Mick McDonald's Baltimore Orioles fan blog

Tough loss for the Birds last night, as they fell 10-8 to Toronto. Same story as usual, at least of late. Lots of offense, bad starting pitching, and a shaky bullpen, and another defeat grabbed from the jaws of victory. My thoughts:

- I did watch the game from a bar last night, as I mentioned, but I could have watched the game with a blindfold on and been able to tell you how bad Garrett Olson was. He couldn’t locate any of his pitches, and that has been a disturbing trend since the All-Star Break for Orioles starters. O’s pitchers have walked 24 batters, and struck out 24. That’s a terrible ratio. Especially considering they’ve done that in just under 33 innings. Olson only had 3 walks last night, but he couldn’t hit the glove, and this was especially disappointing because I was very encouraged after his last start. The box score tells you 5 ER, but he was one pitch away from being through 6 having given up only 3 (Brandon Inge homered on a 3-2 pitch with a man on). To me, one of the biggest disappointments of the season so far has been the non-development of Olson and Liz.

Continue reading "Blue Jays 10, Orioles 8"

These guys have been nice enough to add a link to my blog on theirs, so I thought I'd return the favor.

The Bad Oriole is one of my favorites. Sean does a great job discussing the team. He is often uber-critical, but always backs up his points with facts and makes solid arguments.  

Fistbumps is a bit more humorous, but J.D. knows his stuff as well. Always good for a Bird-related laugh or two.

UrbanShocker is an Orioles blog that also focuses heavily on Dominican baseball. Whether you are an O's fan or not, if you have any interest in the Dominican leagues or players from there, check this one out.

Again, I just want people to be able to see as many O's-related opinions that are out there, and all 3 of these are good options. 

Also, I probably won't do a post-game entry tonight, as today is my younger brothers 21st birthday, and duty calls as the older brother. However, I should be able to watch most of the game from the bar, so I'll weigh in tomorrow on tonight's game. 

Continue reading "Other Orioles Blogs"

As I mentioned briefly at the end of last night’s post, Rotoworld came out with their updated list of the Top 150 prospects in baseball. The O’s showed very well, putting 8 players in the Top 150, all of them actually in the Top 110. Only Oakland and Cleveland had more on the list, which is a great sign for the Birds. This list discounted players that are currently in the big leagues (so no Radhames Liz or Garrett Olson for the O’s) and also didn’t count players yet to sign (therefore no Brian Matusz).

Here are the O’s representatives:

4- Matt Wieters, C, 22 years old

A+, Frederick: .345/.448/.576/1.024
AA, Bowie: .346/.433/.538/.971

Wieters, the first-round pick out of Georgia Tech last year, has done just about all you could ask of him in his first season as a pro. He raked at Frederick and has hit nearly as well at Bowie. There is lots of speculation that he could be the Orioles Opening Day catcher next year if the team can find a taker for Ramon Hernandez. I feel Wieters should get a call-up in September just to get him a look at major league pitching, but my guess is the more conservative Andy MacPhail keeps him in the minors for the rest of the season and lets him rest after Bowie’s season ends.

Continue reading "Orioles Prospects Getting Some Praise"

It was a nice, easy win for the Orioles tonight, and a very important one at that. Knowing that the next three pitchers for Toronto are all very tough (Marcum, Burnett and Halladay), it was crucial to pick up a victory tonight if we want to have a shot at getting 3 out of 4.

I don’t think it’s necessary to do a basic game recap every night, because everyone watched every inning, right? Ok, maybe not, but what I’ll do after every game is just give some thoughts about some things that happened.

- Radhames Liz is going to be a reliever. I just don’t think he can consistently get guys out to be a starter. I think his stuff is terrific, and that he could be dominant out of the bullpen. He just loses his release point pretty easily, and I think coming in for an inning or so and being able to just let it loose may help him out. We've seen how well the transition has worked for Jim Johnson, and I think Liz' stuff would be even better in a relief role. We have a lot of starting pitching prospects coming through the minors (I’ll have a post on that tomorrow), and I see Liz being bumped from the rotation, perhaps even by early August, depending on what happens at the deadline.

Continue reading "Orioles 8, Blue Jays 3"

In my opinion, the reason a lot of people aren't as knowledgable as they'd like to be (or I'd like them to be, for some, but that's another story) isn't because they don't want to be. It's because they just aren't sure where to look for good information.

There was a time when the only place I went to get sports news was espn.com, and that just isn't helpful enough sometimes, so I thought I'd throw out a few sites that I always go to when I'm looking for certain information.

First off:

OriolesHangout is one of the most knowledgable Oriole sites out there, and is always a good option for O's related news. Their forums are also very well-organized.

This site is the place to go if you are looking for the contract status of any player, manager, or even GM. Very easy to find what you are looking for. Definitely the go-to site when trying to look at player's salaries. 

Continue reading "Helpful Links"

Welcome Orioles fans, and baseball fans in general, to my very first blog entry. You’re probably asking yourself, who is this guy and why should I care what he thinks? Well, first of all, you’re talking to yourself, so you have more issues than worrying about why I’m taking the time to blog about baseball. More importantly, I am a rare combination of sports fanatic. I love the Orioles, but I’m also not blinded by my fandom. I will openly criticize the team when I feel they’ve made a mistake (or, like, lots of mistakes), and can be rational and realistic when it comes to expectations and the team’s possibilities.

Having been born in 1986, I’ve never seen the Orioles win the World Series, or even get to one, so I’m not obsessed with getting back to the “Oriole Way” or fantasizing about the days of Brooks, Palmer, and Boog. I’m obsessed with the Orioles of now and the future. I want to look ahead. I’m more Nick Markakis than Frank Robinson, and more Adam Jones than Paul Blair.

Continue reading "Welcome Aboard!"