The Baltimore Orioles start August play at 44-58 overall, and just 3-7 in their last 10 games.
They are currently 28-24 at home, and 16-34 on the road.
In the dog days of August, the O’s will have only 1 day off.
They will face the following:
August 1st – 2nd vs Boston
August 3rd – 6th @ Detroit
August 7th – 9th @ Toronto
August 10th – 12 vs Oakland
August 13th Off
August 14th – 17th vs LAA
August 18th – 20th @ Tampa
August 21st – 23rd @ CWS
August 24th – 26th @ Minnesota
August 27th – 30th vs Cleveland
August 31st – vs NYY
That is a total of 30 games, with 14 at home, and 16 on the road.
Goals & Thoughts for the Month
1) Matt Wieters needs to play about 25 of these 30 games. Wieters has hits in each of his last 8 games, and quietly has brought his average up to .279. He seems poised to finish strong these last two months.
2) It was alluded to last night on the game-cast, but Wigginton has to essientially take over as the everyday 3rd-baseman. Mora’s option will not be picked up, and Wigginton is currently the most likely option for the 2010 everyday job. A two month audition to end the year, is all Wigginton can ask for.
3) While I hated to see Bergesen injured, it is possible that missing 2-3 starts, will allow him to finish the year fresh. In 2009, Bergesen has pitched a combined 134 innings, after pitching 165.1 in 2008. These few missed starts, should have him ending 2009 with roughly the same total innings.
4) Reimold has been prone to extreme hot, and cold spells his entire professional career. He started off hot for the O’s, the league adjusted, and now he has adjusted back and caught-fire again. When his bat cools off, can he limit how long and pronounced that cool-spell is?
5) David Hernandez gets to make his 2nd consecutive start vs Boston today. It will be interesting to see the adjustments the Red Sox make. Beyond today, the rest of 2009 is about Hernandez making his case that he can stay in the ML rotation, and will not have to be groomed as a Closer. I was estatic to see his poise in Yankee Stadium, and Fenway last week. Now what I want to see is the slider he featured in the Minors, and an improving K rate. Hernandez is at 106 innings for the year, after throwing 141 at Bowie in 2009. He should be strong enough to get through the remainder of the year.
6) Chris Tillman should have a long and tremendous future ahead of him. There is little that the 21 year-old has too accomplish at this stage, beyond taking the ball every 5th day. For the foreseeable future, the goals will remain the same. Start-to-start, and month-to-month progression. I would expect Tillman to end 2009 with 50 or so ML innings, and an era in the 5.25 range. This will have him in excellent position to meet my minimum 2010 expectations of 150 innings at a 4.75 era.
7) Jim Johnson has taken over at closer. Based off of his comments to the media, he seems to be in the right mind-set for the opportunity. You would like to see him get a few easy save chances to convert, to further grow his confidence.
8) With Johnson taking over the 9th, that leaves the need for someone else to emerge for the 8th. I would like to see Meredith and Albers share that opportunity.
9) Ray has been removed from the DL, and is back in Baltimore. Rest assured, his time on the DL was not due to injury, but a time to remove him from the spotlight of his 2009 ML performance. He has had a horrible 21.1 innings in the Majors in 2009. However, it is just 21.1 innings. He needs to forget about the era he sees on the scoreboard, and just attack hitters. He might not reach his 2006 and 2007 levels, but he is closer to that, than what he has shown so far this year. Ray finishing strong, would be a huge benefit for the O’s going into 2010.
10) Trembley has to find more at-bats for Pie. Pie entering August with only 121 at-bats for the year is just not enough. To Trembley’s credit, Pie has 14 at-bats (4 hits) since July 22nd.
11) I continue to lean towards the idea that Jake Arrieta will be the O’s 5th starter to begin 2010. Arrieta has hit a rough-patch in AAA, allowing 22 hits, 7 walks, with 16 k’s in his last 15 innings. Overall though, it has been a successful year for Arrieta. Between Bowie, and Norfolk, Arrieta has a combined 9-7 record, with a 3.58 era. He has pitched 110.2 innings, allowing 101 hits, 41 walks, with 119 k’s. In 2008, Arrieta pitched a total of 113 innings, not including those with US Olympic team. With this in-mind, he probably only has 30 or so innings left to give in 2009.
If I am right, and the O’s envision him grabbing the 5th starter position to start 2010, I have no problem with him being brought up to replace Bergesen for the next few starts. On the other-hand, if the O’s plan on sending him back to Norfolk to start 2010, I also have no problem with leaving him where he is. To promote Arrieta, they would have to add him to the 40 man (and 25 man) roster. That would be as simple as dropping Alberto Castillo.from the 40 man, and replacing one of the existing relief pitchers (Mickolio?). Arrieta pitched on the 29th, Bergesen pitched on the 30th.
11a) Matusz has totally dominated the AA Eastern League. He is not going to pitch in September, because the O’s will want to limit his innings. If the O’s wanted to promote him to replace Bergesen, and give him 2-3 August starts, I can support that. If the O’s are not worried about him accruing service-time, it might be the perfect-time to promote Matusz. Matusz is already on the 40 man roster, and pitched the 27th. Obviously if Matusz makes his scheduled start for Bowie, he is not coming up.
12) The O’s need to put some wins together this month, regardless of the opposition. A non-losing month has to be the goal. 15 wins is possible, if Bergesen only misses 2 starts, and the O’s do not bury theirselves early in the month.
1-1 vs Boston
2-2 @ Detroit
1-2 @ Toronto
2-1 vs Oakland
2-2 vs LAA
1-2 @ Tampa
1-2 @ CWS
1-2 @ Minnesota
3-1 vs Cleveland
1-0 vs NY
= 15-15
Owner
Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.