Things don’t seem like they can get much worse for the O’s. Except they are now calling up a 23 year old in Brad Bergesen to end the losing way. The O’s will host the White Sox and Rangers hoping to end their losing ways they’ve picked up. The weekend in Boston was rough but other than Monday’s blowout, the other 3 games were close. Friday was a game that should have been a win though. Up 7-0 after 2 innings and losing that lead can hurt your offense’s confidence.

We’ll see if the offense can pick it up this week back at the Yard. Hopefully Adam Jones will return to the lineup after leaving Sunday’s game with a sore hamstring. Ryan Freel had a scary injury today when he took an errant pickoff throw off his head.

For the pitchers, it’s very simple. The starters need to work into the sixth more often. The bullpen is going to be killed by midseason at this rate. Whoever is starting needs to realize how important this is. I’m rooting for a 4-2 homestand but praying we can get through it with a healtier lineup and bullpen than what we have now.

-Game 2 of the 2009 season will be fun. I’m willing to guarantee it. Seeing Wang vs Uehara will be interesting. The O’s are coming off an impressive offensive display in beating the Yankees on Monday and will look to take the series before turning to a Thursday afternoon game. The O’s will most likely trot out a similar lineup, with the interesting twist of Melvin Mora batting cleanup. With Jones slotted to stay in 2 (looked pretty good on Monday) and Markakis hitting 3rd (your best hitter should hit in the 3 hole in my opinion), the team is inclined to have Mora or Huff in the cleanup role. We’ll see if the team shakes up the lineup alot or sticks to the same one. My early prediction is Trembley rides out this top 5 in the lineup through the first month.

-Jeremy Guthrie looked fine on Monday. I know he wasn’t at the top of his game but he faced a very tough lineup that could have had him out of the game early if he pitched the way he had in the WBC and Spring Training. He picked up the win and was in control for the most part. He kept the Yanks off their game by mixing his multiple pitches (showed the changeup at opportune times).

-Chris Ray’s first appearance was short and very unsweet. He looked fragile and needs to come out strong. Sure, he just came back to Majors after missing a year due to injury. But he didn’t help himself with his fans who wanted him to be closer (two thumbs pointing towards me). Jim Johnson will continue to pitch the 8th as Ray gets his “swagger” back. George Sherrill will remain closer longer than I expected if Ray is shaky. We could even see Ray get sent down if he throws a few of these kinds of appearances together. Dennis Sarfate could become the new 7th inning guy if Ray struggles as well.

-I’m still not expecting Caesar Izturis to hit more than 5 HR’s. To get 1 on Opening Day is nice though, especially with the nice little “fan interference” angle Damon tried to pull when his glove was clearly in the crowd (making it fair play). As long as Izturis continues to bring it on the defensive side, I’m fine with his signing. If he can hit .275-.280 with some speed on the basepaths while hitting 9th, he’ll continue to get my compliments.

Starting Lineups are up now. Here’s the O’s batting order.

1) Roberts, 2B
2) Jones, CF
3) Markakis, RF
4) Mora, 3B
5) Huff, 1B
6) Wigginton, DH
7) Scott, LF
8) Zaun, C
9) Izturis, SS

This looks like the lineup we’ll see on most days against LHP. Felix Pie will play against RHP in place of Scott in LF. We’ll also see Freel making starts at a few positions throughout the season. Jeremy Guthrie hasn’t thrown well in the WBC or Spring Training so let’s hope he turns it around here on Opening Day.

Well we’re only a few hours away from the new season starting. I personally can’t wait because as of right now, the O’s are 0-0 with hope. Now we can’t expect playoffs or maybe even a .500 season….but optimism is always at it’s highest in early April. I want to lay down 10 of my personal predictions for the Orioles though.

1) Brian Roberts will steal at least 55 bases. Higher OBP% leads to him having a great year on the basepaths.

2) Koji Uehera wins 10 games. Many aren’t giving him much of a chance to stand up but I think he wins enough to stay in the rotation.

3) Chris Ray gets 10 more saves than George Sherrill. I think he assumes the job at some point and keeps it. Sherrill was inconsistent for most of the last four months of last season and hasn’t proven to be a reliable closer.

4) Here’s my token Matt Wieters prediction: 420 AB’s, .288 batting average, 15 HR’s, 70 RBI’s. The kid is a stud and it’s only a matter of time before he finds himself in the everyday lineup. If we had a pool going, I’d take May 11 as the date of call-up.

5) Alfredo Simon and Mark Hendrickson make a combined 30 starts at most. Neither lasts the full season in the rotation and if they do, the O’s will win 50 games.

6) Adam Jones takes the next big step in his ascent to be a Major League star as he will be a name everyone knows by the end of the season. Let’s just say…. .285 BA, 30 HR’s and 95 RBI’s.

