In other news, former Oriole reliever B.J. Ryan, who went for the big bucks (a 5 year, 47 million plus contract with Toronto) was released yesterday. Ryan had Tommy John surgery a few years ago, and has not even been close to the same pitcher was before the procedure. Too bad, he seemed to be one hell of a reliever when he was at the top of the game.

In addition, Roy Halladay is available! Should the O's go after him and give up a ton -- um, no.

Halladay is a fine pitcher, in fact he's a throwback to the old-school type style of pitching and he could be what Baltimore needs, but the team is not where it should be to acquire him. If Baltimore was closer to .500, I'd go for it, but now is not the time to get someone of his caliber (especially with the cost it would take to keep him)...

He's one of the streakiest hitters I've ever seen, but he's batting .305 with 17 home runs and 50 RBIs -- which are stats that would put him at the top of pretty much every basic offensive category of anyone on the team.

One could say if he didn't get hurt for a while this season, and he played for a winning squad, Scott could conceiveably be up for All-Star merit. Furthermore, he's not even hit arbitration yet and has several years to go before he's a free agent -- granted, he's over 30, but does it make sense for the team to just trade him for the sake of trading him.

Sorry, if we want to get rid of someone in a trade for younger talent, look at Aubrey Huff, Melvin Mora, Cesar Izturis, or George Sherrill; therefore, with Scott, there's no reason to trade him just for the sake a of a trade.

Let's give props for Adam Jones making the 2009 All-Star a reserve. Well, the only other viable candidate on the squad may have been George Sherrill, but Jones has improved by leaps and bounds from his year in 2009, therefore, he has earned a spot amongst the game's elite in St. Louis.

Oh, yes, does Seattle wish they had that Bedard trade back or what?

Finally, in light of the struggles this season, ESPN this week has two nice pieces on the team -- one from Jerry Crasnick and the other from Baseball Prospectus -- that centers on the young outfield and the arms (or as Dave Trembley has referred to as the 'calvary'.)

I don't know if the Orioles will ever find themselves in a World Series anytime soon, or if they'll be much less in the playoffs, but we've got an exciting team to watch for years to come.

Could Brad have gone into the ninth inning, yes; however, I don't begrudge Trembley at all for making the decision he did. Simply put, if our relievers had thrown strikes and Varitek didn't get lucky with a favorable call, we would not be lamenting the result.

Stuff happens; it was just a horrible loss for Baltimore yesterday.

***

Finally, let's give props to Nolan Reimold for earning the American League Rookie of the month for June. Honestly, he along with Lou Montanez should have been rightfully on the big league roster to start off with when the season began, but it's good to see how easily Nolan has been able to show his talents in Baltimore.

Not only would the Orioles blow a four-run lead, thanks to four walks by the relief corps -- mainly, Jim Johnson and George Sherrill -- plus a two-run shot by Kevin Youkilis and giving up bases load single to ex-Ray Rocco Baldelli to the the game. The pesky Red Sox would decide the game in the 11th as Julio Lugo plated in the winning run off reliever Danys Baez, and they would steal one from the Orioles, 6-5.

Amazingly, Sherrill struck out two Boston batters -- Jason Bay and David Ortiz -- for two outs in the frame; however, after giving up a single to Jacoby Ellsbury and a walk to Jeff Bailey, Jason Varitek earned a contoversial walk and then the flood gates opened thanks to Baldelli's single.

It was a warm day, and after the amazing come-from-behind-historic-victory last night at the Yard, it looked for about eight innings that the Orioles would get a rare series win over their rival.

What can one say about Brad Bergesen -- who is now easily the best pitcher on the staff. He threw eight innings of four-hit ball and struck out six and walked none. Once again, Bergesen threw strikes and was efficient on the mound, throwing only 103 pitches in his outing.

The Orioles jumped all over a shaky Josh Beckett -- who started for Boston. Baltimore's offense came through in the first four innings as Felix Pie had an RBI-single in the first, then they took a 2-0 lead as Luke Scott homered. They scored twice third to take a 4-0 lead as Nick Markakis had a two-RBI double and Baltimore's final run came as Ty Wigginton homered to put them up, 5-0.

However, after the Wigginton homer, the Orioles would have a hell of a time producing any offense, Crazy enough, the Orioles are only 6-15 in day games this season, and only 1-6 versus the Red Sox this season. Well, I don't know if this loss compares to the Mother's Day Massacre of several years ago when former Oriole manager Sam Perlozzo yanked Jeremy Guthrie in the ninth inning with a 5-0 lead, but to have seen the way that Baltimore lost this game was galling.

