Thursday, April 16, 2009

Random Thoughts on the Season So Far...

I have referred to some of the lesser members of the Oriole rotation as "cannon fodder" and Mark Hendrickson filled that role to a T last night in Arlington. Just one of those nights...and it won't be the last.

(Ironically, the O's lost to Kris Benson, a guy who they showed no interest in during the offseason. He's no great shakes but was he really worse than the crew we brought in instead?)

On a bright note, Adam Jones went 2-4 with a double and his second home run and 3 RBI. Lots of raw power from Jones early this season.

Matt Albers was sent to Norfolk earlier in the week...and brought back last night due to injuries to Alfredo Simon and Melvin Mora. Radhames Liz came back too and both he and Albers were part of last night's debacle.

Chad Moeller, Mr. "No-hit, good glove", has thrown out nobody all season. Turns out, he has never been good at keeping runners honest. The best rate he has ever had was last year for the Yankees when he threw out 38% of would-be baserunners. Before that, his success rate was more in the range of the mid-20's. So he's not good at throwing runners out and never has been. Does he call a good game? Does he do all those little things that make a guy an asset in the field? I don't know, haven't seen enough of him. But I suppose he was the best we could get knowing that his day in the bigs are over when Matt Wieters shows up. (On the flip side, he is hitting .364...)

Ummm...Hayden Penn got the win for the Marlins in relief against the Braves last night. He has a 0.00 ERA so far. Just sayin'.

Mora was swinging a hot bat before his injury and Ty Wigginton will see the lion's share of the work. There's no real silver lining to Mora's injury like Scott Moore or Robert Andino getting a look there. It just sucks.

6-3 is nothing to sneeze at but it's an ugly 6-3. Did we really expect any better?

The good news: Jeremy Guthrie on the mound against Brad Penny and we finally get the heck out of Arlington.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What makes power raw? Is there non-raw power? AJ's BA/OBP are pretty good, does that make his power refined?

DempseysArmy said...

Obviously, you are unfamiliar with the concept of ISO. Jones leads the Orioles by a large margin. Go look it up.

Good day, sir!