SB Nation User Blog: silverstadium

F--k Face t-shirt

silverstadium — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:39:35 -0000

F--k Face t-shirt

I just stumbled across this t-shirt. I'm not about to pay $32 for it, but I thought everyone would be interested. I personally prefer this shirt. Someone should send one to Jason Berken.

Tides 9, Chiefs 1

silverstadium — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:59:04 -0000

Things I learned at the Tides-Chiefs game last night:

1. Ex-Cubs like to sign autographs.

2. Chris Tillman has absolutely filthy stuff. His fastball was routinely hitting 94-95. His curveball froze batters. He struck out 10 and walked 2 in 6 scoreless innings.

3. Nolan Reimold can't do much more to deserve a call-up. 3 for 5 and every one of his hits were rifle blasts...2 doubles and a HR. His line on the season is now .396/.484/.755.

4. Matt Wieters is human. 0 for 5 including 2 GIDP. He was DHing, but I hope to see him catch Thursday night.

5. Joey Gathright was trying to impress in his first game with the organization. He got a basehit leading off the night, but then got caught stealing. He didn't get much of a jump at all and was thrown out easily. He then redeemed himself with a beautiful catch in center, jumping high into the wall to rob the Chiefs of a double in the first inning, which was their only real chance of putting a dent in Tillman. Joey finished 2 for 5. He was playing without his name on his jersey since he "just got here" as he told a guy who was needling him in the autograph line. I don't know how he fits in with the organization, but maybe we can package him in some kind of deal.

6. Minor league baseball is where it's at for O's fans this year. Why pay big bucks to see Mark Hendrickson and Adam Eaton when you can sit in the front row for $10 and watch guys who (hopefully) will be a good chunk of our future? Of course, living in Syracuse, I have little choice.

Split Personality

silverstadium — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:49:52 -0000

Split Personality

Towards the bottom is a blurb on Baez using his split-finger again. He thinks that's what killed his arm, but now his arm "feels fine." If your career is on the way out anyway, I suppose you might as well beat up your arm trying to stay in the league.

Oriole Obamicons

silverstadium — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:17:24 -0000

via http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/entries/466214-bird.html

I needed a break from the beginning of the semester rush, so I created some Obamicons for ya'll. Follow the links below each one to rate them. Enjoy and get to work on your own! I'm sure others can make better ones.

Note: I tried to center all these images to make it look nicer but couldn't figure it out. Anyone who wants to jump in and help is welcome to do so.

via http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/entries/466051-cal.html

via http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/entries/466091-zaun.html

via http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/entries/466148-hope.html

Pads GM Towers: Peavy-Olson-Pie-et al is up to Cubs now

silverstadium — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:28:50 -0000

Kevin Towers says in the Union-Tribune this morning that a deal is in place. It's up to the Cubs to sign off on it.

We've been around the room with this one already. I think it comes down to what we value more. A young unproven starting pitcher? Or a young unproven outfielder?

Now, the question to me, is can the Cubs pull off this deal considering how much they'd have to pay Peavy, their status on the selling block, Tribune's bankruptcy, and perhaps new legal troubles of the Tribune owner.

Setting aside all this, would the Cubs want to make the deal? Towers doesn't outline the whole package, but I think from a baseball perspective they need to do it. They have one of their best core of players in awhile, but they need someone like Peavy to put them over the top.

Trade for Prince?

silverstadium — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:35:54 -0000

The word is that the Brewers might put Prince on the market this offseason. We're mentioned as possible suitors at mlbtraderumors.

What are your thoughts?

I say "pass." The Brewers would be trading him for a reason. With his size, he's not going to have a long, epic career in the bigs. He would make sense for a team that would definitely be competing in the next three years, but I'm not so sure that's us.

If we trade Roberts, it has to be for a Jones/Tillman type deal, some guys who will help us for the next decade, not the next few years. Otherwise, we should re-sign him for what he brings to the team or let him go next year and reap the draft pick compensation.

