The Loss Column — Baltimore Sports Blog and Community

It’s Garrett Olson against Shawn Hill tonight as the hated (not really) Nationals careen into town for a three game set. The Orioles, as you know, have won five of six and are playing outstanding ball. Time to take care of business, too, because it doesn’t get any easier from here.

I’ll be at the game tomorrow night celebrating my birthday a couple of days early (it’s Monday). Gimme a shout if you want to meet up.

I’ve mentioned this before but it bears repeating: when Mike Hargrove was here, I remember him saying that the 40-50 game mark is when you get your first chance to really understand what kind of team you have. I’m well aware that Hargrove’s teams routinely tanked late in the season, though, so we can agree now that this is an imperfect measurement.

Imperfect, but still worthwhile. 40 games represent (almost) 25% of the season. Meaning that we can stop saying “it’s still early.” It isn’t early — we’re entering the grind. The team has officially played enough games for us to step back and make some reasonable evaluations.

Let’s start with the obvious, which is the record. At 21-19 the O’s sit in third place, 2.5 games back of the division-leading Rays. Nobody figured on this in March, and if you claim you did you then you’d better come up with proof. For the rest of us, it’s fair to say that expectations have already been exceeded.

Once we dig into the details, though, it becomes something of a mixed bag. Let’s break it down.

The Good
The Orioles are 12-6 at home. They’re 10-5 in one-run games, after going 13-31 last year. George Sherrill has 15 saves already, when a lot of early prognosticators predicted he’d barely get 15 chances. Jim Johnson is pitching like an All Star out of the bullpen. Daniel Cabrera has been a revelation, Garrett Olson looks great, and Jeremy Guthrie has been solid. Nick Markakis — despite his deflated average — has reached base safely in 36 of 40 games. Freddie Bynum has taken preliminary steps toward solidifying the shortstop position.

And, most importantly, Dave Trembley has these guys playing hard and believing they can win no matter what.

The Bad
They’re just not hitting — the collective average is just .246, 25th in baseball. They’re only 8-7 against the AL East, with a lot more games to come against those teams. 10-5 in one-run games is good, but they’ve had way too many comeback wins. The baserunning has been a major issue. Adam Loewen is looking more and more like a disappointment. They lack depth — both here and in the minors — at a lot of positions.

I know I’m probably missing quite a bit, so please chime in with your own impressions in the comments.

All in all, though, I think the early verdict is in. The 2008 Baltimore Orioles are a better team than we thought they’d be. They’re exciting and inspiring, and they’re making the Lost Season a hell of a lot more interesting than some of seasons we weren’t willing to concede. They’re not going to contend for a division title, but they’re not going to contend for “worst team ever” status, either.

They’re also hanging on by a thread a lot of the time, and they will — bet on it — eventually face a stretch where the breaks don’t go their way.

I stand by my prediction of 70 wins for now. I’ll try to remember to do another “State of the Orioles” post like this at the 80 and 120 game marks (remind me if I don’t).

Where do you all stand?

Last night was the kind of game that portends great possibility.

Like, for example, a sweep of the hated Pinque Sox, perhaps? It’s only a two-game series, sure, and only May, but a sweep’s a sweep.

To whom do we turn to help us scale this mountain? None other than the DC Cab himself — arguably our most impressive starter so far. Jon Lester stands in our way.

Great discussion last night, too. Let’s keep building.

The O’s are back home — finally — for a two-game series against the hated Pinque Sox. And we all know what that means. The good news, though, is that I think a handful of Sox fans actually work for a living, so these weeknight games might be relatively tame. We shall see.

We’ve got Jeremy Guthrie on the hill tonight against Josh Beckett, which should be fun. Surprisingly enough, too, Orioles hitters are batting a collective .291 against Beckett. Something tells me we won’t touch him up quite that badly tonight, but one never knows.

Also, don’t forget that tonight I’ll be a guest on the Fighting Ungers radio show on 1570 WNST from 6:30-8.

