DrungoHazewood

Wow, I'd forgotten that the '08 team was actually over .500 as late as July 8th. From the 4th of July to the end of the year they went 23-52, including a 5-20 September. Capped off by losing 10-1 to the Jays on the last day of the season, part of a 1-11 finish.

I don't want to necessarily put the blame for all pitching failures on the O's organization, pitchers get hurt and wash out all the time. But Erbe was Prospectus' #27 prospect going into 2007, Baseball America's #78. Having struck out 133 in 114 innings as a 19-year-old in A ball. By 2010 the O's has carefully crafted him into the guy that went 0-10, 5.74 in an extreme pitcher's park in Norfolk.

I think Radhames Liz was a pretty good prospect. In Bowie in 2007 he struck out 161 in 137 innings, went 11-4, 3.22. But the Orioles of that era called him right up, probably with little support, no idea what he was doing, no organizational plan to try to adhere to, and expected him to fix that staff of misfits. You know Liz is still active. He's pitched for Tijuana and Dos Laredos in the Mexican League this year. 3-1 with a 3.50 in ten starts at the age of 39. He's played in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, all kinds of winter ball. Was in the Brewers' system as recently as 2018. Was 16-6 in Taiwan in '19. If those O's teams of 15 years ago had their stuff together like Elias' do I bet he could have had a MLB career.

There was Chris Ray, who had a 4.43 ERA as the closer than allowed five of eight inherited runners to score. Chad Bradford and Jamie Walker were okay, kept every game from being 30-3. Big free agent signing Danys Baez was 0-6 with a 6.44. I rooted hard for John Parrish, but he had a 5.40 ERA and walked 33 in 41 innings. Brian Burres had a 5.95 shuttling between the rotation, the pen, and purgatory. Rob Bell ha a 5.94. Kurt Birkins an 8.13 (31 runs, 34 innings) Jon Leicester allowed 27 runs in 32 innings. Paul Shuey... oof... Paul Shuey gave up 28 runs in 25 innings. Radhames Liz allowed 21 runs in 24 innings. Jim Hoey had a 7.30 ERA. Rocky Cherry a 7.71. Victor Santos an 8.16. Scott Williamson was a regular Cy Young, giving up just eight runs in 14. Todd Williams, the side-armer, gave up 12 runs in 14. Jaret Wright, another comical free agent, pitched just 10.1 innings before his arm fell off, allowing 11 runs. But come to think of it, that was all starting, so he gets a pass, I guess. Victor Zambrano, 13 runs in 12. Fernando Cabrera 14 runs in 10. Cory Doyne of the wild hipster glasses, six runs in 3.2. And even Jim Johnson of future 50-save years, pitched two innings and allowed two runs. Kline was 2005. DeJean '04. Dear God, what a trainwreck. I know Dave Trembley probably felt very lucky to have a MLB managerial job, but every single day he probably considered quitting and just going fishing in upstate NY or something.

If you sort all-time teams by bb-ref's Rfield, the 100th place team of all time is at +66. There are 3390 team-seasons in the bb-ref database. The Orioles of that era were: 1968: +77 1969: +114 (#2 all time) 1970: +59 1971: +54 1972: +78 (in a 154-game schedule to do a brief strike) 1973: +119 (#1 all time) So while Rfield isn't 100% reliable, it's not OAA, but every team from 1968-1973 was in the top ~4% of all defensive teams, ever. Also, the '75 Orioles were at +80, the 38th-best all time. '74 was +44. Side note: the 1895 NL Orioles were +88 in 132 games. Pro-rated to 162 they're +108, which would be 3rd-best of all time.

So they apparently have the 2007 Orioles' bullpen, at altitude?

There is no choke, only random chance. You could go too far with that, but in general. I mean, the '66 Orioles were objectively probably not as good as the Dodgers but I'm not giving back that trophy.

I tend to think so, because they won 109 games. And their runs scored and allowed were typical of about a 109-win team. Nobody had a ridiculous out-of-character year. I think there's a good argument that this was a rare 100+ win team on true talent. And the fact they won 100 again the next two years kind of backs that up. And while I could come up with some stuff about how the 1894 and 1896 Orioles had higher winning percentages and more HOFers, but honestly the 60s-70s dynasty would lap them if they played head-to-head.

