Balta1701

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 5, 2015 -> 03:57 PM) If he forces the issue, I expect you're right. But it's not a given that he'll be ready. I really don't think Rodon forced the issue that much, his first start or two at Charlotte weren't that great and he still had stuff to work on like his changeup (same thing that Fulmer might have to work on btw) but they still pushed him up to the big leagues as soon as they got the extra year of rights for him. Barring a complete overhaul of the management and front office and barring injury that's my guess, we see him break in next April/May. For a rebuilding team, that's not bad anyway, may as well get his first year in the bigs done when the rest of the roster is this weak and a few bad starts don't cost us anything.

Leadoff single and Rodon at 97 pitches. Hopefully manager was smart enough to have someone up in the pen to start the inning.

Herm and Robin took slow walk out to mound after Rodon landed awkwardly/jumped after throwing that pitch, looks like it was nothing.

Oh dear.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 5, 2015 -> 03:40 PM) 99? 99 again.

Tyler would have probably had him if the pitch hadn't been so far outside.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 5, 2015 -> 03:32 PM) Most Little Leaguers can bunt better than LaRoche and Gillaspie. Why not work on it a little bit more and learn how to bunt to beat the shift? Can Vince Coleman teach them how to bunt? I think that given the choice between LaRoche working on bunting every day to get the skill down and taking BP and working on trying to hit HR, he's probably going to choose the latter most of the time.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 5, 2015 -> 03:21 PM) Melky, LaRoche, Garcia up this inning ... on paper this was supposed to be a can't miss, productive threesome. We're in July. The weather is warm. These 3 make pretty good money. Time to tie the score. There's your LaRoche bunt attempt.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 5, 2015 -> 02:55 PM) Yeah, that's plan B. But I'd like to see them bring in the Jason Hammel-type guy first to try to make an early season run and second to have a moveable asset at the deadline. If EJ/Beck beats him for the spot, fantastic. And I'm guessing Fulmer won't really be in the mix until a bit later in the season anyway -- perhaps in the vacated spot post-deadline. I don't see any reason to expect them to do much different with Fulmer from how they treated Rodon this year.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 5, 2015 -> 03:04 PM) Slow curveball and Alexei can't steal 2nddPerfect throw, to be fair, but yes, another out on the basepaths.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 5, 2015 -> 02:41 PM) Alright let's go out there this inning and actually look like we have a plan against Gonzalez No.

Apparently we just gave up a home run to Schoop's hamburger shop.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 5, 2015 -> 02:17 PM) I agree. Trade Jeff, let him sign a big FA deal somewhere else. Go into the offseason trying to sign a short-term veteran on a short deal, use money to fill the holes in the lineup. Sale/Quintana/Rodon is a fine top three, you8've got Danks in there at 5 regardless, so go grab a 4 arm and that's fine. First crack at that? Johnson. Second crack? Beck. 3rd crack? If neither of those guys hold it, Fulmer won't be all that far away. Fourth crack at that? Montas. And then we'll have Adams, whatever pitcher we take with our first round pick in 2016, and who knows who else might step up out of the last couple drafts as well. That's a decent enough list that for a truly rebuilding team they should look at trading out of that top 3 to fill the remaining holes in their organization.

Jones gets into the game, unearned run scores, 1-0 Orioles, O's owe Gillaspie dinner.

Gillaspie with the impressive double-error.

Rodon gets ahead of Machado and then Manny has zero shot against that slider.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jul 5, 2015 -> 01:51 PM) Just to reiterate: I want a player who can realistically be expected to fill a hole, at one of our weak positions, next year, not "potentially" sometime in the future. I don't see the harm in trying to sign Jeff, in the off season. In fact, why couldn't the front office explain to him that they would like to bring him back, but they want to have a better team to back him up, next year. If trading him to a contender for the rest of this season, gives him an opportunity to better establish his value, and play for a winning team, why wouldn't he be thrilled with the chance? If he wants to come back to a better Sox team next season, on a long term deal, then he can sign with the Sox, after the season. I still don't think the White Sox have the money...but even more generally look at it this way. The White Sox keep drafting starting pitchers with their top picks, they keep trying to develop starting pitchers, their lineup is unbelivably weak and their lineup is by far the biggest flaw with their organization. It would be completely backwards for them to spend money on the starting rotation when their lineup is this crappy. Then again, it was completely backwards for them to have a philosophy of "Let's trade pitching for hitting" and then trade position players for Samardzija anyway.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 5, 2015 -> 09:22 AM) Did they trade Batum to try to keep Aldridge? Someone from their organization got in trouble and IIRC fired like a week ago for saying they had no shot to retain Aldridge. Seems like they knew it was coming.

Going to go watch gunpowder explode, but man this was impressive by Samardzija.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 4, 2015 -> 03:56 PM) I blame Hawk. He said the O's had 0 hits to start the inning He hadn't brought it up any more than announcers are supposed to. You gotta read the line for people who just turned in but he wasn't focusing on it.

Even I'll applaud for that.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jul 4, 2015 -> 03:41 PM) How good is Baltimore's pen? Tillman should be about done. 3rd best bullpen ERA in the AL. Doesn't matter if our starter keeps this up.

That seemed pretty lazy by the O's OFs.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jul 4, 2015 -> 03:24 PM) Bad comparison. Danks has been one of the worst starters in baseball for a few years now since his injury. You really think after a few bad months Melky is now on that same level? Melky Cabrera was a bad enough player that he was non-tendered when he was young enough to play CF. Then suddenly he became an all-star within 2 seasons, almost as if he had something magically helping him. Now he's not fast enough to be a decent OF any more and the exact same problems he had early in his career...not enough power to hit the ball past defenders often enough, are right back.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jul 4, 2015 -> 03:14 PM) Chances are that Melky is probably not one of the very worst players in baseball. John Danks pitched a shutout yesterday. He's fixed!