Orioles News - 10/5/07 - Grading the Position Players in 2007

As a part of the 2007 season wrap-up for the Baltimore Orioles, I will grade the Orioles position players. Here are my grades. (Note: Players who finished the year on the disabled list or not with the team are not included.)

Grading the Baltimore Orioles Position Players in 2007:

Player: Grade: Key Stat:
Nick Markakis A .300 batting average.
Tike Redman B More triples then 11 players.
Miguel Tejada C 15 errors at Shortstop. Time to move?
Luis Hernandez C+ Drew only 1 walk.
Brian Roberts B 50 stolen bases.
Aubrey Huff C- Only 15 homers.
Melvin Mora C- 10 errors. Time to leave?
Corey Patterson C- 37 stolen bases, but otherwise a bad year.
Freddie Bynum C Didn't get a whole lot of chances.
Ramon Hernandez D+ Only 9 home runs.
Jay Payton D+ .256 batting average.
Scott Moore D .260 on base average.
Kevin Millar C+ 2nd highest on base average on the team.
Paul Bako D+ 1 homer in 156 at-bats.
Brandon Fahey F 9 hits in 54 at-bats.

Wow. That is bad hitting. I gave out one "A". You can't compete if you can't score...

Coming tomorrow: The Final Part of the 2007 Season Wrap-Up: Looking Back at 2007. - John T.

Orioles News - 9/28/07 - O's win in extra innings

The Baltimore Orioles won last night, 10-9 over the New York Yankees. It took 10 innings and a great rally by Baltimore to pull it off...

Coming into this game, the Yankees were 85-1 when leading after the 8th inning this year. Throw in the fact that future Hall Of Fame closer Mariano Rivera is on the mound, and the game seems to be over for the Orioles. Now throw in a 2 out, bases loaded triple by Jay Payton, and the O's sent the game into extra innings. Then in the 10th inning, Tike Redman hit a 1 out double, eventually moving to 3rd base on a passed ball. Nick Markakis and Miguel Tejada were intentionally walked to load the bases. Kevin Millar then came up to bat with the game on the line and... he struck out. Ok, lets try this again. Melvin Mora came up to the plate with 2 outs, the bases loaded, and a chance to be the hero. And Mora.... laid down a bunt to bring in the game winning run! A walk off bunt! (How many times do you hear that?) It was a gutsy call by the O's, but a call that paid off.

Our starting pitching wasn't much last night, as Jon Leicester went 4 1/3 innings, allowing 7 earned runs and walking 3 batters. But, our bullpen did a nice job after that, as they allowed only 2 more runs all game in this rare Orioles win. - John T.

Orioles News - 9/26/07 - 8 run Toronto 1st inning leads to O's loss

The Baltimore Orioles lost last night, 8-5 to the Toronto Blue Jays. This game was terrible. The Blue Jays began the game with a 8 run 1st inning. Yes, an 8 run 1st inning. With the pitchers we have, I'm not surprised. You can tell the game is going to be bad when on the 1st pitch of the game, you hit your opponet with a pitch. The Blue Jay who was hit was Reed Johnson. That was followed by a walk and then a single. So now the bases are loaded with Frank Thomas up and no outs. Great. Thomas crushed a pitch deep to left field but was robbed of the grand slam by Jay Payton (In picture). A run did score on that sacrifice fly though. After that, there was a single, a walk and another single. Then there was a fielder's choice and the O's got their 2nd out!!! Only 1 more out to go, right? Yes, but in the meantime, Toronto scored 3 more runs to run their total to 8 before the O's even went to bat.

So, after that 8 run inning by the Blue Jays, the O's were now down 8 runs against former Cy Young award winner Roy Halladay. But we can still rally to win, right? Fat chance. We did get some runs though, as Ramon Hernandez, Jay Payton and Tike Redman drove in runs. Redman drove in 2, as a matter of fact.

Just thought I'd share this with you: Victor Zambrono's line yesterday: 2/3 innings, 8 earned runs, and 3 walks. I'll leave you with that. - John T.

Orioles News - 9/25/07 - O's sweep season series against Royals

Swept! As in the Baltimore Orioles swept the season series against the Kansas City Royals with a win last night. The O's won 3-2. This game was being played as a make-up game for a rain out. In this matchup of 2 bad teams, it was actually a good game.

The Orioles struck first in this game, as they scored 2 runs in the 5th inning. The runs came after a Ramon Hernandez single, a groundout to advance Hernandez, and then a double by Tike Redman to score Hernandez. Brian Roberts then walked, and Melvin Mora singled to bring in another run. The Royals came back and scored once in the 6th to make the score a little closer. Daniel Cabrera left the game after he finished the 7th inning, as he allowed only 1 run all game. No, that's not a misprint. Cabrera really did allow only 1 run. He had a 2-1 lead when he left the game. That lead soon turned into a tie after a pinch hit home run in the 8th inning by Kansas City. That homer robbed Cabrera at his chance of getting a decision in the game. But, the O's proved they have some heroics in themselves too. In the 8th inning also, Nick Markakis hit a solo homer to give the O's the lead for good. Markakis now has 22 homers and 109 RBI's this season, a franchise record for a 2nd year player. Maybe we do have some young talent, but we're going to need plenty more players like him and Jeremy Guthrie if we ever want to compete. - John T.

