Colorado Series

[CallMeBrooksie]

8 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

Nonsense.
if they don’t sweep Colorado, they better sweep Chicago. Need 5 of next 6.

No, that's what you want. They don't really need it. They're not suddenly in a bind for winning 4 of the next 6 games.

[Moose Milligan]

Just now, DrungoHazewood said:

I think Radhames Liz was a pretty good prospect. In Bowie in 2007 he struck out 161 in 137 innings, went 11-4, 3.22. But the Orioles of that era called him right up, probably with little support, no idea what he was doing, no organizational plan to try to adhere to, and expected him to fix that staff of misfits.

You know Liz is still active. He's pitched for Tijuana and Dos Laredos in the Mexican League this year. 3-1 with a 3.50 in ten starts at the age of 39.  He's played in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, all kinds of winter ball. Was in the Brewers' system as recently as 2018. Was 16-6 in Taiwan in '19. If those O's teams of 15 years ago had their stuff together like Elias' do I bet he could have had a MLB career.

That's fair.  And good for that guy.  

[SteveA]

2 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

That's fair.  And good for that guy.  

If there's ever an Orioles/Pirates square on the Immaculate Grid, I'm going to use him.

(Actually I think there was one a month or so ago and I used Grant Jackson.   But next time it will be Liz).

[Malike]

I remember thinking Brandon Erbe was going to be our Ace. Man, we made some awful picks in the aughts.

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, Malike said:

I remember thinking Brandon Erbe was going to be our Ace. Man, we made some awful picks in the aughts.

We did.

But to @DrungoHazewood's point a lot of it could come down to the fact that the Orioles of that era were a barren wasteland of development.  

[Gofannon]

7 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I think Radhames Liz was a pretty good prospect. In Bowie in 2007 he struck out 161 in 137 innings, went 11-4, 3.22. But the Orioles of that era called him right up, probably with little support, no idea what he was doing, no organizational plan to try to adhere to, and expected him to fix that staff of misfits.

You know Liz is still active. He's pitched for Tijuana and Dos Laredos in the Mexican League this year. 3-1 with a 3.50 in ten starts at the age of 39.  He's played in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, all kinds of winter ball. Was in the Brewers' system as recently as 2018. Was 16-6 in Taiwan in '19. If those O's teams of 15 years ago had their stuff together like Elias' do I bet he could have had a MLB career.

Ah, Radhames Liz.  His performance in this game lives on forever for me.  103 pitches in 3.2 innings on a 3 hour 48 minute Kids Run the Bases day.  The game was endless and the postgame line was miles long.  The game started at 1:37, and my son finished running the bases at 6:18.  Just brutal.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL200807060.shtml

[DrungoHazewood]

12 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

We did.

But to @DrungoHazewood's point a lot of it could come down to the fact that the Orioles of that era were a barren wasteland of development.  

I don't want to necessarily put the blame for all pitching failures on the O's organization, pitchers get hurt and wash out all the time.  But Erbe was Prospectus' #27 prospect going into 2007, Baseball America's #78. Having struck out 133 in 114 innings as a 19-year-old in A ball.

By 2010 the O's has carefully crafted him into the guy that went 0-10, 5.74 in an extreme pitcher's park in Norfolk.

[DrungoHazewood]

14 minutes ago, Gofannon said:

Ah, Radhames Liz.  His performance in this game lives on forever for me.  103 pitches in 3.2 innings on a 3 hour 48 minute Kids Run the Bases day.  The game was endless and the postgame line was miles long.  The game started at 1:37, and my son finished running the bases at 6:18.  Just brutal.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL200807060.shtml

Wow, I'd forgotten that the '08 team was actually over .500 as late as July 8th.  From the 4th of July to the end of the year they went 23-52, including a 5-20 September. Capped off by losing 10-1 to the Jays on the last day of the season, part of a 1-11 finish.

[Malike]

11 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I don't want to necessarily put the blame for all pitching failures on the O's organization, pitchers get hurt and wash out all the time.  But Erbe was Prospectus' #27 prospect going into 2007, Baseball America's #78. Having struck out 133 in 114 innings as a 19-year-old in A ball.

By 2010 the O's has carefully crafted him into the guy that went 0-10, 5.74 in an extreme pitcher's park in Norfolk.

I watched Erbe in the HoF game in Cooperstown against Toronto and Erbe looked really good, I think he might have gotten the win, I had such high hopes for that kid. That was 2007 I believe.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Malike

[oriolediehard]

7 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Always want to sweep but it would be a mild disappointment to not sweep them. BP will be well rested.

Too much rest could make the BP rusty.  Just like the grand slam Baustista gave to Houston because of too much rest, caused him to lose his timing.

[Moose Milligan]

19 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I don't want to necessarily put the blame for all pitching failures on the O's organization 

You don't have to, I'll do that.  

[SteveA]

7 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Wow, I'd forgotten that the '08 team was actually over .500 as late as July 8th.  From the 4th of July to the end of the year they went 23-52, including a 5-20 September. Capped off by losing 10-1 to the Jays on the last day of the season, part of a 1-11 finish.

We had some incredible end-of-season losing stretches during the 14 year losing streak.   The one under Hargrove where we got to .500 in late August and then had a terrible record the rest of the way.   2008 was another.   I think there was at least one more.   (And then of course 2017).

Then we had that amazing streak that I was documenting on this message board.  When our record got worse for each of 5 consecutive years.   That  is very difficult to do.   The major league record was 6 straight years, by the 1900-1905 Brooklyn Superbas.   They  got worst 6 straight years BUT the 1899 Superbas won 101 games so it was easy to get worse from that.

We had 78 -- a losing record -- the year before the streak started and we STILL managed to get worst 5 straight years.   And we only avoided tying the Superba's record by hiring Buck Showalter just in time to finish 34-27 and eke out a 66 win season, thus not declining from the 64 wins the year before in 2009.  We didn't avoid setting the record until October 1 when we won our 64th and 65th games in a doubleheader on the final series of the season.

[Can_of_corn]

11 minutes ago, oriolediehard said:

Too much rest could make the BP rusty.  Just like the grand slam Baustista gave to Houston because of too much rest, caused him to lose his timing.

Or because Houston is pretty good at this baseball thing.

 

[dystopia]

Rocky Cherry might just be the best name in baseball history.  

[oriolediehard]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

Or because Houston is pretty good at this baseball thing.

 

I agree, I can't help but 2nd guess Hyde.  Hyde is good at avoiding injuries and overworking the BP. Hyde has done a tremendous job this season, so I will cut him some slack.  I just hate to lose even though it is part of baseball.