SB Nation User Blog: zknower

Flashback: O's vs Yankees, late summer 1980

zknower — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:41:24 -0000

To all intents and purposes the American League East pennant race began at 10 o'clock last Saturday night in Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. That's when Earl Weaver threw a bag of sunflower seeds against the dugout wall and proceeded to engage the umpires in jaw-to-jaw combat. He had already been thrown out of the game, although he didn't realize it, and when Second Base Umpire Rich Garcia took the trouble to remind him, Weaver came out of the dugout, ran up and down three umps, paraded to second base and stood on top of the bag. Then he followed Umpire Steve Palermo home, and, with a malicious grin, kicked dirt between Palermo's legs and all over the plate while he was bent over trying to clean it. It was this bravura performance that signaled the onset of bona fide pennant hostilities. "I'd give Earl a 9.5," said Yankee Manager Dick Howser. "He didn't use his hat as well as he could have."

via cnnsi.com

A little Friday afternoon stroll down memory lane. I stumbled across this awesome article a few days ago while rooting around for something else.

It's a great reminder of the Orioles' glory years; it also provides a fascinating snapshot into a time when baseball was a larger part of the national discussion, when reporting on the game focused more on personalities than statistics, and when print journalism was king: every sportsfan in the country looked forward to the day of the week that SI would arrive in the mailbox.

Enjoy:

August 25, 1980

Now The Race Is On

Five wins in seven games with New York have put the Orioles in hot pursuit of another AL East title

Friday Bird Droppings

zknower — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:05:57 -0000

More photos » by Chris O'Meara - AP

Your Offseason O of the Day: Matt Albers. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

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Major league baseball's best, worst farm systems | SI.com
Baseball America and SI have rated the 30 ML teams and the O's come in at the 6-15 range. Not much said about them, but at least they're not the Blue Jays. -Stacey

Trembley talks Winter Meetings - MASNsports.com
"If someone has a question on a player, he wants me to give my opinion and he lets me ask about the things we think are important like player makeup, work habits and how this guy could fit in. You spend a lot of time in that room meeting with clubs." -zk

Opening Day 4-Pack | orioles.com: Tickets
The Orioles are once again selling the Opening Day 4-pack. It's how I've gotten my OD tickets for the past few years. I know OD tickets aren't that hard to come by, but $50 gets you an upper deck seat to OD plus 3 games, and $100 gets you a lower reserve seat to OD plus 3 games. -Stacey

Hot Stove News: Phillies Ink Polanco
They signed him to a 3 year deal with an option for a 4th and will move him from 2B to 3B. -Stacey

More Hot Stove: Angels' owner not quite ready to see Lackey go - MLB News - FOX Sports on MSN
Rosenthal speculates that the Angels are now serious about trying to retain John Lackey—if only to keep the improving Mariners from signing him. -zk

Crede Flying Under The Radar Again?
FanGraphs takes a look at Joe Crede's value. His name has been mentioned as a possible 3B solution for the O's in 2010. What do you guys think? Worth it? -Stacey

For now, Jim Johnson is staying in the pen
Turns out the O's were discussing turning JJ back into a starter for 2010 but have decided against it. I'm glad about that. -Stacey

Nets Chase 1988 Orioles | For the public, by The Public
With their 18th consecutive loss to start the season, the Nets have set the NBA record, and are just 4 losses away from eclipsing the Orioles for all four major sports. Of course, the Nets only play 82 games, so 18 losses to start the year is much worse than 21 in the MLB. -Stacey

Perhaps the laws of physics cease to exist on your stove. Were these magic grits? Did you buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his Open Thread?

Orioles release 2010 Spring schedule

zknower — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:31:06 -0000

Orioles release 2010 Spring schedule

Baltimore will kick off its Grapefruit League slate at home March 3 against Tampa Bay, one of 16 games at Ed Smith Stadium in '10.
The Orioles will face 10 different opponents at home during Spring Training, and each of their division rivals will visit their stadium at least once. In fact, New York, Boston and Tampa Bay will each visit three times.
The Orioles will also see the Pirates, Twins, Phillies, Tigers and Mets during their spring slate. Baltimore will also make visits to Toronto's spring complex in Dunedin, Fla., New York's in Tampa, Fla., and Philadelphia's in Clearwater, Fla. Previously, the Orioles had been limited to a few complexes within driving distance of Fort Lauderdale.
The O's spring campaign will wrap up with a home game against the Mets on April 3, and Baltimore will have a workout at Ed Smith Stadium and another at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg before Opening Day.
Tickets for individual games will go on sale Jan. 16 at 10 a.m. ET.

