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Orioles minor league road trip

The Baltimore Sun had a series on the Orioles’ farm teams. Following an itinerary mapped out here, it’s especially relevant now that the Orioles have all their farm teams clustered reasonably close by.

The first profile was of Bowie. The Bowie Baysox are now in their 15th year. (Their first year, 1993, they played in Memorial Stadium. Tippy Martinez had a barbecue stand.) Since 1997 I’ve taken my children to at least one Baysox game each year. It is great family entertainment and somewhat less expensive than major league baseball. (Given the performance of the Orioles during this time, there is little reason to shell out the money to see their games.)

The first game we went to in 1997 featured the Baysox of David Dellucci and Calvin Pickering. Dellucci was the hero of the game we attended hitting a 12th inning double that drove in the winning run against the Reading Phillies.

After going to a few games I realized something: most foul-pops go to the right side. (For the physics explaining this see here.)
So we started sitting along first base. The first year we did that, 2001, Bowie first baseman Franky Figueroa hit a foul. I remember following it with my eyes. I don’t know that I moved much, but when it landed, I was in position. The ball bounced on the bench in front of me and I reflexively bare handed it on the bounce. (My children were impressed.) In 2001, the Baysox were terrible, and we were there late in the game when most of the fans had left, that gave me an extra edge.

In 2003, someone from the grounds crew saw my son, and tossed him a ball. After the game we were treated nicely and got autographs from a few players and coaches including Kris Wilken, former #1 pick Darnell McDonald and coach Butch Davis. That game wasn’t just a game, it was an experience and the children loved it.

Last year we got a foul ball. Had we been a bit quicker, we might have gotten a second. And then after the game they let the children on the field to run around the bases. When they finished, they were given a t-shirt. Needless to say the children had a great time again.

Other nice aspects of Bowie are the carousel and the free admission for children wearing a uniform. (I believe that all the Maryland farm teams have these.)

Among the players we’ve seen at Bowie have included Augie Ojeda, Jerry Hairston Jr., Brian Roberts, Mike Fontenot, Willie Harris, Howie Clark (who had an incident with A-Rod earlier this year), Aaron Rakers, Luis Matos and Jayson Werth. Here are a couple of posts related to the Baysox.

Anyway, back to the Sun article, At Bowie, zany promotions take fans’ breath away

When a team like the Baysox hovers around the .500 mark and players are being called up and sent down, building a reputation for entertainment and good service is paramount to survival. The Double-A Orioles affiliate will stop at nothing – or almost nothing – to put fannies in the seats.

That means staging last week’s Bad Breath Night, three Bark in the Park events for pooches this season (the last will be Aug. 26), a Tribute to Toilet Paper Aug. 31 and fireworks, fireworks, fireworks – 22 dates over the five-month season.

If a homeowner wanted to stage a similar 10-minute pyrotechnic display by Zambelli Internationale, it would set him back almost $5,000. By contrast, an adult general admission seat at Bowie is $9.

I believe that once the Baysox tried to get into the Guinness book of World records by giving everyone a whoopee cushion so they could have the biggest collection of people sitting on whoopee cushions at the same time. So yes some of the promotions are silly. But people enjoy them and will go as much for the promotions as for the game.

The next article in the series tells of Fans, players share special relationship between the Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds and their fans. They’re somewhat more accessible than the AA players at Bowie.

There’s Gil and Joyce Dunn, booster club leaders, who take Delmarva Shorebirds into their home, steer many of them through their first steamed crab dinner, cheer them when they’re slumping and cheer for them when they’re riding high.

And Hannah Seward, who started a Web site for the team four years ago when she was 12 — to profess her undying love — and ended up creating a site where the parents of players can see how their boys of summer are doing.

And Bob and Donna Cummings, long-time season ticket holders, who sit just behind the visitor’s dugout and admit that geography makes them tighter with the opposing players and coaches than the home team. But that doesn’t stop them from honking away on a small noisemaker when their favorite Shorebirds come through.

(From what I’ve read having local families hosting minor league players is not unique to Delmarva. I believe that also happens in Bowie. I suspect that it’s a pretty widespread phenomenon.)

