Base Hits: 10/2/2008

Well, the one last thing I was rooting for the last week of the season was for Nick Markakis to walk 100 times this season. Sure, it was just a way to keep interested during the last few games of yet another losing season but I was pulling for him nonetheless!

Nick lost his bid to become the third player in Oriole history to join the 100-100 club by one walk. 99 walks for the season. Still, the season was another nice step forward in his career. But more on that later...

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It's this time of year when I put away my Oriole loyalties and start following...the West Oahu Canefires and the Surprise Rafters!

Yes, it's time for the fall and winter leagues and the Orioles continue to play, albeit as different entities.

2007 4th round pick Tim Bascom heads the list of players playing in Hawaii this winter and the Canfires are undefeated on the young season at 4-0.

The real glamour players for the O's minor league system are in Surprise this year. C MAtt Wieters, OF Noland Reimold (for the third straight fall) and top 2008 pick Brian Matusz will all represent the Orioles against the best talent in the minors this fall in Surprise, Arizona. Games start next week.

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Win Shares on the trade monitor are complete for the year. Again, I always like these trades in the long run but had no idea that Adam Jones would outperform Erik Bedard by himself in the first season of the trade! Likewise, I liked the addition of Luke Scott but had no clue that he would nearly make up for the Miguel Tejada's offense by himself. An there are 8 other players we got back in those trades. We may be able to point to those trades in three years as the point where the Orioles turned the corner to becoming a winning organization again.

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At long last, Desert O of Weaver's Tantrum has finished his hike of the Appalachian Trail. More than 2000 miles from Georgia to Maine that took him the better part of the baseball season. Congrats to him!

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I'll be quiet with posting (probably for the next week and a half) while I am in Belgium next week. If you're interested in such things, you can follow along at Bottles of Barley. But you never know, a layover at an airport, a delayed flight might prompt me to do some Oriole blogging during the trip as well.