It's simple, if the Oriole pitchers had thrown strikes in the ninth -- we would have won. However, the umpiring was very, very questionable in this series -- to the point where there were several discussions from Oriole players/management to the respective umpires -- but Red Sox fought, executed and when they smelled blood, they attacked.

We won in a crazy game, 11-10, which might as well have been two games in one with a rain delays, Boston taking what was an insurmountable lead at one point, hits, a great rally by Baltimore, and more ups and downs than we can count.

John Smoltz was good in a a solid start, but I'd love to know what was running through his head as the action unfolded at the Yard. Yes, and one must still wonder if Rich Hill is indeed on borrowed time as an Oriole...

For us Oriole fans, yes, Tuesday night is only one game, but it comes to show you have play every single out and battle. Now, the Orioles may never have a game like this again, but as a fan, it's a beautiful thing to have seen this team come back and fight against their powerful rival for one night -- especially after a decade plus of losing.

Obviously, Boston had a lot more than talent than Baltimore on paper, but on Tuesday, a bunch of reserves and role players made the difference. Anybody can beat anybody on any given night, and it was funny to see the Red Sox players and staff look bewildered after the loss.

We want him to become the next Johnny Bench, but he'll develop at his own pace as he's only played professional for about a little less than two years now. Remember, Nick Markakis started slow, as did Adam Jones, but now they are both potential cornerstones of a rebuilding Oriole franchise.

At the moment, the only way Wieters should even be sent down is if he is hurting the team at the plate, most notably behind the plate (crucial), and if he's really that overwhelmed. As I see it, he's still learning, so let's all be patient.

Rich Hill and Felix Pie.

While the offense has come not through in the last two games, the attention on Wednesday was focused on Felix Pie's perhaps inadvertent delay in throwing the ball back to the infield that allowed speedy Emilio Bonifacio to basically score from second after an attempted throw by Matt Wieters sailed into the outfield.

Well, the next day, there was nothing short of a firestorm on local talk radio about the incident and pretty much every call wanted Pie excommunicated from the team. Ok, I know a lot of players make mental mistakes, but I guess Pie got hammered because of his less than impressive display in Birdland so far.

Really, at this point, the guy just needs to play and see the field on a regular basis. The problem is if the team wants to send him down to the minors, he's going to be put on waivers -- as he's got zero options left. I'm sure a team would take him; however, at this point -- if Pie is indeed a stud -- he needs to go somewhere he can play without pressure.

That may be Norfolk.

Moving onto Rich Hill -- I want to just let him go out and do his thing, but his lack of consistency from start to start on the mound is a little concerning. Now, I have no idea if he'll be a short timer in Baltimore, but he's still intriguing in my eyes.

The Marlins tagged Rich Hill for six runs in four innings and the game on Thursday has fit a pattern -- the southpaw struggling with the strike zone and leaving earlier than expected. While a lot of people want Hill moved out for someone younger (ahem, the studs on the farm), I still have hope for him because he's left handed, throws an amazing curveball and has shown flashes of brilliance. He just needs to be consistent, but promise will only take you so far if you continue to struggle.

What do you all think?

The Orioles should have walked away with last night's game, they collected 11 hits off of starter AJ Happ by the sixth inning.  But the Orioles were unable to get the key hit and stranded 13 men on base.

In the sixth, up 3-0, it all came unglued.  Orioles rookie starter Brad Bergesen was shutting out the Phils and had only allowed a single hit, but he got hit around a bit and left the inning with two on, one out and a 3-2 lead.  On comes the normally reliable Danys Baez to face pinch-hitter Ryan Howard, whom had spent the night in the hospital due to dehydration and the flu.  Howard uncorked a monster three-run shot and just like that the Orioles had squandered a game that was a sure victory.

We all know how it ended though, the good guys prevailed in thrilling fashion.  If you listen closely last night you could hear the sounds of 40 thousand Phillies fans cursing their team, their creator and Charlie Manuel.

The game was not without its controversy though.  In the top of the ninth, down two Greg Zaun came to the plate, Zaun got the start over Wieters.  He was not pinch-hit for.  Zaun hit a solo-homerun to get the Orioles within one, it all worked out.  But some question the move to even let Zaun bat, well it was the RIGHT MOVE.