If you’d like to keep up with Delmarva, Monoblogue features a Shorebird of the week, every week of the season.

Frederick fans sing a different tune tells of Keys fans who sing

We’re the Frederick Keys

Come on out support your team

Baseball is back in town

You can hear the shaking sound

Bring the family

Unfortunately other than the Key’s theme song and how the grounds crew had to fix the field, there’s not much else to the Frederick article.

The Bluefield article about the Orioles rookie team, Bluefield offers rare throwback atmosphere tells of the no frills nature of the lowest rung in the system ladder, but the one with, perhaps, the most history.

But Bluefield’s humble status belies its place in Oriole history.

“This is where Cal Ripken got on the bus to start his career,” says Bruce Adams, a minor-league baseball aficionado who, with wife Margaret Engel, wrote the book, Ballpark Vacations: Great Family Trips to Minor League and Classic Major League Baseball Parks across America. “Bluefield is the one most people haven’t experienced and if they love baseball, they should.”

In addition to Ripken, who played in Bluefield in 1978, there’s Eddie Murray, Boog Powell, Don Baylor and Bobby Grich. Dean Chance, signed by the Orioles in 1959, passed through town on his way to the Los Angeles Angels in the expansion draft and a Cy Young Award in 1964.

Last Sunday, Grich returned to town for the first time in 40 years to celebrate the Golden Anniversary and conduct a baseball clinic for local kids.

But if the 50 year relationship between the Orioles and Bluefield shows the rich history of the franchise, the article about Norfolk, In Norfolk, Tide turns from Mets to O’s tells of the Orioles’ less than sterling recent past. Four years ago the Orioles lost their affiliate in Rochester, because the Red Wings were tired of poor showings. This past fall the Orioles lucked out, because Norfolk decided that it wanted to be the location of the O’s minor league team. Norfolk terminated its longtime association with the Mets to do so. Having a farm team in Norfolk is much better than having one in Ottawa, but it serves as a reminder that not only have the Orioles been failing their fans, they’ve also been failing their affiliates.

Owner Ken Young was wooed by the Nationals and the Orioles, both looking for a Triple-A affiliation closer to home.

“It was hard to make the decision even before we knew it was the Orioles,” says Young, a food service mogul and baseball traditionalist who wears a 2000 Mets National League championship ring on his right hand. “I joked that the hardest part was that I might lose out on some more hardware.”

But Young, who also bought the Bowie Baysox and Frederick Keys in the offseason, gave up little in the switch. Season ticket sales are up slightly, the team store is selling more Orioles apparel than it did Mets gear. And with the MASN sports network on the Norfolk cable system, fans can follow their favorite players up to Baltimore.

The Orioles gained, too.

In abandoning fan-less Lynx Stadium in Ottawa in favor of Harbor Park, they gained a 12,000-seat gem along the banks of the Elizabeth River that serves as one of the anchors of a revitalized waterfront. Trains roll by the left-field fence and ships and barges glide by right field. The ballpark, 15 years old, looks a third its age because crews power wash it daily.

Norfolk’s GM David Rosenfield has some positive words for the big league team

But Rosenfield, 76, runs a tight ship, which means clean and well-lighted restrooms, a full-service restaurant down the right-field line and a huge picnic area. It’s exactly what you would expect from a man voted the “King of Baseball” at the 2004 baseball winter meetings.

Rosenfield praises the Orioles’ minor-league brain trust.

“At this level, you have some players on the downturn just hanging on. The Mets last year had six or seven guys in their mid-30s and they played like it. That’s not what the minor leagues are supposed to be about. You’re not supposed to be hanging on for a paycheck,” Rosenfield says. “The Orioles don’t put up with that.”

The oldest players on the Tides are Alberto Castillo, 37, who had two stints as backup catcher with the Orioles this season, and pitcher Tim Kester, 35. The rest of the players are 30 or younger.

With the Tides currently languishing in 3rd (out of 4 places) in their division at 45-49 and few prospects worthy of the name on the roster, I wonder how long the honeymoon will last.

Finally in If you build it they will come, the Sun reports on what it’s like to attend Cal Ripken’s Aberdeen Ironbirds.

It also includes a bit of a primer what teams look for at the lowest level of the minor leagues and at succeeding levels.

