Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Good start

The Orioles are off to a good start for new skipper Buck Showalter. They won the first game he was in the dugout beating the Angels 6-3. The club rallied for 4 runs in the 6th inning fueled by a Luke Scott 2 run homer and 3rd base prospect Josh Bell drove in his first major league runs with a double. Jeremy Guthrie was outstanding going 7 innings and giving up just the 3 runs. That's great but how long is it going to last. One of things I will need to see is if some of the young guys progress in the final 2 months of the season. Young players like Matusz, Arrieta, Wieters, Adam Jones and to some degree Markakis have all gone backwards this year. I think one of the reasons for optimism at the beginning of the season was some of the progress those players had made in 2009. Frankly part of the reason the team has won only 33 games this season is the lack of progress from some of these young players. Let's see if Buck can live up to his reputation for developing young players. This team has plenty of them.

Talking with some beat guys this morning...they all say their was a new buzz in the ballpark last night but still only 17 thousand people attended! I would be encouraged if the Orioles play
the final 60 games of the season at 500...now that would be progress!

One other note to pass along. Longtime Baltimore Sun Sportswriter Jim Henneman had this nugget. Interesting to see that when traded to the NL West leading Padres the fading Miguel Tejada was installed as the team's staring shortstop--a position he hasn't played all season--and batted 4th. Face it folks Miggy is nearing the end of his career yet when he is traded the the National League he becomes the cornerstone of a pennant contender. Says a lot about both leagues. Does anyone think a NL team can beat the Yanks or Rays in the World Series?

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