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.

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.

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!

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.

Fan Fest!

Keep an eye out for us tomorrow.

Party with us!

The Campaign is Gaining Momentum

If you all are like me and Tom, you really can’t stand Jtrea over at the OH.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, there was a campaign put forth to the head honcho’s at OH, Tony and Scottie, to ban him from the board.  Let me start by posting something that most people may have missed yesterday:

Lint06 – Perhaps I’m wrong, but I grow more convinced with each passing Trea conspiracy/crackpot suggestion, that his beliefs are driven by a lack of actual viewing of Os games. I am suggesting that because Trea doesn’t watch the Os on a regular basis, that the lens through which he sees the Orioles is text and sports clips, and that that kind of viewing lends itself to a fragmented understanding of the Orioles and their players/coaches. Further, I believe that because he follows the Os mostly via computer, there is a sense of fiction which surrounds the Os for Trea.

If one never watches the Os in real time (or at least the entirety of games, which creates a cohesive viewing), then everything one sees is fragmentary, and in a sense, fictive. The Os becomes parts, not wholes, not anything real or stable, much like fiction.

Trea’s wild notions are birthed from this viewing of the Os as fiction, and quite frankly, fit better with the creative realm.

Totally 100% behind this theory.   I bet if someone went back and looked at every post he has written, 75% have been negative about the Orioles.  That is not a fan of a team.  Perry Lyman told me in an email yesterday, “Trea wishes he was a Yankee’s fan.”  Someone left in the comments of one of the posts here that he thought he wanted to be a Red Sox fan.  It stands to reason people think this way, given the way he talks about the three teams.  It’s really hard to read.

So like I was saying, people were petitioning Tony and Scott to kick him off and they basically said, no.  If for no other reason, they didn’t want to trample all over the Constitution.  Freedom of speach and what not.  Just because the dude is inept doesn’t mean he can share his opinion.  We should just ignore him.

Anyway, last night Tony said something that didn’t get a lot of attention.  But, I saw that shit and I had to pass on the good word.

Tony-OH – I just wonder why people still engage him in conversation once he gets on his mantra? We take more stuff from people over Trea yet he does nothing to change his act or ever show any gratitude over the fact that Scott and I have spent hours of our lives defending the fact that we let him continue to post.

Honestly, I may be getting close to making the decision so many people want me to make.

What a day that would be.

See you all tomorrow!

A reader who wishes to remain nameless felt so moved by our first Jtrea post, he decided to write his own.  We’ll call him, Perry Lyman.

*Ed. Note: The views expressed below do not neccessarily reflect the views of the ESH.  Any comments that are left on this post may or may not be answered by a member of our staff (staff, like they get paid…hah!).  Read at your own risk.

There’s a hole at 1B, dear Andy, dear Andy…

Is that supposed to be some song reference?  The AC/DC thing was cute and unoriginal.  This just sucks.

Just thought I’d remind him.

He doesn’t pay attention to you.  He.  Doesn’t.  Pay.  Attention.  To.  You.

Aside from that, this is some stalker shit.  You know, calling up the Warehouse, harassing people while trying to get a hold of MacPhail, then going back to his blog and drawing lipstick all over his face.

Oh but we have Michael Aubrey, Rhyne Hughes and Ty Wigginton to fill the spot.

And Brandon Snyder is in the minors.

So we do have depth, but that depth isn’t going to fill the hole. Not when your competition has players like Youkilis and Teixeira at the same spot.

1B has been a consistent problem ever since Rafael Palmeiro left the first time. Since Palmeiro’s departure the Orioles have used

Will Clark
Jeff Conine
Chris Richard
Raffy (again)
Kevin Millar
Aubrey Huff

And since Palmeiro left after 1998, the Orioles have not had an .900+ OPS from the position and haven’t had an OPS above .815 since 2001.

Ed. Note (Jjaks Clayton):  Only 27 players in the entire league had a .900 OPS last year (2009 season).   That’s 10% of starters…not per position…starters period.

1B has been a huge void that just has been patched and patched and patched without any thought to the LT.