As Orioles assistant general manager and director of minor league operations, David Stockstill spends his summers on the road pruning the farm system.

“At the beginning, they’re very, very raw,” he says. “As hitters we want them seeing the pitches, judging the rotation, judging speed. When they can do that, they’re able to move up a level and then we’d like to see them hit the ball all over the field and hit the ball with authority, the breaking ball as well as the fast ball. That should get them up to the Double-A area. After that, it’s more adjustment pitch to pitch as the pitcher adjusts to them.”

Stockstill also watches how players mature and deal with stress and being away from home: “Can they handle having 10,000 people yelling at them and come back and perform?”

Orioles Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer says at lower levels, the emphasis is on athleticism, good control and movement on the pitches: “Does he have a wind-up he can repeat?”

“As they go up, you want to see how they read bats,” he says. “If the batters are on their fastball, do they recognize that and go to something else? How do you do when things don’t go well? That usually happens at some point in the minors. Do you maintain your composure when it does?”

Making sure players have the fundamentals down at Double-A is important, says Stockstill, because many players skip over the highest level of the minors on their way to the majors. These days, a city that pays for construction of a 12,000-seat Triple-A stadium wants a winning team in return. So the age and experience of players has increased as parent clubs try to maintain good working relationships.

However Minor League, Major Troubles tells of mistakes the city of Aberdeen made in luring the Ironbirds. Certain development that the city was counting on never materialized. Now the city is seeing none of the expected benefits of having the minor league team in town. It doesn’t change the fact that the Ironbirds are thriving financially.

It was a good idea to give an overview of the Orioles’ minor league system. The illogical route taken is a function of scheduling. (Sometimes the scheduling’s a little odd. Recently we had considered taking in a Frederick or Bowie game but neither team was home that week. The different leagues ought to work things out so there are options of catching one or another team on a given day.)

I can only hope that it won’t be long before it will be interesting to see games at each level for the baseball and not just for the gimmicks.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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She owns Toledo- Se Ri Pak wins her fifth Jamie Farr Classic

The Korean Golf Queen did it again.

SYLVANIA, Ohio – Morgan Pressel’s hole-in-one sure got Se Ri Pak’s attention. Trailing briefly by three strokes after Pressel aced the sixth hole, Pak regained the lead with a birdie at the 15th hole and held on to tie an LPGA record with her fifth win at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic on Sunday.

Pak, who previously won the Farr in 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2003, matched Mickey Wright, who won the Sea Island Open in 1957-58, ’60, ’62-’63, and Annika Sorenstam, who has won both the Samsung World Championship and Mizuno Classic tournaments five times each.

The 29-year-old Pak, who has already qualified for induction to the Hall of Fame, has 24 career victories. She followed rounds of 63, 68 and 69 with a 67 to finish at 17-under 267 and collect the $195,000 winner’s check. Pressel closed with a 69 and was three shots back at 270.

Pak and Pressel dueled all day until Pak finally broke a tie at the par-4 15th, almost holing an iron approach which ended up 2 feet from the cup. After Pressel’s long putt from the back fringe came up a foot short, Pak rammed in the birdie to go ahead by a stroke with three holes left.

Pressel’s approach at the 17th braked to a stop 2 feet away. But Pak rolled in a 6-footer for birdie before Pressel tapped in, maintaining her advantage.

At the 18th — the second of back-to-back par-5 closing holes at Highland Meadows Golf Club — Pak created a roar from the large gallery when she came within inches of holing her approach. Her tap-in birdie putt clinched the victory.

After her ace, Pressel was even par the rest of the way while Pak was 6 under.

The final round was like match play or a playoff. Se Ri in addition to her incredible record at the Farr, is 5-0 lifetime in playoffs. She beat Morgan, but it was much closer than the three-shot win that the leader board registered at the end.

Prediction- Se Ri Pak will win the Jamie Farr Classic again. Anyone want to wager $50 she doesn’t?

ESPN televised the tournament’s 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds. When Se Ri and Morgan began walking down the 18th fairway after their tee shots on Sunday, the broadcast was interrupted for some five minutes. When ESPN2 returned, they said there were technical difficulties.

