Stick a fork in him...

If you ask me, Brian Burres is just about finished as a Baltimore Oriole.

He was recently removed from the starting rotation in favor of Dennis Sarfate, a career reliever who always pitches from the stretch and hasn't been a starting pitcher since he was in the minor leagues in 2006.

That should speak volumes about how the O's feel about Burres.

After Sarfate pitched 4 IP allowing 3 ER today against the Yankees, Burres came into the game from the bullpen and allowed 4 ER in 1.1 IP, bringing his ERA to 5.64. Batters are hitting .306 off of him and his K:BB ratio is just as bad.

Burres is a light-tossing left-hander who needs to rely on pin-point accuracy to be successful. Think Jamie Moyer, but about 20 years younger. But Burres has proven he doesn't have that kind of control, and when you don't have that kind of control, you're just a glorified batting practice pitcher. And bringing him out of the bullpen isn't going to help matters either.

Burres just doesn't have what it takes to be successful in the majors and he's proven it over the course of the last two seasons.

The thing is, there are no pitchers in the minor leagues ready to take Burres' spot in the rotation. OK, well maybe there are a few in AA hurlers David Hernandez and Brad Bergeson, but MacPhail and Trembley have been adamant in their belief that pitchers should succeed at all levels of the minors before they get called up to the big leagues. So Hernandez and Bergeson aren't likely to see any action in Baltimore in 2008.

So that leaves Hayden Penn as the only other candidate, and he's got an ERA just a hair under 5.00 in AAA Norfolk so far this year.

Even though Burres might not be going anywhere any time soon, if there ever was a dead man walking on the Baltimore Orioles, it's Brian Burres.

Time's a wastin'!

The trade deadline takes place in less than 24 hours and already GM Andy MacPhail has scheduled a press conference for 5 p.m. tomorrow.

Intrigued?

In all seriousness, the Orioles are likely to stand pat. Only George Sherrill has been routinely scouted by other teams and MacPhail is asking for a king's ransom (2 MLB ready prospects) in return.

Meanwhile, the O's best players -- Brian Roberts and Aubrey Huff -- aren't being sought after, which makes it very likely they will finish the season, if not their contracts which expire after 2009, as Orioles.

We can sit and argue over whether MacPhail should make trades until we're blue in the face, but the bottom line is that we don't know what is being offered by other teams.

And making trades for the sake of making trades makes no sense. Remember Larry Bigby for Eric Byrnes? Yeah... that's what I said.

The only chance the O's have of being serious movers before 4 p.m. tomorrow is if the GM of another team gets paranoid and caves in to MacPhail's steep demands.

One thing is for sure, regardless of whether we make trades or not, or whether we should or shouldn't, is that the trade deadline is the most annoying, and stressful time for baseball fans. Especially when your team is losing, like the O's have been.

Fans have somehow been convinced that all of the team's needs and prayers can be answered by making a couple of trades on deadline day. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

For now, let's hope a GM with sweaty palms coughs up those 2 MLB ready prospects for Sherrill or the Yankees realize they can't finish out the season with Jose Molina and Chad Moeller at catcher and give MacPhail what he wants for Ramon Hernandez.

So it all comes down to this: It really depends on other teams whether or not the O's are active tomorrow.

Just remember to keep that in mind when MacPhail comes to the podium at 5 p.m. tomorrow empty handed.

The Yankees Lose! (in person)

Even though the O's won't even sniff the playoffs this season, and the Yankees are making their usual second-half run, it was still fun to watch the O's beat the crap out of the Yankees and Mike Mussina in person at Yankee Stadium last night, 13-4.

Mr. & Mrs. Bad Oriole were dressed in O's gear, hopped on the B-train and got off at Yankee Stadium ready to enjoy the sites and sounds of love-it-or-hate-it, the most historical baseball stadium in America.