This is all nice and good, but the 2004 World Champion Red Sox got an .813 OPS from the first base position.  The second time they won a title this decade their OPS for first base was a whopping .802.  For the decade the Red Sox averages a .720 OPS for the first base position while the Yankees had a .844 OPS.  .844 is very good but it’s still pretty far from the fucking .900+ that you demand.  .720?  How did the Red Sox ever manage to win two titles and make the playoffs almost every year?

Listen up, dipstick.  It’s not basketball where one player takes over an entire game and it’s not football where you worry about a cornerback/wide receiver match up.  First base doesn’t mean anything if you get production from other places like the Sox did for this past decade.

Yes, it’s a hole but it is  far and away not the only thing that has held this team back from competing.

We’ve passed on several options, Lee, Konerko, Delgado and Teixeira and yet now we seem to think Snyder might be good enough to fill the spot despite only flashing the skills needed once in a two month stint at Bowie. And most scouts think he won’t be more than an average position player at best.

Well I’m glad the book on Brandon Snyder has been written before he ever takes a Major League at bat.

How about being optimistic every once in awhile?  Is that too much to ask?

Average isn’t going to cut it at 1B in the AL East. It didn’t for the other Orioles playoff teams that featured names such as Boog Powell, Eddie Murray and Rafael Palmeiro.

There’s a hole at 1B.

So fix it dear Andy. Fix it right now.

I think I’ve already proven that average does cut it at first base in the AL East, provided the rest of your team is well built.  If you’d take a minute to take off your MacPhail shit kickin’ shoes and take a look around with some perspective that doesn’t include having your head up your ass, you’d realize that if you have a well rounded team, you don’t need a .900 OPS at first base to be a good team.

And again:

He doesn’t listen to you.

Thanks, Perry for participating and trying to make a difference.  Unfortunately, he will not read this.

Don’t forget that the ESH will be stirring up trouble at O’s Fan Fest this Saturday.  So pull on that O’s cap, tie up your sarcasm boots and put the rest of your normal clothes on as you normally would.  Don’t show up naked.

Crustaceans Make Me Nauseous

I’m curious like a cat.  That’s why my friends call me Whiskers.  But this time, my curiosity didn’t kill me.  I just ended up really sad.

Orioles and Lobster.  A view from a [sic] Orioles fan deep in the heart of Red Sux Nation.

He must have originally been from Baltimore.   The sity that reeds and spels.  Professionalism goes a long way to giving you credibility.

I’m going to start with his revival post and through the week, we will be going through each of his posts since then.

Back in Black and Orange

Nice AC/DC reference.

Well folks, I decided to revive this blog and one of the main purposes is that there aren’t enough blogs out there that are holding Andy MacPhail accountable for his actions or lack there of in rebuilding the Baltimore Orioles.

Oh how we wish you hadn’t.  What is a blog going to do in terms of keeping AM accountable?  Do you think he reads any of this crap?  No dude.  I bet he rarely reads newspapers because as my good buddy Russ Smith pointed out, “Newspapers are dead, man.”  He probably reads scouting reports and other things related to DOING HIS JOB!

This is just another place where you can type your insane ramblings.  I thought you were onto a good thing when I read the title of your blog and the idea behind it, grammar errors and all.  You could have had yourself a nice little niche there.  Reporting on how the O’s are viewed by our northern neighbors.  Reporting on the goings on of the Red Sox and NESN.  You have access that most down here don’t…you get to hear other commentators talk trash about us, not just our own!  But no…you couldn’t do that.  You had to beat that drum didn’t you?

Your blog shall now be renamed.  Orioles and Lobster – I’m Not Sure Which Makes Me More Nauseous.

So don’t expect any orange colored glasses here.

C’mon Elton!  Don’t hold out on us.

I’m not going to tell you Brandon Snyder is going to be a power hitter at the ML level and will be our 1B man for the next decade.

That’s a pretty pessimistic outlook.  You say you like the Orioles?

And don’t expect to hear that Chris Tillman is going to suddenly figure out how to get ML hitters out at the same rate he did in the minors without throwing a high fastball.

Tillman did pretty well last year in his time in the majors right?  Sure his HR’s were high but I thought he looked promising.  Besides, isn’t the major league tougher than the minor league?  Isn’t the kid only 22?  You said you were an O’s fan right?

