Steve Melewski posted on MASN today about how he thinks Reimold should get a shot as the everyday LF. I'm fine with that opinion, but I thought it needed some qualifiers, so I posted them. You can see his post here.

Here are the Cliff's Notes: Mainly, he talks about Reimolds hot September and tries to extrapolate out to a 600-at-bat season, and then says that even Reimold's 2011 OPS of .781 would be good enough over a full season:

Overall, in 87 games and 267 at-bats last year, Reimold's numbers came up a little short of most of his stats from 2009 when he had 358 at-bats. Last year, he hit .247 with 13 homers and 45 RBIs. His OBP was .328 with a slugging of .453 and .781 OPS.

...

There is a chance that Reimold's numbers would decrease with more at-bats. But the .781 OPS seems quite reasonable for him, even over 600 at-bats.

And I honestly don't have a problem with any of those sentiments individually, but saying "Reimold is the answer" and not qualifying it with "along with some other moves" didn't sit right with me. So I replied with:

.781 is decent enough on its own but not when no one else among the RF, 1B, 3B and DH are likely to OPS significantly above .800. If the O's want to give the appearance of trying in 2012, they can only give Reimold everyday ABs if they make a HUGE upgrade at one of those other positions, or a significant upgrade at two of them (and obviously two of those spots are taken by Markakis and Reynolds).

On the other hand, if Duquette considers 2012 a "lost year" record-wise and just wants to see what he's got in Reimold, Chris Davis, Matusz, Arrieta, Britton and Tillman going forward, I'm fine with playing Reimold every day and giving all those other guys a chance to pass or fail for a full season.

What I don't want to see is some combination where the O's sign the Millwoods, Vlads and Derrek Lees of the world that don't add anything and take away starts and ABs from those guys who might actually be part of the future of the team.

Melewski:

I don't think you have sized it up very well. Arrieta and Britton are likely in the rotation, they are a big part of the future. Matusz, we'll see. These are two good young pitchers even if they were not Cy Yng candidates this year. A lot of teams would like to have them. Putting them out there does not tell me 2012 is a lost year. Plus I like the lineup more than you seem to and you can score a lot of runs with players that are in the .800 OPS range and the Orioles have several in Reimold, Jones, Markakis, Reynolds, Hardy and Wieters.

When did I say Arrieta and Britton are terrible? I'm simply saying expecting them to improve enough to make the team competitive in 2012 is foolish. Anyways...

Me:

I don't think you've sized up what I've sized up very well...

Say you've got a lineup that includes Markakis, Jones, Reynolds, Hardy, Wieters, Reimold and Chris Davis, and then you've got a rotation that goes Guthrie, Britton, Arrieta and 2/3 of Matusz/Tillman/Hunter. There are only 2 ways to improve on that lineup, which is basically the lineup that lost 93 games last year:

1) Hope and pray to all that is holy that the pitchers (and Reimold and Davis) become the players that they have the potential to be.

2) Make major upgrades at the 1-2 positions that the Orioles have available.

What don't you agree with out of that? You can't really argue that just running those guys and a couple stopgaps out there is going to produce a winning team when all the evidence points to the contrary.

Me again:

p.s. I never said playing Arrieta and Britton makes this a lost year... But taken as a whole with all the other unproven/up-and-down guys (Reimold, Davis, Tillman, Matusz, Bergesen) would make it clear that the team is trying to see what they have for the future rather than focusing on 2012. I'm fine with that if it's the strategy, but there's no way that team is competing for anything in 2012.

Melewski:

You can't just plug in the same numbers for the players and figure the same results. A few pitching upgrades and/or improvements and that lineup would look much better. The Orioles didn't score big at all in going 34-23 to end 2010, they did that with solid pitching. Plus I like the lineup right now and see it as probably better than average going into 2012. Look, a lot depends on the pitching, pure and simple. Add and/or improve there and the team can easily improve on the 2011 record.

Melewski again:

I give you credit for being confident in your opinion.

Me:

Yeah but there's a huge area for improvement between 2011's record and actually being a good team. I think you're taking my "lost year" sentiment to mean the 65-75 win range. When I said "lost year record-wise" in my first post, I meant no chance of legitimately competing.

Ugh.

