July 24: Part 2 vs. Jays

[Frobby]

So does Nick get an assist on the play where he hit the cutoff man and the runner was caught in a rundown?

[Mackus]

So does Nick get an assist on the play where he hit the cutoff man and the runner was caught in a rundown?

Gameday is listing him as having two.

[THELTSHOW]

Why was it poor execution?

Game day said it was Markakis to Huff to Castro to Roberts. So Huff cuts off the throw and gets it to Castro. One throw and they have the out. Sounds like a good rundown to me (unlike the one the blue jays had with Mora the other night where there were 3-4 throws).

Was gameday wrong?

I think so there were at least 3 throws, textbook Little League teaching says one or two is good.

[Hank Scorpio]

Hernandez has the toughest job in baseball. He gets blamed for everything - EVEN WHEN HE ISN'T PLAYING.

Not referencing this game.

See the other however many games he's played this year and his general defensive indifference and laziness.

[Keith SIO]

Ramon makes his job 3 times harder than it is. If he did his job better and didn't look like he always has an attitude, and could actually throw it down to 1st or 3rd without it passing the basemen, then he'd have some fans.

[Spoonless]

Why was it poor execution?

Game day said it was Markakis to Huff to Castro to Roberts. So Huff cuts off the throw and gets it to Castro. One throw and they have the out. Sounds like a good rundown to me (unlike the one the blue jays had with Mora the other night where there were 3-4 throws).

Was gameday wrong?

Roberts actually missed the tag, and threw to Quiroz (who was covering 1st), but the runner went out of the running lane and was called out, from what the replay shows. If you're on MLB's Gameday, you can watch the replay of it.

[THELTSHOW]

I've settled on the fact that, at best, Cabrera is a 5 starter or a longman for his career. He never makes good pitches when he needs to and he leaves way too many balls over the middle of the plate. The talked earlier in the broadcast about how to approach hitting Cabrera, Greg Zaun said that all he did was wait for a fastball over the middle of the plate or a hanger and wouldn't swing at anything else until he got two strikes on him. A pitcher with DCab's measurables and natural ability should be so easily dissected.

[THELTSHOW]

Even that last pitch to get Stairs out was a hanger, but Stairs just missed it. He makes way too many mistakes up in the zone to have long term success.

[Keith SIO]

I've settled on the fact that, at best, Cabrera is a 5 starter or a longman for his career. He never makes good pitches when he needs to and he leaves way too many balls over the middle of the plate. The talked earlier in the broadcast about how to approach hitting Cabrera, Greg Zaun said that all he did was wait for a fastball over the middle of the plate or a hanger and wouldn't swing at anything else until he got two strikes on him. A pitcher with DCab's measurables and natural ability should be so easily dissected.

I just wish he'd pitch like he was earlier this year. But at the end of this season we will realize he will never make it. He just doesn't have it. You get glimpses of awesome pitches, but he's usually bad.

[mikezpen]

Anybody still think the Orioles are some sort of borderline contender?

[BMann]

It's sad that, with 5 at-bats left, I have so little hope of the Birds overcoming this 4-0 deficit... Prove me wrong, fellas!!!

...make that four at-bats...

[Keith SIO]

Anybody still think the Orioles are some sort of borderline contender?

If the rest of the league turns into the orioles, yes.

But since we can't win any series lately and we are hitting our natural mid season orioles slump....No.

This happens every year, this team is starting to look like any other orioles team from the past few years. Play hard for half the year, then give up.

we have hovered around 500 all year though, but still, I think we will finish a lot worse than we started.

[THELTSHOW]

Anybody still think the Orioles are some sort of borderline contender?

This series has taken a lot out of me on that front. Game one was a great example of what the young pitching can do when they get some runs, but Game 2 showed the other side of that. Going into today, it should have been 2 nil us, with a chance to win the series. This team makes too many dibilitating crunch time mistakes to truly be a playoff team. While I would still hope that .500 is attainable, I would like the club to focus more on evaluating what we have and deciding who is going to be here for the long haul.

As a first order, lock up BRob and Markakis. Then go from there.

[Fan4Life]

Anybody still think the Orioles are some sort of borderline contender?

Measuring a team on how they fair against Halliday and Burnett is silly IMO. Every team in the league struggles to beat these guys most of the time. If we're losing to the #3-5 pitchers on teams that aren't in the hunt, thats a sign you suck.

[THELTSHOW]

you dont win games when the leadoff man gets on 5/6 times