EriK the dick

Tonight’s Orioles game is interesting enough for me to stay up to watch the whole thing. The Orioles are in the midst of a very typical 4 game losing streak in which the starting pitching has been awful and the offense has completely disappeared. The bullpen on the other hand has actually been pretty solid. Funny how this game works isn’t it? So why the hell would I want to watch tonight’s game?

Where to begin…

The Baltimore Orioles look a lot like the Baltimore Orioles these days. Just when you think they might be better, they may have turned a corner, they shit themselves the minute they see Red Sox or Yankees. With two heartbreaking late game losses in a row, we’ve seen this movie before… many times.

Turd Bergesen

With the Orioles offense being unexpectedly TERRIBLE so far this season a lot of pressure has fallen on the starting rotation to carry the team to respectability. For the most part, they have done their job. Guthrie has been solid as always, Arrieta seems to have taken a step forward and Zach Britton has been as good, if not better than you can expect a rookie to be through a month of his MLB career.

Those 3 starters have an obvious stranglehold on a starting spot and give me hope for the rest of the season. This offense can’t be this bad over a whole year, can it? Plus, hopefully in a couple of weeks time we get back last years best O’s starter, Brian Matusz, to add into the mix. Yes, I expect him to be at least very close to the quality he was last year if not a little better. Guthrie, Matusz, Britton, Arrieta and one of Tillman or Bergesen. If you read the headline, you know which way I (and the O’s) should lean. For those of you who still love you some Bergey and consider him a good pitcher…this blog post is dedicated to you.

The Mark Reynolds – Garrett Atkins Comparisons Should End

Raise your hand if you were jumping for joy when we signed Garrett Atkins last year.

Ok.  No one.

Now raise your hand if you were jumping for joy when we traded for Mark Reynolds.

Hmm.  No one.  Well this guy.  Most of you were just nodding your heads slightly in approval.  A tempered optimism.  How could you have more than that?  All you heard for the next 5 months was “200 strike outs” and “strike out king” (whoops, we were guilty of that one too).

So Mark is struggling and there are plenty of theories why.  A new league.  Lingering affects from injury last year.  An overhaul in approach to appease the strikeout cry babies.  The reason doesn’t matter.  He’s struggling.

Now here are the reasons he and Garrett Atkins are not the same:

You Can’t Spell Mark Without K: A Snapshot In The Season of Mark Reynolds, Volume I

It is May 3 and we are a month into the 2011 MLB Season.  The Orioles have played 27 games so far and have a record of 13 wins versus 14 losses.  I wrote a piece a few months ago about Mark Reynolds and how everyone freaks out about his monstrous strikeout numbers and I figured I had a decent sample size from this year to go back and see if I was right or not.