ESPN published two articles on the state of the Orioles. And Dan Duquette gave an interview to CBS Baltimore which complemented these two articles nicely. In this edition of Bird Food, I look at all three articles together in order to foster discussion on where the Orioles are now and where they're going. First, let's take a look at David Schoenfield's article on ESPN.

Schoenfield assesses whether the Orioles have a core of players to compete in the near future. Who is that core? Schoenfield points to Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, Chris Tillman and Brian Matusz with Jeremy Guthrie and Brian Roberts providing "old head" leadership. He forgets Zach Britton and Jake Arrieta as part of the youth movement and JJ Hardy as part of the "old head" group but I think these can be forgivable sins. What is the value of this core? Schoenfield gives his quick assessment.

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I should preface my trades with some jibber jaber but I hate that stuff. The main pieces are in bold. I'm not sure about the tertiary pieces. I wanted to play with them more (especially with trying to get Guzman to the Marlins), but I got tired. So hopefully this post represents a good first stab. Let's get ready to rumble!

Baltimore Orioles Receive: Yonder Alonso and Reymond Fuentes from the San Diego Padres

Baltimore Orioles Trade: Adam Jones (SON!) to the Miami Marlins, Jason Berken to the San Diego Padres

Why This Works for the Orioles: The Orioles receive a major league ready 1B and plug in Endy Chavez as the regular CF with Fuentes waiting in the wings. For the second prospect, I was looking for a weak bat, strong glove CF who was near major league ready (sort of a Peter Bourjos lite). I've been quietly hoping Duquette would address the O's crappy defense this offseason in a creative way. But I'm an O's fan so I live my life in quiet desperation. Fuentes seemed like the closest thing to a weak bat, strong glove OF, although he isn't major league ready. Sickels rated him as a C+ prospect with the following description, "Excellent athleticism, speed, defense, but lack of pop could prevent him from becoming a regular." He has some upside left so he probably has a bit more value than a typical C+ prospect especially to the Padres with Petco Park. Lastly, I'm not sure if I prefer Rizzo or Alonso. I went with Alonso since he did pretty well in a small number of big league ABs this year.

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About five or six years ago, I used to defend Peter Angelos. Why? Because unlike David Glass or Jeffrey Loria, I appreciated that Angelos was willing to spend money on the team. In the late 1990s, the O's payroll was near the top. And in 2004, the O's went on a spending splurge to land Miguel Tejada, Javy Lopez, and Rafael Palmiero. After (correctly) nixing the David Wells trade in 1996, Angelos has felt justified in viewing his "baseball minds" with a degree of skepticism. As a result, he's been a famously meddlesome owner by overruling moves made by his GM. Whether it was signing Albert Belle or trading away Denny Bautista for Jason Grimsley, Angelos has been viewed as an unnamed assistant GM. His decision to remove several loyal employees is another source of derision. Whether it's Pat Gillick, Jon Miller, or Frank Wren, Angelos drove away good baseball people. I certainly didn't approve of any of this behavior by Angelos, but I thought his meddlesome ways were a bit overwrought. And l can at least understand the impulse to work with people you get along with even if I didn't agree with his personnel moves. After hiring Syd Thrift, concern emerged over whether Angelos could hire anyone of substance. He then hired Mike Flanagan/Jim Beattie/Jim Duquette to make player personnel decisions, and at the time, I wasn't sure if these fine men would make good baseball executives. Unfortunately, they didn't work out so Angelos turned over the reins to Andy MacPhail. Now Jon Heyman, along with a number of other sources, is reporting that Andy MacPhail will step down after the season after unsuccessfully rebuilding the team. Beyond this news, Heyman's column contains some interesting tidbits for conversation. The obvious conclusion regarding the O's GM situation is that Angelos is incapable of hiring and keeping someone of substance. He's hired people of substance in the past. Gillick and Wren were excellent hires. Unfortunately, they couldn't get along with Angelos. Now with another GM getting ready to take over the reins, Heyman's column serves as a good jumping point to discuss the O's current situation.  