The 24-year-old former O's prospect has gone 17 innings without giving up an earned run to start his MLB career with the Mets. The Orioles lost Pedro Beato to the Mets in the Rule 5 draft in the offseason.

Here are his numbers:

11 GP, 17.0 IP, 1 W, 0 L, 0 SV, 1 HLD, 9 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 10 K, 0.71 WHIP, .164 BAA

Not sure what kinds of situations the Mets are using him in, but it's a nice start.

I think it's time to unite around a common cause, and that cause is getting Terry Crowley canned.

I'm sure he's a nice guy and I know the economy's rough right now but I don't know if anyone in baseball gets more credit for doing less than The Crow. I cringe every time Jim Palmer talks about someone coming up from the minors and working on their approach with Crowley. I know that's not Palmer's intent, but it's the result.

And before you say I'm going overboard (although I doubt that'll be too many of you), here are some numbers:

Terry Crowley is in his 16th year as the Orioles hitting coach, with 11 of those coming in his second stint on the staff. His first stint was 1985-1988. Yes, that 1988.

Orioles records with Crowley as hitting coach:

1985: 83-78, 4th in AL East. Managers: Joe Altobelli (55 games), Cal Ripken Sr. (1 game), Earl Weaver (105 games)
1986: 73-89, 7th in AL East. Manager: Earl Weaver
1987: 67-95, 6th in AL East. Manager: Cal Ripken Sr.
1988: 54-107, 7th in AL East. Managers: Cal Ripken Sr. (6 games), Frank Robinson (155 games)

Then there's an 11-year Crowley-less stint, which included our only two playoff appearances of the last 25 years. But then...

Continue reading this post »

Maybe it's not kosher to make fun of injured people, but last night while discussing Miguel Tejada's GIDP prowess with a friend, I decided it'd be funny to create some "Miguel Tejada Facts." But unlike the amazing Matt Wieters Facts, Miguel Tejada Facts would all be about how he can't do anything right.

Honestly I still like Miggi and I certainly don't blame him for this awful start to the season, but for some reason the idea of bizzarro Matt Wieters Facts seems like it has potential. So I posted the first few I came up with on my blog last night, but another friend suggested I put them up here as well so that more than 2 people will see them and maybe someone might actually contribute more.

So here are my brutal attempts at humor:

Fact #1: Miguel Tejada once led off an inning by grounding into a double play.

Fact #2: Miguel Tejada has actually grounded into a quadruple play. The Orioles had to start their next turn at bat with one out.

Fact #3: Miguel Tejada's allegedly tainted vitamin B12 shots are just a placebo. While researchers have noted a placebo effect, that effect is a positive steroids test.

Fact #4: Coaches measure Miguel Tejada's speed from home to first base using a sundial. Unless it's a routine pop-up. Then they use orbits of Haley's Comet.

Fact #5: The only time Miguel Tejada hits Eutaw Street is when he's getting a sandwich at Boog's.

Fact #6: After having his consecutive games played streak snapped in June of 2007 just 1,480 games shy of Cal Ripken's record, Tejada has set out to beat Cal's other incredible record: 350 GIDPs. That's not even remotely funny, just depressingly accurate.

I was looking at a list of free agents in our main "need" positions (1B, 3B) and the lists are pretty freaking thin.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/12/2010-mlb-free-a.html

There's a couple decent-but-risky options at 3B in Troy Glaus and Juan Uribe, but do you really trust that Glaus is healthy and that Uribe won't revert to his sub-.700 OPS White Sox form? I don't. 1B is not much better ... Hank Blalock? No thanks. Branyan will probably get re-signed by the M's. Nick Johnson's always injured. Adam LaRoche is the only respectable option IMO and his production isn't even anything to write home about for a 1B.

So what's the game plan? Trade? Sign one of these scrubs? It's not like the O's really have any good options at these positions in the system. MacPhail said he's planning to be active this winter. I guess I should trust that his vision is better than mine.

Story here: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091003&content_id=7302990&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

How long before everyone stops kneeling at the holy altar of Moneyball/Billy Beane? The A's have sucked for years and Ricciardi couldn't hack it for the Jays. I guess Theo Epstein has succeeded but he's got billions of dollars to work with.

Even at the time my one thought about Moneyball was, "This all makes sense, but it's ignoring the insane amount of luck that Beane and the A's had in having Zito/Hudson/Mulder all on entry level contracts at the same time. (Even if it's not luck, it doesn't have anything to do with math.)