There sure were ‘technical difficulties’ with ESPN’s coverage. For instance-

An announcer misnaming Laura Diaz, Laura Davies instead. Look at the pictures to the left and above, do these two women look anything alike? Davies is on the right. Someone get an optometrist to Toledo Stat!

It had to be a slip of the tongue. I hope.

Charlie Rymer being amazed by Jin Young Pak being paired with Se Ri on Saturday. Pro golf tournaments are paired by scores after the cut was made. Pak and Pak were 1-2 and that meant they were paired.

Rymer has been broadcating golf for over ten years. He should know better.

ESPN showing Se Ri’s impressive record at the Farr, but saying she had made the cut nine times in nine tries. That is incorrect, Se Ri played the Farr in 1997(before she joined the LPGA). She missed the cut.

 

San Diego Padres pitcher David Wells suspened for seven games

Sending the veteran to anger management classes would be about as an effective a punishment as the one MLB handed down.

SAN DIEGO – Padres pitcher David Wells was suspended for seven games and fined $3,000 Thursday by the commissioner’s office for his animated argument with an umpire last weekend.

In handing down the punishment, Bob Watson, baseball’s discipline czar, cited Wells’ “violent and aggressive actions,” including throwing a baseball at the backstop as he left the field.

Not surprisingly, “Boomer” was as irritated with the punishment as he was on Saturday, when he was ejected by umpire Ed Hickox for questioning calls in the fourth inning of an 8-5 win over Atlanta after Jeff Francoeur hit a two-run homer.

The 44-year-old lefty criticized Watson and said the game is changing so much that “pretty soon we’ll all put skirts on and we’re all going to play softball.”

Wells asked the players’ union to appeal, so the penalty can’t start until after a hearing and a decision. The Padres open the second half with a one-game lead over Los Angeles in the NL West.

Suspending a starting pitcher for seven games, means if his team manages it right, the player will only miss one start. The suspension therefore is a joke, not much unlike one handed down by the NHL to one of its violent players earlier this year. The only hurt inflicted will be on Wells wallet,(I’m talking if the seven-game suspension includes his salary rather than the $3000 fine) but based on his quote, I don’t think David has learned anything from the experience.

 

Nick Saban- Still full of it

The University of Alabama Football Coach spoke again about his departure from the Miami Dolphins.

“I have been criticized for that and maybe rightfully so, but it’s not really who I am, and I do care about what people think,” Saban said. “I am responsible for how I handled [leaving the Dolphins for the Alabama job] and I tried to handle it in a way that was going to be the best for our team.

No Nick, you handled it in a fashion only suited for yourself. That’s why you got my much coveted Knucklehead award last January. Yes some people consider it a reward or honor.

Rick at SOTP wrote-

Nah, you think so coach? Let’s see, you jumped out of a sinking ship after making some of the biggest holes, captain. Add public flip-flopping, equivocating or outright lies and a big Alabama-rolling-billboard moving truck and I’d say you did as much as you could to ensure an ungraceful exit.

It was both classless and ungraceful. Nick Saban will get his due one day. Coaching the Crimson Tide hasn’t been a pleasant experience for most of Bear Bryant’s successors. Saban could well find it just as unrewarding and when it does there will be cheering in South Florida.

 

The road to 10,000

The Philadelphia Phillies are on the verge of a record.

PHILADELPHIA – The only number that’s important to the Phillies is the length of their winning streak. Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard and Aaron Rowand homered, Pat Burrell added four RBIs and Philadelphia avoided its 10,000th loss again by beating the St. Louis Cardinals 10-4 on Saturday.

*****

The six-run cushion was enough for Hamels. Ryan Madson and Antonio Alfonseca finished up and delayed Philadelphia’s inevitable 10,000th loss for at least one more game. If they win the series finale, the Phillies could reach the mark on their seven-game West Coast trip.

Philadelphia would be the first professional sports team to lose 10,000 games.

If not for the American League not starting up till 1901, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Phillies former Shibe Park co-tenant The Philadelphia A’s would be far off from 10,000 losses either. The A’s were almost as dismal as the Phillies for many years.(From 1934 to 1967 the team only had a couple of winning seasons.)

