Tomorrow everyone will have a good laugh. 30-3 Texas beats Baltimore. 'It would have been worse if they hadn't missed the extra point after the last touchdown.' Laugh, laugh.
Well, it isn't that funny.
The Orioles didn't just embarrass themselves tonight. They put a punctuation point at the end of the joke that has become the quality of pitching in major league baseball. The worst of it is the first 30 run game in 110 years should have been expected.
The Orioles starter, Daniel Cabrera, has potential. He has a big arm and strikes out a lot of batters. Baltimore has waited 4 years for potential to translate to performance. It hasn't happened yet. Meanwhile, a pitcher who needed 96 pitches to stagger through 5 innings and give up 6 runs, is making $1,825,000 for making opponents look like the 1927 New York Yankees.
A 4.79 ERA and 366 walks in 621 innings says Cabrera hasn't learned to pitch yet. It's no wonder. He only had 61 innings above Class A when he came up. The big right hander can go one of two ways now, neither of them good for Baltimore. He could get it together, in which case the Yankees or RedSox sign him as a free agent in a few years. Or maybe we've seen the best that Cabrera has already.
Tonight three relievers followed Cabrera put up 4 innings of 20 hit, 24 run, 7 walk relief. If you can call that a relief. Here is the perp walk:
Brian Burress is a 26 year old who went into tonight's game with 49 walks in 87 innings. He's not without talent, but major league pitchers don't walk a batter every other inning. Tonight he got two batters out and gave up 8 hits and a walk.
Rob Bell has a career 5.62 ERA. Going into tonight's game he had walked 13 and struck out 17. That doesn't get the job done. It didn't get it done in Cincinnati, it didn't get it done in Texas, it didn't get it done in Tampa Bay, and it won't get it done in Baltimore. Somehow I'd still bet a considerable sum Rob Bell is on an opening day roster next season. Tonight Bell retired 4 batters out and gave up 7 runs on 8 baseruners.
Paul Shuey has 11 major league seasons under his belt. He went into tonight's game with a 6.75 ERA, 17 walks and 16 strikeouts and had walked 8 in his last 4 1/3 innings. Shuey had been out of the majors for 4 seasons because of various injuries. The final tally for tonight, 2 innings, 10 baserunners, 9 scored.
Aging veterans who are struggling to regain their talents used to do it AAA. Now they fly first class on chartered jets. Shuey is probably not ever going to be an effective pitcher again, but if the Orioles let him go would his replacement be better?
Major league owners have built their dream world. Too many teams, pulled in fences, and a DH rule that turns American League baseball into a video game. Put in a big scoreboard and launch some fireworks when the home runs come. If you get someone else to build it, the fans will come and you can sell all the $6 hot dogs and $5 beer you want.
Fans who care about baseball know teams like the Orioles are ripping off their fans and tearing apart the game. But it won't change. The owners aren't baseball people for the most part and the Player's Association isn't giving to give up on $5 million DH's or dead weight franchises like the Florida Marlins that dilute the talent pool. Baseball is what it is and what it will be.
Before the game the Orioles announced they have signed Dave Trembley to a contract to return next season as manager. In Bud Selig's world that sounds just about right.
I won't disappoint Rev by not showing up. Duds, you know I"m an O's fan... we have talked O's before.
On the bright side, I have said all year that I would take a blowout over the walkoff loss in the 9th or extras. The O's finally delivered on the blowout, yet.... this happens almost to mock me slightly. It is pretty absurd, but I think you also have to keep in mind the doubleheader here. Trembley would have taken out some of the 'pen arms earlier if he didn't need to keep the others fresh for the game starting shortly after. Therefore, he instead leaves in Burres, Shuey, and Bell to give up meatball after meatball. It was an Italian feast out there with all the meatballs that were served tonight. The result... 30-3, and similar to what you said, a football score. I had already mentioned to others via email that the Cowboys beat the Ravens... or that the Rangers missed a last second field goal in tonight's game against the O's.