Here is the deal kids, the Orioles are down by two, they need a baserunner that they can pinch-run for.  If you bring in Wieters and he does anything else other than hit a homerun then you are stuck with a slow runner on the basepaths.  Whereas, by leaving Zaun in, if he hits anything other than a homer you can bring in Felix Pie to pinch run for him and then have Wieters catch the bottom of the ninth.

Zaun gives you more flexibility which is what you need playing late in the game in a National League park. 

All of that aside the Orioles will go for the sweep today in Philly.  Cole Hammels will be throwing for the Phils and Jeremy Guthrie goes for the Birds.  Guthrie has been struggling lately, though his record should be better than it is.  Guthrie was undone by un-earned runs his last start against the Mets but he is still capable of shutting teams down.

The future of Jeremy Guthrie with this team may very well be dictated by the next few games.  There have been no rumblings specifically mentioning Guthrie but with young guns like Chris Tillman and Jake Arrieta kicking-in the door in the minors Guthrie is becoming trade bait.  And, as much as it pains me to say it, he needs to go.

Guthrie's role on this team in 2010 and beyond is rather null.  And that is sad, I love Guthrie, he was a great pick-up and has been a great pitcher for the Orioles.  He is easy to root for, he plays with heart and the perfect balance of love and respect for the game.  He is professional, likeable and an all around nice guy.  But he is not the best pitcher in the rotation anymore, he is not the best pitcher in the organization anymore and his time here may be coming to an end.

Still, Guthrie goes today and solid performances between now and the all-star break may keep him around a bit longer, at least through the rest of this season.  But if he continues to scuffle as he has this season I could see him being moved for pieces and one of Tillman, Arrieta or Troy Patton being brought up - my money would be on Tillman.

The Orioles win last night ran their win inter-league record to 8-3 with two series against the Marlins and Nationals coming up to end the month before the Red Sox come into town and begin a rather brutal July.  The Orioles need to get fat over the next seven games.

Nick Markakis went 4-for-4 and Aubrey Huff had a go-ahead homer that made the difference -- a two-run shot -- but the talk yesterday was of Matt Wieters. Well, unless you've been under a rock, Matt Wieters hit his first major league homer and drove in his first runs last night off Met starter Tim Redding.

While driving around on business, it seems that the big issue -- or non issue of the day--  of the day (perhaps talk radio was bored) centered around souvenirs.

Notably what one should do with a home run ball -- speficially, the first one by Matt Wieters.

This is courtesy of Peter Schmuck's blog from the Baltimore Sun:

It seemed like a simple enough transaction. Matt Wieters hit his first major league home run and a guy named Sam Mayfield was on the other end of the deal, retrieving the ball and trading it back to the team for a Wieters autographed bat and ball and a chance to meet and talk to the boy wonder.

Except we all have awakened to a different version of the story. Mayfield and his wife have both posted comments on the blog (and I believe the posts are legit because of the e-mail addresses that accompanied them) claiming that the Orioles should have offered them much more for the ball and making it sound like the Orioles owe them more stuff and some kind of apology.

If you want to read their accounts, you can go to the comments under my previous post on the Wieters souvenir. I also followed up and talked to Orioles officials who were party to the transaction to try and get a better idea of what happened.

There's more at this link, but already, I find it freaking sad what's going on. As we all know, anytime a fan gets a souvenir, it's fair game and you can do whatever you please with it.

However, if you catch a ball and you're given a inch by a player or the team but you want a mile, don't expect anything in return. Especially, when it is from player -- Matt Wieters (I don't care what his projections are) who had only had up to that point 47 at-bats in the majors.

I know everyone wants to profit from something, but c'mon.

Some people have some perspective, and some people want the moon, the sun and the stars, and from what I'm reading in the piece from the Sun, it's become murky and out of control.

I don't know if this became a debate by the fan who caught the ball because of difference in generation thinking, a way to get closer to an athlete, profit or a combination of all the three; however, I do think as a fan, I and perhaps some others would have been content with giving Wieters the ball, congraulating him, getting a jersey or bat and going on with my life.

Sometimes, the first deal made is the best one.

There can't be much more said about the performance of Bergesen -- he threw strikes, and his defense backed him up. Although he doesn't throw hard, Bergesen's got superior command and control; therefore, if he's on -- like he was on Sunday -- and has his offense behind him, the Orioles could have a potential keeper in the rotation.

Baltimore's offense was on all day and was led by Ty Wigginton's two home runs -- a 2 run shot in the first, a solo home run in the 5th -- along with three RBIs, and Robert Andino also had three runs driven in. Brian Roberts drove in two, and each Oriole starter had a hit.