Blast from Past: Orioles notebook between April- June 1999

[Tony-OH]

In case you were in the mood for a blast from the past moment, here are my Orioles Hangout notes from April-June 1999. 

It's pretty obvious I was no fan of Ray Miller. haha 

Just as a side note, I believed I moved from Ft. Bragg to Gambrills, MD in late June which is why this probably cuts off. I'll have to see if I can find the rest of the year.

********

June 22nd
Orioles Sign two more first rounders
The Orioles secured two more of their first-round draft picks, including Clemson pitcher Mike Paradis, the 13th overall selection, who had agreed last week to a $1.7 million bonus. Also signed was outfielder Keith Reed, the 23rd overall selection, for $1.15 million.

Paradis, 21, went 6-1 with a 4.43 ERA at Clemson. Paridis is a sinker/slider pitcher who reportedly throws in the mid-nineties. Reed, 20, was named the Big East Player of the Year at Providence after hitting .398 with 17 homers and a school-record 79 RBIs. Amazingly, they both played on the same American Legion team in Auburn, Mass. and now will start their professional careers together in the Rookie League at Bluefield.

The only first rounder not to sign yet is high school left-hander Richard Stahl. The 6'7" stringbean is the furthest from the majors, but could have the highest ceiling of any of the 1999 draft picks.

June 22nd
Orioles Place DeShields on DL, Recall Hairston
After receiving treatment, Orioles secondbaseman Delino Deshields could only be classified as "doubtful" for the rest of the week. The Orioles decided to replace their hot-hitting 2B with Red Wings secondbase/SS Jerry Hairston. Hairston was batting .268 with six home runs and 28 RBIs with 14 stolen bases in 70 Rochester games. Hairston will be ready by tonight's opening game against the Red Sox.

- Catcher Lenny Webster will start a rehabilitation stint with the Rochester Red Wings tonight. Once Webster is re-instated to the 25-man roster, the Orioles will probably try to send catcher Mike Figga back to the minors althoug he must clear waivors first. Miller likes Figga's ability to frame pitches and Webster may be a prime candidate for trade once he's deemed healthy. The Los Angeles Dodgers are the most interested in Webster since they are struglling with Todd Hundley who is batting .230 and has only thrown out 13% of the runners attempting to steal.

June 7th
Orioles Place Fetters on DL, Recall Kamieniecki
Early in the day on Monday the Orioles placed Mike Fetters on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right elbow and recalled Scott Kamieniecki from Rochester to fill the empty roster spot.  Kamieniecki did little, if anything, to justify the recall.  In four starts with the Red Wings this season, the right-hander is 1-2 with a 5.09 ERA, 23 innings, 23 hits, five home runs, six walks and 14 strikeouts.  But, the Orioles were facing a decision on what to do with the veteran, under the terms of his demotion on May 18 and Fetters injury saved them trouble of deciding what to do with Kamieniecki...for now.

June 2nd
Orioles add Figga to backup Johnson
With Lenny Webster's ankle injury taking longer then expected to heal, the Orioles went out and claimed former Yankee catcher Mike Figga off the waivers. Figga has been on the Yankees 25-man roster all season but did not bat, which might tell you what they thought of the 28-year old catcher. Last season, Figga hit .280 with 26 home runs and 95 RBIs with the Yankee Triple-A team in Columbus. Obviously with those type of numbers, he's a pretty brutal catcher. In 100 games last season he made nine errors and 16 pass balls. Figga may be an adequate backup for a while and if you look at this pick up like we traded Willis Otanez for him, it makes losing Otanez for nothing a little easier to swallow.

June 1st
Ripken reaches milestone
Lost in all the hoopla of the Mariners smashing home runs records, Cal Ripken collected his 2,900 hit last night.

May 18th
O's Send Kamieniecki to Minors
The Orioles sent embattled starter Scott Kamieniecki to the minors and expect to recall Jason Johnson to start on Thursday. Kamieniecki had the opportunity to turn down the demotion but choose to get himself straightened out in Rochester. Kamieniecki was 0-2 with a 23.40  ERa in two starts this season. Johnson was 4-2 with a 3.65 ERa in eight Triple-A starts. He has struck out 47 in 44.1 innings pitched and has held opposing hitters to a .212 batting average. His only problem has been occasional wildness which has caused him to walk a team leading 27 batters.