Starting tonight, this is a regular gig every other Tuesday. So, tune the hell in! And why not call while you’re at it?

I got an email a week or so ago from a fellow named Sean, who works for Da Capo Press. Sean wanted to see if I’d be interested in checking out a copy of the Baseball Field Guide, to which I naturally responded with “absolutely.” He dropped it in the mail, it arrived today.

Originally I figured I’d take a look and maybe mention it in the comments or as a tack-on to the next Open Thread. Now that I’ve seen it, though, it deserves a post of its own.

Essentially, the Guide is the baseball rulebook. But saying that doesn’t really do it justice. Authors Dan Formosa and Paul Hamburger have taken what should be rather dense and tedious material — useful for reference only — and turned it into something enjoyable to read in its own right.

Utilizing crisp typography (FF Din, I believe) and a wealth of gorgeous infographics — all anchored to a strong, grid-based layout — they’ve taken the rules and made them engaging and surprisingly satisfying.

The end result is the kind of book I love to have around, one I can just pick up anytime, open to a random page, and enjoy for a few minutes. But that doesn’t mean it’s somehow watered down — it isn’t. The level of detail is frightening, and I’ve already learned (then quickly forgotten) quite a bit.

My only complaint is that it refers to the “league presidents” several times. In fact, Bud Selig removed the league presidents in 1999 and consolidated decision-making power in the Commissioner’s office.

That’s a small quibble, though, because overall the book is quite satisfying. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending that you pick up a copy for yourself.

Which is a relief, for sure, because if the book had sucked I would have felt really bad telling Sean that I wasn’t going to mention it.

In case you missed it, a little bit of “news” came out of Ravens camp over the weekend. I’ll let David Ginsburg at the AP tell the story:

Nearly all 85 players in camp were involved in a squabble Saturday that began when offensive tackle Oniel Cousins and defensive tackle Amon Gordon threw punches after running back Allen Patrick was taken down hard on a burst up the middle. All the players surged toward the middle of the field, and it was nearly two minutes before peace was restored.

Later during practice, which was held indoors because of rain, defensive backs Corey Ivy and Frank Walker came to blows during a blocking drill.

My first reaction to this was, “here they go again.” Maybe the clubhouse problems weren’t all Brian Billick’s fault after all? But after thinking about it a little more, I think this might actually be a good thing. For a team with as much to prove as the Ravens this year it’s probably a net positive for them to be showing this much passion this early. There’s something to be said for forging an identity through fire.

John Harbaugh had better be careful, though. Real careful.

Hard to believe but it’s been almost a year since the Mother’s Day Massacre — the game that cost Sam Perlozzo his job.

Now that we’ve had some time to reflect, though, it was also the game that indirectly kickstarted our much-needed rebuilding process, ushering in the Andy MacPhail era and giving birth to the Lost Season. Had the Orioles not blown that five-run, ninth inning lead then who knows where we’d be? Maybe Sam keeps his job, maybe 30-3 never happens, maybe MacPhail never mounts his white horse.

So…maybe that game was a good thing. Maybe, one year on, that game was the best thing that could have happened to the Baltimore Orioles. It works that way sometimes.

Let’s just hope it never, ever happens again.

Meanwhile, the O’s go for the four game sweep of the Royals today, with Brian Burres taking the hill against Brian Bannister. Should the Birds pull it out, they’ll have gone 5-5 on the second leg of their mammoth road trip and will sit at 20-18. Even a loss means 19-19, which is .500 at the conclusion of the epic run.

Not bad, eh? I don’t care if the record is padded by the likes of the Royals and M’s. We all said .500 after this road trip would be just fine by us and, damn it, it is.

A win today? That much better.

We couldn’t buy a three-run homer to start the season, but we got another one today courtesy of Kevin Millar in the first. It came off Brett Tomko, who’s opposing Garrett Olson. Floor’s open…