Mick McDonald's Baltimore Orioles fan blog

The Orioles dealt right-handed reliever Chad Bradford to the Rays today, for a player to be named later. This is surprising because Bradford has been very effective this year, and the fact that we dealt him to Tampa means that no one with a worse record than the Rays (everyone in the AL except the Angels) claimed Bradford. Really? Nobody thought this guy who gets ground ball after ground ball, doesnt walk anyone, and has an ERA around 2.50 was worth taking? It's not like he has a huge contract (he is signed next year for 3.5 million), so I am surprised he got to Tampa. Good luck to Chad down there, and I hope he helps the Rays fend off Boston and New York.

As for what we got back, who knows. We know a few things, though: I would guess it's a player on Tampa's 40 man roster. If it was someone who wasn't, they could have just made the deal, as only players on the 40-man need to clear waivers. However, one option being mentioned is that Tampa gave the Orioles a list of non-40 man players to choose from, and the O's will now scout those guys for a few weeks and determine which one they like the most.

Continue reading "Chad Bradford traded to Tampa Bay..."

After taking a brief hiatus this weekend from the Orioles-Mariners series (and Game 1 of the Angels set), I'm back. And what do I come back to? How about a 27-year old who has spent 9 seasons in the minors and is not even a TOP 30 Orioles prospect throwing an 8-inning one-hit shutout against the best team in baseball? Wow.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was disappointed that Hayden Penn or Brad Bergeson didn't get to come up and make this start. Penn was hit by the shard of a broken bat in the first inning of his last start, requring stictches, so they didn't want to bring him up. And Bergeson, who has dominated AA (14-3, ERA under 2.50), was just that, still in AA. Andy MacPhail has said he didn't want to rush young players, so don't count on too many guys jumping from AA right to Baltimore (unless it's Matt Wieters, but that's a whole different issue.)

Continue reading "A Debut to Remember for Chris Waters"

The deadline has passed. All the deals have been made, and the Orioles that are leaving town are: Nobody!

Andy MacPhail apparently felt that no one was offering packages worth dealing for, so he stood pat at the deadline. Now, moves can still be made in August, but players must clear waivers, making it much tougher to make a big deal. Basically, the Orioles big trading chips (George Sherrill, Brian Roberts, Aubrey Huff, and probably Chad Bradford) are now with the team for the remainder of the year. Guys like Kevin Millar, Jay Payton, Jamie Walker and Ramon Hernandez may pass through waivers, allowing them to be dealt.

Hernandez is the one to watch the most closely, in my opinion. The Marlins may still look to upgrade at catcher, and Ramon may be an option for them. The fact that Matt Wieters continues to dominate the minor leagues makes trading Hernandez very easy to swallow.

Continue reading "Trade Dud-line"

Well then. That certainly takes a bit of air out of the sails. The Yankees clobbered the O's today, 13-3. Joba Chamberlain looked very good for the Yankees, and the Orioles bullpen was atrocious.

- Dennis Sarfate, in my opinion, didn't look that bad as a starter. The 3 walks killed him, but 5 strikeouts helped. His stuff looked nasty, but he has trouble controlling it. I think his future is in the bullpen, where he has been all year, but I think he earned another shot at starting. The trouble in the first stemmed from 2 walks (clearly some early nerves, as Sarfate grew up in New York), a throwing error on Nick Markakis, and a passed ball by Guillermo Quiroz. He really should have only given up one run in the first. Again, I'd look for Sarfate to get another start.

- Everyone else who pitched today was really bad. Brian Burres got knocked around, and I just don't think he is a majro league pitcher. He doesn't really get lefties out effectively, and if anything he is a mop-up guy. Fernando Cabrera has good stuff and I think can be a decent bullpen arm, but he got hit hard today. Alberto Castillo is simply AAA fodder who was up here because Jamie Walker and Adam Loewen were hurt. The next time anybody gets called up, Castillo should be gone.

Continue reading "So Much For A Sweep..."

Talk about two different ways to win a baseball game. Monday night, the Orioles pounded the Yankees, using Adam Jones’ first career Grand Slam to open up a 11-0 lead, eventually winning 13-4. The game was never in doubt, and those types of wins have seemed few and far between for the Orioles this season. It seems that when they do get into the win column, it’s a nail-biter.

 It appeared that Tuesday night would make it back to back easy wins, after Aubrey Huff’s 3-run double in the 7th helped the Orioles push their lead to 6-1. Then, the momentum shifted on a play the Yankees had absolutely nothing to do with. With Daniel Cabrera still pitching in the 8th, Bobby Abreu hit a lead-off double. With the next pitch, Cabrera hit Alex Rodriguez up and in. Rodriguez, who has homered in his previous at-bat, clearly didn’t think anything other than “ouch.” Nobody in the ballpark (well, it was at Yankee Stadium, so I’m sure there were a few) thought it was intentional. Well, nobody except for home plate umpire Chad Fairchild, who for some reason leaped out from behind home plate and threw Cabrera out of the game. Inexcusable. That made Trembley go to Jim Johnson before he wanted to, and got the Yankees crowd fired up. Johnson was able to get out of the jam freezing Xavier Nady on a ridiculous breaking ball, but not before the Yanks had scored twice and the lead was cut to 6-3. That also forced Trembley to get George Sherrill up.