No, here you will get the other side, the side that sees MacPhail signing Garrett Atkins as our big RH cleanup bat because he could get him on the cheap.

Um…I think our big right handed clean up hitter will be Reimold, Jones, or Wieters.  Why don’t we give these guys a chance?  We’re not going to win the World Series this year.  Why do we need to shell out a ton on a contract to basically have the first year wasted?

And the fact [that] MacPhail has never signed a big FA bat to put his club into contention and likely never will.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat.  Oh yeah, he also has two World Series rings.  No big deal.

Or the fact that he is so obssessed [sic] with pitching that he has neglected to stock our minor league system with impact bats and yet refuses to trade all of that pitching he’s stockpiled.

Pitching always defeats hitting.  Every fucking 10 year old knows this.  Great pitching always beats great hitting.

Besides, you just questioned Tillman’s ability to be a major league pitcher.  Who do you want us to trade?  And then who do we have left that’s a proven starting pitcher?  I mean if we had a full rotation and Bergy, Matusz, Tillman, Arrieta, Erbe, Hobgood, Patton, Hernandez, and Britton were all proven major league pitchers, then sure, I can understand trading a few.  But we don’t know about them yet.  If you think Tillman can fail, what about the rest of them?

Oh wait, you want us to shell out a billion dollars on a pitcher who blows his arm out in the first year of the contract.  Good plan.

Somebody’s got to hold MacPhail accountable for this and demand that he do better.

He doesn’t give a fuck what you think. I can’t be more clear about this.

For those calling for the heads of MacPhail, Angelos, and Trembley, let me remind you:

1. You have no influence over whether MacPhail stays or leaves.  Nor should you.  You’re dumb.
2. You have no influence on Angelos selling the team (example: Free the Birds).  He makes too much money and he doesn’t care what you think.
3. You have marginal influence on whether they fire Trembley.  You can yell and scream and shit (literally, shit…it’s the best way to show someone you are really upset…just let it all go, right in your pants) and you might get lucky that MacPhail happens to witness your temper tantrum.  It’s about as much influence as a third base coach has on a game (Zing!).

If it’s just me at least somebody is doing it.

I bet PA does a pretty good job at keeping him accountable, as he is his boss.   Straight off the twitter wire:

UnPeterAngelos in reply to
@eutawhooligans I run my professional baseball team the way I want. You run yours the…oh wait: You don’t own a team. Because you’re poor.

Our players and you fellow fans deserve more than what we are getting.

And you’re going to get it for us!  We’re saved!

You’re welcome for the increased traffic.  Maybe one day you’ll get to our level (about 8 readers a week).

Annual Orioles’ fan teabagging still in effect in 2010

No matter what good the Orioles front office has done over the past couple of years there always seems to be an event of some sort which reminds us that it is still the same old Orioles running the show. Last year it was Adam Eaton’s marionette corpse trying to pitch. This year, the Orioles have decided it would be a great idea to charge extra money for tickets purchased on the day of the game. While I know it is still not expensive by any means to go to a game at Camden Yards, it seems a questionable time to be imposing price increases on your fans. Now in order to get tickets at face value, you will have to go to the Orioles box office in person in advance of the game you would like to attend. Ordering tickets via the web and telephone will get you literally raped by Ticketmaster. This is not convenient at all, especially to folks like us who go to 30ish games a season without a single one of them being planned in advance. The ESH are not wealthy folks and we go to games on a whim and buy the bargain seats, usually spending 6 to 8 dollars per ticket. A 2 dollar increase on those tickets is quite substantial, it could possibly deter us from going to as many games as we usually do. Everyone suffers in that situation, most notably the visiting team’s right fielder.

Obviously the O’s are thinking… I don’t know what the hell they’re thinking. I have a pretty good idea of their plan but I wanted to throw in the obligatory Major League quote. The O’s season ticket sales are down substantially again and they are attempting to make some of that money back by targeting the smallest group of fans they can. On any given night, walkup same day ticket sales are likely the minority in attendance. I just don’t see this being a great time to increase ticket costs for any group of fans. We are in the midst of 12 consecutive losing seasons, the economy is still in recession, and the team has just cut payroll once again. It just doesn’t seem to be the right situation to try to squeeze more money out of fans and possibly deter some from coming.  This team should be trying to draw more fans and this will do exactly the opposite. The Orioles will probably not notice much of a difference however since this will only affect a small number of fans in the big picture.  However, it will certainly affect our group and trust me…they want us there as much as possible whether they know it or not.

