Bobby Abreu is our daddy.  Bobby Abreu, who will probably hit 10 HRs all season, hit two dingers off the O's tonight.  John Lackey pitched a fine game, 8 IP, 2 ER.  Overall, a pretty lackluster night for the O's.  Jeremy Guthrie continued his crappy season tonight.  The night started off as a pitching duel before the Angels scored four runs in the fifth inning.  His fastball was sitting around 90-91 MPH all night according to the stadium gun, which means he was probably hitting the upper 80s range.  Guts typically hits the 93-94 range (fangraphs has him 93.2 this season).  I don't know if the velocity drop is a signal of a larger problem (i.e., tired arm), but his ball didn't seem to have the usual zip.   On the "plus" side, he turned in 7 innings before Chris Ray entered the game in the 8th.  I then witnessed the awesome range of SS Ty Wigginton first hand as Kendry Morales hit a single up the middle.  Shrek, kudos to Zach for this nickname, tried his best to move to his left but the ball bounced past him. It was liking watching a play in slow motion.  I think I even heard a "boom-baba-boom-baba".ala Stand by Me as he strove towards the ball but I was probably imaging things.  But hey, Aubrey's fat stalker has no business playing SS.  He manned up as best as he could, and for that, I'm appreciative of his efforts. 

What's to say about the O's offense.  Lackey was in control all night.  Roberts, 0-4, Jones, 0-4, Markakis, 0-4.  Babe Scott hit his 16th homer.   Well, g'night all, I'm heading to Vegas tomorrow to forget about this crap.  In the immortal words of Daniel Plainview, I mutter to you all, "I'm finished."

Oops, I see Stacey put up a recap already.  I’ll DEAL WITH IT!

Random Notes

·     I saw the Amber Theoharris up close.  She's not nearly as hot in person.  But you're still

·     Matt Wieters is TALL.  

• Jim Palmer and Gary Thorne made it to the kiss cam.  Palmer looked indignant and Gary didn't have his beer googles on yet. 

Neyer posted his thoughts on Pie.  I pretty much agree with his thoughts.   Some choice quotes.

 After 348 plate appearances, you want to see something from a guy who's been profiled as an every-day player and, just maybe, a future star.

Exactly, I'm not looking for a strong, or even average, performance now.  But an OPS+ of 27 is embarrassing. 

The "problem" is that Pie, in three Triple-A stints, posted a .300/.353/.478 line, and most of the time he was one of the younger players in the league. You can't give up on a guy like that. Not after 54 at-bats, nor after 348 plate appearances.

Exactly again.  If you're going to give him a chance, then at least let him get the majority of starts for another month or two.  That's probably not enough development time either but you can't let Reimold and Montanez tear up AAA w/o giving them a shot.  I'm surprised Rob didn't mention this, but I asked him in one of his chats if he thought Pie's bat could play in LF and he said no but the O's aren't contenders so they might as well develop him a young player like Pie especially his defensive skills.  Obviously Pie won't hit for an OPS+ of 27 for the rest of the season but he needs to start showing some sharp improvements fast.     

Pretty ho-hum chat.  He pretty much gives stock answers to all of the questions.  But one of his answers was rather disturbing. 

AJC (West Warwick, Rhode Island): What was your favorite team growing up?

 Nick Markakis: (11:51 AM ET ) Red Sox.

I'll pretend that I didn't read that. 

Furcal's decision also could have an impact on what happens to Casey Blake. The Dodgers appear to be focused on adding offense either at shortstop or third base. So if Furcal signs with the A's, the Dodgers might have to step up their pursuit of Blake. If they lose out on both, they'd be likely to turn to the trade market at third base -- meaning Ty Wigginton and Adrian Beltre would probably jump onto their shopping list. And even if they don't bring back Furcal, the Dodgers seem to have much less interest in Jack Wilson than has been reported elsewhere.

From Jayson Stark.

Makes sense if the O's are the mystery team.  Man, I like Furcal but I prefer that Andy lay off the free agents until we're closer to contention. 

Top Ten list here.  I'm guess BA see a full recovery for Patton.  Kam Mickolio over David Hernandez seems like a head scratcher, but I'll let the CC minor league experts debate that one. 

If they're to make a significant jump in the big league standings, Baltimore particularly needs its young pitchers to come through. The Orioles ranked 13th in the AL in ERA (5.13) in 2008 and head into 2009 with no proven big league starters behind Jeremy Guthrie, who's better suited for the middle or back of a rotation than the front.

Back of the rotation?  Ouch.  I'm not saying he's an ace but he's probably better than a lot of 4 or 5 starters. 

John Sickels did an analysis on Lou Montanez. 

What does the future hold? Montanez turns 27 in December, so he is at his peak now. Although he hit well for the Orioles, I do not like his 4/20 BB/K ratio in 112 at-bats. The strikeouts are not out of bounds, but the walk rate is too low, and major league pitchers will take advantage of his lack of patience eventually. He's never hit that well in Triple-A, and I'd like to see more data from Triple-A and the majors before concluding that he's really truly turned a corner.

In other words, what he did this year was obviously impressive, but I'm not ready to say you should invest a lot of hope or resources in Montanez stock.

Last line of Sickels' analysis says it all.  At best, maybe Lou could be a useful bench player, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that he could a good regular player much less a high caliber, late bloomer like Luis Gonzalez or Melvin Mora.     

Well, who really cares what the O's do at this point.  I saw David Price a few times at Vandy so I kind have an attachment to him.  He's making his debut as a starter today.  Even though Price's season stats from his senior year at Vandy were pretty damn good, I almost always managed to catch him on his off days.  His control would falter leading him to pound fastball down the middle.  Maybe the same will happen today.  Some guy with an arm is pitching for the O's.  Discuss.

Carmona versus Olson.  I filled in some stuff from the AP game preview to make it to 75 words.  Discuss

It may be too late to make a difference, but the Cleveland Indians are getting healthy again. They’re just wondering what might have been had the injuries not piled up in the first place.

Victor Martinez will look to continue his hot hitting and Fausto Carmona will try for his fourth straight victory on Monday when the Indians open a four-game road set against the hapless Baltimore Orioles, losers of eight in a row.

Diamond Dave is coming back for 2009. 

The Orioles announced Friday that they will bring Trembley back next season, exercising an option that was in the contract he signed last year. The club also added a team option for 2010.

So last year, the O's took off the interim tag and promptly lost 30-3 and stunk hard for the rest of the season.  At least this year, the O's are already stinking hard.  The O's tacked on an option for 2010 which suggests that Diamond Dave is still viewed with a bit of apprehension by the front office.  It seems to says, "We kind of like you... but we're keeping our eyes open in case something better comes along."