Buck just told us what he thinks of Jim Johnson

[eddie83]

Not many games left, a one run deficit and you are at home. Rookie on the mound who hardly ever pitches and has already gone 2 2/3rds. JJ hasn't pitched since Friday-3 days off- and we have off days this Thursday and Monday. I know our pen is fried but not bringing him in says a lot. What he is telling us in his belief in JJ not to have him start the inning?, it isn't like he is overworked right now. If you can't ask him to get those outs how can you ask him to be your closer?

[Jonesy10]

All I can say is it must be nice having a halfway decent closer. Does anyone here think JJ closes out a one run game in Tampa then come into the same situation Rodney came into tonight and not make it very very interesting?

He ruined this teams season and should be ashamed of himself. Nobody on this team deserves any blame other than himself. We should be 20 games over .500 if it weren't for him. Everybody else has done their jobs enough times to go into the 9th with a lead, enough times to be in 1st or 2nd, but one person has not done his job. Least valuable player of 2013, yours truly, Jim Johnson.

[Tx Oriole]

All I can say is it must be nice having a halfway decent closer. Does anyone here think JJ closes out a one run game in Tampa then come into the same situation Rodney came into tonight and not make it very very interesting?

He ruined this teams season and should be ashamed of himself. Nobody on this team deserves any blame other than himself. We should be 20 games over .500 if it weren't for him. Everybody else has done their jobs enough times to go into the 9th with a lead, enough times to be in 1st or 2nd, but one person has not done his job. Least valuable player of 2013, yours truly, Jim Johnson.

So JJ is to blame for the whole team

[eddie83]

Buck left a Rule 5 guy in the game who had pitched twice the entire month before today after he had already given you 2 2/3rds. JJ is rested. That was as close to a save situation you can get this late in the season.

[bpilktree]

Rodney has been just as bad if not worse then JJ though. Rodney just blew his games early on and not down teh stretch.

[Frobby]

All I can say is it must be nice having a halfway decent closer. Does anyone here think JJ closes out a one run game in Tampa then come into the same situation Rodney came into tonight and not make it very very interesting?

He ruined this teams season and should be ashamed of himself. Nobody on this team deserves any blame other than himself. We should be 20 games over .500 if it weren't for him. Everybody else has done their jobs enough times to go into the 9th with a lead, enough times to be in 1st or 2nd, but one person has not done his job. Least valuable player of 2013, yours truly, Jim Johnson.

You should be ashamed of yourself for this post. JJ has had a poor year but that happens in sports and is nothing to be ashamed of when you are giving your best effort. Besides that, I guarantee you that nobody on this team thinks Jim Johnson is the sole reason they are where they are.

[Guest]

Rodney has been just as bad if not worse then JJ though. Rodney just blew his games early on and not down teh stretch.

Ryan Brob Nate you really don't have to be a great closer to get them 123 i bet Jim Johnson could.

[eddie83]

Buck just said Jimmy needed to pitch tonight and yet he doesn't start the inning? Look I am not saying this is why we lost the game but still don't understand the logic.

[allquixotic]

You should be ashamed of yourself for this post. JJ has had a poor year but that happens in sports and is nothing to be ashamed of when you are giving your best effort. Besides that, I guarantee you that nobody on this team thinks Jim Johnson is the sole reason they are where they are.

No kidding. Losing this bad despite so much potential (and while significantly outscoring your opponents on average, too; Pythagoras swings the other way too) takes a special kind of team effort. I have a long laundry list of underperformers this season, including, I'd say, club management -- in my estimation, the blame is shared by, in no particular order: Jim Johnson, Markakis, Hammel, the absence of Betemit, the extended Chen injury, Freddy Garcia, Pedro Strop, Buck, the coaches, DD, Hardy and Wieters' unbelievable hot/cold streaks (they'd contribute a lot more if they were even remotely consistent with their hitting), Flaherty's offense, Urrutia's offense, Machado's offense in the second half, Adam Jones' numerous early-season defensive blunders, a few rough patches where it seemed like the entire bullpen belonged in Single-A, the guy who threw a banana at Adam Jones, the Dodgers for bailing out the Red Sox, and last but not least, an inexplicable dearth of luck.

If even 1/3 of the things I listed had gone in the Orioles' favor instead of against us, the first wild card slot could be well within our grasp, with the second wild card a virtual lock. If fully half of those things had gone our way, we would have a fighting chance at the division. If 75% or more of those things had gone our way, look out Boston, we'd probably be tied for first place, or in sole possession thereof.

This year feels like death by a thousand cuts. On paper we had what we needed, but we could never manage to put all the pieces together at once when we really needed to preserve that lead or score that run, and end up losing games that, last year, 9 times out of 10, we won. An entire season full of this nonsense and you have a fourth place team that's making a serious bid for the division cellar before the season's out.

