Ace No More

Going into this season, O's fans knew that the pitching would be bad. But most came to the conclusion there was at least one legitimate starter on this team, Jeremy Guthrie. Those O's fans, including myself, were wrong.

After 9 starts, Guthrie is 3-4 with an 5.37 ERA. When Guthrie struggles, the long ball is primarily to blame. He has given up 14 HRs through the first month and a half this season. Last year, he gave up 24 over the course of the entire season.

Since injuring his shoulder last August, Jeremy has not been able to regain the consistency and reliability he showed during the bulk of 2007 and 2008. Guthrie does not maintain the ability to stop, or at the least, mend the bleeding by the Orioles pitching staff, the primary objective of a staff ace.

I've tried to stay fairly contempt in this blog when discussing the Orioles. But I can't any longer. What is wrong with the Orioles baserunning?! As I sit here an write this entry, I am subjected to watching the Orioles squash their own rallies by being overly aggressive and flat out stupid on the basepaths. In this game alone (Orioles @ Yankees 5/20), Brian Roberts was caught stealing second with a runner on 3rd for the third out and Melvin Mora was thrown out at second trying to extend a clear cut single. Back on April 12th, I wrote about my concern with the Orioles baserunning. I mentioned that the Orioles offense is potent enough to stay conservative on the basepaths. The same rings true today. I understand that the O's need to spark rallies by being aggressive especially with such a weak pitching staff. But be aggressive at the plate where they excel, not on the basepaths where they are 22nd in the majors in stolen base success rate (65%).

This and That: O's, Ravens, and Blast??

First off, congratulations to the Orioles for winning what will be an opening day game not soon forgotten. The win yesterday against the Yanks means a lot to Orioles fans dedicated to sticking through the rough times. The O's ace, Jeremy Guthrie, looked strong and the underrated offense came through when they needed to. Unfortunately, the bullpen allowed the Yankees to creep back into the game. Although there are 161 games remaining, the Orioles surely kicked off their season on the right foot.

The signing of Samari Rolle to a four-year contract surprised me quite a bit yesterday. I was almost certain his days as a Raven were through when he was released a few weeks ago. Now that the Ravens have seem to solidified their secondary , they can focus on going after a WR or OT in the first round.

The under appreciated Baltimore Blast are hosting the NISL Championship game this Saturday. Believe it or not, the Blast have won more championships in the past decade than any local professional sports team. They will be shooting for their fifth championship in the past seven seasons, talk about success. Attendance at the dump, also known as First Mariner Arena, has been rising steadily as well. The Blast averaged a healthy 7,500 fans this season, a number that blows away the competition in the NISL. So what if the pregame celebrations are only one step above WWE? Maybe you Baltimore sports fans should pay a little respect to your most dominant local team. Then again, it is American soccer.

A point of interest about last night's NCAA Championship game: According to college basketball rules, a team must wear the exact same jersey, the only difference being the number on the back. Apparently, a few of the North Carolina Tar Heels wore slightly different jerseys from the rest of their teammates in last night's game. The rule states that when a player enters the game wearing a different jersey from the rest of their team, two technical foul shots are awarded to the other team. If the refs had payed very close attention last night to the Carolina jerseys, Michigan State may have been awarded technical shots. Just something to think about...

The O's and Terps take small but critical strides forward

Andy MacPhail has proved yet again that he follows through with his promises made at the beginning of the offseason.

The Orioles have filled almost all of the gaps, albeit with mediocre talent, left at the end of last season. It's no mystery that the O's biggest weakness is pitching. MacPhail realized that in order to compete in one of the deepest divisions in the history of major league baseball, the Orioles need to focus on restructuring their starting rotation.

It's a shame that Jeremy Guthrie is the ace for two reasons. One, he hasn't proved that he is a capable starter for an entire season. Two, the Orioles shouldn't be forcing a man who really is a solid number 2 or 3 starter to carry the weight of being the ace. As much as O's fans love the guy's attitude and work ethic, he shouldn't be asked to do too much. At the same token, what else are the Orioles to do? They clearly aren't willing to shell out big bucks on top name starters nor are they ready to bring up top pitching prospects such as Brian Matusz or Chris Tillman.

Fotunately, the four remaining rotation spots are quickly being filled by average to below-average starters. Don't be surprised if one of the newly acquired fill-ins ends up panning out to be a decent starter for the O's down the road. Mark Hendrickson, Rich Hill, and Koji Uehara at some point in their careers have had a very solid season. Rich Hill may be the second incarnation of Daniel Cabrera for O's due to his lack of control but the dice are bound to fall in the O's favor once in a while.

I could go all day about the Orioles recent woes (if you consider 11 years 'recent') but I won't. I'll talk about the Terps woes instead.

The Terps won what may have been their most important game of the season last Saturday against Miami. It will feel like, however, that every game here on out will be their most important game of the season. For the sake of Gary Williams and the program as a whole, the Terps need something positive to springboard off of for upcoming years. The Terps have come too far to fall so fast.

Beating third ranked UNC Tuesday night would be a nice place to start. No one can expect the Terps to win in Chapel Hill (even though they shocked college basketball nation last year by dethroning the then top ranked Tar Heels) but the Terps simply cannot be embarassed for the second straight time in the tri-city area. Miserably failing against Duke two weeks ago in addition to the dissapointment during the past few seasons culminated in the lowest Maryland basketball fans have felt since the death of Len Bias.

I am not going to get too far ahead of myself. The Terps may very well finish 6-10 in the ACC likely resulting in the abrupt dismissal or retirement of Gary Williams and another trip to the NIT, if they're lucky.

On the flip side, the Terps might surprise us again Tuesday and salvage their brutal first half of ACC play.

--BK