Jim at Bright and Early pointed out the Phillies date with infamous baseball history. In the process, I learned the baseball franchise doesn’t even know its own history.

No one could have realized it at the time, but when the Phillies were formed in 1883, history was in the making. Now, as the 21st century begins, the Phillies are the oldest, continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional sports.

In the 1940′s the Phillies were owned by Robert Carpenter. During that ownership period, the team changed names.

Carpenter’s first act was to try to change the team’s name to “Blue Jays.” However, “Phillies” continued to appear on the team’s jerseys. Students at Johns Hopkins University, whose teams have long been known as the Blue Jays, vehemently protested the change. They claimed that the Phillies’ attempt to use the name was an insult to their school, given the team’s reputation as a chronic loser. The experiment was dropped after only two seasons.

Only a hard core old Baseball nut would remember this name change. I doubt many living Phillies fans do.

 

Holy Toledo- In-Kyung Kim ties LPGA Tour record for nine holes

An LPGA record tying round took place yesterday.

South Korean In-Kyung Kim enters final-round play in third place at 8-under for the tournament, that after posting the best start in the 23-year history of the Farr Classic and one of the best in LPGA history.

Like Pressel, Kim, 19, could become this event’s youngest champion. Kim opened play yesterday with seven birdies on her first seven holes, and tied Jimin Kang, another South Korean, for the lowest nine-hole raw score in LPGA history at 27. When Pak shot her 61 here in ’98, she went 29-32 on the par 34-37-71 Meadows layout.

27 was also the low nine score in PGA Tour history till Corey Pavin shot a 26 in Milwaukee last summer.

Funny thing AP doesn’t make mention of the record tying round.

In-Kyung Kim, who said she idolized Pak while growing up in South Korea, was the first to challenge Pak. Kim birdied the first seven holes to get to 9 under and two shots off the lead before Pak had even teed off.

But she cooled off, suffering a costly bogey at the 12th when she drove into the right rough. She finished with a 65 and was alone in third at 205.

Associated Press reporter Rusty Miller must be taking lessons in bad golf journalism from Knucklehead AP Golf writer Doug Ferguson. The omission of the round being record tying sounds so like Doug.

Se Ri Pak still leads, but Boca Raton’s Morgan Pressel is two shots back now.

Se Ri Pak birdied the last hole to maintain a two-shot lead over hard-charging Morgan Pressel in Saturday’s third round of the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic.

Pressel had eight birdies in a 7-under 64 to put pressure on the four-time Farr champion, who carried a five-stroke lead over the field through 36 holes — and was seven shots ahead of Pressel.

Pak added a third-round 69 to her opening 63 and a 68 and is at 13-under 200. Pressel’s 64 followed rounds of 68 and 70 and left her at 202 after a blustery day at Highland Meadows Golf Club.

Although Pak is just 29, the Sunday’s final pairing will feature a Hall of Fame qualifier and one of the sport’s rising young superstars. Pak has won 23 tournaments including five majors, while the 19-year-old Pressel become the youngest major champion in LPGA history when she took the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April.

After Pressel rolled in a 4-foot birdie putt on the closing hole, her 5-year-old cousin, Mikaela Schulz, ran onto the green and gave her a hug. Pressel picked her up and toted her to the scorer’s tent while a large crowd surrounding the 18th green cheered and applauded.

Pressel’s round was very impressive yesterday. Still Highland Meadows is Se Ri’s stomping ground and I wouldn’t bet against her today.

 

Tiger Woods Dominates the British Open

Tiger Woods is known for his dominance of the Masters but AP golf writer Doug Ferguson thinks the British Open actually best showcases his unique combination of skills.

Tiger Woods Dominates the British Open Tiger Woods kisses the trophy after winning the British Open golf championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland, in this July 17, 2005 file photo. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) Tiger Woods never posted any of Harry Vardon’s feats on his bedroom door. His career has always been about Jack Nicklaus and that benchmark of 18 professional majors, and Woods has made incredible strides in his first decade on the PGA Tour. He captured the career Grand Slam at age 24, two years sooner than Nicklaus. He won back-to-back titles at the Masters, and one-third of his majors have come from Augusta National, just like Jack.

