What is it about another foot of accumulation, on top of the existing 4 feet that makes it feel like spring?
Save us Sarasota. Save us from the winter hell that is Turdland.
*Bonus points – Name that player! And don’t look it up, cheater.
February 8, 2010
Let’s go shake der hans.
If you are a really astute reader, you may have noticed a new link added on the side bar called Hockey’s version of ESH. Most of you probably didn’t.
Our boys over at The CAPS Lock are taking hockey by storm. If your looking to blame someone for having to dig out of 4 feet of snow…blame them. Ian stands on the roof of his house in San Diego with a fan, a leaf blower, and his lungs of steel and pushes the warm moist air across the country to the frigid east coast. What a dick.
Anyway, if you don’t follow hockey, the Caps are on fire right now and if you need somewhere to go for Caps related humor and all the hockey fights your stomach can handle, well, you know where to go now.
I’m traveling out to the left coast to meet up with Ian and our own Ted Logan for a week in the sun. Got any suggestions on what three knuckleheads can do to cause O’s related mischief out there? Drop a line in the comments. My gut tells me I should try and find Manny and spike his morning OJ with colon blow.
Also, bonus points for any reader who can name the movie referenced in the title of this post.
And finally, with El Nino fresh on our minds, I give you…The Nino.
February 2, 2010
Bullpen Shakedown
Oriole fans everywhere exhaled in unison on Thursday when the announcement was made that Mark Hendrickson was coming back on a one year deal. Start printing off the playoff tickets baby!
In all seriousness it isn’t a bad move. Hendrickson will be back at a lower amount of money than he made last year and he will be used strictly out of the bullpen, where he has excelled throughout his career. Hendrickson has been miscast as a starter until this point, but out of the bullpen he has always been solid. His numbers from last year do not look good as a whole but most of his innings were logged struggling as a starter, when he was moved to the bullpen he was largely effective. He is also cheap, which is a good quality for relief pitching due to its volatile nature.
The bullpen this year will almost definitely be an improvement from ‘09 and it should be very interesting to watch its development. Bringing in Mike “The Situation” Gonzalez should help, although I am not a giant fan of his acquisition. If he is healthy, he will be a solid pitcher but he has had his share of health issues previously. As I stated before, relief pitching is a volatile commodity an I do not like the money they committed or that we relinquished a second round draft pick to sign him. All of the being said, if he stays healthy he will be a solid contributor.
Along with The Situation and Hendrickson, the other locks for the bullpen (assuming health) appear to be Jim Johnson, Koji Uehara, Kam Mickolio, Cla Meredith, and one of the Hernandez/Berken duo. I would also imagine Fat Albers will be on the bubble for a spot and the Orioles may even make a typical stupid decision to carry 13 pitchers. Dennis Sarfate would also have been in this conversation, but he was recently designated for assignment and his future is up in the air. When performance and health issues arise we have a number of interesting arms in waiting that could prove to make us very deep in an area that has been a weakness in recent years. At some point this year we may see any of Jake Arrieta, Brandon Erbe, Luis Lebron, Troy Patton, and Wilfrido Perez. The O’s are also still being linked to Erik Bedard and his signing would also impact the bullpen for obvious reason. The Orioles have also extended spring training invites to lefties Will Ohman and Hisanori Takahashi, though neither has accepted the offer yet.
The Orioles should have a deep number of talented arms to create a bullpen from and I expect it to be a strength of the 2010 team barring a catastrophic number of injuries. The very interesting part will be how they construct the pitching staff going forward from this year with the glut of starters that will be available soon. We are going to have see of few guys who have been groomed as starters in the bullpen or see some moves being made to clear room in the rotation as guys like Arrieta, Erbe, and Zach Britton are ready for the show.
February 2, 2010
Gonzo Got Good Body
If you’ve never seen Bobby Bottleservice, take this opportunity to do so. Our video will make a little more sense if you watch it. Besides, it’s awesome.
And now here we are.
In all fairness, if we’re this mean to our own players, just imagine what it’s like to be on an opposing team. We don’t pull punches. That’ll be written on our collective tombstones.
February 1, 2010
Fanfest Video Numero Two.
Part two of our Fanfest series, kind of. Lots and lots of beard love going on in this one.
Enjoy!
Well did you, enjoy?
Another new video tomorrow. And it’s a good one, especially if you like Bobby Bottleservice.
January 31, 2010
Updated: Position Players Appear Set for 2010
Video Update:
Now that the Orioles have agreed to a one year deal to bring back Miguel Tejada, the position players appear to be set for the upcoming season. While it is hard to despise the Orioles offseason so far I will say I am not as impressed as some. Targetting Garrett Atkins to be your first baseman seems almost laughable, especially when you consider that better players could have been had for comparable money (Adam Laroche signed a one year deal worth 5 million, and Troy Glaus a deal worth only 2 million). Atkins is coming off the worst season of his career by far, continuing a downward trend that began in 2007 (Atkins OPS the last 4 years: .965, .853, .780, .650). Signing a very questionable bat to what appears to be an overpriced contract to play first base does not seem logical. To me, it would seem like Atkins could rebound to the point of having an average bat at third, but when he moves across the diamond he has to hit a lot more to be an average first baseman. I was indifferent on the move when I thought Atkins was going to be the third baseman, now I hate it. Hopefully they saw something they can fix easily and I will be eating these words once the season is underway. I just think that it is very likely he is an absolute disaster.