"With [Redden and Rozsival], one of the key things in their game, they were willing to take a hit to make a play, protected the puck well and we were probably more successful with them getting out of our end zone," coach John Tortorella said Thursday after a short meeting with his club before giving the players the day off. "Their game was really good. That's why they ended up with the minutes. Reds and Rosy really stabilized us when they were coming at us pretty hard." - Newsday

Really? I left the game wondering if the reason that Redden has taken so much heat this year is because he's paired up with Rozsival. Every time I've seen Rozsival this season I've thought to myself, "What's the deal? He looks like crap out there." Getting beat clean on two separate occasions (one by Ovechkin and one by Semin) on Wednesday didn't have me any higher on him.

If I'm Rozy and I hear Brandon Dubinsky say "Defensemen in this league are too good. ... They don't get beat one-on-one, I mean, ever." I'm thinking "STFU dude!" Because A) we saw it a lot on Wednesday and B) you know if you get highlight-reeled by Ovechkin or Semin for GWG later in the series that quote's gonna re-appear on every Caps blog and half the newspaper game recaps with your picture right above it.

I'm heading out to Chicago for business this week and it turns out I'll have some downtime on Thursday night, and the White Sox are at home taking on the Tigers. I was kind of "ehh" on going but then they got Griffey so now I'm definitely in.

Let me start out by saying that the ChiSox are morons with their pricing system. Every "price level" ranges from $15 or $20 all the way up to $40 or $50, which means that there is NO way to get cheap tickets through TicketBastard because it only ever offers you the best available seats in the price level that you select. So say I want to sit in the $18 seats in "Lower Box" ... too bad. Since Lower Box seats run all the way up to $50, if you want Lower Box, you get $50 tickets.

I guess I should also be bitching about TicketMaster not having a "price range" option.

Anyways, enough whining and on to the real reason for this post now that I'm over the character limit:

Is there any reason to think that I won't be able to get day-of-game tix for a Thursday night vs. the Tigers?

Are there any sections/areas/levels in U.S. Cellular that I should avoid when buying a ticket? Oh and what's the must-try food a la Boog's BBQ or Uncle Teddy's Pretzels?

I thought the design was pretty cool to be honest. From far away it was hard to tell that there was actually red, white and blue within the O's logo, but up close they look real good: check it out

Honestly I'd probably buy one if they weren't that ugly New Era 59Fifty shit. What an awful fitting/feeling/looking hat. I don't know who they paid to become a staple of hip-hop culture, but that person should have asked for a lot more.

This has probably been talked about before but I'm too lazy to look it up. Last night before the game they played a song that I hadn't heard at OPACY before. It wasn't Orioles Magic and it wasn't World of Orioles Baseball (the Hyper Hanna/Jason Siemer song that they played all the time in the early years of OPACY). It talked about Baltimore and Natty Bohs and crab cakes and whatever. It wasn't very good and I'm not a big fan of shameless pandering in that fashion, but I still want to know what the song is so I can hear the rest of it. I'm not sure if it wasn't something done specifically with an O's theme or if it is just a Baltimore song.

Anyone have any idea what I am talking about?

I'm going tonight and I'm kind of torn. I loved loved loved Tejada during his first 2 years here, but then he went and ruined that all with some pissing and moaning, not running out ground balls, and you know ... completely losing all ability to field his position...

That being said, I don't blame him fully because when he came to Baltimore it was with super duper promises from Flanabeattigan to all the fans that we're going to get good players and we're going to go hard for Vlad Guerrero and we're going to be good enough, we're smart enough, and doggone it, PEOPLE LIKE ME!

But none of that ever happened, and instead of Guerrero we got Javy Lopez, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Ramon Hernandez, Kevin Millar, Aubrey Huff............

So I think I'll politely cheer for Miggi. Nothing raucous, just a nice little applause. Does anyone violently disagree? I can still be swayed!

That was quick, if you believe "multiple media outlets" (when have they ever been wrong about anything!??!?!).

ESPN link-a-dink

Allegedly Grady Little is out and Torre's in.

And why not some quotes since Camden Chat forbids one-line diaries (in case you were not aware):

"Citing sources, the Journal-News of Westchester, New York said the announcement of Torre's hiring could come as early as Tuesday."