There were a lot of O's fans in attendance and surprisingly, the jabs from Yankee fans were sparse. I guess they were still hungover from taking 2 out of 3 against the Red Sox over the weekend or they don't consider the O's rivals anymore.

I can't blame them. Even the Devil Rays have become more of a threat. This year, the O's have been more like pesky houseflies to the Yankees, managing to post a respectful 6-4 record against the Bronx Bombers so far this year.

Anyway, our seats were a row from the top of the stadium, just a few feet below the Empire State Building. OK, maybe not but it sure as hell felt that way. Actually, the seats weren't that bad. Yeah they were high, but it did give me a bird's eye view of the stadium.

I wasn't able to get into Monument Park, as the ticket-taker told me it was closed (maybe it's because I was an O's fan) and I read something about making an appointment to tour it somewhere too. Oh well. Did I really need to be reminded how great the Yankees are?

I don't think so.

The game started off with disappointment, as Brian Roberts walked in the top of the first inning and was eventually thrown out at the plate on a horrible call by Juan Samuel, the third-base coach, who gave him the green light as the throw was caught by the cut off man. But in the second inning, the bats exploded for four runs as Kevin Millar hit a 3-run homerun, followed by a solo shot from Ramon Hernandez.

The O's got two more in the fifth inning, knocking former Oriole Mike Mussina out of the game. Then in the sixth, with the bases juiced, Adam Jones crushed a grand-slam off of David Robertson to put the game away at 11-0.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Guthrie was coasting. He allowed only 1 hit through six innings until he gave up a solo homerun to Xavier Nady in the seventh. Dave Trembley made a questionable call, taking out Guthrie after the homerun. Guthrie had only just reached the 100 pitch mark and the score was 11-1.

Trembley brought in mop-up guy Lance Cormier who promptly gave up three runs without recording an out. He was yanked in favor of Randor Bierd, who squashed any Yanks fans' hopes of an epic comeback.

The O's got two more runs in the top of the eight on a two-run homerun by Aubrey Huff before Jamie Walker finished off the Yanks in the bottom of the ninth.

My impressions of Yankee Stadium are surprisingly pleasant. The fans were respectful and the stadium, while old, was still very capable of handling a baseball game. The Yankee history is dripping from every rafter and still exists under every seat in the stadium and taking the subway to the Bronx has somewhat of a ritual feel to it.

I'm glad I got to see it for myself before it was replaced by the new Yankee Stadium which is in the process of being built across the street, but I do have to say that we as Orioles fans should appreciate Camden Yards even more, as it still is, in my opinion, the best stadium in America.

Off to Yankee Stadium

Well, in a few hours I'll be headed to New York for a weekend stay on the Lower West Side before taking the D Train to Yankee Stadium to see the bad guys in pinstripes kick the living crap out of the Orioles on Monday night.

I've never been to Yankee Stadium before, and since this is the last season before the Yanks move into their new stadium next-door, it'll also be my last. My seats are in Tier10, Row W, seats 3 and 4.

I'll remember to bring some tissues for the nosebleeds.

Even though it's where the hated Yankees play, even an Orioles fan like myself can't deny the history of the building. The Yanks have won all of their "26 Rings!" calling Yankee Stadium home and the list of all-time greats who played there is too long to mention. I'll tour Monument Park and take in the sights and the sounds of the game, most of which will probably be Yankee fans taunting a lowly Oriole fan like myself.

So far I've only been to Fenway Park, Veterans Stadium, Citizens Bank Stadium and Nationals Park, so I am looking forward to adding another historical park to my list. I'm told not to expect much, as Yankee Stadium is mostly a dump, but a dump with a lot of history.

As for the game itself, I am not hopeful. On Saturday morning, the Orioles have lost four straight and thirteen of their last seventeen games. I think Jeremy Guthrie is pitching for the O's that day, so I am guessing the Orioles will lose 3-2 or 4-3, although with the bullpen maxed out, you never know how many runs the Yanks will tack on in the later innings.

