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Oriole Magic
Birds Break Streak
It was Jeremy Guthrie’s turn to try and break what had become a 9 game losing streak. He squared off against fellow rookie Justin Germano, who boasted a 5-0 record to Guthrie’s 3-1 coming into the game.
After a 7-1 trouncing of the Padres, in what amounted to the most runs scored against San Diego at Petco Park this year, the Orioles bats that have been hapless lately made it look easy in their streak breaking win last night and handing Justin Germano his first loss of the season.
Let’s talk about Jeremy Guthrie for a minute.
Is this kid a gift from the baseball gods to the fans for all the suffering we’ve put up with for the last 9 years?
The 4th season rookie (this is his first full season in the majors) has a 2.42 ERA in 16 games, only 10 of which were starts. The vast majority of his ERA is from his 6 appearances as a reliever.
As a starter he’s now averaging just 1.62 earned runs per 9 innings.
His 2.42 overall ERA currently ranks him as 2nd in the American League behind Dan Haren of Oakland, who’s sporting a 1.78 ERA in 16 starts.
But all of Haren’s 16 appearances have been as a starter. If we’re just talking starting stats then Guthrie leads the entire majors (that’s both leagues) in ERA.
He doesn’t walk guys (14 walks in 81.2 innings). He doesn’t let up hits (56 hits in 81.2 innings). And he rarely hits anyone (3 hit batsmen in 81.2 innings). That’s 73 base runners, excluding any who reached on errors, in 81.2 innings.
That translates to a 0.73 WHIP for the season so far.
As for runs, Guthrie has refused to allow more than 3 runs in any start all season. And the last time even even let up the 3 was almost a month ago in Toronto.
I know the kid’s win-loss record isn’t anything exceptional at 4-1, but that certainly isn’t his fault. The win-loss record of a pitcher is a lousy way to gauge anything anyway. There are 5 other AL teams that would have helped Guthrie to a 9-1 or 10-0 start the way he’s pitching.
It’s not his fault that the team that picked him off waivers has offered him absolutely no run support until last night, or that the team was previously lead by a manager who jumped at every opportunity to yank him early and replace him with Danys Baez.
Let’s stop calling Guthrie a rookie and start calling him what he is, a potential candidate to start for the American League in the All Star Game.
I’m not even kidding. The guy is pitching better than anyone in baseball right now. If that doesn’t make you an all star candidate, then the event is even more of a joke than we already thought.
So all hail Jeremy Guthrie, the best pitcher the Orioles never planned on!
As for the offense…
7 runs last night. 6 runs the night before. 13 runs in 2 games in a ball park that’s an absolute pitcher’s paradise. Current holders of the 1st and 2nd most runs scored in Petco Park all season, and against 2 pitchers with sub 3 ERA’s.
Personally, if I was David Wells and scheduled to bring my 4.86 ERA to the hill against the Trembley Era Orioles tonight, I’d have a sudden case of the flu.
I don’t know what’s gotten into these guys, but I like it. They are running the bases better. They are hitting better. Everything just looks better all of a sudden. (They still need to replace Crowley. Let’s not get crazy here.)
Unfortunately there’s a chance that they might lose Tejada for a while.
I know this isn’t why I said that Tejada should have been benched last night. But still, if he’d have been sitting on the bench hating himself for not legging out that grounder on Tuesday night, his hand would be feeling a whole lot better today.
I’m just sayin’.
Andy MacPhail, savior of Birdland?
Let’s cut through all the ceremonial bull with Andy MacPhail, new President of Baseball Operations and get to the meaty stuff.
Yesterday he told WNST radio that “we have to start winning and remember take care of the fans, because they are in charge” (that’s slight paraphrasing, but it’s the general gist)
If he can back that up, he’s my new best friend! The ‘we have to win’ part was nice, but it’s obligatory. The ‘the fans are in charge and we have to make them happy’ business on the other hand is a 180 degree turn from what’s become standard operating procedure at the Warehouse.
Just a hint, Andy, putting in a call to MLB and seeing if they’ll let you submit that paperwork for having the road jerseys changed to Baltimore a little past the deadline would be a real good place to start.
It’s a money maker, so MLB should be happy to make an exception.
Just tossin’ that out there.
Up late watching the West Coast Games?
Did you stay up late to watch the game last night, or any night with a 10pm start? If so why? What keeps you up late watching a sub .500 team stuck in a perennial losing streak when you could be sleeping, watching a movie, or playing Nintendo Wii?
I’m curious to know why you’re still interested. So sound off here! I look forward to hearing what you’ve got to say!
