Back In Town...

OK, no more travel for the foreseeable future. In the last 5 weeks I've been in 15 states! Anyway, on to the O's...

So on Monday, I was at a Durham Bulls game (in Durham...against the Toledo Mudhens...how cool was that?) when I noticed that there was a guy playing for the Bulls named Chris Richard. Hmmm...checking my program I found that it was indeed that Chris Richard, the one who played for the O's in 2001 and hit 15 homers. (Wow, we could use some of that production now...) We traded Mike Timlin to St. Louis for him and then traded him to the Rockies a couple of years later for "Stumblin' " Jack Cust. Timlin's still pitching effectively for the Red Sox, Cust is now getting a second chance with the A's and Richard has been battling injuries and playing in Oklahoma City and Indianapolis the last two years trying to get back to the majors. That night, Richard went 3-3 with a double and and 2 RBI batting cleanup for Durham and won that night's game MVP. Just one of the many reasons I love minor league baseball; you never know who you're going to get to see on a given night...

Who are the two best offense players for the O's? Brian Roberts is clearly the best but I wonder how many of you would pick Kevin Millar as number two? I will and he clearly is. He's OPSing .828 and despite having to split time with the struggling Jay Gibbons for most of the first two months, he's having a really nice year. Under Perlozzo, Millar produced but was banished to the 7 hole. (only when Sam got desperate in his last days did Kevin get as high as 5th in the batting order.) Dave Trembley has moved him up in the order and has been playing him more regularly to good results. This past week, Millar was hitting in the 3 or 4 slot exclusively. Yeah, it'd be nice to have a 30+ HR guy in one of those slots but part of being a good manager is knowing what you have and what you don't and maximizing the potential of your lineup. Here's to hoping Millar can continue to produce until some of these more heralded Baltimore bats wake up...

The O's have parted ways with Scott Williamson, presumably to give some of their young arms a look out of the 'pen. Williamson did a decent job this year when healthy and that was the real issue in letting him go. Good luck to Scott Williamson, I've always been a fan. I was working on a post about the bullpen and how the rest of the season will be open tryouts for next year and the O's have shown that that's the way they feel too. I'm all for giving the kids a shot, we have a lot of good young relievers in a farm system that seems bereft of anything else...

Congratulations to Brian Roberts for making the All-Star team. Outside of Roberts, the only O you could make an argument for was Jeremy Guthrie but there are too many AL starters having big years to get in the door for him. The irony here (on many levels) is that Roberts shouldn't even be here and we have Peter Angelos to thank. Here's how the other players the O's would've received for Roberts are doing so far:

Marcus Giles: .251, 4 HR, 7 SB, .668 OPS

Adam LaRoche: .235, 11 HR, 48 RBI, .741 OPS

Honestly, I would've made that trade before the start of this season. For once, Angelos made the right call...

Don't look now but the O's are 5-4 in their last nine games. Not earth-shattering but a marked improvement over the late-Perlozzo era. After tonight's game with Chicago, here are the upcoming series for July: at Texas, White Sox at home, at Seattle, at Oakland, Tampa Bay at home and Yankees at home. Outside of Oakland, there's not a team on the schedule that is not beatable. The schedule is setting up very favorably for Dave Trembley's job prospects...

Welcome to the majors Garrett Olson. We fans are happy to see you up, we need all the help we can get...

As I said last week, Daniel Cabrera needs to stay with Baltimore, even if this is the best he'll ever be but I still think he's just having a bit of an off year. All his peripheral numbers are in line or better than his career numbers except two: His homeruns allowed and his strikeout rate. He is giving up homers at a rate nearly twice what would be normal for him and is posting a strikeout rate that will be his lowest since 2004 (6.8/9 IP). His walks per 9 is at it's lowest rate of his career and he leads the team in innings pitched. I know it can be frustrating to watch him as a fan but I think any team could use a guy who can pitch 200 innings and be occasionally brilliant. That's enough reason to keep him. And I may be crazy but I just think he's a bit off this year and will be better next year. (I know, I know...)