But for me, this trip is more about the history of Yankee Stadium than the Orioles. Sometimes it's hard to remember that I'm a baseball fan first and foremost, and an O's fan second. And when the O's have been down in the dumps for eleven years, that can be hard.

But I'll cheer for the birds, take my share of heckling, and try to survive my trip to the Bronx. I have to say I'm looking forward to it.

Son of a Pitch

The Orioles pitching problems continued last night in a big way, with Brian Burres unable to get out of the second inning after allowing 7 hits, including 2 HR and 5 ER. More importantly, he only threw 51 pitches.

The Orioles went on to lose 6-5, their fourth loss in a row.

With the bullpen being abused like a red-headed step child, Manager Dave Trembley should have walked out to the mound when he took Burres out with 2 outs in the second inning and said, "Sorry Blade, this is your bed. You made it. You've gotta lie in it some more."

At some point, the starting pitchers have to at least do their job and get through 6 innings regardless of whether they are up by 5 or down by 10. At the current rate they're on, the bullpen pitchers will have to learn to throw with their non-throwing arms in order to complete the season.

Keep Burres (and Olson or Liz) in the game until he throws around 110 pitches, which has been his season high. Take one for the team.

In a related note, the Dodgers released former Oriole Matt Riley after he used an escape clause in his contract that said he had to be in the majors at a certain date.

Riley had an ugly career in Baltimore, complete with attitude problems, injuries and control problems, but had a wicked curve ball and a fastball that topped out in the high-90's. Oh and he's a LHP, too. In the Dodger's AAA system Riley had a 2.88 ERA as a reliever, throwing 40.2 innings and compiling 55 strikeouts to 24 walks.

With the bullpen wearing down fast, bringing Riley back might not be a bad idea. He couldn't be any worse than Brian Burres, Alberto Castillo or Jamie Walker who was recently shelled in a rehab stint in AA-Bowie.

The bottom line is that the Orioles have to find a way to finish the season. And adding someone with some potential like Matt Riley could get them a little closer to September 30th.

The Dark Knight

Never been a big Batman guy.

I don't know if there is something missing from my DNA that makes me indifferent toward the caped crusader or what. I've always been more of a Punisher kind of guy when it comes to dark and troubled vigilantes.

But I'm clearly in the minority there.

What's great about the new Christopher Nolan Batman films is that they disregard the previous 4 films, most of which were campy fun, and treat Batman as a character that exists in the real world.

The original Batman Begins was a step in the right direction, but I still felt that it lacked that extra something that would have launched it into the upper echelon of superhero movies.

Whatever Batman Begins lacked, The Dark Knight makes up for it in spades. Quite simply, TDK is the best superhero movie of all time, and features one of the most haunting portrayals of a villain in Heath Ledger's Joker. Not only is it a superhero movie, it's a crime drama along the same vein of The Departed and dare I say, Heat. Don't get me wrong... TDK is not quite on that level of film, despite what the fools over at IMDb think. They've currently got it rated #1 on the IMDb's top 250 movies of all time, ahead of The Godfather and Citizen Kane.

The Dark Knight is good, guys. But not that good. We'll see how long that lasts.

Really though, TDK is excellent. The realism, the labyrinthine-like plot, and the performances... boy are the performances good... make TDK an all-around success story.

First, there is always going to be an elephant in the room when discussing TDK, and that is Heath Ledger, who died a few months before the film was released. His role as the Joker was his last finished role on film, and he sure went out with a bang.

Ledger transforms, more like mutates into the Joker and with slathered-on make-up, almost becomes a horror movie villain. His Joker dominates the film with tension, and puts the viewer on edge, making them think the Joker can show up at any moment in the film. It's unclear whether the Academy will allow themselves to be forced to nominate Ledger for this role, since that's what the general public is screaming for, but if he is in deed nominated, it will be well deserved. Ledger's turn as the Joker pretty much makes this film.