How would the O's do outside the AL East?

silverstadium — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:34:21 -0000

Yeah, whining about the strength of our division is a perennial pasttime and an unsolvable quandry. I couldn't help but notice, though, the O's record in this article at Salon.

In the article, the author examines "if every team had had the same winning percentage within its own division as it had against nondivision foes." It's probably not the most scientific way to come up with a division-neutral record, but it gives us some interesting results. Namely, that the O's would still have finished last in the East, but we would have improved by 15 games, for a record of 83-79. Our record is impacted more (in either direction) than any other team in MLB by our performance in the division.

What do we learn?

(1) This really isn't that bad a team, though it's still not playoff worthy. Maybe it's better this way so we can get better draft choices and not delude the management into thinking we're just a free agent away from winning because

(2) The AL East is really tough. Duh. With all the progress we've made at rebuilding, seeing the strength of our division and the obvious big bucks of the YankSox is the biggest downer in thinking about future October baseball in Birdland.

On the Bright Side

silverstadium — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:37:52 -0000

Hey everyone...

Am I wrong or have we sealed up the #5 pick in the draft? It was a crummy season and the 2009 O's will definitely not be the 2008 Rays, but I'd rather finish in the bottom 5 and keep getting top draft picks before exploding into 1st like the Rays then spend several years in the middle of the pack.

Anyone here have subscriber access to Baseball America and can give us a quick synopsis of who our choices are? They have the prospects ranked, but are behind a wall.

We have to look forward to something, no?

Putting the Death Sentence to Death

silverstadium — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:24:44 -0000

Putting the Death Sentence to Death

There's been much talk on here about how we should just write off our pitchers with a torn labrum because it's virtually impossible to recover from. Just saw this and thought I should pass it along. Maybe there's still hope...

Syracuse Chiefs 8, Norfolk Tides 3

silverstadium — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:43:38 -0000

So the Tides came to town this weekend and I managed to see the 4th game of the series on Monday. It was a perfect night for baseball, my first night at the park this season, and my first time watching a game at Alliance Bank Stadium with natural grass. Yep, someone finally woke up and removed the ancient astro turf from the field after years of player and fan complaints.

I love minor league baseball and can't wait for my children to be old enough to enjoy it. These days I'm lucky to get to the park a couple times a year. It'll be nice to be the baseball Dad and take them to a game once a week or so throughout the summer.

On to the game itself! Jon Leicester vs. Kane Davis. Needless to say, it was a good night for the home team.

We know that Leicester is not cut out for pitching in the majors. It is becoming more and more likely that he is not cut out for AAA either. Jon took the loss, giving up 10 hits and 4 ER in 6 innings and is now 2-7 with a 7.03 ERA on the season.

Even worse last night was Esteban Yan. The Tides were in the game when he entered to start the 8th. Only down by 2, they had a legit shot at it. Here's how my scorecard reflects the inning. E-1. BB. E-1. FO-7. E-7. K. FO-7. In his one inning he only gave up 1 hit and all three runs were unearned. But since he walked a guy and two of the errors were his own, I don't feel much sympathy.

That E-7 was Terrero's 2nd of the game as he misplayed a carom off the wall. Earlier in the game he just plain dropped a ball, leading to a run. Luis did redeem himself a bit by throwing out a runner at the plate with a perfect strike. Now, the runner was tagging on a shallow fly ball and never should have been sent. Nevertheless, you couldn't ask for a better throw.

Scott Moore had a decent game, going 2 for 4 with a run scored and Brandon Fahey went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI (all while looking like he's going to fall over each time he swings the bat).

All in all, though, this team is truly a disappointment. I don't mean to begrudge them for giving me a fun evening of minor league baseball, but there isn't a single guy on this team right now (especially now that Liz has been called up) that I'm excited about watching. The Tides are now 21-37 and in last place, 10 games behind first place Durham in the IL Central.

At least the Chiefs are contending for the first time in decades!

Final note: Guess who has this line for the Chiefs this season?

7-0 in 11 games (8 GS); 3.18 ERA; 64 K in 56.2 IP.