Around the Oriole Blog-O-Sphere: New Faces, New Places Edition

Former Oriole play-by-play announcer Jon Miller has been dismissed from his spot on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, along with color analyst Joe Morgan. Miller is still a superb radio announcer but over the past few years I though his performances on TV had become gimmicky and "Bermanesque", for lack of a better term. Miller will continue his work for the San Francisco Giants and ESPN has left the door open for him to continue calling Sunday night games on the radio.

It's never too late to start looking forward to Spring Training. Roar from 34 posts some pictures of the renovations to Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Spring Training home of the Orioles.

Dave Trembley has accepted a position as a minor league instructor with the Atlanta Braves. Glad to see Trembley, a nice guy if not a good manager, land on his feet in a good organization.

Along with all the changes to the seats at Oriole park this offseason, the Orioles will also be changing concessionaires. The club has severed ties with Aramark and entered into an agreement with Delaware North. Delaware North handles concessions at Turner Field in Atlanta and those are pretty good.

Stacy at Camden Chat makes a compelling case that Matt Wieters was snubbed for a Gold Glove this season. Beyond the Boxscore releases their catcher defense rankings and backs up Stacy's claim by ranking Wieters the best defensive catcher in the AL and the fourth best in all of baseball. Measuring catcher defense is am inexact science but I know this: an award for defense that is given 5 times to Derek Jeter and just twice to Cal Ripken, Jr. is an award so cheapened and flawed that I hardly care anymore.

Pressbox Online has a positive article on former Oriole GM Roland Hemond that they wanted me to pass along. But every time I think of Roland Hemond, I remember how he blamed Ben McDonald's contract negotiations for costing the Orioles the 1989 AL East crown. And then I think he's a bloviating douche bag.

Dan at Camden Crazies delves into Brad Bergesen's 2010 season and explains why it was a tale of two pitchers.