Orioles News - 9/14/07 - O's win 2nd straight

Two in a row! Yes, 2 straight wins for the Baltimore Orioles. It has been almost a month since the O's won back-to-back games. They won last night, 6-2 over the Toronto Blue Jays. There was a great pitching performance by Brian Burres, which led them to a win. The Orioles nearly shut out the Blue Jays, but reliever Jamie Walker gave up solo home runs to Aaron Hill and Hector Luna in the 9th inning. Those were the Jay's only runs of the night. Burres was awesome last night, pitching 7 scoreless innings, giving up 8 hits and walking none. He stayed focused and did a great job of getting out of jams. He threw 105 total pitches, and 72 of those were strikes. The team was certainly fired up as Tike Redman had 3 hits, and drive in a run. The Orioles scored early, providing Burres with a 2 run cushion before he even took the mound. The O's got another run in the 2nd inning when Brian Roberts homered to make it a 3-0 game. Aubrey Huff had a two-out triple in the 3rd inning, followed by Ramon Hernandez's single that scored Huff. Baltimore also tacked on 2 more runs in the 9th. It was a great game for the Baltimore Orioles, as they needed this win. - John T.

Orioles News - 9/13/07 - O's win - Trembley suspended 3 games, Cabrera suspended 6

Baltimore Orioles manager Dave Trembley was suspended for 3 games for his actions on Wednesday night, including pretending to eject the umpire who had blown a call. Orioles pitcher Daniel Cabrera was also suspended, but he was suspended for throwing a pitch at Boston Red Sox 2nd baseman Dustin Pedroia. The ball just missed Pedroia's neck. Cabrera got 6 games for that pitch. But yesterday, the Orioles finally won!! They have now won 4 of their last 22!!! Do you feel a comeback?!?!?!? Me neither. They won the game 3-0 over the Los Angeles Angels. The main story of the game didn't come on the field though. The main story was Miguel Tejada, who didn't play and was clearly upset about it. The Orioles didn't play him so that they could look at some of their younger talent at shortstop. Tejada was clearly frustrated. But, lets face it. Miggi isn't going to last forever, so why not look at the young talent they have at shortstop? It's not like the game even meant anything anyway, because the O's have already assured themselves of a 10th straight losing season. So why not? Brian Roberts, Ramon Hernandez, and Melvin Mora were also benched, as most of the players in the game were back-ups. They did good though, as shortstop Luis Hernandez went 3-4 and 3rd baseman Scott Moore drove in 2 runs. Tike Redman also drove in a run. This win came against 16-game winner John Lackey. Lackey is a Cy Young canidate too. Now if only we could do this everyday... - John T.

Orioles News - 8/26/07 - Twins sweep O's - Bedard gets strikeout record

6. Thats how many losses the Orioles have in a row. Let me throw another number at you. 21. Thats how many games back the Orioles are in the AL East. The O's lost again yesterday, 11-3 to the Minnesota Twins. Our ace, Erik Bedard got rocked for 6 runs. It's his first loss since June 10th. The O's have now dropped 8 of their last 10 games. In the first inning Bedard walked the first batter he faced. He then struck out the next batter he faced, giving him the single-season Orioles strikeout record. After that though, Torii Hunter singled sending the runner on first base to third base. Hunter then tried to steal 2nd base and a bad throw from catcher Paul Bako sent the runner on third base, Casilla, home and Hunter to third base. Justin Morneau hit a sacrifice fly to send Hunter home to score the game's second run. Then in the 2nd inning with 2 men on, Bartlett tripled to knock in both runners. The O's fought back in the 3rd and 4th innings. In the 3rd, Tike Redman singled to start things off. Redman then stole 2nd base. Brian Roberts singled after that and that sent Redman to third. On an error, Roberts addvanced to 2nd. Corey Patterson reached second base after an error by Alexi Casilla which scored both runners, Redman and Roberts. In the 4th inning, Aubrey Huff singled to start things off. Freddie Bynum also singled to advance Huff to third. Paul Bako then hit a sacrifice fly and Huff scored. The O's were done scoring after that. But the Twins weren't as they scored 7 more runs. In other Orioles news, Kevin Millar failed to reach base as his Orioles record of 52 straight games reaching base ended. He nearly had a homer that would have tied the game in the 5th inning but Torii Hunter robbed his home run. So, 6 straight losses...- John T.