It is also a shame that the pitching stats for the team have to look so bad due to one game, because a number of O's have been pretty solid this year.
Also, as for Shuey, I wrote someone on the Sun (who I comment on frequently) and told him that Shuey has been light up like a Christmas tree for weeks, and while he is a nice comeback story, he should be let go for a young arm to be tested out while the team is out of the race.
i thought it was typo when i first saw it on fox sports. but then agin, the angels spanked 12 on the yanks in 3 innings. what happened to the D?
nice, duds!
I watched the very end of the game since it was televised here. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I agree, I wish the quality of Major League pitching were better than what it is. I don't mind an incredible anomaly like this game once in a while though.
What's really sad for Baltimore fans is that its extremely hard to score 30 runs even in most video games with created characters that have all 100 batting and power ratings. too bad there were probably only 2000 fans at the park to see it ,and even worse, Baltiomore just anounced today their current interim manager had the interim removed..
Way to go as your first official game as the new guy in charge. LOL
3 touchdowns, 3 extra points, and 3 field goals for the Rangers; 1 field goal for the Orioles.
Dudski, I wouldn't be so quick to use this anomaly o####ame to paint a broad brush and call the talent pool in the MLB diluted.
If anything, the talent pool is much greater than it has ever been. All the advancements in technology, both medically and otherwise, have made our athletes of today's generation better.
A lot of our greats from yesteryear would most likely have difficulty staying on a Major League roster in this era, I believe.
Two days in a row, two super unique stats: 10 RBIs by one guy and a football score in baseball. I think it's awesome. Both teams suck anyway, so those in attendance got their money's worth for sure.
man, people who know mean know I don't #### wit baseball but i read your stuff and maybe, just maybe I will start watching and learn somethin about the game.
I didn't get to see the game. Where the Rangers stealing bases and bunting after say 15 to 3? If they were, why weren't the O's pitchers knocking the hitters down?
The Ravens havent given up 30 since 2005. Thats a dam shame. What use to be a real class act franchise is going to hell in a hand bag BECAUSE OF AN OWNER. I'm not saying this lost was his fault directly but over the past 10yrs it has gone steadly down hill.The only way to turn around this franchise is to sign A-rod away from the Yank-THESE and then the fans will start to think the owner is serious about winning. Angelos sucks and he needs to put BALTIMORE on the road jersey's next year but he pissed that away too.So maybe will will get it in 2009.
purplehaze was partly right. the O's are never going to turn it around while the worst owner in professional baseball sits at the helm of the franchise. life for O's fans has basically become a waiting game...waiting for someone else (dare I say cal ripken?) to buy the franchise or for angelos to die in his sleep...or by any other means, at this point I'm no longer picky.
Ultra-I do think today's players are very talented, especially the hitters. But the pitching is just awful. They don't get enough innings in the minors because their arms are treated like porcelain, they come up to the minors and don't get alot innings because they go on the DL at the drop of a hat, and they can't go more than 7 innings without an army of relievers to see the game home.
Hitters are better today, yes. But today's pitchers look pretty bad compared to those of even 30 years ago.
Dudski, appearances can be deceiving. There's no question that the pitchers' statistics have gotten worse, but that doesn't mean that the pitching is actually worse. I think it has to do more with hitters being smarter and stronger (with and without performance-enhancing drugs).
Though I have no way to really prove this, but I contend that someone like Chuck James or Ted Lilly would have been legendary 50 years ago. Very few pitchers threw more than a fastball, curveball, and a changeup, and most had only one above-average pitch, which was their fastball. Today's starters have 4-5 pitches after a few seasons in the Majors (younger pitchers have a smaller repertoire -- Cole Hamels, for instance, only has a fastball, changeup, and a curveball).
Hamels would have looked like Koufax against 60's hitters. That I agree with. I just think pitch limits and a lower mound height have hurt pitching by causing injuries and maybe even arm strength.