May 14th
O's DL Webster add Davis
The Orioles placed catcher Lenny Webster on the 15-day disabled list and promoted Catcher/1B Tommy Davis from Rochester. Webster injured his ankle when Doc Gooden threw an inside fastball on a webster sacrifice attempt. Webster hurt the ankle trying to avoid the ball. The Orioles brought up Davis after considering Bowie catcher Tim DeCinces. Decinces has shown much better discipline at the bat then Davis over the years and bats lefthanded, but the Orioles went with Davis who has just converted to catcher last season and has played less then 50 games at catcher in his career. Neither one is known for his defense and Davis probably won't see much playing time anyway. Davis was batting .234 with three home runs and 14 RBIs at the time of his promotion while DeCinces was hitting .273 with three homers and 13 RBIs at Double-A. DeCinces has walked 24 times and has a .414 OBP, Davis has walked 10 times and has a .289 OBP.

May 13th
O's activate Ripken; send Pickering back to Rochester
The Orioles activated Cal Ripken after a successful stint at their minor league camp in Sarasota, Florida. Ripken will immediately start at thirdbase. The Orioles have been suffering at thirdbase lately as Willis Otanez has struggled offensively and defensively at third in Ripken's absence. It was so bad that Ray Miller, who looks for any reason to bury a rookie, started playing Jeff Reboulet at third. For this reason, and this reason only, it's good to see Cal back. The real good news in all of this was the Orioles demotion of Calvin Pickering. In one of the most idiot moves ever by the Orioles orgnization, they promoted their best hitting prospect and then allowed Ray Miller to rot him on the bench. Now Pickering can head down to Rochester and regain his stroke while hopefully awaiting the call that will allow him to PLAY at the major league level.

May 7th
O's go with Kamienicki; send Coppinger back to Rochester
The Orioles activated pitcher Scott Kamienicki off the DL and sent Rocky Coppinger to Triple-A Rochester. Coppinger started twice, going 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA, but pitched better in his second start. Kamieniecki will make his first start todau against the Tigers. Kamieniecki has made two rehab appearences, one at Bowie, and one against the Cubans. He didn't look good in either appearence leading many to wonder why the Orioles would activate him. Kamieniecki has even stated that he hasn't thrown the ball well, but the Orioles would rather see the 35-year old fragile Kamienieck start instead of young pitcher like Rocky Coppinger or Jason Johnson. Apparantly the O's current five-game win streak has snapped them out of their "youth movement".

May 4th
Pickering recalled; Garcia sent to Rochester
The Orioles officially recalled 1B Calvin Pickering today and demoted INF Jesse Garcia. Pickering, 22, was batting .297 with one home run and eight RBIs in 11 games. He missed just over a week with  shoulder strain but was hitting the ball well since coming back. Big Pick should pick up most of the firstbase action until Will Clark comes off the DL. Pickering has tremendous power but is no Dave Kingman. He's cut his strikeouts down considerably in the minors and actually has walked (10) more time then he's struck out (7) at Triple-A this season. His major drawback is his defensive wakenesses. His three errros against the Cuban team may foreshadow a future problem with the Orioles. With Willis Otanez and Pickering on the corners, the Orioles defense will keep you on the edge of your seats. Luckily, both can have you on the edge of your seats when they bat too, because both can hit a ball out of any park at any time. If Pickering shows the ablility to hit during his stay here, don't look for his return to the minors when Clark returns, but look for him to move to DH, leaving Harold Baines as an awesome pinch hitter. Garcia, who is a much better player then Jeff Reboulet, was sent back dwon to Rochester and should become the Red Wings shortstop and part-time secondbaseman.

May 3rd
Orioles lose to Cubans, but who cares?
Ok, the Orioles lost to the Cuban 12-6. Who cares? Well, the Cubans sure did. Playing in the best ballpark they'll ever play in, the Cuban team outhustled and   out-played the 7-17 last place Orioles. Did you expect anything else. Anyone that follows the Orioles know they would care less about this game. The team needed a day off way more then they needed to play a bunch of hungry, underpaid and underappreciated (at least in the US) amateurs from Cuba. AS much as the Cubans cared, the Orioles did not. Listening to the remarks after the game, it was plainly obvious.

"We didn't want to play today," said Orioles center fielder Brady Anderson. "We would have preferred the day off."

"I didn't want to be here," said reliever Mike Fetters

"It probably meant more to them than to us," said Orioles starter Scott Kamieniecki. "…I wasn't ready to pitch. I didn't prepare myself very well."

These are major leaguers? Whatever happend to professionalism? Whether the game meant anything or not, you would like to think a professional baseball player is going to go out and at least give his 100 percent effort. But, these are the 1999 Orioles, and they definitely did not care.