But along with a closet full of green jackets, Woods is starting to assemble quite a collection of claret jugs. He heads to Carnoustie for the 136th British Open with a chance to become the first player since Peter Thomson in 1954-56 to win golf’s oldest championship three straight times. If he’s successful, that would give him as many jugs as jackets.

Nicklaus and Vardon share the record for most titles (6) in a single major. For all the fixation over Woods and Augusta National, his presence at the British Open has become equally daunting. Could he reach Vardon’s record at the British Open before Nicklaus’ mark at the Masters? Is it possible his dominance lies more on the linksland than amid the azaleas? “I will say this: The British Open Championship is my favorite major,” Woods said. “I just love the history, tradition and atmosphere. You need patience and imagination to play well.”

Thomson has watched Woods develop a game suited for links golf and wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he goes on a dominant run. “He’ll have a run for 10 or 15 years during which he’ll win at least half of them, maybe a few more,” Thomson said from his home in St. Andrews. “I’m assuming he goes about it in the way he does now. There’s never been any golfer, maybe even a tennis player, who applied himself in such a way that Tiger has.”

Nick Faldo, who won the Masters and British Open three times each, helped Woods into his first green jacket in 1997 and always figured that would be his domain. Now, he’s not so sure. “That’s a tough one,” Faldo said. “You’ve got to believe that everything about him is set up perfectly for Augusta. But he has this great ability now to adapt, as he did at Hoylake, where strategy golf came in.”

Augusta National has added nearly 500 yards since Woods won his first green jacket by a record 12 shots. And with improved technology, from drivers to shafts to golf balls, Woods no longer has exclusive rights to power.

The British Open has always been more about brains than brawn, the often overlooked strength of the world’s No. 1 player. After twice winning at St. Andrews by either hitting it over or around the bunkers, Woods arrived at Royal Liverpool last year to find the grass brown and crusty, the fairways running faster than some greens. After a few practice rounds, he decided his best option was to leave driver in the bag and navigate his way around the course with his irons. It proved to be a brilliant strategy, and he went on to a two-stroke victory.

“The majority of golfers really don’t relish playing a course like Carnoustie, Hoylake, Lytham & St. Annes,” Thomson said. “They’re not comfortable playing that kind of golf. Tiger is. I remember seeing him play at Lytham as an amateur, and he didn’t look like he belonged there. It was a complete mystery to him. But it didn’t take him long to get the hang of it. He’s such a brain, and he has studied it very well. That’s what the Open championship courses demand.”

Regardless, Woods is an amazing golfer who can dominate any course.

 

3 points of light (for the Orioles)

The first half of the Orioles’ season has been, as it has been since 1998, dismal.

To take a look at how the individual player have done check out beat writer Jef Zrbiec’s Report Card. Or The Hardball Times Win Share chart for the team. (Win Shares measure the contribution a player makes to his teams wins based on a calculation developed by Bill James.) By either measure there are only three players who stand out above the rest: All Star Second baseman Brian Roberts and starting pitchers Erik Bedard and Jeremy Guthrie.

Before the season there were rumors that the Orioles were exploring trade talks with Atlanta that involved Brian Roberts and pitcher Hayden Penn for Marcus Giles and Adam LaRoche. In the end Peter Angelos nixed the deal, which, looks pretty wise.
Marcus Giles SDG .242 .313 .338 .651
Adam LaRoche PIT .239 .324 .439 .763

Brian Roberts BAL .322 .405 .443 .848

The problem was that he didn’t nix the deal for baseball reasons but because Brian Roberts is one of his favorites. At the time I criticized the interference.I had thought that Roberts’ decline last year a greater concern than Giles’ decline. It appears that the opposite was true. Roberts currently has the second highest OPS for AL second basemen behind Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox.

I’m glad that Angelos nixed the deal, but appalled that, once again, he did it for the wrong reason.

Erik Bedard has been a pretty solid pitcher for most of his career. But this year he’s moved his performance up another notch. Currently he leads the AL in strikeouts and has a sterling 4 to 1 K:BB ratio. And he’s coming off a 15 strikeout complete game shutout of the Texas Rangers that garnered a game score of 98, the highest in baseball this year.

