This team won't finish above .500 and they should be sellers!

[The Wedge]

I would like one ticket to Cloud Cuckooland, please.

[Camden_yardbird]

While I don't agree with the part about finishing .500...that is reactionary...I feel like the AL east team between the Orioles, Jays and Sox that realizes it doesn't have the recipe for sustained success will really get a jump on the future. With the second WC this year seller are going to see a high demand market from which to restock and recharge.

[Arthorn]

If we trade anyone young, we better get more than a half season rental of them. This team isn't going to win it all (i hope i'm wrong), but is showing a lot of promise. I'm not opposed to getting younger, especially if DD could reconstruct this bullpen next year with different guys!

[SteveA]

Management owes it to the major league team to let them fight on, but come mid-late July, if we are on the outside looking in, I would part with a lot of our major contributors in the right deal - especially on the pitching side.

You usually part with guys who aren't young or aren't under control for a long time, people who you risk losing in a year or two for nothing

so you deal them. We have very few of those guys, because we have purged the team of them, finally, after years of being overloaded with those

guys. So why part with a guy who is contributing this year and is likely to be back and contribute just as much next year? The only "old" guys we

have who are likely on the downside of their career slope are Roberts and Ayala. No one will trade for ROberts because of his contract. OK, so you can get a little something for Ayala, maybe even another Strop like we got for Gonzalez. I'm all for that.

But you aren't going to get anything for Reynolds, Nick Johnson. Who else is there that you can trade, has value to a contender and isn't going to help us next year and the year after, and in most cases, the year after that? Hammel and Chen are only under contract for two years, I suppose but why deal them unless you think they are one year wonders? They can help us contend next year.

I see all the people sa ying we should be sellers. And I don't think we have a lot to sell. We have some good bullpen depth, but, Jeff Bagwell aside, bullpen depth rarely brings a lot in deadline deals.

[byrdz]

It took a while longer this season but I think we are seeing the nosedive happening now. Was absolutely shocked we took two from the Nats. The Matusz game went just as I expected. I expect they will get swept by Anaheim. This team is back to their old tricks. Get ready for the ride!

[SteveA]

In a train wreck kind of way I'm interested in what JTrea thinks of this season. He left in a petulant huff because Duquette wouldn't do anything substantial to put a winner on the field, and *poof* the O's are in the thick of it almost halfway through the year.

But in a funny kind of way, hasn't JTrea been proven right? He said that all this team needed to contend was a big acquisition like Prince Fielder.

Well, if we had signed Prince, and made all the other moves we made, I think we would possibly have the best record in baseball right now (we're just 4 games off that pace), or darn close to it. So in a way, maybe JTrea was a genius.

[i will duck now to avoid the fruit that is about tobe thrown at me].

[SteveA]

A lot of those stats are things that can normalize a bit if we string together a couple good weeks and some players get back to being themselves.

Batting Average - only .02 behind the Yankees and .009 off the league average pace

We are less than .5 R/G off the league average pace and only 16 runs scored off that League average pace.

This offense is producing a lot like most of us expected, right around league average (with pretty decent power).

When a league average offense struggle, it looks really bad.

Our pitching has been so much better than anyone expected so far, and it is that what is responsible for this team's success.

Look at the pitching staffs of Cleveland, Detroit, Seattle, and Minnesota, who we spend all but four games of the next four weeks playing. Our hitting WILL pick up in the next few weeks. Not just because the current slump is statistically unsustainable, but because we'll be seeing Nick Blackburn and Hector Noesi and Josh Tomlin and Max Scherzer and guys like that on a regular basis. The occasional Verlander will be the rare exception, and a guy like Scott Diamond might actually be the best pitcher we encounter in a given 4 or 5 day span.

[Hank Scorpio]

I would like one ticket to Cloud Cuckooland, please.

I think it'll be closer than some people would like to believe, unfortunately.

They really just aren't sustainably good. They don't get on base very well, their starting pitching is meh, and they play horrendous defense. I'm afraid they've been playing over their heads the first half.

[Easternshoreguy2]

I honestly love my orioles regardless of their record I am not going to be negative because what good does that do? Go Orioles

[Greg]

Hey we got 73 good games out of them this year.Next year let's try for 100 baby steps.

[Easternshoreguy2]

Even if we lose tonight we are still in the second wildcard spot which means we are still in the playoffs so why complain about a good thing? With the second wildcard spot we will be in contention a lot longer then we normally have been.

[Greg]

Even if we lose tonight we are still in the second wildcard spot which means we are still in the playoffs so why complain about a good thing? With the second wildcard spot we will be in contention a lot longer then we normally have been.

Give it a week.

[Palmoripken]

I for one would like to be able to enjoy the best start in a long time without constantly hearing about how we're doomed and overachieving. Yeah we've overachieved but can we at least enjoy the season one game at a time. I know the past fifteen years has turned many of us into cynics but still. It's been a rough stretch. There's nothing to say we can't rebuild against Cleveland over the weekend and do better against Anaheim next time we play them.

[Ooooooohhhh!!!!]

Give it a week.

You sound like you're rooting for the O's to lose.

[Easternshoreguy2]

You give it a week I do not really care. You wont hear me or see me write anything negative about the Orioles very often. If we are still in the WC spot next week I am sure you will respond give it another week right?