Baltimore Os--The Real Deal? Good column in USA Today...

[cruadin]

Baseball Banter
Gary Thorne
"April belonged to Baltimore"

"Month One of the long MLB grind towards the Fall Classic is history and the Baltimore Orioles are at the top of the positive surprise list.
Will they be there when the leaves turn and 30 teams have turned to eight? There is no reason to believe otherwise.
Last year the Os went 78-84. The biggest problem was the Yankees won 101 games and the Red Sox 98. That left Baltimore 23 behind the leader and 20 out of Boston's wild-card spot.
Baltimore will continue to hit. They were third last year in average at .281. Starting play Tuesday, they topped the majors at .298..."

Read the whole thing--good analysis of the team and their prospects.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/columnist/thorne/2005-05-03-thorne-orioles_x.htm

[joeybee12]

1. Where's Kleeb?????????????

[cruadin]

2. Yeah, I figured he'd be interested, but anybody following the AL...

has got to start factoring the Os into their calculations. They are looking less and less like an aberration, and more like they could put a breakout season together. After their disappointing finish last year I think a lot of AL fans have stopped taking them seriously---it is probably time to rethink that assumption.

[JohnKleeb]

4. Actually their finish last year was good but had a damned 11 game losing

streak in August. The decision to make Miller pitching coach I think has a lot to do with their success, hes a better pitching coach than Mark Wiley, Mike Hargrove's pitching coach when he managed us and Cleveland.

[JohnKleeb]

3. I was bonding with my kid brother, I am here now

Wow thats a good article. Anyhow, those who doubt the Orioles are forgetting one thing, that while our pitching is not as good as it was in the late 60's and early 70's with Palmer, McNally, Cuallar, and company or as the team that went wire to wire in 97, Ray Miller is one of the best pitching coaches imo out there, and a postnote to Gary's concerns about Sir Sidney's ERA, I agree completely and its now around 5, so have him have a good out next time and I think it will be in the mid 4's.

[cruadin]

5. I don't know that much about the current pitching coach...

but if the Os offense continues the way it has---well, that will cover for an "average" pitching staff. That's especially true because the other contenders in the division (Boston, NY, Tor.) are having their own pitching problems with injuries, sub-par performances etc.--so the pitching will probably balance out.

[JohnKleeb]

6. Ray Miller was brought up by our system

in the 60's during the glory years, I dont think he ever made the majors but he I believe was the pitching coach for the Orioles in the late 70's and early 80's for Earl and Joe Altobeli. He's a medicore manager IMO from how he did for us but he did better for us than Hargrove who did good with Cleveland. I think hes best served as a pitching coach, he really turned around the medicore staff of '96 coached by Pat Dobson to a great one in 97, which was good since the Orioles hitting in 97 was a bit cooled from the 96 where they were as they are this year a great hitting team, but this year orioles team has something that they didnt, and thats speed.

[Counciltucky]

7. He's a better pitching coach than a manager...

He was the one at the helm when it all collapsed for the O's.

But then, most pitching coaches don't make successful managers for whatever reason (see Miller, Joe Kerrigan, Larry Rothschild, Marcel Lachemann, Phil Regan).

[JohnKleeb]

8. Yep, Yep