we did them a favOr. why?

wayward O thinks trembO is good manager and only wants to see best happen over next two years or so.

here at t.w.o. world HQ we have visions of an emotional trembley leading team into postseason sometime soon (after team signs a starter and a 1B who can hit and a SS who can field).

however wayward O would like to ask trembO for one small favor:

PLEASE -- NO MORE JAMIE WALKER PITCHING TO RIGHTIES. AND BY RIGHTIES WE ESPECIALLY MEAN ALEX RODRIGUEZ.

thank you.

as an addendum to request, please note that walker is a fine person and probably can still benefit team as a left-hand one out guy in 6th or 7th inning. but it's clear walker has no chance to get out righties anymore -- at least this year or until he "reinvents" himself or something.

especially guys like the a-rod who, despite being in a hitting slump, can see walker's offerings like it was slow-mo. or instant replay even.

please also note that team lead 4-3 last night after 7 innings and rocky cherry has all of 6 innings pitched all year? it's not like you were going to ruin him keeping him in for another inning. that at least would have given team a *prayer* of holding out for jim johnson in the 9th.

as it was .... we never even got to see JJ. and this is what happens when babes in the woods like kam mickolio inherit walker's messes:


Sun Photo
I think you see my point. Not a bad manager. But some less-than-stellar bull penning last night.

funny, like the Offense itself

we've all heard the weaver rant, right? so how did it bleed into a live yankee broadcast?




(via some other blogs)

wayward O isn't 100% sure this actually happened. but fairly sure. 92% sure. did anyone actually witness this?

watch your back, crow. earl was joking when he recorded the rant but your job status ain't funny right now.

rearview mirrOr savants

all over diaspOra today there is criticism of manager for letting jeremy guthrie pitch to jose vidro in 8th inning in last night's loss to seattle. here is what wayward O is seeing from fickle fan-base:

• guthrie was "gassed" and should have been pulled
• jamie walker was ready for the matchup vs. vidro
• by extension, presumably, trembO "can't manage" bullpen...

maybe, maybe and wrong, says Wayward O. we know already that manager has TOLD STARTERS THEY MUST GO DEEP INTO GAMES. so he's just doing what he said he would.

if you want to pull guthrie for walker fine. maybe guthrie is tired. sometimes pitchers get better when they're tired. sometimes not. maybe walker gets vidro, maybe not. but as it stood, vidro barely slapped ground ball past roberts.

if roberts throws out vidro, yammering critics are happy and quiet today ... and this FACT, friends, is why criticisms are nothing more than sour grapes. trembO made a decision and it didn't work out. that's all, nothing more.

meanwhile, Wayward O was proud of st. guts ... going toe-to-toe with king felix over eight innings and once again showing why he's real deal. and how about jeremy's unassisted put-out at third base late in game?

Hustle.
when will you ever see that again? mlb.com has video here. mlb video is getting better, incidentally; hopefully soon there will be EMBED feature ... welcome to 2005!!

anyway, back to game. if only Os hitters, especially young savior and his holiness, luke scott, hadn't been asleep at switch during early innings outcome might have been very different....

t-bOne

john shelby won world series with team in rookie season of 1983. then, after career in majors he coached around league for many years. now he's back in baltimore.

there is video interview with shelby on Os Team Page today. he has sense of humor and tells funny stories! also, he likes tike redman, as does Wayward O, in outfield, mentioning tike right after adam jOnes and young savior in same breath, saying, "there's a lot of promise in the outfield."

appropos of nothing, wayward O thinks tike should be starting in left field on opening day. though luke scott will likely get job. at minimum tike should be 4th OF with club and get many starts during lost season. of course wayward O is just being presumptuous since spring games are ONLY JUST STARTING.

as first base coach, t-bone says, "one thing that i have to make sure of is where the ball is. i don't like the hidden ball trick. it worked on me one time and i so gotta make sure i don't let that happen again." and he adds "when they get picked off the players get mad. the players go to the dugout and i'm the one who gets booed."

does anybody know the situation to which tbone is referring, i.e. falling for the hidden ball trick? please enlighten wayward O, as he has no idea. wait ... google! ... yes ... it must have been this one.

are yOu experienced?