Continue reading "Brooms in the Bronx?"

Sid Sherrill is 34 years old and a Licensed Customs Broker for an international freight and logistics company in Texas. Sid’s younger brother also happens to be the Orioles closer and lone All-Star representative George Sherrill. I talked to Sid about what it’s like to have a brother in the majors, how he deals with all the trade rumors, and if he has the same sense of humor his brother shows in his interviews.


Mick: First off Sid, this past year has been a tumultuous one for your brother. What was the off-season like, with George getting traded from Seattle to Baltimore? 

Sid: It was definitely a little strange, especially going from one side of the country to the other.  His name has been mentioned in trades, but really to be mentioned in a trade of that magnitude, I think, was really an honor.  The worst part of it all was that he had just gotten to Arizona, got a place, was getting ready for ST (workouts and pre-ST things), then had to fly to Baltimore for the medical stuff.  We were told right after he got the call, but we couldn't tell anyone. Now it is much better being able to watch a game at 6 Central Time instead of 9 Central Time for the Seattle games.  It was brutal going to bed after midnight every night.

Continue reading "Interview with Flat Breezy's Brother"

A win on a Sunday!!! For the first time since April 6th, the Orioles are in the WIN column on a Sunday!

On the pitching side, this was an exact script of what you want to do to win ballgames, something the club hasn't been able to do at all recently. Garrett Olson was very solid through 6+ innings, although it was clear he ran out of gas in the 7th. However, with a lead, they turned to their 1-2-3 bullpen punch of Chad Bradford, Jim Johnson, and George Sherrill to get them to victory lane.

How exciting was this win? Manager Dave Trembley lit up a victory cigar at the press conference, and revealed it was his first cigar EVER! How about that? Really good to not set an all-time record in one-day futility, the less that happens, the better (that's an understatement).

Who would have thought that the key to a Sunday victory would be 5 hits combined between Guillermo Quiroz and Brandon Fahey?

Continue reading "Cue the Band!!!!"

With their losses the past two nights, 6-5 and 11-6, the Orioles have now dropped 5 straight games, all at home. They'll go into today's game looking to snap not only that 5 game losing streak, but a 15 game Sunday-losing streak that ties a major league record.

 And unfortunately, all this late July losing feels very familiar. It seems like the Orioles always play worse in the second half of the season, and so far, 2008 has been no different. The Orioles are 3-7 since the break, and take into consideration that this is all during the teams season-long 11 game homestand. They'll face another All-Star today in Ervin Santana, and Garrett Olson goes for the Birds. 

While the starting pitching has been dreadful lately (minus Jeremy Guthrie), it is nice to see the offense hasn't completely fallen off the table. Aubrey Huff hit his 20th homer last night, which leads the team. Huff is a name that should be talked about a lot in these last 4 days before the deadline. Ramon Hernandez has played much better in June and July, and it should be interesting to see if teams have interest in him as well. Also look for lots of rumors on Kevin Millar, Jay Payton, and Chad Bradford.

Continue reading "This Feels All Too Familiar"

Sometimes an entire series can change on one play. Unfortunately for the Orioles yesterday, that play was a throwing error by Kevin Millar that ultimately led to 3 Toronto runs in the 8th inning of the completion of Wednesday nights game.

The situation: Bases loaded, 1 out, Adam Lind at the plate, Randor Bierd on the mound. Lind hit a ball that Millar backhanded and came up firing to the plate. He rushed the throw quite a bit, and the ball was nowhere close to catcher Ramon Hernandez. The worst part? The runner at third was Lyle Overbay, who has no speed and wasn’t even close to scoring. Any sort of decent throw gets the out, and the fly ball that McDonald hit would have ended the inning. Ugh. However, it got away, allowing two runs to score. Toronto tacked on another on McDonald’s fly out to make it 5-1, a deficit far too large for the Orioles to overcome. Joe Angel summed the play up perfectly “It’s a good thing I didn’t eat breakfast, because that sort of play will make you sick.”

Continue reading ""Good Thing I Didn't Eat Breakfast""

With the game technically still going, it would be tough for me to do a game wrap. Since there was a rain delay, I went out and checked out The Dark Knight tonight. (OK, maybe I really was going to see the new Batman movie all along. I had a chance to see it at an IMAX theatre, you think I’m passing that up???) Anyways, the rain has helped me out and now I can catch the last 3 and a half innings tomorrow. Oh, and all the hype about the movie? Legit. One of the best movies, all-around, I’ve ever seen. Having a lot of the city scenes actually filmed on IMAX cameras made it so intense, and I thought the whole movie flowed perfectly. Heath Ledger was flawless as The Joker. Incredible. He should win an Oscar hands down, regardless of his death. He made the movie.

But as it concerns to the actual game, tough break that the Orioles couldn’t get through the Top of the 6th. Although Guthrie had given up a run and had a man at third, he had 2 outs in the inning. When the game resumes tomorrow (at 12:05, by the way), he obviously won’t be able to pitch. Unfortuante that we didn’t get to see the most we could of our best pitcher. It is good that A.J. Burnett won’t be back out there either though, as the Orioles couldn’t do much off him either.

Continue reading "Game Postponed"