Late August in Birdland

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Few expected anything less than a losing season and a last place finish for the 2009 Orioles, and they have surely played up to that expectation. However, the key that the Orioles’ brass and fans had hoped for was a team that would show some improvement toward the end of the season as the young talent starts to gel.

Sadly, their record after the All-Star break has been horrible, and the comparison to last year’s mark, a team having taken just the first steps toward rebuilding, does not speak well of what’s happened this year. Last year after 126 games, the Orioles stood at 61-65 but were in the early stages of an all-out melt down. This year, the record is 51-75. At the current pace, they will finish at 66-96 compared to 68-93 (one game not made up).

Surely, the team can’t concede they’re not playing to win, but having traded Aubrey Huff, their most stable RBI threat and George Sherrill their closer, that puts the team deeper in the hole while new players emerge. Surely, Nolan Reimold and Matt Wieters are showing they are everyday players of the future. While the rookie starters are much more obvious works in progress: Chris Tillman, Brian Matusz, David Hernandez, and Jason Berken. Surely, Berken looks to need a little more time at Norfolk but the team has no more experienced starter in good health to take his place.

Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis continue to develop in their roll as the homegrown veterans while Adam Jones alone appears to make the Erik Bedard trade look worthwhile.

While the clubhouse appears cordial and congenial, what is so sadly evidence is a total lack of chemistry on the field as base running blunders and fielding fiascos point to a lack of communication and ability to work as a unit. Covering bases, hitting cutoff men, or not even having a player standing as a cutoff man or covering a base all point to this deficiency.

We wrote earlier about Jim Palmer’s reflection about the team lacking a sense of urgency. That’s a terrible reflection on a young team where players need to show themselves worthy of the big leagues.

Is it time to seriously question Dave Trembley? Palmer pointed out that the players could get some good clues on how to prepare the game from watching Derek Jeter with the Yankees, one of baseball’s most disciplined players with exceptional work habits who is a present day reflection of what made Cal Ripken’s accomplishments possible. Where are the infield practices, the shagging fly balls, and not taking batting practice for day games where they have one of the most embarrassing records in the big leagues. Discipline isn’t a matter of a manager playing the hard ass as much as it is putting the team through the paces through practice drills and working with the coaching staff to work as a unit. Look at what rookie head coach, John Harbaugh, accomplished across the parking lot with a very uncertain Ravens team at the start of the 2008 season, one game away from the Super Bowl. Discipline and practice pulled that team together, but they did have proven veterans with exceptional leadership skill the Orioles don’t have. The Orioles once had their equivalent to Ray Lewis. He wore #20. Remember him?

Now that the football preseason is underway, the Orioles are totally irrelevant to many Baltimore sports fans. They will only make headlines if something exceptional happens. For their sake, it better be stunning achievements by their developing players and not something like giving up 30 runs as they did against Texas this time of year two years ago. Baltimore is once again a football town, but does anyone think the passion this town had for baseball from 1979, the birth of Orioles Magic to 1997, their last winning season, couldn’t be revived by a young aggressive team moving up the ranks of the AL East?

With each passing few weeks, the pieces that could be part of that team are starting to be known, but what will it take for them to gel as a competitive unit?

There’s enough time left in 2009 to start to answer that question. We’ve heard enough excuses.