Tony-OH

Well I did say it, after he hit the homer.

He typically settles down after the 1st, but yeah, his 1st inning issues are really weird.

Nice weather, crap offense, and our ace on the hill. Not supposed to poop his pants.

WT actual F is going on???????

I just wonder if it's a warm up issue. I know he typically settles down after the 1st inning, but man is this frustrating to watch. Now he can't throw strikes.

Mandatory Burnes 1st inning homer and getting behind in these awful awful jinx uniforms!

Is it possible for Burnes to not give up a homer in the 1st inning?

Some may not know, but Lowenstein actually was an infielder/outfielder in the minors and played 70 games at 2B at the major league level before that game, so it wasn't a huge stretch for him to be there. He just hadn't played 2B since 1975.

Not to take away from Drungo's "Old Timey baseball" review segment, Cowser's early season SSS success against lefties has been pretty notable.

You're trying to fan jinx us hard here, aren't you?

While I don't think the "media circus" driven by the Orioles PR, to include giving away his t-shirt in his home debut, caused his problems, I'm a believer that you make a guy earn it at the big league level before you start giving away his likeness on t-shirts or bobbleheads. I don't care who you are, you don't need any added pressure while trying to make your way in the big leagues.

Elias is pretty good at using his entire 40-man as well as other AAAA players to give him short term advantages. At the end of the day, all Elias has to do is point to the standings since last year when people are too upset over any move.

I think that's exactly the thinking here. McKenna is right-handed hitter who can handle CF defensively. This allows them to keep Cowser in LF where he's looked very good. I'm only a little surprised because Mateo has played some CF and you would think he'd be ok for a game or two until Hays is back. They clearly want to be able to DFA that last guy so McKenna makes more sense in that regard than Norby. Still, with several pitchers like Heasley and Ort available to be DFA'd without issue, I might have gone with Norby and given him some starts at 2B, even if no one can be too psyched with him there defensively.

In other news, wonder what the record is for DFAing a guy in one season by a one team. Not that Banuelos is complaining because he probably knows he's pretty lucky to be collecting some nice paychecks, but he's going to be close by the end of the year if they keep using that taxi squad thing to give them an extra player when they need one right away.

No doubt this is another opportunity for Urias to get pretty regular PAs, though I expect some still to go to Mateo against lefties.