Sunday Lighter-Fare Bird Droppings

zknower — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:58:55 -0000

More photos » by ROBERTO BOREA - ASSOCIATED PRESS

Your Offseason O of the Day: Robbie Alomar

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We all clipped the one major news item yesterday, so I have included commentary from everyone.

Commissioner plans to step down after 2012 -- chicagotribune.com
Bud Selig has declined an overture from a group of baseball owners asking him to stay on after his contract ends in 2012, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing unnamed sources. -duck

So does this mean Andy MacPhail has until the end of the 2012 season to complete his work in Baltimore? -Stacey

I'd personally love to see MacPhail in the commissioner's office—assuming the Orioles have become contenders in three years, which I believe will happen—but would mourn the Orioles' loss of a GM. If we lose MacPhail, who would you want to take his place on the O's? -zk

...and in other news,

Halladay OK with deal to Yankees | MLB.com: News
I am shocked, shocked, to hear that Roy Halladay would reportedly waive his no-trade clause for a trade to the MFY. -zk.

Topper: Who the hell is that guy?
Perryman: That's your Open Thread for the next thirteen weeks.

The Baltimore Orioles will be featured as part of MLB Network’s "30 Clubs, 30 Recaps" segment d...

zknower — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:43:59 -0000

The Baltimore Orioles will be featured as part of MLB Network’s "30 Clubs, 30 Recaps" segment during "Hot Stove" tonight, starting at 6:00 p.m. ET. MLB Network’s Matt Vasgersian, Harold Reynolds, Billy Ripken, Jon Heyman and Ken Rosenthal will go back through the Orioles’ 2009 season and discuss the team’s hitting, defense, starting pitching and bullpen.

Each episode of "Hot Stove" during the offseason will feature a new edition of "30 Clubs, 30 Recaps." Tonight’s episode will re-air at 7:00 p.m. ET and at 10:00 p.m. ET. For more information, please go to www.mlbnetwork.com.

Per email I received today....

ALCS Game 6 Postponed Until Tomorrow

zknower — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:11:56 -0000

More photos »

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Per Joel Sherman (NY Post) on Twitter, tonight's ALCS game between the Angels and Yankees has been postponed.

Game 6 is now scheduled for 8:20pm EDT tomorrow (Sunday).

Game 7, if necessary, will be at 7:57pm EDT on Monday.

The Angels are probably psyched, because they can now start Lackey on short rest Monday if they so desire.

The Onion nails it: "Redskins Hold Press Conference To Announce They Are Still Sort Of A Football Team"

zknower — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:45:31 -0000

This is pretty funny.

Washington Redskins head coach Jim Zorn held a press conference Sunday to reassure fans that, despite an inability to effectively execute their offense, defense, or special teams, the Redskins were still somewhat comparable to a real football team. "It's been a tough season so far, and even though we are 2-4, we still have players, uniforms, Motorola headsets—all the components that technically constitute an NFL team, sort of," Zorn said while grimacing and making a "so-so" gesture with his hand.
"Sure, I was stripped of play-calling responsibilities by team management, and I really don't have any clue who will play quarterback for us this Sunday, but I swear to you, in a weird, very convoluted way, we are in the NFL." Placing his hand over the microphone, Zorn then spoke briefly with an unidentified man near the stage, and announced that, for what it's worth, the organization owns the Internet domain name washingtonredskins.com through 2010.

Dead on.

Down and Dirty NLCS Gamethread

zknower — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:47:25 -0000

More photos » by Matt Slocum - ASSOCIATED PRESS

2 months ago: Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Pedro Martinez during a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

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Dodgers and Phillies are currently tied after 8 innings in the bottom of the 8th inning.

Markakis: Done in by Aubrey Huff's departure?

zknower — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:12:32 -0000

Just a quick musing on my part:

How much did the Aubrey Huff trade affect Nick Markakis' stats?

Before you flame me, consider this: Yes, Huff had a down year, but he still had 73 RBIs at the time of his trade. Opposing pitchers started the season knowing that the 2008 edition of Huff had had 32 dingers and was fifth in the league in OPS.