here is something um, interesting, about four of the five newest additions to Orioles' coaching staff:

dave trembley, manager, total MLB games played: 0
david jauss, bench coach, total MLB games played: 0
rick kranitz, pitching coach, total MLB games played: 0
allen dunn, bullpen coach. total MLB games played: 0

as for a fifth addition to staff:

tbOne shelby, first base coach. total MLB games played: 1,036

does wayward O have that right? can this be a good thing? maybe! wayward O, for example, knows MANY THINGS ABOUT BASEBALL, despite fact that he has NEVER PLAYED A MAJOR LEAGUE GAME!

since you asked, dear reader*, the two coaches who will survive from the 2007 campaign, 3rd base coach juan samuel and hitting coach terry crowley, have 1,720 and 865 games' worth of experience, respectively, in the majors.

just how major is orioles' overhaul? in addition to the above changes, baltimore sun says:

[Dave] Trembley still is looking to add coaches to serve as bullpen catchers and throw batting practice after Sammy Snider, Rudy Arias and Orlando Gomez were not asked back

when the BP coach gets fired, that's an overhaul!

* wayward O making this up. you did not, in fact, ask

mazzOne

i guess if bedard doesn't like you, you are a goner.

so long, dood.

go play golf with sammy p.

nOt backing trembley (yet)

today is wayward O's birthday. isn't that neat?

lord help wayward O for saying this. maybe it's cake and ice cream talking. but wayward O is kind of starting to like dave trembley a teeny tiny little bit. unlike fired guy, interim manager does not sit in dugout with look on face like marie antoinette with angry mob outside gates; he has smile on face and good countenance. he also looks like guy you wouldn't want to try and shove around, which is what spoiled overpayed orioles did to other guy. of course, some would argue he's already being shoved around but wayward O will get to that.

wayward O knows it's a bit early and maybe first impressions are not always accurate.

trembley is already taking heat among some of the diaspOra because of decision to let miguel tejada bunt and leave game. wayward O says trembley is not in pressure position to win games immediately as team (10 out of wild card with seas of talent ahead of them) is done for 2007 (barring a miracle seen only perhaps twice in MLB history) nor is trembley going to end up on the organizational hot seat for decision, since he currently is only manager on interim basis. wayward O says if trembley were real manager he would not allow tejada such weird leeway.

that said, one poster on roch's blog made comment which strikes strong chord with wayward O:

it's crap like this that gives talking heads like Kruk and Phillips reason
to say this organization is the worst in baseball and any managerial candidate
would be nuts to take the job here. -- steve

steve is right, sadly. espn can say orioles is team where crazies run asylum and where streaks are more important than winning. based on years of evidence, who can contradict that? only thing though, kruk is more of a talking stomach than a talking head. oh and also, it does not matter what orioles do, espn is racist against them and kills them for everything. if orioles ever get good again, we'll see if espn comes around.

bigger mistake than tejada-gate was kissing girardi's ass, knowing full well all NY guys and half of world was blowing up his cell phone urging him "don't go to baltimore" probably massive collusion took place but we'll never know.

wayward O was not in least bit surprised that joe girardi did the feather boa tease dance and then hung orioles out to dry. why wouldn't he? any time a new york baseball guy gets any kind of power of AL East rival team, he will use it to hurt team and help yankees. girardi probably never intended to take job but now he knows what orioles are planning and he's gabbing it to the YES people and they of course are obligated to share intel with yankee team.

Os should have left girardi on shelf for a few weeks then talked to him. this is all angry angelos acting impulsively behind scenes. he probably feels sting of fan hate more than anyone. and deservedly so. talking to girardi first and hyping girardi in balto. media was a mistake; a bigger mistake than the tejada thing.

orioles don't need new manager just because he's got a name in the league. for example, if dave trembley is the man, then he's the man. wayward O's top choice is still davey johnson, head and shoulders above rest of rumored pool of candidates. although there is this from pioneer press:

It would be surprising if new Baltimore Orioles President Andy MacPhail
doesn't inquire as to the availability of his former manager with the Twins, Tom
Kelly, who led Minnesota to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991.

OK now business of brain-stimulating team incites is over, and you've had your bran flakes, now time for treat:

YANKEES SWEPT BY ROCKIES and yankees will be joining orioles on scrap heap of 2007 failures soon enough. it's a wonderful way to spend summer, watching this.

