The Starting Pitching has to get better.

[oriole]

What players are we talking about in terms of having career years? Jones and Wieters are good. Reimold is really good when he is not injured. We got Brian Roberts back. Chris Davis was given a chance to pay everyday for maybe the second time in his career. JJ Hardy is good and is likely to be good every year that he is healthy. Reynolds, Betemit, Markakis, Andino were not exactly raking. Then there is the underperforming of Matusz, Arrieta and Hunter. Hammel switched leagues and is doing well. Chen looks like a very good starting pitcher. The pen is the one area where ou could argue that the guys are playing above their ability, but these guys have some real talent.

I would be willing to argue that we would be much better if the #3, #4 and #5 were just league average. I am talking 17+ games over .500 if the starter pitching was better and 20+ games if Reimold, Lindstrom, Markakis and Roberts played the entire year healthy. The Orioles need to address some holes now, because this team has the base to compete now.

Jones, Hammel, Davis, J Johnson...all career years, no way around that statement. That's besides the point though. I feel taking a major blow the farm system isn't worth the half year of a rental. I can only assume a pitcher that can make an impact on the team will be had for more than a Tillman leading a cast of C prospects type of package.

[Great 2BA FL Gator]

I doubt it. I make it more like 2 1/2 QS out of every 5. If we added another SP we could have more like 3 1/2. We can keep Matusz and Arrieta in the rotation, and their inconsistency won't put us out of the race early. Hopefully as the season progresses at least one of them will step up. If we stay as we are I seriously doubt we can maintain a .500 pace to the ASB. We'll be lucky to still be above .500 IMO.

I think no matter what we do we will be above .500 by the ASB. In fact, I think there's a good chance we are at least 5 games over even if we go through a slump like we did in the last week.

[tilgaham]

For me, Matusz is a guy I'm counting on in the second half. If you take him away and add a starter, I don't think its as effective for us.

Come on now. Matusz has a ton of potential, but Garza has been a proven commodity in an out of the AL East for the past five years. He's no ace by any means, but you've got to think he helps us big time down the stretch. With Britton scuffling in AAA, we need to pick up someone who can give us solid #2 production for the second half.

[CA-ORIOLE]

I think Garza/Peavy etc. are going to cost too much. I like the Colon idea. I've watched Millwood pitch a few games and he's looked pretty decent this year. Velocity has been up with his normal good movement. His away stats are actually much better than SAFECO for some reason. Only signed for 1 year/1 mil so it's just a matter of cost (which probably shouldn't be that much).

[El Gordo]

We're not looking for a TOR here, just some vet SP that can be counted on to give us 6 IP and 4 R or less, 3 out of 4 starts, long enough into the season, for one of Arrieta, Matusz, Britton or whomever to learn how to pitch.

[Great 2BA FL Gator]

Come on now. Matusz has a ton of potential, but Garza has been a proven commodity in an out of the AL East for the past five years. He's no ace by any means, but you've got to think he helps us big time down the stretch. With Britton scuffling in AAA, we need to pick up someone who can give us solid #2 production for the second half.

I'm not taking anything away from Garza or our need to acquire a pitcher. IMO, taking away Matusz is taking away a guy who has a good chance to be effective over the 2nd half in addition to someone like Garza.

I'd rather trade Arrieta or more of the farm, not someone who I personally am wanting to rely on in the future as he continues to improve and get back to his 2010 performance (at least).

[tilgaham]

Cole Hammels rental has to be on Duquette's mind too.

[Great 2BA FL Gator]

Great starts by Hammel and Chen. Still would expect a regression of sorts from both, but can't imagine either would be too far above 4.00. They give us quality outings pretty much every time out. It's up to the youngens, as we have discussed ad nauseam..

Get it done boys! Get it done or move aside as DD does work!

[OFFNY]

Great starts by Hammel and Chen. Still would expect a regression of sorts from both, but can't imagine either would be too far above 4.00. They give us quality outings pretty much every time out. It's up to the youngens, as we have discussed ad nauseam..

Get it done boys! Get it done or move aside as DD does work!

Perhaps ........ but by the same token, we also would probably expect a shot or 2 in the arm from other starters besides Hammel and Chen that haven't been giving it to us yet (or have been giving it to us, but only on a few and far between basis).

[Great 2BA FL Gator]

Perhaps ........ but by the same token, we also would probably expect a shot or 2 in the arm from other starters besides Hammel and Chen that haven't been giving it to us yet (or have been giving it to us, but only on a few and far between basis).

Agreed. Hopefully that shot in the arm ends up being bigger than their regressions. That's the big thing to watch for.

[Flash- bd]

Hammel and Chen have both have logged enough innings and are both far enough under 4 that even with the expected regression it may be tough for them to finish above 4 (Hammel especially). At this point in the season we're allowed to say, I think, that they're both having a very good year.

I fully expect Matusz and Arrieta to improve. I don't think Arrieta will pitch to a 5.89 ERA in his next 14 starts, nor do I expect Matusz to pitch to 4.94. That doesn't guarantee our starting pitching is bound to get better, though; the 5 spot is still a disaster as long as Tommy Hunter is occupying it, signs on Tillman are positive but he's still an unknown, and there's plenty of reason to doubt Britton can be effective this year. More importantly, we have to allow for the fact that we're likely to see one of our main 4 SPs go down at some point; we've been very lucky to avoid injury in our starting rotation this year.

[Frobby]

We haven't allowed a run since this thread was posted. That's a start.

[LA2]

Great starts by Hammel and Chen. Still would expect a regression of sorts from both, but can't imagine either would be too far above 4.00. They give us quality outings pretty much every time out. It's up to the youngens, as we have discussed ad nauseam..

Get it done boys! Get it done or move aside as DD does work!

Chen and Hammel have both achieved only 7 QSs in 13 starts, or a total ratio of 14/26 (53.8%).

[section18]

Two links with a video with Matt Garza and Ken Rosenthal. Garza pitches Monday night. Boston and the Cubs are on ESPN'S Sunday night game tonight in Chicago. I'm sure there will be a lot of discussion about Garza and Dempster trade rumors. Would they trade them during the game? The second link is an update on teams interested in Dempster.

http://msn.foxsports.com/video/MLB?vid=5b6512ed-2844-462f-b832-ab7e487b7f7a&from=foxsports/mlb/home_gallery

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/8052191/source-chicago-cubs-ryan-dempster-theo-epstein-talk-potential-trades

[dynomike]

It would be nice if for once we were trading for an impact player instead of trading one away for prospects for a change!

http://www.squidoo.com/the-orioles-eternal-optimist