevin Millwood. He was brought to add some veteran stability to the Orioles rotation. With 12 starts most lasting into the 7th inning keeping his ERA well below 4.00 until today’s meltdown in New York, he would appear to have done just that, but despite his fine pitching, his record is 0-6 due to lack of offensive support and having the bullpen called in at the wrong time sometimes allowing runners on base to score that were his responsibility leading to the loss.
Aside from Ty Wigginton, are any players exceeding expectations? Try to come up with a list of those one would even think are meeting expectations – a mighty short list. Nick Markakis makes the list. Maybe Luke Scott’s on the list. We’ll say Will Ohman and Jeremy Guthrie are the only pitchers so far worth mention.
This is a performance business. Wins count. What else does? They could be putting together the sloppiest most improbable wins leaving fans wondering how they did it, but wins count no matter how they were achieved. The Baltimore Orioles have a special talent for letting games that should be won slip away and become losses. How many of their losses did they hold a lead going into late innings only to fail once again? How many big innings surrendered to the opposition have buried them? How many games have they scored one or fewer runs? The answer – 17 times!!! How about this, in 34 out of 54 games, the Orioles have scored three or fewer runs.
One third of the way through the season, the Baltimore Orioles are the worst team in baseball. The obvious defies debate. .500 ball the rest of the season yields a 69-93 record, at their current pace, get ready for this, a historic almost record 45-117 record. We’ve provided no evidence that there are many signs on the horizon that the team can improve on how they’ve performed so far, two three game winning streaks, a nine game losing streak, and a current eight game losing streak with the Red Sox coming to town for three games and then the Yankees.
It is that bad. And how can anyone with a straight face suggest take me out to the ballgame at our beautiful Camden Yards for this miserable failure?
One third of the way into the 2010 baseball season, the Baltimore Orioles are the worst team in major league baseball. Listen up, once again, the Baltimore Orioles are the worst team in baseball. Even the Pittsburgh Pirates whose leadership has no intention of attempting to make competitive are a better team. The standings speak for themselves, but watching the way this team plays, the way they carry themselves, and the total lack of accountability on the field all help explain how this can be so.
We’ve already expressed our frustration, the word, “win,” doesn’t come up very often when anybody on this team is interviewed. Are we finally where we can assume Dave Trembley’s dismissal is a foregone conclusion?
It damned well better be. The talk of what a class act he is and what a great baseball man he is rings hollow. He has a job to do. He’s not doing it. He should be fired. While it might be true, a good manager might only make the difference of 5 to 10 games during the course of a season, that’s a good manager working with a decent team. A poor manager can destroy a good team. The Orioles, at best are an inexperienced team with a lot of potential. A bad manager destroys confidence, arrests development, and creates false expectations. Trembley is portrayed as a good roll model. Well, as an authority figure, at his best, he seems like a good Boy Scout Troop leader; however, more often than not, today he looks like a besieged substitute teacher in a rough schoolhouse.
Changing managers will not be a panacea. He can no longer be the team’s fall guy. Whatever deficiencies the team continues to exhibit will no longer be excused by a burned out manager.
There’s not much to look forward to in 2010. Bringing Garrett Atkins in to play first base has proven a total failure. Don’t look for Brandon Snyder who was touted as the first baseman of the future to sail up the Chesapeake and help. He has been a pure disaster in Norfolk. The bullpen is a mystery. However, can anyone honestly say Dave Trembley has a clue how to utilize relief pitching? He doesn’t. He opts for the text book, cover your ass approach, making way too many changes when not mandated and leaving starters in where their great efforts turn into failures. Last year, with Nick Markakis joined with Adam Jones and Norm Riemold coming on strong, it looked like the Orioles had an outfield to be reckoned with. Jones has been a total failure this year, and Riemold is down the bay, struggling severely in Norfolk. Felix Pie, the wildcard in the outfield mix is on the 60 day disabled list perhaps gone for the season.
Brian Roberts has just started his rehab at the Orioles Florida minor league facility. Best case scenario, he could be back with the team by the 4th of July. His presence could put a little spark into the offense.
How are Matt Wieters and Brain Matusz supposed to come of age and move toward the potential they clearly have in these conditions?
Look at the case of Kevin Millwood. He was brought to add some veteran stability to the Orioles rotation. With 12 starts most lasting into the 7th inning keeping his ERA well below 4.00 until today’s meltdown in New York, he would appear to have done just that, but despite his fine pitching, his record is 0-6 due to lack of offensive support and having the bullpen called in at the wrong time sometimes allowing runners on base to score that were his responsibility leading to the loss.
Aside from Ty Wigginton, are any players exceeding expectations? Try to come up with a list of those one would even think are meeting expectations – a mighty short list. Nick Markakis makes the list. Maybe Luke Scott’s on the list. We’ll say Will Ohman and Jeremy Guthrie are the only pitchers so far worth mention.
This is a performance business. Wins count. What else does? They could be putting together the sloppiest most improbable wins leaving fans wondering how they did it, but wins count no matter how they were achieved. The Baltimore Orioles have a special talent for letting games that should be won slip away and become losses. How many of their losses did they hold a lead going into late innings only to fail once again? How many big innings surrendered to the opposition have buried them? How many games have they scored one or fewer runs? The answer – 17 times!!! How about this, in 34 out of 54 games, the Orioles have scored three or fewer runs.
One third of the way through the season, the Baltimore Orioles are the worst team in baseball. The obvious defies debate. .500 ball the rest of the season yields a 69-93 record, at their current pace, get ready for this, a historic almost record 45-117 record. We’ve provided no evidence that there are many signs on the horizon that the team can improve on how they’ve performed so far, two three game winning streaks, a nine game losing streak, and a current eight game losing streak with the Red Sox coming to town for three games and then the Yankees.
It is that bad. And how can anyone with a straight face suggest take me out to the ballgame at our beautiful Camden Yards for this miserable failure?
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