All Star logo from MLB.com
Tejada getting hit and Guthrie photos from CBS Sportsline.com
Andy MacPahil photo from Dickinson.edu
Baltimore logo from Photobucket.com
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on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Oriole Game Commentary, Oriole Players, Oriole Magic!.
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11 Responses to “Birds Break Streak”
June 21st, 2007 at 9:35 am
And we got our thrid win in June. It took a while, but perhaps we are finally turning a corner.
Good for Jeremy… he deserved that win!
June 21st, 2007 at 10:29 am
Amen to that. Guthrie is our only All-Star so far
June 21st, 2007 at 10:35 am
The O’s looked like a different team on the field last night. Maybe they’re feeling as rejuvinated as I have over the past few days. I’m really excited about what I’ve heard from MacPhail so far. Don’t worry, I haven’t chugged the Orange kool-aid. Everything sounds great, but I still need to see the actions to back it all up. (Especially the whole bit of Angelos staying out of baseball operations. Oh please God let it be true.)
I noticed at least two quotes from the O’s that mentioning listening to the fans and wanting to bring them a winner. Uhhhh when’s the last time the FO acknowledged that the fan base existed? Or that we’re not stupid and know the difference between a winning team and the crap that’s been on the field for the last 10 years?
And wow, when’s the last time an Orioles official acknowledged WNST??
And seriously, Jeremy Guthrie! He’s amazing and so much fun to watch pitch.
I stayed up and watched almost all of Tuesday’s game and all of last night’s game. Part of that is because I have really bad sleeping habits. I also have the bad habit of intinctively turning the tv to MASN whenever there is an Orioles game scheduled.
I would play my Wii, but considering that I’m pretty bad at Wii Baseball (and that I created a Brian Roberts Mii), it’s really similar to watching Orioles baseball. Now I can kick some butt in Wii tennis…
June 21st, 2007 at 11:35 am
i stayed up. obviously Guthrie is pitching well, and he had a high strikeout total last night, but the thing that really impresses me about him is the way he pitches to both sides of the plate.
Steve Carlton is a nut-job in every sense of the word, but the guy could really pitch. anyway i heard him say one time the key to getting big league hitters out is to make them uncomfortable by moving the ball around in different areas of the plate. he said you can throw a great slider (and by all accounts his was one of the best), but if they know it’s coming, and more importantly where it’s coming, big league hitters are going to make you pay.
that’s what Guthrie is doing right now. next time he throws, watch him. i mean really watch him. don’t just look for strikes and balls. inside-ouside-up-down. never in the same place twice. that’s why he’s allowing (much) fewer than one base runner per inning.
he simply can’t continue the pace he’s on, so we should be enjoying it, but this kid really has something, and shame on the Indians for jerking him around so much that they couldn’t see it. he really seems like a creature of habit and he’s comfortable where he is now. good for him, and good for us.
June 21st, 2007 at 11:43 am
They’re still sh****….
June 21st, 2007 at 12:23 pm
“Did you stay up late to watch the game last night, or any night with a 10pm start? If so why? What keeps you up late watching a sub .500 team stuck in a perennial losing streak when you could be sleeping, watching a movie, or playing Nintendo Wii?”
There is not much else on late at night. Besides, we got off to an early lead and actually held it, and were playing something that actually kind of resembled smart baseball and how to win. I need a new game for my 360 and my Wii anyway (though MLB 2K7 is still fun, first thing I did on there was fire Perlozzo, who was the worse manager in the game.)
I’m just glad we finally won though, but I have to say, with MacPhail and possibly Girardi and firing Perlozzo and everything over the past few days, this losing may have been the best thing to happen to us in a while (granted, I’d rather have been winning, but it seems like they know why they have been losing and trying to fix that now.)
June 21st, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Girardi turned us down. What a shock. The disgrace of a franchise takes another sucker punch.
June 21st, 2007 at 1:11 pm
There is good news though. Dusty Baker tells the Wash Post that he’s not interested. Thank God
June 21st, 2007 at 1:41 pm
As I was thinking today…I think you can go ahead and kiss Texiera goodbye….why would he want to come to an orgranization that is so poorly run.
Why would anyone want to come to this organization
June 21st, 2007 at 3:11 pm
I stayed up for last night’s game ’til the final out. It was rare pleasure to see Guthrie getting some help from his teammates and to see the 2007 Orioles playing like a real major league baseball team for once. It was worth it.
I don’t stay up for all the West Coast games, but I usually try - hoping in vain that even if they lose, something will happen that I won’t want to miss.
June 21st, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Why stay up late? Two words: Roberts and Markakis!!! Besides, the O’s had the lead last night and I was afraid if I quit watching, they’d lose.
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