ESPN certainly did not care either. The Orioles-Cuban game was about the tenth story in, and the best highlight they showed was the secondbase umpire body slamming the protestor that ran onto the field.

Lastly, the Orioles fans and baseball fans overall really didn't care. Most people paid little attention to the game and fans at the game used it to boo Ray Miller and at any given chance. Peter Angelos gave into pressure and didn't allow American flags into the game but their surely were flag waving Cubans there. So the fans booed, and then they left early, they just didn't care. The fact that Calvin Pickering made three errors and went oh for three while Gabe Molina allowed a home run in the ninth, just finished off a horrible day for the Orioles. So as the Orioles lost a meaningless game to the Cuban national team, the only question that begs to get asked is "Who cares?"

April 30th
Orioles Release Slocumb; promote Molina
In what could be the first of hopefully several moves, the Orioles released embattled reliever Heathcliff Slocumb and promoted 23-year old righthander Gabe Molina from Rochester Triple-A. Slocumb has struggled all season, but the final nail in his coffin was when Miller left him in for a seven run beating in last night's game. He appeared in 10 games in relief for the Orioles, going 0-0 with a 12.46 ERA (8.2 IP, 15H, 12ER, 8 BB, 12K, 2HR). Opposing batters lit Slocumb up for a .395 average. Amazingly Slocumb said he didn't see it coming. ''I felt like I had a bad game last night. Other than that I thought I was throwing fine,'' Slocumb said. ''It's definitely a surprise to me.'' The Orioles finally promoted a rookie pitcher with Molina getting his first big league action. Molina was just about untouchable as the Red Wings closer this season collecting four save and posting a 0.00 ERA while allowing just five hits and five walks in 10.1 innings pitched. Triple-A batter were hitting just .152 off him and had struck out 10 times. Molina was the Baysox closer last season 3-2 with a 3.36 ERA and 24 saves. He struck out 75 in 61.2 innings last season and has struck out 237 batters in 193 minor league innings. Molina was the Orioles 1996 21st selection out of Arizona State. Molina throws in the low nineties consistently although he can get into the mid-nineties when he reaches back and has an oustanding slider. He's can throw either pitch for strikes but can get hurt by the longball when he gets the ball up. Could this be the beginning of the house cleaning this team needs? We can only hope.

April 25th
Looking for the Orioles to turn it around?
If you are looking for the Orioles to magically turn things around, take these numbers into account (NUMBER's from John Eisenberg's fine article in the Sun

- They have lost 24 of their last 30 games (.200 winning percentage) and 35 of their last 49 dating to last season for a .286 winning pecentage.

- They're five games under .500 since sweeping the Braves 277 games ago in June 1997.

- Ray Miller is now 34 games under .500 as a manager. 

Now you know why you are so frustrated with them. This is not a bad streak, this is a definite trend. This team has not been good since June of 1997. Firing Miller won't solve the teams problems, but it's a good start. At least now you know why you are so frustrated... And that's a start.

April 19th
Ripken could go on DL;Clark out for at least six weeks
- Cal Ripken could go on the DL for the first time in his 18 year career witha  lower back problem. Ripken, who's play at the plate and field this season has been erratic at best, could find himeslef placed on the DL after his examinations by a specialist this afternoon. Willis Otanez would become the starter in Ripken's absence. The Orioles will disable Will Clark today, a day after he broke his thumb. There is no word on who the club will promote but Calvin Pickering would be the first thought although he has been fighting through a sore shoulder at Rochester. If the Orioles DL Ripken, they will promote either a pitcher, or most likely Jesse Garcia.

April 11th
News and notes
- Jesse Garcia hit a single on the first major league pitch he saw.
- Mike Mussina lowered his ERA to 3.00 and has both the Orioles wins this season.


April 8th
News and notes
- Cal Ripken missed a start due to an injury for the first time since May 29, 1982.
- Delino DeShields is back from Sarasota and will start his season off with the Bowie Baysox in a rehab assignment on Friday.
- Willis Otanez went two for five yesterday picking up his first major league double and home run.
- Rich Amaral is the only player on the roster who has yet to appear in a game for the Orioles.
- The Orioles have racked up 13 hits in each of their two games this season. The 10 runs they scored on opening day matched the 2nd highest output in team history on opening days.
- The O's bullpen has allowed 5 runs in 9.2 IP in the first two games. All seven relievers have appeared.
- Cal Ripken will not start his second consecutive game tonight....
- Both Wade Boggs and Fred McGriff have hit .385 off tonight starter, Scott Erickson, during their careers.

