MVN - Most Valuable Network

What The Summer Holds

The Orioles came into the break with a thunderous, resounding thud.  The kind of thud the wet bag of pool laundry makes when you drop in on the concrete of your basement floor as you ready the washing machine.

Aggravating, exhausting and - well - moist.

But as they say: : “Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint,” or some such cliche’d malarkey.  But there is a nugget of truth in there a lot can happen in the coming summer months and while the Orioles will most likely not be in any kind of post season discussion the dog days could still be rather interesting.

Thirty-seven

The Orioles “magic number” if you will is 37 games.  The Orioles need to go 37-32 over the remaining 69 to finally break the decade-long streak of sub 500 finishes.  That works out to a .536 winning percentage.  To me that seems, surprisingly, doable.

The Orioles don’t need to set the world on fire to get to that record, they just need to be playing the brand of ball that they WERE playing prior to the last fateful 12 game stretch.

Do not misunderstand this meandering ramble is some sort of acceptance that a .500 + record is a legitimate goal.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  But the reality of the situation is this:  Finally breaking that blasted skid would do wonders for the team going into next year.  I think it allows us to market ourselves as a team with a great history on the rise; a team who has finally straightened things out; a team with a lot of young talent which is only getting stronger; a team ready to make a run.

This will make us more attractive to free agents, though there is only one that the Orioles should really be interested in.  Breaking .500 would do a world of good for the fans as well.  The Orioles have done a remarkable job this year getting fan interest back.  The team may be below .500 but the fans that have been out at the ballpark have been great.  The crowds have been loud and into it - especially in the cheap seats.

Trade Deadline?

The non-waiver trade deadline is approaching and the question on everyone’s mind is: What will the Orioles do?  Frankly I don’t see them doing too awful much.  Andy MacPhail has said that he would not “pull the rug out from under this team,” on several occasions and that has caused the fuming of many in the “blow it up” camp.

But that doesn’t mean Andy won’t make any deals he just won’t do anything that he feels will undo what this team has become over the Spring.  If he gets blown away by deals for Aubrey Huff and Brian Roberts then I think he makes those deals because, arguably, they would still leave the team in a good position for the rest of this year.

The thing is I don’t see teams “blowing us out of the water” for the likes of Huff, Kevin Millar, Luke Scott and George Sherrill.  I think the Orioles and Roberts are much more open to the idea of a reasonable extension now then they were in March.  All this together means that we are going to see smaller moves made.  Guys like Ramon Hernandez and Chad Bradford.  I would assume Jamie Walker could go too if he gets healthy and back quick enough.

Will we see Weiters?

Perhaps?  Probably not, but maybe.  I think the remaining tenure of Ramon Hernandez as Orioles starting catcher is very much linked to Weiters’ success at AA Bowie.  So far Weiters is tearing through the minor league system at a breakneck speed and genuinely forcing the Orioles hand.

Ramon is a veteran catcher who has been playing much better as of late.  After his simply horrendous start he has gotten his average up to at least a respectable level.  Teams like the Marlins are in need of a catcher and I am sure Ramon fits that bill.

I get the feeling that the Orioles don’t want to rush Weiters, but they won’t stop him from knocking down the door himself.  No matter what he is the starting catcher in 2009.

All in all at least the summer is shaping up to be entertaining.  Don’t let this rough stretch fool you.  The 2008 Orioles are a better team.  The Spring had many more positives than negatives and we are watching some pretty good baseball in Baltimore this year.

The bats are working, young pitching is developing with all the growing pains associated with it and the future looks brighter than it has in a long while.  The second “half” of the season kicks off tomorrow night as the Orioles welcome the inconceivable Detroit Tigers to Camden Yards.

Go Birds and I will see you there on Saturday.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Oriole Players, commentary, Roster Moves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.