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In Dazed and Confused, director Richard Linklater follows a group of teenagers during an unremarkable last day of school in 1976. The movie has no plot, barely any conflict, and certainly no resolution. And the acting is pretty terrible despite a cast of future stars (Ben Affleck, Matthew McConaughey). The movies succeeds in really only one respect - the details of the time, space, and personalities are portrayed in an authentic and compelling way. Linklater was clearly a baby child of the 70s. The music, the clothes, the speech, and the mannerisms are all pitch perfect. The only thing you don't get from the movie is a contact high. While the movie has no central characters, the mentoring relationship between Mitch Kramer and Randall "Pink" Floyd illustrates a passing of the torch theme from one generation to another. Kramer, played by Wiley Wiggins who has a disturbing tendency to touch his face every five seconds, is graduating from middle school and is framed as the next cool kid. Floyd plays football, Kramer plays baseball. Floyd oozes unrealized potential. During one scene, the head football coach barks at Floyd warning him that "he's in need of a serious attitude readjustment," and "watch out for another crowd you're running with, don't think I haven't noticed." Kramer symbolizes the next hope. The athlete who will win it all while doing so gracefully. 

Tonight, Brian Matusz made his first start after coming up from AAA. Recently, the Orioles have questioned his off season work out commitment, while he questioned their coaching. His most recent AAA start was an excellent complete game shut out. Matusz showed a lot of promise at the end of last season and Orioles fans are looking for a little bit of that magic to return. Unfortunately, Matusz didn't come out strong. His fastball looked weak again (upper 80s). And his control wasn't there. But he managed to get through the first inning without any trouble. Despite the good results, a feeling of doom seemed to lurk around the corner.  

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This afternoon the Orioles traded Koji Uehara to the Texas Rangers for Chris Davis and Tommy Hunter. First, let me say that I LOVE Koji Uehara. He's been a fantastic reliever, and he has awesome sideburns. That said, I love this trade even more. Before today, I thought one of two things would happen with Koji. He stays or he's traded for some crappy 27 year old, organizational player. Teams now value prospects differently than 2-3 years ago and simply don't give up any prospects with decent value for relievers unless you're dealing with Ned Colletti. Unfortunately, the Dodgers are a mess, thus Colletti wasn't available for a fleecing. In 2008, Chad Bradford was a 33 year old reliever-with an additional season of control-who was traded to the Rays for.... nothing. The Rays picked up his salary while the Orioles got a bag of balls. Bradford isn't the strikeout artist like Koji, but he had excellent control and put up great numbers. And unlike Koji, there weren't as many health questions surrounding Chad at the time. Hell, teams don't trade for old relievers much at all because, well, they're OLD (unless they're part of a larger trade in order to balance out the value of players being exchanged). Today, the Orioles managed to get more than a bag of balls or an organizational player for Koji. Frankly, if the O's could have traded Koji for Davis or Hunter ALONE, this would have been a good trade. The fact that they got both makes it a great trade. Should the Orioles traded for prospects? Of course. Should Minka Kelly be dating me instead of Derek Jeter. Of course, but neither is realistic.

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"All right, I'm pumped, let the healing begin!" Matt Damon, Good Will Hunting.

Before today's game, I was like Matt Damon. I was ready to bury the past and start fresh after the All-Star Break. I was excited to see my team play and start off the second half of the season on a strong note. But like Damon, there was an underbelly of sarcasm and cynicism in my mood. Why? Because of the craptastic game we watched this afternoon is a broken record. But Camden Chat is a fan site and fans are unfailingly supportive and optimistic of their team. Much like little league, everybody gets a reward for effort today. So this recap is going to be optimistic and happy. I'm talking Smurf happy and optimistic... actually Smurf happy and optimistic on a pound of cotton candy. So what happened today? 

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In a Q&A session with Andy MacPhail and Buck Showalter last Saturday, a fan asked how the O's use sabermetrics in the team's decision making.  Luckily, MASN's Steve Melewski was on hand to report the lovely totals.  Unfortunately, the answers displayed the 20th century thinking that we all know and love.  Let's take a look at MacPhail's answers first.  

In terms of player acquisition and player evaluation, we'll have standard reports that has basic information, salary information, basic stats and scouting information. But then we devote about a third of it to things that we think fit into that category.

We are trying to ascertain trends or hidden value or maybe hidden landmines that we have to avoid. There are certain statistics that we look at and evaluate that help us determine and make a judgement, is the trend line moving up or we do have to be concerned that player might be on the precipice of a real fall.