Brian Roberts has settled in as a very good second baseman and Erik Bedard has reached the level of an elite pitcher. Jeremy Guthrie, though, has come out of nowhere to have an excellent season (except for last night) after being a disappointment in Cleveland. Here’s what he’d done as of June 26:

Since the Orioles inserted him into their rotation on May 8, Guthrie has made nine starts and has been arguably the American League’s best starting pitcher. He leads the league in ERA (1.63), base runners allowed per nine innings (6.92) and innings pitched (66 1/3 , tied with C.C. Sabathia) since becoming a regular starter.

Guthrie has pitched at least seven innings in eight straight starts, never once allowing more than three runs. He hasn’t lost since becoming a starter, throwing well enough to become a potential all-star as a 28-year-old rookie.

The article also portrays Guthrie as a real prince.

At a recent game, Guthrie wanted to sign autographs and chat with a church group that was seated in the upper deck at Camden Yards. Guthrie asked a team official how to find them from the clubhouse.

“Why don’t you wait, we’ll send someone up there for you,” came the response.

“No, that’s fine,” Guthrie said. “I’ll find them myself.”

Guthrie got directions, found the group and signed autographs. “You don’t find many ballplayers walking by themselves to the upper deck,” Duquette said.

While the Post article notes that Guthrie’s doing well, it doesn’t exactly explain how he is doing so well. John Sickels recently did a prospect retro on Jeremy Guthrie. Sickels writes

Guthrie opened 2003 in Double-A and did well, going 6-2, 1.44 in 62.2 innings. However, his K/BB ratio was just 35/14…a very low strikeout rate. Promoted to Triple-A, he was blasted for Buffalo, going 4-9, 6.52 in 18 starts. I saw him pitch late in the season. . .it was very strange. He was hitting 93-94 MPH, and his breaking stuff had a lot of movement, but he wasn’t fooling anyone. It was hard to understand how a pitcher with such good stuff could look so poor, especially since he threw strikes. Command wasn’t the problem. I gave him a Grade C+ in the ’04 book.

If there was no obvious reason Guthrie wasn’t succeeding with Cleveland, Sickels attempts to answer that mystery and suggests that Guthrie may have found himself in Baltimore.

His stuff was back up into the low-to-mid-90s and his breaking stuff had more bite again. But he was now 27 years old, and kept getting hit hard in the majors, with a 6.98 mark in 19 innings last year. I wrote that a change of scenery and a switch to relief would be the only things that would save his career.

Guthrie got the change of scenery and so far he’s been quite a revelation for the Orioles: 2.42 ERA in 81.2 innings with a 56/14 K/BB. He’s been a bit hit-lucky I think, giving up just 59 hits, but he’s pitching genuinely well and is now living up to the expectations generated back in his Stanford days. He’s pitching the best ball of his career right now. What’s the explanation? He’s always had the stuff. I think it was a matter of confidence and location, and clearing his mental and emotional palate after his struggles in Cleveland. If he continues to throw quality strikes, I think it’s sustainable.

I’d like to know how often someone with Guthrie’s minor league record succeeds in the majors, but no one’s looking at that now. Right they’re (rightly) marveling that he’s turned his career around. I guess, if nothing else we’re witnessing the Mazzone effect. If so, the Orioles better do all they can to make sure that Mazzone stays in Baltimore.

There little hope for this year. And no real hope for the immediate future. Hopefully the front office under McPhail can build from these three and progress towards respectability in 3 to 4 years. It won’t be sooner than that.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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Busy night in Yankee Land

Having not attended last night’s Trenton Thunder game, I made my way up there tonight to watch Joba Chamberlain pitch – and how! He had perhaps his best start of the season: seven innings, three hits, no runs, one walk, nine strikeouts. My wife and I managed to get seats directly to the right of Trenton’s dugout, and were able to watch the players interact. Joba seems like a great teammate – he’s talkative, always into the game, and seems to really respect his coaches and colleagues. (pictures coming soon.)