Two Stunning Posts on OH

I have to share this with the world (world=6 readers of ESH) because it’s possible that these two needles may have been lost in the OH haystack.

So if you read this, you understand how insane this guy Jtrea is and why we dislike him so much.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to live in his universe where the Orioles could spend 300 million per player and Camden wouldn’t implode or become crack dens.  But we can’t live in Narnia.  We have to live in the real world.  And in the real world, there would have to be more than a few crack heads in our front office to run the team the way Jtrea wants it run.

So anyway, the Orioles decided to charge extra for walk up tickets purchased the same day of the game.  I’m going to leave it to my associate to explain just how fucked up that is.  Perhaps he’ll even share the letter he wrote to the front office.

But I just want to share these two posts, the first by LuckyJim and the second by Mad Mark.

Originally Posted by JTrea81

I’d rather pay more to watch a winning team. Watching the Orioles lose is not entertaining.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JTrea81 If they added the talent to justify it, yeah they could. Had the Orioles signed say Teixeira, Holliday and Lackey, you bet they could justify a huge price hike. And people would pay it because they’d be excited to watch a winning team. So it comes down to what you want to watch. I’d rather pay 50 bucks a ticket to watch a talented winning team, than $10-15 to watch an inconsistent losing one. And I’m sure a lot of people feel the same. You’ve got to spend money to make money.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilentJames Then please stop watching.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JTrea81 See it’s this attitude that allows the Orioles to get away with an inferior product. James you are so gung-ho that the Orioles could go with a AA-AAA team and you’d be cheering them on. They are taking advantage of your fandom, and you are letting them walk all over you. Fans have the right to hold the team accountable for their actions or lack there of. But as long as people keep buying and supporting what the Orioles are selling with no questions asked, they have no motivation to improve or deviate from what they are putting on the field for you to watch.

This is the most ironic discussion ever. Seeing as JTrea doesn’t actually watch the team play. Because he won’t shell out money for MLB.TV.

When you pay money, Trea, then people will listen to your shabby economic analysis.

On the topic of the OP, I can’t believe people are complaining about this. A insignificant raise with a built-in workaround? I mean, you don’t even have to pay the increase is you buy in advance.

and now Mad Mark:

Originally Posted by JTrea81

If they added the talent to justify it, yeah they could.

Had the Orioles signed say Teixeira, Holliday and Lackey, you bet they could justify a huge price hike.

And people would pay it because they’d be excited to watch a winning team.

So it comes down to what you want to watch. I’d rather pay 50 bucks a ticket to watch a talented winning team, than $10-15 to watch an inconsistent losing one.

And I’m sure a lot of people feel the same. You’ve got to spend money to make money.

NO…THEY…COULDN’T. Now I realize I’m standing foolishly at the confluence of your three major fetishes, but you’re so far out in left field here as to be on the other side of the fence.
I’ve said this to you before and I’ll say it again now. I have skin in this game. You don’t. Until you live here and buy tickets here and go to games here on a regular basis all your theoreticals are just that: theoreticals. You clearly have no grasp of economic reality, especially as it relates to the running of a MLB team in BALTIMORE. So–while I realize this will do no good whatsoever–I must ask you to stop. Just…please…stop. When you have an actual point to make about something you actually know something about, please do. But if you’re just going to keep beating your drum about how much this organization, Andy MacPhail and life in general suck–while NOT WATCHING THE GAMES–I would be willing to pay you NOT to post here any more.

How’s that “complete ignore” thing work, again???

For those of you wondering how he would respond…pretty typical actually.  He didn’t acknowledge them at all.  I mean that’s what you do when you are so totally and irrevocably served isn’t it?