I don't think "basic stats" is what the person asking the question had in mind. I suppose in Andy's mind there is a lot of room for play in deciding what counts as using sabermetrics.  Perhaps he sees the use of any numbers as a sabermetrics approach.  For this reason, I prefer if someone would have asked him if he uses specific stats instead.  At the very least, I would love to know if the front office uses defensive metrics like UZR or +/-, FIP, and wOBA and how much weight is placed on these statistics.  But more broadly, I want to know if the organization is taking advantage of the wealth of new pitching and hit tracking data available.  For example, Buster Olney mentioned one usage of statistics by the Rays that succintly illustrates the difference between a modern, cutting edge organization and the Orioles.  

The Tampa Bay Rays are thought to use statistics as extensively as any team, and manager Joe Maddon and general manager Andrew Friedman consult frequently and often use numbers to shape lineups and affect change in the way players do things. At the outset of spring training, for example, a set of statistics were presented to pitcher James Shields, as the team suggested changes in his pitching approach. 

Now we don't know that the Orioles aren't implementing the same approach with certainty.  But whether it's using pitchFX or scouting under the radar international markets, I highly suspect the Orioles aren't doing anything out of the box in order to gain a competitive edge.  I would love to know more about how the Rays uses numbers to "shape lineups and affect change in the way players do things."   And whatever that entails, Andy's answer above doesn't inspire much confidence that they are doing similar innovative practices.  I'm glad that the O's are looking to find hidden value, but they won't find the broad side of a barn if they don't know how to use the tools of the trade.  Luckily, the Orioles do have the inspirational videos that Buck showed the pitchers in spring training so let's move on to his answers.   

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Jeremy Guthrie is a pitcher who typically manages to out pitch his peripherals.  Why?  For one, he manages to keep his HR/FB rate low (at least in 2010).  The league average HR/FB rate is 10.6%.  Last year, his HR/FB rate was 8.5%.  Dave Cameron on fangraphs recently argued that inducing long flyballs which fall just short of the fence isn't a repeatable skill (thanks to dfa who pointed this article out to me).  Eventually, a low HR/FB rate will catch up to a pitcher.  Today, Guthrie couldn't keep those flyballs in the park and that was the difference.

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For the past couple of weeks, fangraphs has been publishing their annual rankings of baseball franchises.  As you may know, these rankings came under quite a bit of scrutiny last year because they were perceived as being arbitrary and highly subjective.  In particular, Dave Cameron may never live down the #6 ranking given to the Mariners last year.  This year, fangraphs has published an explanation of their logic behind the rankings in order to make the rankings more transparent.  And on Monday, fangraphs declared the O's as the 15th best franchise.   Why?  Well, let's take a look-see.  

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Chip Buck at ESPN's Sweetspot asks, "Still, I can’t help but wonder if the fans’ expectations are a tad too high as a result of these improvements. Are they setting themselves up for disappointment?" Come on Chip, are we setting ourselves up for disappointment?  Are you seriously asking this question?  Let's look at the improvements.  

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In Pondering Fanposts, CC's number 1 bad boy suggested Fanposts analyzing a particular article in-depth.  I thought I'd kick off the series.  I don't have a name for these type of articles.  I thought about using Birdman's Corner then I thought something to complement Bird Dropping might be better.  So Bird Food worked in that regard.  Maybe it'll stick, maybe it won't.  In any case, I imagine I'll either pick articles that I really like or hate for these type of posts.  In this case, I picked an article that I really liked.  Daniel Moroz of Camden Crazies was interviewed as part of the Sun's series, Blogger on Blogger.  The interview touches upon a lot of different issues.  I comment on some of the more interesting sections in order to facilitate further discussion.  BRING THE HATE!

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Much like Eric Carmen crooning in Dirty Dancing, the O's had huuuuungry eyes for the da sweep.  You know who else had huuuungry eyes?  Jeremy Guthrie.   Guthrie pitched 8.1 innings, 5 strikeouts, 1 walk, and lowered his ERA from 4.13 to 3.94.  I haven't checked any pitchFX data but he threw a lot of fastballs in the 91 to 94 MPH range with great location.  The Angels mustered up a lot of flyballs but it seemed like none of the hitters could square up on Guts.  He ran into some trouble in the 9th but Buck deftly managed the pen to bring home the win.  Gut's opponent, Jered Weaver also pitched an excellent game.  He mostly used a 88-90 MPH fastball and a 70 MPH change up in working his way through the lineup the first time.  He then switched to fastballs and 78 MPH breaking balls to work his way through the lineup the second time before working back in his change up during the third time through the line up and later.  Despite a pretty mediocre fastball, he kept hitters off balance by changing speeds and staying within the strike zone.   The O's finally broke through in the seventh after Matt Wieters hit a deep sacrifice fly ball to left field to bring home Luke Scott for the game's only run. 