It's worse than frustrating. The players and Buck always use that word. Frustrating. Well for me it's worse. I'm starting to just not care. Tonight I totally blew off the game for the first time all season, then checked in when I thought it might be over to see the outcome, and it was still going but we were in the 9th down by 3 runs.... no surprise there. It's hard to give a care about a team that just doesn't seem to be able to put it all together. I certainly won't be making another trip to OPACY this year.

Call me a fair weather fan if you must; I'll proudly own up to that if by "fair weather fan" you mean someone who actually cares about winning and not just the colors the team happens to wear and the name they happen to bear. I'm definitely an "Orioles monogamist" in the sense that I couldn't ever bring myself to root for another team, but if the Orioles aren't going to win for me, I just won't follow baseball at all.

[Frobby]

Buck just said Jimmy needed to pitch tonight and yet he doesn't start the inning? Look I am not saying this is why we lost the game but still don't understand the logic.

That's not what Buck said. He was asked if he thought about starting JJ in the 9th and said "I was trying not to. Mac was throwing the ball well and I was trying to stay away from [JJ] so he could possibly pitch multiple innings for us tomorrow. Plus in a one run game there was a possibility of extra innings and he was the one guy who could give us multiple innings down there."

[cheecks]

Buck not starting Jimmy in the 9th was baffling to me. If there's one thing we know about McFarland, it's that sooner or later he'll get hit.

But I don't blame Jimmy for the failures so far this season, I blame Buck. I like Buck and what he's done for this team. I love his attention to detail and his work ethic, but he's not the type of manager who will make the difficult decisions. He makes the safe decisions and will continue to make them until it's too late. I remember when Girardi pinch hit for ARod last year in the playoffs (Ibanez hits a homer), that's the type of move Buck would never make. Maybe you don't have to to win, but I would think in the course of a season, you need a manager who'll pull the difficult triggers.

[Three Run Homer]

No kidding. Losing this bad despite so much potential (and while significantly outscoring your opponents on average, too; Pythagoras swings the other way too) takes a special kind of team effort. I have a long laundry list of underperformers this season, including, I'd say, club management -- in my estimation, the blame is shared by, in no particular order: Jim Johnson, Markakis, Hammel, the absence of Betemit, the extended Chen injury, Freddy Garcia, Pedro Strop, Buck, the coaches, DD, Hardy and Wieters' unbelievable hot/cold streaks (they'd contribute a lot more if they were even remotely consistent with their hitting), Flaherty's offense, Urrutia's offense, Machado's offense in the second half, Adam Jones' numerous early-season defensive blunders, a few rough patches where it seemed like the entire bullpen belonged in Single-A, the guy who threw a banana at Adam Jones, the Dodgers for bailing out the Red Sox, and last but not least, an inexplicable dearth of luck.

If even 1/3 of the things I listed had gone in the Orioles' favor instead of against us, the first wild card slot could be well within our grasp, with the second wild card a virtual lock. If fully half of those things had gone our way, we would have a fighting chance at the division. If 75% or more of those things had gone our way, look out Boston, we'd probably be tied for first place, or in sole possession thereof.

This year feels like death by a thousand cuts. On paper we had what we needed, but we could never manage to put all the pieces together at once when we really needed to preserve that lead or score that run, and end up losing games that, last year, 9 times out of 10, we won. An entire season full of this nonsense and you have a fourth place team that's making a serious bid for the division cellar before the season's out.

It's worse than frustrating. The players and Buck always use that word. Frustrating. Well for me it's worse. I'm starting to just not care. Tonight I totally blew off the game for the first time all season, then checked in when I thought it might be over to see the outcome, and it was still going but we were in the 9th down by 3 runs.... no surprise there. It's hard to give a care about a team that just doesn't seem to be able to put it all together. I certainly won't be making another trip to OPACY this year.

Call me a fair weather fan if you must; I'll proudly own up to that if by "fair weather fan" you mean someone who actually cares about winning and not just the colors the team happens to wear and the name they happen to bear. I'm definitely an "Orioles monogamist" in the sense that I couldn't ever bring myself to root for another team, but if the Orioles aren't going to win for me, I just won't follow baseball at all.

Methinks the gentleman doth not care too much.

[eddie83]

Earlier in the interview he did say that. Then he contradicted himself. I will try to listen to it again when they put it on the website.

Either way if you have faith in him he starts the inning or at least comes in after the first hitter.

[Tx Oriole]

You should be ashamed of yourself for this post. JJ has had a poor year but that happens in sports and is nothing to be ashamed of when you are giving your best effort. Besides that, I guarantee you that nobody on this team thinks Jim Johnson is the sole reason they are where they are.

That was a pathetic post. It is almost like he has it in for JJ.

[eddie83]

So Eddie, I didn't here Buck but it looks like you and Frobby have two totally different takes on what he actually said. Did you get it wrong? Make it up? Or has Frobby completely lost it?

Maybe I have lost it:) It has a been a tough 10 days of baseball. I certainly didn't make it up.

I did hear what Frobby said later in the presser.