It was 2019, so of course he gave up a homer once every 3 innings or so.

I assume that if he were to have to give up pitching he'd go play the outfield. There's no reason to not have someone with his speed and athleticism playing the field if you're not trying rest him for pitching. Even if he's just an average RF that gives the Angels (or whomever) the flexibility to put a bad fielder at DH.

I don't usually root for other players or teams who aren't Orioles. But Ohtani was so unique and spectacular I find myself following him and rooting for him to do amazing things. Probably didn't hurt that he plays across the country and doesn't usually have any impact on the Orioles one way or the other. So this news kind of sucks. I was hoping for him to throw about 200 innings of a 2.75 and hit 57 homers.

Looking at bb-ref, the 1998 Orioles' top 13 players in PA were the following ages: 33, 33, 30, 32, 37, 33, 34, 36, 39, 33, 38, 27, and 34. Jeffrey Hammonds was the only regular or semi-regular on the team who wasn't past the experiation date. Yes, they finished 7th in the league in runs, but it wasn't if they were going to seriously decline but when. Even in the age of magic age-reversing elixir.

Another way to look at that is Oakland has simply refused to give $1B+ in taxpayer money to a billionaire on his terms. I don't really blame them. They've tried to come up with a workable plan, but the A's ownership has repeatedly said "no, I'd prefer a lot more taxes be diverted in my direction or I'll deprive you of your major league sports team." The worst part of the North American sports model is the fact that teams are franchises fully owned by some rich guy who can take his ball and go somewhere else if he's not adequately pampered. As opposed to the structure in the rest of the world where teams are clubs started in the local area and temporarily owned by some rich guy, and the fans get really irate if the current owner messes with their club.

Yes, by far the biggest problem with that team was that the average age was 104 and the farm system was more-or-less barren as it had been since the early 80s and would be until very recently. Also, that was the timeframe where Peter Angelos went from "ooh, Camden Yards draws 3.5m fans a year so we can have the top payroll in baseball!" to "ooh, I paid all this money for a bunch of all stars and we didn't even win the World Series, so let's stop paying all that money." In 1995-97 they signed pretty big free agents all the time. In the 1997-98 offseason the top signings were Lenny Webster (re-signed), Scott Kamieniecki (re-signed), Doug Drabek, Joe Carter, Norm Charlton, Ozzie Guillen, Doug Johns and Harold Baines (re-signed), who had an average age of dead.

Only 14 players have ever had five extra-base hits in a game. At least since 1900. No one did it from 1900-1945. And only four players accomplished the feat from 1900-2000, Lou Boudreau, Joe Adcock, Willie Stargell, and Steve Garvey. In the 2000s 10 players have done it, or about every other year. No one in the bb-ref/retrosheet data has ever had five XBH that included a triple. Rk Player XBH Date Age Team Opp Result PA AB R H 1B 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO 1 Lou Boudreau 5 1946-07-14 (1) 28-362 CLE BOS L 10-11 5 5 3 5 0 4 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 2 Joe Adcock 5 1954-07-31 26-274 MLN BRO W 15-7 5 5 5 5 0 1 0 4 7 0 0 0 0 3 Willie Stargell 5 1970-08-01 30-148 PIT ATL W 20-10 6 6 5 5 0 3 0 2 6 0 0 0 0 4 Steve Garvey 5 1977-08-28 28-249 LAD STL W 11-0 5 5 5 5 0 3 0 2 5 0 0 0 0 5 Shawn Green 5 2002-05-23 29-194 LAD MIL W 16-3 6 6 6 6 1 1 0 4 7 0 0 0 0 6 Kelly Shoppach 5 2008-07-30 28-092 CLE DET L 12-14 (13) 7 6 4 5 0 3 0 2 3 0 0 1 1 7 Josh Hamilton 5 2012-05-08 30-353 TEX BAL W 10-3 5 5 4 5 0 1 0 4 8 0 0 0 0 8 Jackie Bradley Jr. 5 2015-08-15 25-118 BOS SEA W 22-10 6 6 5 5 0 3 0 2 7 0 0 0 1 9 Kris Bryant 5 2016-06-27 24-175 CHC CIN W 11-8 5 5 4 5 0 2 0 3 6 0 0 0 0 10 Jose Ramirez 5 2017-09-03 24-351 CLE DET W 11-1 5 5 3 5 0 3 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 11 Matt Carpenter 5 2018-07-20 32-236 STL CHC W 18-5 5 5 4 5 0 2 0 3 7 0 0 0 0 12 Alex Dickerson 5 2020-09-01 30-098 SFG COL W 23-5 7 6 5 5 0 2 0 3 6 0 0 1 1 13 Luis Urias 5 2021-08-12 24-070 MIL CHC W 17-4 6 6 5 5 0 3 0 2 5 0 0 0 0 14 Adolis Garcia 5 2023-04-22 30-051 TEX OAK W 18-3 6 5 5 5 0 2 0 3 8 0 0 0 0

