The Orioles were swept by the Jays, again, as the second half of this brutal season shambles forward. The Orioles had opportunities the first two games of the series but were once again stymied by poor situational hitting. Adam Jones was unable to get the two-out hit Friday and Cesar Izturis failed both Friday and Saturday to come up with the tying/ go-ahead runs. Today however Brian Matusz got shelled as the Orioles lost 10-1. The Birds are 0-9 against the Jays this year, reverse that record and the Orioles would be in fourth place. Amazing how this game works isn’t it?
The few rays of sunshine in the overcast Summer is the fact that Brian Roberts is progressing well through his rehab assignment and all reports are saying that the hiring of Buck Showalter is going to happen, just not imminent. Which leads us to the next question: What is the holdup?
honestly i don’t know and no one outside of Andy MacPhail’s office knows either. There is a world’s worth of speculation out there everything from Andy MacPhail not wanting to give up any real control of the team to Showalter to hammering out the transition of multiple coaches and positions to the old chestnut of Peter Angelos not wanting to spend the money to get him in here. Could any of this be true, maybe anything is possible with this organization. One thing is clear Andy MacPhail is on one timetable – his own and fans can do little else than wait and complain.
MacPhail has a reputation of being – deliberate, and that is putting mildly. MacPhail is deliberate to the point of frustration with many fans but he is concerned about “getting it right” whatever that “it” may be. how hard is it to name a new manager? Well I am willing to bet that it is a lot harder than many of us wish to believe it is. That being said I would feel a lot more comfortable about the situation if I felt that something was getting done. All reports are contending that Showalter is the guy but nothing is in stone yet and for a fanbase that has already had to sit through this nightmare of a season, well the natives are restless.
On the trade front, Ty Wigginton is receiving a lot of looks from other teams as he and Jeremy Guthrie seem to be the biggest trade tokens the Orioles have this month. Wigginton could go to any number of teams, but I think he ends up in Texas. The Rangers having traded Justin Smoak they could use a right-handed platoon at first for young Chris Davis. Guthrie I think ends up in San Diego and his hard-luck loss Saturday night where he was touching 97mph on the gun surely helped his case as the surprising Padres look to hold off the Rockies in a tight NL West.
The Orioles should hope to get young position players back in these deals. You can never have enough pitching, but the Orioles need to stock up on hitters in the minors as there is an absolute dearth in that department throughout the minor leagues. Shortstop and firstbase is where the organization really needs to concentrate, get young and get strong. Guthrie and Wigginton will not likely bring back ML-level talent on their own but they can get the Orioles a couple prospects each.
We still have plent of baseball left to play Orioles fans – let’s see what happens.