April 6th
Johns arrested on Marijuana charges
"Doug Johns, you made a major league ball team despite having no stuff, where are you going?" "I'm going to go out a get drunk and smoke some weed!"   That's the exchange I can imagine. Instead of going to Disney World, he's going to got out and endanger the people of the city he plays for. Johns was stopped last night on suspicion of being intoxicated while driving and after a a bag of marijuana was found in his vehicle, he was arrested. Johns, who probably shouldn't have made the team anyway, should immediately be either sent to the minors or even better, released. As of now, neither Johns or Orioles have said anything publicly, but the O's have to open up a roster spot for Doug Linton on the 11th and Doug Johns just gave the Orioles all they need to take him off the roster. Either way, the Orioles must do something. They must show the baseball world and Orioles fans that they won't stand for such bahavior. Release Doug Johns!!!

April 5th
Bullpen shaky in opener
First the good news, the Orioles won their season opener against the Devil Rays thanks to some great hitting. The bad news? It took five relievers to hold on to the lead. Lets 's start with Ricky Bones. Bones started the sixth for starter Mike Mussina and promptly hit the first batter he faced. A hit, a fielder's choice , and a walk later, Ray Miller brought in Mike Fetters with the bases full. Fetters promptly walked Jose Canseco to make the score 6-5 before settling down by striking out Fred Mcgriff swinging and getting John Flaherty to ground out to second to end the threat. Arthur Rhodes was brought in and threw two great innings, but after the Orioles scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth to make 10-5, Miller decided Rhodes would finish out the game. Rhodes though was out of gas, and after allowing a homer to Flaherty and a single to Wade Boggs he was gone. Miller brought in Heathcliff Slocumb, who promptly hit Quinten McCraken and allowed a long double to Miguel Cairo plating Boggs and bringing the tie run to the plate. After being up 10-5 and with four relievers already used, Miller went to his closer Mike Timlin. Timlin got pinch hitter Bobby Smith to groundout to third and then struck out Randy Winn to end the game.

So overall, Bones showed that the move North didn't do anything for his pitching. He couldn't get anyone out this spring and so far, no one out this year. His standing could be in doubt when the Orioles have to bring up Doug Linton to start on the 11th. Slocumb struggled, but Fetter worked his way out of a jam and Rhodes pitched well until stretched into a third inning. Timlin came on and pitched like a closer should, so that was good to see. It'll be interesting to see if Ray Miller uses his bullpen this way all season. With the off day tomorrow, it's not a big deal that he used so many relievers, but he'll need to have more faith in his relievers in the future or he's going to run his bullpen into the ground. Now I know why he wanted 12 pitchers.

April 4th
Ledesma's injury allows Tampa to keep Lamb
A thumb injury to Aaron Ledesma ended up being the break David Lamb needed to stay in the majors leagues. Lamb, who was selected in the Rule V draft, has been rumored to be the player to be named late in the Clyburn-Johnson trade but as it stood, he would have to be offered back to the Orioles if he did not make the major league squad. Until, Ledesma's injury, it appeared he was not going to make the team. Either way, Lamb is nothing more then a utility infielder so he had no role with the Orioles anytime soon.

[hoosiers]

Nice blast from the past, Tony!  Some forgotten names, some draft picks I wish we had back - Paradis, Reed and Stahl.  Might be a good law firm today, but failed prospects from yesterday.

[Number5]

When I think of Tommy Davis, I think of the Dodgers outfielder that became our first real DH in the 70's.  I completely forgot that we had another Tommy Davis in the 90's - if I ever even knew.  

[DrungoHazewood]

Ah, Cal Pickering and Willis Otanez!  What could have been...

The Tommy Davis thing was pretty weird.  I remember watching him on many occasions at Bowie, and couldn't ever figure out why anyone thought converting him to catcher was going to work out.  He'd never played there in four years in the minors and had been drafted as a first baseman.  Has anyone ever heard of a first-to-catcher conversion working out?

[ChosenOne21]

11 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Has anyone ever heard of a first-to-catcher conversion working out?

Mike Piazza?

[HowAboutThat]

Airborne!

Respect!

[DrungoHazewood]

10 minutes ago, ChosenOne21 said:

Mike Piazza?

Interesting, Piazza was apparently a first baseman in high school and college.  But was converted to catcher as soon as he turned pro.