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As I'm sure many of you have heard, D-Backs GM Josh Byrnes was fired yesterday along with manager AJ Hinch.  I've always been a fan of Josh Byrnes.  He infused his team with players from the farm system and made a great trade for Dan Haren.  Not to long ago, the D-Back's system was stacked.   In 2006, John Sickels rated their top five (!) prospects as A prospects with two B+ prospects following behind. 

1) Carlos Quentin, OF, Grade A
    Hitting .284/.413/.474 for Triple-A Tucson, underperforming compared to what he did at the same level last year. This is not uncommon, a player not hitting as well in his second Triple-A year as he did in the first. The theory is that this is due to discouragement. Quentin's status has slipped but I still think he is a good prospect.

2) Stephen Drew, SS, A-
    Hitting .283/.340/.437 for Tucson, like Quentin he isn't hitting quite as well as expected. Still a top prospect.

3) Chris Young, OF, A-
    Hitting .267/.346/.496 for Tucson, again less than anticipated. Is Tucson playing more like a neutral park this year?

4) Justin Upton, OF, A-
    Hitting .279/.348/.405 for Class A South Bend in the Midwest League, certainly not spectacular numbers although the hitting context is not an easy one.

5) Conor Jackson, 1B, A-
    Hitting .275/.374/.414 in 67 games for the Diamondbacks. Just six homers but has a 34/26 BB/K ratio in 222 at-bats. I still believe in his bat long-term.

6) Matt Torra, RHP, B+
    Rehabbing a shoulder injury.

7) Carlos Gonzalez, OF, B+
    Hitting .313/.363/.540 for Lancaster in the California League, 10 homers, 10 steals. Tools hound, has knocked 28 doubles. Strike zone judgment is still an issue but he is making progress.

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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." 

I will be attending the O's versus Angels series on Monday (Teix's debut) and Tuesday.  If any SOCAL CCs would like to meet up with me, please post a message ASAP.  I want to pick up tickets relatively soon.  Here are the matchups according to the Sun:

Monday: Dennis Sarfate (4-2, 4.00) vs. Angels' Joe Saunders (14-5, 3.09)

Tuesday: Starters: Garrett Olson (7-5, 5.90) vs. Angels' Jon Garland (9-6, 4.30)

Wednesday: Nothing posted yet. 

Article here.

The crowd cheered for him to fail. It's the same story with any visiting player picked to be the Pizza Hut K-Man at Sovereign Bank Stadium.

If the K-man strikes out, the crowd wins free breadsticks. So the crowd responds with typical free-food wanderlust.

They stand. They scream. They get ugly.

But it seemed particularly ruthless Friday night.

Jay Gibbons, 31, has gone from Baltimore Orioles outfielder, million-dollar talent, to boo material. In York - a place where Gibbons signed autographs five or six times for diehard O's fans - it took three pitches for him to strike out in his first at-bat.

http://ydr.inyork.com/portlet/article/html/imageDisplay.jsp?contentItemRelationshipId=2001401

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Feel a little bit bad for Gibby.  The contest is suppose to be fun and  I'm sure Gibbons is used to jeering.  Plus, he's making a ton of money and he did strikeout.  But these contests are mean.  Reminds me of Gladiator where people are rooting for humiliation.  Or a scene from the Simpsons when Moe opens up a new restaurant and some kid throws crap at while singing happy birthday and Moe responds with "That's great kid, taking my dignity and all." 

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8290500/O's-have-interest-in-deal-for-infielder-Lopez?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49

The Orioles, desperately seeking a shortstop, have engaged in substantive conversations with the Nationals about a trade for infielder Felipe Lopez, according to major league sources.

The Nationals reportedly are close to signing shortstop Cristian Guzman to a two-year contract extension for an unknown dollar amount and are unlikely to retain Lopez as a free agent after this season.