So, special callout to Turkey Mike Donlin, who on June 24, 1901, for the American League's Baltimore Orioles went 6-for-6 with two singles, two doubles, and two triples in a 17-8 win over the Tigers. So four extra base hits but no cycle. If you're not familiar with Donlin, you should read his SABR bio. If he could have focused on baseball it's possible or even probable that he'd be a Hall of Famer. But he was constantly being distracted by shiny objects like acting and alcohol and women and getting himself thrown in jail. As it was, during his on-and-off career in the deadball era he had a .854 OPS, good for a 144 OPS+. Despite his sometimes half-hearted commitment to the game he was 36 before he had a season where his batting was below average. For the original AL O's he hit .340 with 23 doubles, 13 triples, 33 steals and almost twice as many walks as strikeouts. But because of various drunken escapades he ended up in a Baltimore jail and the O's released him. Donlin eventually married Mabel Hite, who was a kind of vaudeville version of... I don't know, pick a name... Margot Robbie or Jennifer Lawrence or something. He spent years jumping back and forth between the stage, silent films, and baseball. I'm pretty sure you can find a few of his old movies, or at least clips, on YouTube.

I was in the process of looking this up, but someone already has. So... Orioles who hit for a better-than-cycle: Gunnar, obviously. Chris Richard, 9/3/2000. Double, triple, two homers in six at bats in a 13 ining, 12-11 loss to the Indians. Don Baylor, 4/6/1972. Two doubles, triple, homer in 4 PA in a 10-0 win over the Brewers.

I don't know, that's a bit too complicated for him to have come up with on his own. Don't you think? Also, doesn't he know that the fans think he's an idiot and won't go to bat for him? Unless maybe he can pull the "moving' to Nashville unless you write me a bigger check" card.

Yea, last year Forbes estimated that the O's profit was over $60M and the player payroll was about $30M.

The man isn't terribly bright, is he? Does he think we're so dumb that we we don't understand supply and demand (I'd have to raise prices hugely to pay for players!) or does he just not understand supply and demand? Obviously if he raised prices a lot, fewer people would come to games and revenues would likely be flat. Unless he's not setting prices optimally now. But why would such an astute businessman do that?

I just hope they sign Teixeira. Someone told me he's the last first basemen who'll be available for years and years and he grew up around here and loves the Orioles so he'll sign at a hometown discount. It'll be awesome.

How would we even know if most of us disappeared? Corn, you need to let us know your cult name so when you go all Heaven's Gate on us we can pick it out of the newscasts.

Of course, it's completely ludicrous. It's like some Venezulean strongman exiling a cabinet member to a remote jungle compound for using his salt shaker at a state dinner.

To be sure, this is micro-managing. It's micro-managing the micro-managing. Putting a graphic on the screen with this information and expecting the guy to not read it? Was this some kind of a sick loyalty test? This is the kind of thing you'd hear from the Soviet Bloc. Comrade Brown fell ill last night after mentioning grain production was down 0.4%, and will be recovering in a sanitarium in Yakutsk for the next 20-40 years.

Wait... what? You think a team policy against facial hair is worse than suspending an announcer for casually mentioning that the team has more wins against the Rays than they did the last two years combined? The facial hair thing is silly and antiquated, the Brown suspension is being so thin-skinned and easily offended that you'd assume it was the policy of a petty and vindictive third-world dictator.