The Rockies now have more victories against the American League East
than the Yankees do, with nine. That oddity points out the Yankees’ early misery
and the Rockies’ surprising surge during interleague play. Colorado has won 9 of
its past 12 games, all against teams from the A.L. East.
-- New York TimeZ game story

don't tell wayward O that doesn't make heart sing!! Orioles have SIXTEEN GAMES vs. janquis to take out frustrations and damage pinstripe egos. if nothing else, this is what wayward O is living for.

the bird's jOb is safe

as wayward O learned this week by listening to tale of shitsy spitsy, sometimes traveling far and wide in effort to put your drab little town on map can go horribly wrong...

alas, sometimes pulling from inside ranks can have same effect. but not for orioles. every time orioles look for leader inside warehouse, they always come up huge. take this video for example (super ^5s to team-ophile roar from 34, who found evidence to back up claim):

as storm has beset crew inside big old warehouse, wayward O has contented himself with knowing that, as far as mascots go, orioles are nonpareil. and by nonpareil wayward o means "good" -- not sprinkles that go on ice cream cone! anyway sprinkles are very ORSULAK-era, whereas in GIBBONs-era we have DIP-n-DOTz.

SO MUCH GOODNESS IN VIDEO; MAKES WAYWARD O TEAR UP.

what really stunned wayward O most about this tubinous rex nuggetous videophinous was following image from about the 2:13 minute mark:

It's Wayward O's long-lost cousin
HOBO O-JOE!!!!

Can you believe??? Wayward O thought ol rail ridin buddy not only had disappeared for good, but that no evidence he ever walked the earth remained behind. Oh this video is SO FULL OF INCITES. wayward O loves METAPHOR of clobbering buttoned-up yankee fan and also DON AASE sighting near end and that's not even beginning of how golden!

oh sure, sometimes in-house projects don't pan out all that well. take guy who managed team until yesterday. sure he was OK man but he had two problems: first, he presided over mother's day massacre and it was, as we established here, 84.4% his fault. also in cleveland game a few weeks back he DID NOT KNOW RULES and almost forgot to argue when Young Savior scored run. Os went on to win game, and victory is a great balm, but wayward O hasn't forgotten because it was prima facie evidence that manager was asleep at switch. lastly, wayward O guesses we need manager who practices -- no not TOUGH LOVE -- but rather

UNABASHED, VERBALLY ABUSIVE HATRED

raining down upon SPOILED OVERPAYED PLAYERS; tirades so fulsome with their misanthropic bile players

NO LONGER WISH TO BE IN DUGOUT

NEAR THIS WALKING, SPITTLING BEELZEBUB of a team leader and much prefer spending innings

on basepaths

thank you very much.

so while team is floundering about, pulling shitsy spitsy's tale in hopes a golden nugget will pop out, at least orioles fanz have a little something called HERITAGE to fall back on. and what better than a giant-headed cartoon bird to represent it? (other than the B word on the away jerseys, perhaps.)

in short, to sam perlozzo wayward O sez: no hard feelings, but good riddance. and for record, wayward O -- as longtime friends and kin can attest -- has pretty much been baseball fan for whole life and prior to M.D.M. had NEVER EVER EVER ONCE EVER called for firing of manager. but match, it was plain, was not made in happy hunting grounds.

of course IRONY is that Os promoted the bullpen coach in a season where bullpen has been, how do they say in arabic, an unmitigated NACHBA --- or disaster. and talk of joe girardi is over-stated for moment. wayward O lives in brooklyn and he can tell you sports yakkers here not to mention the baseball men WANT TO HAVE GIRARDI FOR THEMSELVES and all are on phone to joe G telling him Os is not good choice!!!

clearinghOuse

it's been a crazy road trip. wayward O needs a day off just as bad as brian roberts' ham. no lie too. emotions have run high. here are some things wayward O has said in recent weeks:

must. sweep. kc.
angels… we know about them.
and seattle is a VERY under-rated AL squad.
-- on loss column board

Seattle Mariners: These guys were supposed
to stink last year and though they finished
last, they did win 78 games. First-place
Oakland won 93. The M’s made some
decent moves in the off-season, picking up
Joses Vidro and Guillen from the Nationals.
Add those guys to Ichiro, Beltre and Sexson
and [wayward O] says you’ve got offense.
Will Guillen’s bat put them in the playoff hunt? You betcha!
-- 14 march baseball preview on another site

so really -- no big surprises on road trip. just one big letdown. if perlozzo leaves in guthrie sunday vs. angels in ninth. or if chris ray gets it done. or if perlozzo makes vladdy face chad bradford. or if [fill in blank]. then orioles are home after a 6-4 road trip and things look peachy. but oh these bloody sundays. and you cannot tell wayward O it's not about coaching and managing. it most certainly is. that said, sammy perlozzo did a nice job yesterday at safeco as daniel cabrera was on the precipice of a nervous episode. he pulled him aside and said, man you got to step up right now. nice. sam's body of work, in wayward O's opinion, is lacking. but the man has his moments. it's up to the players, we suppose, to communicate to the team management if he's the guy they want to play for next year.