"Along with the possible hire of Torre, it is being reported that his bench coach, Don Mattingly, may be joining him in the same role that he manned for one season with the Yankees after spending three seasons as their hitting coach."

"Interestingly, a move to Los Angeles would reunite Mattingly with the organization that drafted his son, Preston, in the first round of the 2006 major league draft."

"Despite never enduring a losing season in four seasons with the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox and compiling a .552 winning percentage (358-290), Little will have lasted just two seasons with each team."

Teams pay him to shut the hell up because he's murdering their IQ.

Check out these gems from this article.

"One of the other things that Alex has that some of the other things that Alex has that few players have is he has network value ... That means for a regional sports network he has an impact on in that may allow that regional sports network to increase by a half-a-billion to a billion dollars over a 10-year period because of the ratings increase that he will bring."

"The key point to what Alex has done is that over the last 10 years is that when you are talking about home runs, RBIs and runs scored, no one in baseball history has ever done what he has done over the last 10 years."

Either he's a windbag or the guy writing the article butchered the quotes (I guess those aren't mutually exclusive), but I wanted to strangle myself trying to hack my way through all the useless and repetitive words.

Per ESPN

I've gotta think the Yanks will hold onto Pettitte and Posada and throw all the money in the world at Rivera, but maybe I'm wrong. It wouldn't be the first time Pettitte's left the Bronx and maybe he, Posada and Rivera will skip town to make a statement about Torre's allegedly imminent demise.

And don't forget A-Rod...

So if A-Rod, Pettitte, Posada, Rivera and Abreu are on the market, do we legitimately go after ANY of them?

I say no ... Rivera, Posada and A-Rod will get a world of money somewhere else, and Angelos won't pay the $$$ for some stupid pitcher who only applies his trade one out of five days (f-ing slackers!!!!). The only one we'd even have a shot at is Abreu and, frankly, ehh.

But we can dream, right? Imagine this lineup with A-Rod plugged in the middle and the rotation with Bedard, Pettitte and Guts...

On second thought, don't imagine it. It will never happen. We are the Orioles.

We'll probably end up with Tony Batista and Ramon Ortiz...

I know I've heard similar complaints before so this is probably beating a dead horse, but I need to do a short rant.

Five of my friends and I have a 13 game plan in section 85, and that plan included last night's game. So we're surrounded by BoSox fans (not surprising) and decided pretty early on that we needed to be vocal. So we're booing when the Red Sox fans cheer and all that crap ... nothing offensive. We took some good-natured ribbing from a few Sox fans around us, but by the 9th inning we're running out of steam and not really saying much. So when Tek singles in the go-ahead run the stadium goes wild and my friend yells something pretty stupid like "Go back to Boston" or "Sit down." And a few guys in the section in front of us turn around to give us shit. Not too surprising. But the one dude who really wants to get some shots in is decked out in red and blue, but not for the Red Sox ... this clown is wearing a Phillies jersey and hat and for some reason is there rooting on the Red Sox like he grew up trolling Yawkey Way. He yells something to the effect of "What now bitch!?" or something equally ridiculous, so my friends and I can't resist.

"YOU'RE WEARING FUCKING PHILLIES GEAR! YOU'VE LOST 10,000 GAMES! THAT'S OVER 60 SEASONS WORTH OF LOSSES!" etc. etc.

Profanities were exchanged but honestly I'm not sure too many people heard us over the Sox fans' jubilation.

So it's dying down and the usher for our section comes to us -- not the Sox/Phillies fans -- and says to sit down and keep our mouths shut, and if she hears anything else she's kicking us out. Not a word to the Sox fans.

Of course the Sox fans are having a field day with this.. I'm fine that she told us to shut up, but tell them too. So we tell her to go explain it to them also and she said that they weren't doing anything wrong.

Then she proceeds to go sit next to them for the remainder of the game and share a few laughs.

This isn't the first time I've heard of OUR ushers bending over backwards to please opposing fans in spite of Orioles fans. Why the hell does that happen?

Seems like something the Orioles would do, but Bowden's a pretty crappy GM so that's not too surprising. Pena's still only 25 and he did have a pretty solid season last year if only for 276 at bats (enough for everyone at O's hangout to annoint him the future savior of this franchise if only the FO was shrewd enough to pull off a deal ... but there are about 5 of those types a year), but this season he's been horrendous and I don't see that swing working itself out anytime soon.