Next up is Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, Gotham's doomed District Attorney. Eckhart creates a sympathetic character who we expect to turn bad at some point before he becomes Two-Face, but never does. He's a guy who wants to do the right thing, and does, but ultimately falls victim to the Joker's mind games. Dent represents what the Joker can do -- take good people and make them turn bad. By the time Eckhart becomes Two-Face, he loses some of the spark he had earlier in the film, but does manage to be a solid second fiddle to Ledger's Joker.

As Bruce Wayne, Bale is great as the showboating millionaire, but as Batman, he's almost laughable. His deep, gruffled voice really took me out of the film and made me wonder why he was talking like that. However, Bale was the straight man here, just a foil for Ledger and Eckhart to overshadow. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are solid as always as Wayne's go-to guys. And Maggie Gyllenhaal fills in nicely for Katie Holmes, creating a less-whiny love-interest for both Wayne and Dent.

Finally, the person who really needs to be credited for TDK is the man behind the curtain -- or camera -- Christopher Nolan. His Batman-as-real approach has worked wonders for this franchise whereas other superhero movies appear more like cartoons than anything resembling reality. Nolan, along with Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro, has established himself as one of the next-gen directors who will revolutionize filmmaking the way Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas did in the 1970's

Without Nolan at the helm, I really wonder if the new Batman franchise has the legs to keep going after TDK.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see if he answers the Bat-signal.

FILM SCORE: ***1/2 (out of ****)
BEST SCENE: Any scene with the Joker.
FILM STATUS: Best superhero movie ever.

Trade Men

Here are the Bad Oriole's Most Tradeable Orioles (MTO's) on July 23, 2008. Rate of Return (RoR) is based on the probability of package received in trade paying off. Just don't ask how I came up with it.

1. Brian Roberts - 30 - still a premier lead-off hitter and above-average fielder. Will be signed through 2009. Not likely to be in his prime by the time the O's become a contender. RoR: %90

2. Aubrey Huff - 31 - is at peak value right now and still under contract for another year. Could be traded without having to take on any salary. That may not be the case next year. RoR: 85%

3. Luke Scott - 30 - the guy I want to trade the least on this list. However, he is under control for a long time and has adjusted well to becoming an everyday player. The recent solid play of Nolan Riemold in AA-Bowie makes Scott a little more expendable. RoR: 80%

4. George Sherrill - 31 - not as dominant a closer as his 29 saves let on, but could be useful to another team as a LOOGY, like he was for Seattle last year. Is under control for number of years. Chris Ray and James Hoey coming back from DL within the next few months make Sherrill expendable. RoR: 75%

5. Chad Bradford - 33 - currently the Orioles second best pitcher in the bullpen. Signed through 2009. Another "Sell High" guy. RoR: 65%

6. Ramon Hernandez - 32 - Ramon is a liability behind the plate and is no longer an above average hitter at the plate. The O's would be best to give Quiroz the starting job and call up Matt Wieters, but they don't appear ready to do that anytime soon. His laziness and brain farts cost the Orioles runs and wins on most nights. Trade him for whatever you can get. A change of scenery and chance to play for playoffs could motivate Ramon, and he still has a "name". RoR: 35%

7. Jay Payton - 35 - Payton can still hit LHP and that is useful to contending teams. RoR: 30%

8. Kevin Millar - 36 - Millar is the spirit of the clubhouse and I can't see him being traded, but his veteranosity and ability to perform in clutch situations might be worth the risk for a contender. RoR: 25%

9. Melvin Mora - 36 - Mora is clearly in decline both offensively and defensively, has a No Trade clause in his contract, is making a lot and is the longest tenured Oriole on the team. He won't be traded, but could be a useful bat of the bench for a contender. RoR: 20%

10. Jamie Walker - 36 - Walker is signed through 2009, has struggled in 2008 and is coming off the DL. Unless teams think he can revert back to his 2007 self now that he is healthy, he is almost untradeable. RoR: 5%