Which brings me to point #2: where’s the respect for Juan Miranda? I have to presume the reason he didn’t play is that New Hampshire started a southpaw. But is that it? If Miranda (who’s probably now the Yanks #1 firstbase prospect) doesn’t face lefties in the minors, how will he ever hit them in the majors? He should be facing every single one now – minor league teams have the luxury of an 0-4 from their cleanup hitter. That’s much tougher to do in the bigs, especially in the Bronx. I’d say it’s far more helpful to have Miranda face lefties instead of righties (if you had to choose). Lefties who hit lefties are very valuable (and would have helped the Yanks immensely this year). Anyway, he was the first base coach for half the game, and we could see how massive his arms were (a true power hitter’s body) – so if the Trenton coaching staff is reading this, please play Juan Miranda against southpaws, and play him more at 1b (instead of DH) than non-prospect Cody Ehlers.

As far as the big Yankees go, they squeaked out a 6-4 win against the lowly D-Ray
s tonight. Wang had just one bad inning (the first), and pitched five scoreless frames after that (six Ks, no walks). The big blow was a Bobby Abreu two-run shot that gave the Yanks a lead they never relinquished. He, more than anyone, is the catalyst for the team – when he hits they win, and when he doesn’t they lose.

Kyle Farnsworth gave up another homer in the eighth, so I have to ask: why does Joe Torre have an aversion to using Edwar Ramirez? The guy has four Ks in 2.1 ip, with just one run allowed. I suppose because he’s a rookie, and had only a mediocre outing his last time that he can’t be trusted in the ‘critical late innings,’ (or so goes Joe’s thinking). So instead he used the useless Farnsworth. I’m counting the days until he’s traded…

And here’s a tragic story on something that I’m surprised doesn’t happen more often.

 

Royals Week in Review – 7/14/07

Kansas City Royals come out of the All Star Break with a ton of momentum and a killer schedule. A few minor moves this week show that General Manager Dayton Moore may be warming up to be a player as the trade market heats up this month.

All Star Game
The Royals sent their $55 Million Man to San Francisco to represent this week. Mr. Meche’s line:

DNP

Good work, Gil.

For a rundown of recent Royals in the mid-summer classic, check out Royals Review.

Perception vs. Reality
Now at the halfway point of the season, let’s take a look at how the main players have compared to their pre-season projections.

OPS     Curr  Proj  Diff
Gthrght 796   665   19.70%
Buck    872   739   18.00%
Pena    668   573   16.58%
Grudz   749   709    5.64%
German  768   745    3.09%
DeJesus 783   786   -0.38%
Butler  767   786   -2.42%
Teahen  765   810   -5.56%
Gload   681   817  -16.65%
Gordon  679   834  -18.59%
Brown   608   781  -22.15%

ERA     Curr  Proj  Diff
Soria   2.21  6.21  64.41%
Riske   2.21  4.36  49.31%
Gobble  2.70  5.17  47.78%
Banny   3.71  5.84  36.47%
Meche   3.54  4.90  27.76%
Peralta 3.64  4.50  19.11%
Dotel   3.50  4.17  16.07%
dlaRosa 5.16  5.55   7.03%
Greinke 4.63  4.76   2.73%
Perez   5.68  4.75 -19.58%

As you can see, the pitching staff has blown away the projections so far this year. There will most certainly be a regression to the mean for most of these pitchers, but the staff has already proven to be a bigger strength than most people expected.

The offense is a more of a mixed bag. John Buck has been in breakout mode for most of the year, still hitting for power even though his average has gone down. Tony Pena Jr. will most certainly come crashing back to earth, but the rest of the batters should be able to improve their stats as the second half rolls along.

Thug Royals
The GM started the trading season with a couple of minor moves, but both will affect the big league roster soon.

Aside from his pending charge for felonious assault, Roman Colon has put up decent stats in the minors and with Atlanta and Detroit. Out of options, he will need to be put on the 25 man roster next week.

Colon was used as a starter often early in his minor league career. One has to wonder if a few more bad outings by some of the team’s lesser starters will put him in the prime scoring card location soon.

Jason Smith has already taken over the role of utility infielder on the team since being picked up from the Diamondbacks organization earlier this week.

Aside from a good season at AAA Colorado Springs last year, Smith has been exactly what you’d expect from a journeyman utility player.

 
 


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