7) Jeremy Guthrie gets off to a terrible start this season but rebounds nicely to win 12 games and have a below 3.60 ERA. The guy has to come through for us just about every 5th day to give this shaky rotation some stability. He has a lot on his shoulders but he will be able to deal with it.

8) Jim Johnson is the star of the bullpen, even with Chris Ray being back as closer (see #3). He fortifies games in the 7th and 8th innings, keeps us out of trouble and is the best pitcher in the bullpen…if he stays healthy. He was shut down for awhile in Spring Training but he should be ready to improve on a solid year.

9) Ryan Freel = Super Sub. Caesar Izturis = Finally a good defensive SS. Gregg Zaun = Better than Ramon Hernandez was the past few years.

10) The Orioles win 75 games. Doesn’t seem like much but it’s a step in the right direction as we wait for our pitching of the future to arrive at the big league level.

I’ll update again tomorrow during the game. Go O’s…we need Guthrie to come out and give us 6 innings. Hopefully we can hit C.C. who tends to be less effective early in the season. This is a chance (maybe our only one on national tv) to prove to the doubters that this team can compete at a higher level than in the past season. I know I’ll be watching.

For the Orioles, the past few weeks have been tough. The team has fallen to a season high 8 games under .500, hurting their chances to finish 82-80 which has to be the goal at this point. We’re less than a week away from 40 man rosters and the question of whether Matt Wieters will join the big league ballclub. The team right now has slowed down a bit on offense and the pitching remains terribly inconsistent and tough to watch on a nightly basis.

Here’s a look at the final 30 games of the 2008 season:

7 vs Tampa Bay

6 vs Toronto

4 vs Cleveland

3 vs Boston, New York, Oakland, Minnesota

1 vs Chicago

The O’s get unlucky having to see hot Cleveland and Toronto teams for a 1/3 of their schedule. They will also be playing TB, a young team looking for their first playoff spot. NYY and Bos did a number on the O’s at Camden Yards last week so these game look tough as well. Minnesota is trying to hang with Chicago and brings their playoff hopes to Camden Yards in September. The 3 game series with Oakland looks like the most winnable games on the schedule, as the A’s have struggled since making the Harden and Blanton trades.

Tonight it’s Jon Danks vs Radhames Liz. Brian Burres returned last night to the starting rotation and gave the team nothing. The bullpen is depleted at this point with no real option at closer (Jim Johnson would be a candidate but he’s struggled of late as well). For now, my money is on the O’s going no better than 12-18 the rest of the season, leading to a 74 win season….one that will fall short as they flirted with .500 for four months before August came around.

What a day to get back on the blog. Just minutes ago, the O’s defeated the Angels 3-0 out in Anaheim behind rookie Chris Waters. Waters gave up 1 hit over 8 innings, showing some tenacity along the way as the kid had quite the memorable first start. The team improves to 54-58 (5-3 on the road trip that ends tomorrow).

For the O’s, it was another interesting game. They recorded 9 hits, 3 by Luke Scott, including his 19th HR. George Sherrill recorded his 31st save in the ninth inning and the team can look forward to tomorrow where they will send Garrett Olson to the mound against Ervin Santana.

The team recieved some bad news today though, as they learned Adam Jones will be on the DL at least for 15 days with a foot problem. He’s been out the past few games with Jay Payton replacing him in CF. The team called up Luis Montanez, who came in tonight in the ninth inning to play LF. Montanez is having a monster year at Triple A so it will be interesting to see what he can do for the Major League squad in limited time. He’ll find himself as the fourth OF, as Payton will play CF and Scott will play LF. This also gives both of these vets a chance to play everyday, as they platooned each other in LF the past four months.

Wednesday’s ballgame is a 3:35 start with Olson vs Santana. The O’s look to take their third straight road series on this road trip after taking the first two against NY and Seattle. They would lose the finale in both of those series so hopefully the O’s can head back home for the weekend with a big series win.

For the O’s, Monday’s 8-3 win over Toronto was refreshing. It didn’t have much drama late (making it 2 games in a row, counting Sunday’s beatdown the Tigers put on the O’s) but it’s nice to see the team win a game that isn’t decided in the final inning or two. With 3 more against Toronto, the goal has to be taking 3 of 4 from the Jays.

Radhames Liz proved again to be effective at times, as he moved his record to 4-2. His ERA still has to bother some but he gives a quality 5 to 6 innings out there from time to time. He has stablized the back end of the rotation in his short time with the ballclub I look for the O’s to keep him up throughout the rest of the season. He certainly has the stuff to have a future starter for the team and this year is a good test for him to get his share of starts.