And yeah, Huff was off the pace for much of 2009, but players go through ups and downs all the time, and he had enough good stretches early in the year that pitchers had to respect him somewhat. So there's little doubt that in the typical Orioles' 2009 lineup of 3-Markakis, 4-Huff, they were throwing better stuff Nicky's way.

When Aubrey was traded in August, who were these pitchers to fear? Melvin Mora? How long did it take Trembley to move Nolan Reimold up?

No, I don't think this accounts for all of Nicky's lowered numbers (AJ's declining average and time on the DL hurt Nicky's RBI chances) but I think it's a contributing factor.

Part of getting Nicky back to form next year will involve Andy finding someone with a big bat to protect him in the lineup.

Stats, for those of you who are so inclined.....

Aubrey Huff was traded on August 17th. Nick's stats before and after that date, courtesy B-R.com:

Date	Tm	G	GS	Rslt	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	ROE	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Apr 6, 2009 to Aug 17, 2009	BAL	118	117	48-70	527	480	70	146	39	1	15	84	39	0	77	3	0	5	9	9	3	2	.304	.357	.483	.840
per 162 games		163	161		724	660	97	201	54	2	21	116	54	0	106	5	0	7	13	13	5	3

Link

Date	Tm	G	GS	Rslt	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	ROE	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Aug 18, 2009 to Oct 4, 2009	BAL	43	43	16-27	184	164	24	42	6	1	3	17	17	0	21	0	0	3	0	3	3	0	.256	.321	.360	.680
per 162 games		162	162		694	618	91	159	23	4	12	65	65	0	80	0	0	12	0	12	12	0

Link
Note that the only statistically significant offensive category that's higher in the second stretch is BB/162 games. It's 20% higher. Nicky's numbers all went down except this walk rate. It's not like he was getting a bunch of IBBs, but pitchers weren't afraid of losing him to pitch to the next guy either.

Don't Blow It Up

zknower — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:16:56 -0000

This post is late by a few days. I had a pretty crazy week.

But I wanted to say as early as last Monday, "Dudes. Chill."

It's indisputable that the 'Skins played like crap against the Lions. But a shitty loss was blown out of proportion by the Lions' winless streak and the media calling for Zorn's head, Campbell's head, anyone's head. Every team in the league takes a complete dump in the field once in a while.

But calling for a complete rebuild 3 games into the season?

C'mon. I expect better than that from HH. That's Daniel Snyder-esque impatience.

Today's mildly successful win against the pathetic Bucs doesn't exactly inspire confidence, but there were a few sweet plays in it. Portis got on track a bit. The Campbell-to-Moss hookup was poetry. Cooley had a number of clutch plays. To balance out the goodness, there were some inexplicable play calls, some horrible Campbell INTs, a blocked PAT for chrissake. But in the end, the team bore down and did what it needed to to win.

The fact is, this team went through a horrible period of being snakebit. It was obvious they were playing tight. You could see on the field during the Rams game that everyone, from the head coach on down, was pressing too hard, due to the insanely elevated expectations of "playing in Washington, DC, in Zorn's second season." They were supposed to have worked everything out and been stupendous somehow 'cause, you know, they had all last year to become perfect.

That same tightness, the choking, the tense/nervous/jittery energy pervaded the team through the next 6 quarters or so.

Today against Tampa Bay, they shook some of it off. You could sense the tension seeping away. Once you've hit rock bottom, what is there to be tense about? Some of the guys look like they had a wakeup call in Detroit. The O-line looked particularly improved this game.

I'm not saying this is a playoff team. I really have no idea, and neither do they. But there is an awful lot of talent on this squad, and now that no one gives a rat's ass about them, maybe, just maybe, they'll start to ease up a bit and remember what got them to the show in the first place.

Next up are two teams that still haven't won a game this season. We could conceivably be hosting Philadelphia in three weeks with a 4-2 record. It might be a sloppy, not-living-up-to-potential 4-2 record, but honestly, I don't care.

As I said in a previous post, let the team figure out its identity during this early, soft part of the season. They're not an elite team right now. They can't even claim to be a playoff team. But maybe enough of a lesson has been learned from these few weeks of putridness that by November, they'll be a step close to making that claim.