I kind of see Pena as a Corey Patterson who can't field or run ... someone who everyone was crazy about until they actually saw him taking wild hacks at the plate.

BUT HE'S GOT 40 HOMER POTENTIAL.

Good luck with that.

Like they had for Heath Shuler two years ago.

Why?

Because he gave Jeffrey freaking Maier the key to the city after he caught that Jeter "homer" in the 1996 ALCS.

No one who so clearly condones cheating (or at least very poor enforcement of the rules) will get my vote for president.

To reach the word limit, here's a recap from Player Magazine's "13 Worst Sports Calls Ever":

"7. The Jeffrey Maier Game
Baltimore at New York, 1996 MLB American League Championship Series Game 1
The Orioles led the Yankees 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning when Derek Jeter hit a deep fly ball to right field. Orioles outfielder Tony Tarasco seemed ready to come down with the ball when, from over the  fence, a glove appeared to deflect the ball into the stands. Umpire Rich Garcia erroneously ruled it a home run, which tied the game, and the  Yankees went on to win the game, the ALCS and the  World Series. The guilty party was Jeffrey Maier, a 12-year-old kid from New Jersey who received a ticket to the game at his World Series-themed bar mitzvah the previous week. And while his play  didn't exactly hand the Yankees a victory, it was the catalyst in the pivotal first game. New York would still need a Bernie Williams walk-off in the eleventh to win. Afterwards, Maier became a Big Apple  folk hero. He made the talk-show rounds, and was even given the key to the city by mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Eat your heart out, Steve Bartman. Maier would also become a rather distinguished ballplayer  himself, and holds the career hits record at Wesleyan University, a Division III school. In an ironic twist, Orioles owner Peter Angelos even considered drafting him. When Scott Erickson, the Orioles  Game 1 starter, heard that his team was considering drafting the boy that stole his playoff victory ten years before, he said he really  hoped the kid would make it to the majors, adding, 'so I can drill him.'"

I was bored at work and decided to whip up a "skillet-based" t-shirt just to see if I could make somethign that looks cool. It came out pretty good, I think: (I have no idea if this picture will work.) Anyways, I was sure not to infringe upon copyright/likeness rights, so to CafePress it goes! http://www.cafepress.com/beltwaysports

Everyone breathe a sigh of relief. Right now Jim Rome is telling Chicago how much they're going to love Erstad because of how hard he plays. Plenty of guys play hard ... I'd prefer someone who doesn't suck.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/226332,CST-SPT-sox24.article

Really with Aubrey Huff and Jay Payton I doubt anyone thought Erstad was a possibility anymore, but still it's nice to know he won't be in the orange and black as he's seemingly rumored to be almost every offseason.

I thought of a must-have-for-Camden-Chatters custom jersey but didn't want to spend $190 on an authentic, and the replicas either do black-only numbers (home) or orange-only numbers (away) and they never have the number on the front, all of which is lame.

So since all hockey fans swear by IceJerseys.com, I figured I'd see if they had a baseball partner, and they do: BallJerseys.com. And whaddya know they'll do replica jerseys with two-color, sewn on numbers AND numbers on the front for $130, which is between the $100 for "official" replicas that are ugly with one-color numbers and no numbers on the front, and $60 less than the authentics that have slightly better quality logos and fabric.

So all that being said, here's what I'm extremely tempted to blow $130 on:

So awesome.

So I was up in NY this weekend to see the O's at Shea, and the way everything fell I ended up driving up during Friday's game and back down to Maryland during Sunday's game, which meant I got the pleasure of listening to the garbage Mets announcers for the last half of the Friday game and the first half of the Sunday game. Friday was particularly bad, with mistakes everywhere.