History Repeating

Just like their ancestors, it has become quite popular for Northerners to head down south and cram their lifestyle down our throats. And worse yet, often times it’s southerners who betray their own kind by emulating the North and their love for douche bag sports teams.

So in preparation of the new season we wanted to arm you fans with another vocab word to use on these bastards. Every time you see a Red Sox or Yankee fan, shout at the top of your lungs: Get out of my town Carpetbagger! When they try and pull the “I’ve been a life long fan” card, quiz them using some of the tips from this earlier post. And 9 times out of 10, if you ask them where they are from, it won’t be anywhere close to New York or Boston. In fact, my one trip to Fenway makes me more qualified than most Red Sox fans anyway.

You can check our vocab page here for other ESH buzz words.

Also, our boy Johnny hit us up with a fresh look for the crew page. Don’t fall in love, ladies.

*Note: I understand that the type of person described in sentence #2 of this post would be more analogous to a scalawag but in the interest of keeping things simple, let’s just call them all Carpetbaggers. YEEEHAAAWWWW.

ESH at Fan Fest

Who cares if more than 60 current and former O’s will be there?

Oh…you do?  That makes sense.

Well as an added bonus we’ll be there too, causing a ruckus.

Crab Cakes and Football

Our hatred for Boston runs deep through our veins.  There are so many reasons to hate Boston.

Maybe it’s the fact that they have 8 states routing for their teams.  The New England Patriots…good cover up. That doesn’t even factor in all the other states and cities that started to claim allegiance to Red Sox nation, circa 2004.

Maybe it’s that the fans of their teams are all yuppie white dudes with thin frame glasses, an LL Bean parka, and a child in one of those Baby Bjorn things.  I love the fact that Baltimore is grimy and the people here are blue-collar.  I love the fact that we are a northern state with a good mix of southern culture mixed in.

I can’t pass up an opportunity to stick it to those arrogant pricks.  The Ravens are putting it on New England Patriots like Bradley Cooper put it on Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers.

It feels good when Baltimore can go into a hostile environment and totally impose their will on Tom Brady and the rest of those cheaters.

I can’t let Baltimore totally off the hook though.  As I was driving away from Tom Ludlow’s house (as he forgot I was coming over and wasn’t there) I was listening to the game on WBAL.  I believe it was Jonathan Ogden responding to the sentiment that it was only the 1st quarter and we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves, there was lots of football to play.

“The Patriots are a likely opponent in this situation.”

What the hell does that mean?  They are likely to continue to play the game?  Are you saying that another team is not going to take over for them after the 1st quarter?

He elaborated with:

“This game will literally not be over until the 4th quarter.”

Good call captain obvious.   Maybe you should give Dancing With the Stars a shot…I don’t think the color commentary thing is right for you.

Check out all the awesome gear at Gimmick Wear.  They’re good people.

The Internet is Pissed!

Hall of Fame and Baseball Writers, you have gone and pissed off the most formidable sleeping giant in the whole world!  The internet.

@THE_ADAM_JONES this hall of fame thing is so much bullshit. all of them deserve to be in.

@staceyMlong On behalf of Robbie Alomar, I spit in the face of those writers who thought he wasn’t worthy.

Roch.

And so on.

And so on.

And so on.

I feel like Baseball Writers and their disdain for “statistics” and “bloggers who live in their mom’s basements” are so not in touch with technology that they have literally set into motion a series of events that will lead to future humans fighting giant robots.  Then they will send someone back in time to extort all the writers into voting Alomar into the HOF on the first ballot. Then even further in the future, a descendant of James Cameron will make a 6-D movie that tells the story of these events but tickets will be double the cost of the normal 3-D movies.

Thanks a lot dicks.

O’s Needs Update: 2

The O’s need:

A power hitter in the middle of the line up.

A first baseman if Snyder isn’t ready/doesn’t pan out.

A third baseman if Bell isn’t ready/doesn’t pan out.  Eh…check?

A leader in the rotation.  Check.  Kind of.

A closer.  Check

A new color commentator, preferably one who doesn’t sound like a drunk Bill Cosby (for the record, my vote is for Bill Ripken).

Can this be the last time that list is created, please?  It’s well documented . Everyone knows where the holes are.

Move on.