In return for Lopez, the Nationals likely would receive a marginal minor-league prospect.

The Orioles have been looking for help at shortstop ever since trading Miguel Tejada to the Astros last off-season.

Lopez is hitting .247 with 25 runs and 20 RBI.

If a deal is completed, it likely would not be announced until after the completion of the Orioles-Nationals series this weekend in Washington, sources say.

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Pretty much a worthless trade especially since Lopez is a 3 month rental.  But if the O's give up next to nothing to get him, I suppose it can't hurt either.   

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/fashion/articles/2008/06/26/why_is_this_pink_hat_so_hated/?page=full

via www.massbaytrading.com

Next to Yankees caps and Giants jerseys, the pink Red Sox cap has become the most polarizing piece of clothing a Bostonian can wear. Fans of the hats think they're simply a cute way to show their love for the Sox. Haters say pink-hat owners are latecomers who only support the Sox because it's suddenly cool - even fashionable - to do so. Pink-hat wearers haven't suffered sufficiently, they reason. No one suffers in pink.

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Thought this article was amusing.  I was hoping to find a picture of Curt Schilling, or even AMA would do :), in a pink but I had no such luck. 

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-wieters626,0,3243552.story

CHICAGO - The Orioles are expected to announce today that catcher Matt Wieters, the organization's first-round draft pick last season and its top prospect, will be promoted to Double-A Bowie.

Wieters hit .342 with 14 homers and 38 RBIs in 68 games at Single-A Frederick to earn the promotion. He had a .445 on-base percentage and .560 slugging percentage, earning a berth in the midseason All-Star game.

Wieters, who turned 22 last week, was the fifth overall selection out of Georgia Teach in the 2007 first-year player draft.
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About time. 

I have to vote in 24 hours and I still haven't decided.  I am a little tired of all the "change" rhetoric, and its variations, associated with Obama because it's a politically vacuous word.  Obama staff is made up all veteran Washington insiders.  It's not like he represents some break from the "Washington business as usual" staleness that voters are disaffected with.  Paul Krugman just wrote a column this morning concluding that his health care plan isn't passable.  And in comparison to Clinton's plan, it doesn't cover as many people and is more expensive.  But in terms of integrity (the other popular Obama phrase word), Obama seems to be superior.  I say "seems" because Obama's service in highly visible political positions isn't nearly as long as Hillary's thus he hasn't been vetted as closely.  But we do know that Clintons can be cut throat and unscrupulous.  And Clinton is certainly a divisive figure.  Poll data from NPR shows that Hillary is much better than Obama in unifying the democratic base.  But, unlike Obama, she's just as effective in unifying the Republican base against her.  In other words, some Republicans may vote Obama while they're likely to vote against Hillary just for the sake of spiting her.  If you want to throw in your two cents on who I should vote for, go ahead.  

1. Matt Wieters, C, Grade A-
2. Troy Patton, LHP, Grade B+ (I like him more than I should perhaps)
3. Radhames Liz, RHP, Grade B (Grade A arm, Grade C command)
4. Bill Rowell, 3B, Grade B
5. Nolan Reimold, OF, Grade B-
6. Garrett Olson, LHP, Grade B-
7. Jake Arrieta, RHP, Grade B-
8. Chorye Spoone, RHP, Grade B-
9. Jim Hoey, RHP, Grade B-
10. Pedro Beato, RHP, Grade B-
11. Tim Bascom, RHP, Grade B-
12. Brandon Erbe, RHP, Grade C+ (something weird here, hidden injury perhaps?)
13. Brandon Snyder, 1B, Grade C+ (numbers don't match propaganda)
14. Mike Costanzo, 3B, Grade C+
15. Scott Moore, 3B, Grade C+
16. Randor Bierd, RHP, Grade C+
17. Bradley Bergesen, RHP, Grade C+
18. Bob McCrory, RHP, Grade C (I don't like him as much as some people do. Command worries me.)
19. David Hernandez, RHP, Grade C (sleeper potential is high though)
20. Jeff Fiorentino, OF, Grade C (looks like a solid fourth outfielder)

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The dropoff of Erbe really sucks.  Basically, the O's system has some decent depth but no real blue chippers except for Wieters who hasn't played any pro ball yet except for the AFL.  I wish John would have done the O's last because the farm system may drastically change after Bedard and Roberts are traded.