With the latest addition, the other corner infield spot has been filled. Many other fans appear to be excited about the move to bring back Tejada, not so much for me. First understand, I like Miguel Tejada and enjoyed his previous tenure here in Baltimore. I just don’t understand the moves the Orioles have made to fill out the corners. For me, the best move would have been to just let Luke Scott play first base and Atkins play third. That would have left ample playing time for all of Scott, Reimold, and Pie who are likely more valuable players than Atkins or Tejada. Tejada skill are eroding rapidly. The most important skills as a hitter, patience and power, have completely left his game. He now relies exclusively on hitting for a high average to remain a productive player. In addition, he is going to be 36 years old and is moving to a defensive position he has never played. To me that does not sound like a recipe for success. It is likely that Tejada is an average third baseman next year, but I see plenty of downside here too. Both corner infield positions could easily end up a disaster, or perhaps even an epic fail. While he is obviously a shell of the player he once was I still expect him to be batting cleanup come opening day in a very typical Oriole move. The good news for all Orioles fans is that you can bring out your old Tejada jerseys, it will be interesting to see if people tape over the number of their T-shirt jerseys and write on his new number as we so frequently see done with names.
In finality, I am mildly excited about the lineup and expect it to be a tick better than last year, mostly based on the growth of our young position players. I do also expect that the corners will be an improvement in comparison with last year, but that isn’t saying much. It is hard to be too mad about the lineup though since I understand that all we were looking for were warm bodies to man the corners while we wait for our in house prospects. For good or for bad, this team is banking on Josh Bell and Brandon Snyder to become productive players at the corners, and I can’t really argue with that. A team in our market, with our financial restrictions should be building from within whenever possible.
January 28, 2010
Video: ESH @ Fan Fest
Some Fan Fest shenanigans! (I swear to God, I’ll pistol whip the next guy that says ’shenanigans!’)
Easy bonus points if you guess who’s calling Bingo. If you don’t know, shame on you.
More to come this week, so check back frequently.
January 26, 2010
First Fanfest Video
This is a short one but it proves we were actually there. Told ya, mom!
It’s also a bit of a test to make sure we got the best encoding settings for the video and all that technical stuff down. Vimeo is pretty sweet. The player just looks a lot cleaner than youtube.
Anyway, the video below features Jjaks pointing out an oddity with the board. Keep checking back all this week for more videos. We’ll post them after they are edited up!
January 25, 2010
Position players appear set for 2010
Now that the Orioles have agreed to a one year deal to bring back Miguel Tejada, the position players appear to be set for the upcoming season. While it is hard to despise the Orioles offseason so far I will say I am not as impressed as some. Targetting Garrett Atkins to be your first baseman seems almost laughable, especially when you consider that better players could have been had for comparable money (Adam Laroche signed a one year deal worth 5 million, and Troy Glaus a deal worth only 2 million). Atkins is coming off the worst season of his career by far, continuing a downward trend that began in 2007 (Atkins OPS the last 4 years: .965, .853, .780, .650). Signing a very questionable bat to what appears to be an overpriced contract to play first base does not seem logical. To me, it would seem like Atkins could rebound to the point of having an average bat at third, but when he moves across the diamond he has to hit a lot more to be an average first baseman. I was indifferent on the move when I thought Atkins was going to be the third baseman, now I hate it. Hopefully they saw something they can fix easily and I will be eating these words once the season is underway. I just think that it is very likely he is an absolute disaster.
With the latest addition, the other corner infield spot has been filled. Many other fans appear to be excited about the move to bring back Tejada, not so much for me. First understand, I like Miguel Tejada and enjoyed his previous tenure here in Baltimore. I just don’t understand the moves the Orioles have made to fill out the corners. For me, the best move would have been to just let Luke Scott play first base and Atkins play third. That would have left ample playing time for all of Scott, Reimold, and Pie who are likely more valuable players than Atkins or Tejada. Tejada skill are eroding rapidly. The most important skills as a hitter, patience and power, have completely left his game. He now relies exclusively on hitting for a high average to remain a productive player. In addition, he is going to be 36 years old and is moving to a defensive position he has never played. To me that does not sound like a recipe for success. It is likely that Tejada is an average third baseman next year, but I see plenty of downside here too. Both corner infield positions could easily end up a disaster, or perhaps even an epic fail. While he is obviously a shell of the player he once was I still expect him to be batting cleanup come opening day in a very typical Oriole move. The good news for all Orioles fans is that you can bring out your old Tejada jerseys, it will be interesting to see if people tape over the number of their T-shirt jerseys and write on his new number as we so frequently see done with names.
In finality, I am mildly excited about the lineup and expect it to be a tick better than last year, mostly based on the growth of our young position players. I do also expect that the corners will be an improvement in comparison with last year, but that isn’t saying much. It is hard to be too mad about the lineup though since I understand that all we were looking for were warm bodies to man the corners while we wait for our in house prospects. For good or for bad, this team is banking on Josh Bell and Brandon Snyder to become productive players at the corners, and I can’t really argue with that. A team in our market, with our financial restrictions should be building from within whenever possible.