Here are a few (and I know I'm forgetting some):

1. When Javy comes to bat after Ramon got ejected, they say, "Javy hasn't done a lot of catching for the Orioles this season. He's been playing a lot of first base and designated hitting." Uh... I believe he's yet to play a regular season game at first.
2. When Javy fails to throw someone out, they said, "Well Javy's not known for his defense, something that Greg Maddux made clear when they were both in Atlanta by having personal catchers Bako and Perez play instead. Although that wasn't until the last couple years of Maddux' time in Atlanta" That actually went back years. You forgot Fernando Lunar . HOW COULD ANYONE FORGET FERNANDO LUNAR!?
3. Howie Clark pinch hits, and the jerks say, "Howie Clark is really an organizational guy for the O's. He's been in the Orioles farm system for a long time now and he's finally getting the call-up. Well, this is a half-true. He was with us for a while, then went away for a few years and is now back. He was really only signed this off-season.
4. They said that Jim Duquette, former Mets General Manager, is now the general manager for the Orioles, which is giving him a promotion.

Hey I have kind of an odd queestion for everyone... Last Saturday (the 29th) the O's gave away plush Chick-Fil-A cows that said Eet Chikin Luv Orioles on them, and I was wondering if anyone had one that they didn't care about keeping. I know this probably isn't the place to find someone willing to part with Orioles paraphernalia but I figured I'd give it a shot.

My mom is a big O's fan and a huge collecter of all things relating to cows (which I still don't particularly understand, but whatever), and she got tickets to the game but didn't make it in time to get a cow.

Hey I figured you guys might be interested in this... Eastbay has 2005 Tejada All-Star Home Run Derby jerseys on clearance for half price. $60 down from $120.

Boom-shakalaka.

I really wanted a 2004 one after he won the HR Derby, then REALLY wanted a 2005 one after he won the All-Star MVP, but I couldn't bring myself to blow $120 on them.

Actually a couple weeks ago they had them for the same price but only in large... I have no idea why now they only have XLs. I'm sure there's somethign devious behind it.

I've already ordered mine. Woo.

Sorry to self-promote, but I was bored at work today and created this stupid cartoon version of Dilbert with Bud Selig and Jim Bowden.

Linky linky

I figure if anyone would appreciate it, it would be the people here.

Since I'm not meeting the minimum characters, I'll introduce myself. I post a lot at Camden Chat but I do follow the Nats and root for them, and I love the fact that us Baltimorons can get to see some NL baseball (other than the Braves of course).

The Sun had an interesting article about Lee Mazzilli now that the O's are playing the Yankees, and apparently Gibbons was not too supportive of his old skipper. Some quotes:

"It wasn't all his fault," Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons said. "I think somebody had to go and he was probably the easiest choice out of everybody. He didn't have a lot to work with. He didn't have his own [coaching] staff. In a lot of ways, he really never got a full shot. Then again, I am very happy with the staff we have now."

Then again, eh?

More:

"I think a lot of people liked Maz as a person," Gibbons said. "He was a very easygoing guy. He was funny. I really enjoyed him off the field. That's all I am going to say."

OUCH.

But this one takes it:

"I thought it was kind of an interesting move from the get-go, to hire a Yankee guy since they've kind of been our nemesis," Gibbons said. "You have this Italian guy, this New Yorker managing the Orioles. I didn't think it was a great fit in that aspect."

Uhh... Gibby... What kind of names do you think Perlozzo and Mazzone are? Sure, they're Marylanders, but still.

Oh well. I just hope he doesn't take crap for saying it.

With the Clippers making the playoffs, ESPN's Page 2 listed potential teams for the worst in all of sports.

Here's the Orioles segment.

Uh... We're bad, we've been bad for a while, and it's difficult when it's in such stark contrast to the success we've had in the past, but I thought this was kind of stupid.

First of all, in all our "down years," we still haven't been the worst team even in our own division. They say that we make the Nationals look good, but what have the 'Spos/Nats done as a team in the history of their existence? AND they're a team that honestly looks like a 95-100 game loser this year. I understand it's hard to crap on a team when so much optimism is in the air, but those guys suck past Patterson, Guillen and Soriano.

Also in the running were the Arizona Cardinals, the Atlanta Hawks (that's gotta be the answer -- it's too easy to make the playoffs in the NBA to excuse sucking that long), Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Lions (sorry SC), Golden State Warriors, Kansas City Royals (has to be the baseball pick of the moment, if not the D-Rays), New York Knicks, Pittsburgh Pirates, Portland Trail Blazers.

Granted, Angelos has done a terrible thing to this team and we've had a pretty bad run with the Palmeiros and Sosas and Ponsons of the world, but we're not to the level of pure suckitude that the rest of the teams on that list are at.