wayward O thinks gary sheffield should come dh in baltimore because we have BLACK BALLPLAYERS and could use some more.

and wayward O recently watched an encore presentation of the 1969 world series and noticed orioles had many great black ballplayers and their blessed blackness struck a chord that seems to have grown quiet in modern baseball.

but sheff must NOT SPEAK TO MEDIA if he comes to balto. to hit baseballs a million feet. and he must not ever put on glove and take field.

wayward O wants to give freddy bynum a nickname. f-bee? frisbee? the carolina flash? help us out with your ideas in comments.

the critics rave

wayward oriole woke up early. he heard birds chirping and saw may sunshine. then reality hit a few moments later... DID. That. HAPPEN????

yes. yes it did.

wayward oriole could not go back to sleep. so he took a spin around the internet just to see how the mother's day massacre resonated with bloggers, players, managers, and writers:

"Jeremy Guthrie probably should have stayed in" -- ap wire's game recap, lead sentence

"Guthrie had thrown 91 pitches and given up only three hits. The Red Sox were certainly happy to see him go." -- jeff zrebiec, baltimore sun writer

"what if Guthrie had given up a 420-foot out? That would have been OK?" -- bob ryan, boston globe story

"...we had no chance" -- david ortiz, on jeremy guthrie's performance

"I'm glad he got taken out" -- kevin youkilis, on perlozzo's decision to pull guthrie

"I’ve been reluctant to criticize Perlozzo too harshly ... you have to lay the blame for this one squarely on his shoulders." -- the loss column

"I really feel terrible for Guthrie." -- kevin millar

"Unconscionable ..."

"There is no adequate English for what I saw last night."

"They deserve a playoff worthy manager"

"I never think it's the manager. Today ... it is."

"Perlozzo said he would have made the same decision again ... That is a cause for concern, there should be a learning curve somewhere."

"Perlozzo ... has no business running a major league baseball team"

"Normally I'm not the guy calling for anyone to get fired ... Sorry Sam"

"As soon as I saw Perlozzo come out of the dugout, God as my witness, I said, 'We're going to lose this game. You watch. ... Ask my mother-in-law: that's what I said."

"Second-rate management" -- commenters on Kubatko's Balt. Sun blog and Camden Chat

and, last but not least:

"Game should have been over" -- orioles manager sam perlozzo

indeed.

and lest, dear reader, you think wayward oriole is cherry picking, wayward oriole sought comment from those who did not think perlozzo is to blame. there were a few -- and far between -- but what they offered were essentially two points: hindsight is clear and it's more angelos than anything else. not really, but even so that doesn't negate any of the above.

mazzOne

rumor has it that hayden penn has ALREADY SHAVED his youthful moustache but from the what the wayward O understands about the teams facial-hair policy, moustaches are not taboo. is it possible hayden plans to trade in the "pushbroom" for the "waterfront"?

this baffling development led us to a wild bout of googling, and our curiously quickly turned to depression when we ran into this little nugget from june 25, 2005 in the washington post:

The Orioles have lost four of five and are out of first place for the first time since April 22. Meantime, the Red Sox have won 10 of 11.

featuring this heartbreaking photo of the moustachio-non moustachoied golden child!!!

how i remember that day. as a member of the diaspOra, i felt powerless against all the new york media types who for months had sanguinely predicted the birdies' downfall. and then we all had to LIVE IT. even though we know it didn't have to be that way ... bedard had a phantom injury and matos and lopez both had real injuries. and ... THE WAYWARD O DIGRESSES. let us not wallow in this bit of history.

who will take the golden child from the realm of young promise to the cold, hard reality of october? unlike john maine he's not likely to be traded, at least at this point, to the mets or another contenda. the answer?

the mazzone!!!!!!!!


if depth of experience and ampleness of backside has anything to do with success in the big leagues, which judging by the yankees and red sox it does, then he's got us covered. he will get penn to beef up, and leave his slender, youthful days behind, and win us some damn ballgamez!!!!