The offense has looked much better in the past month, as the O’s have “exploded” for 8 and 11 runs in 2 of their last 3 games. While Justin Verlander brought the O’s back to Earth Sunday, the team continues to hit the ball well. Moving an improving Adam Jones to the #2 spot in the lineup, allowing Nick Markakis to move back to his tradtional #3 spot has given the O’s some pop at the top of the lineup. The next three games will show us what the O’s really are about as they will face Shawn Marcum, AJ Burnett and Roy Halladay. This will be followed by a 3 game weekend series against the Angels. 6 games against two good pitching teams should give an indication on whether the O’s offense has really arrived.

Well another MLB All-Star Game has come and passed…leaving us with a familiar results. The AL gained home-field advantage for the World Series again as they defeated the NL 4-3 in 15 innings. Yes, I watched every at-bat of this game..it was long but well worth it with many big plays including the NL continually getting out of jams to keep the hope alive that the long losing streak would end. This didn’t happen but the game was certainly entertaining.

For the O’s, George Sherrill pitched 2 and 1/3 innings last night of shutout ball. He looked great, coming in to strikeout Adrian Gonzalez with 2 outs and bases loaded. He ended his night by allowing some long fly ball outs but overall looked better than he has in weeks. Whether this is due to the exhibition atmosphere (although there was some tension and tight spots) or Sherrill finding himself will be realized pretty soon. He didn’t throw that many pitches overall so the big deal over his 2 and 1/3 innings in null and void.

The O’s open up the second half of the season with an 11 game homestand. Let’s hope the team is refreshed after limping into the half. They are 45-48 overall with my stated goal (as of right now) being 82 wins. That means an above .500 finish for the first time since 1997, something this franchise needs more than anything. A playoff run is unlikely, as the overall talent and tough division will make even 82 wins a tough goal.

The O’s host Detroit for 4, then Toronto for 4 with the Angels coming in for 3. A 6-5 record might be the best that Baltimore can do here, with 2 strong teams and another ballclub coming in hot (Toronto).

I’ve also posted my MLB final standings predictions: http://sportsblogadam.blogspot.com/

The O’s ended their dreadful 5 game losing streak with a convincing 7-3 win over the Boston Red Sox on Friday night. An interesting game to say the least. The O’s did manage to create a bit of excitement by loading the bases in the ninth before striking out the final batter. For the Johnson/Sherrill combo, it has not been a good last 20 days. But they didn’t allow any runs tonight in their 2 combined innings (JJ 1.2 innings, Sherrill .1 inning). Sherrill finally recorded a save after blowing what seemed to be 3 or 4 in a row.

The offense was led by a three hit night by Brian Roberts (a HR short of the cycle along with 2 stolen bases). Nick Markakis continues to impress as he walked three times but didn’t get a hit. His OBP % is over .400 now and he will continue to be the catalyst to offensive surges for this team.

Overall, it was nice to end the losing streak and cut the deficit to 8 games in the wild card. While that may seem very far away, a couple of victories on Sat. and Sun. would cut it 6. Plus, the O’s are only 6 back in the loss column as we speak. Because Boston has played 4 more games than the O’s, Baltimore can cut it to 4 in the loss column with a sweep.

Another interesting thing I’ve seen throughout the year has been patience at the plate. The O’s are a much more disciplined ballclub and that shows with earlier exits by opposing SP’s along with higher pitch count (their related but not always).

The pitching matchups for Saturday and Sunday are as follows: Liz vs Wakefield, 7:05 pm Sat. and Cabrera vs. Matsuzaka, 1:35 pm Sunday. These two matchups will be interesting but the matchup tonight (Burres vs Bucholz) didn’t favor the O’s either. We shall see what this team has left in the overachieving first half. 45-46 is something we would have taken but this team has blown many games in the past few weeks that leave us just outside of playoff contention.

The O’s wasted a perfect week to pick up ground by going 3-4 at home against KC and Texas. This was a dissapointing development as the team had been playing great at home coming into the week. Now they will head up north to battle with the Blue Jays for 3 (Tues-Thurs) followed by a weekend set in Boston to end the first half of the season.

Boston leads the wild card race at this point, with Baltimore 6 games back. This isn’t too bad for July 7, as preseason expectations weren’t high. A 3-3 week this week wouldn’t be the worst thing as that would send the O’s into the break a game over .500.

George Sherrill was the only Oriole named to the All-Star team. Brian Roberts will compete in the fan vote for the final spot. Aubrey Huff had a case at DH but Milton Bradley was picked after David Ortiz’s selection by the fans won’t matter because he’s hurt.

Tampa Bay has been playing outstanding, increasing their lead over 2nd place Boston to 5 games. They will play the Yankees this week with NYY trailing TB by 9 games coming into the series. The division race was close for awhile but TB has all but assured a first place stay into the all-star break.

 Suprisingly, the O’s nearly won yesterday’s game despite Jim Johnson and George Sherrill giving up plenty of late inning runs. The team ended up losing by 1 but it still was a tough loss to take. The Rangers can score with the best of them but after Friday’s blowout win, the O’s were poised to take the series. Needless to say, it didn’t happen.