To Wie or not to Wie

With Ramon Hernandez's aching wrists threatening to send him to the DL, the Orioles Hangout insiders are saying that the O's are pondering whether or not to call-up catching prospect Matt Wieters from high-A Frederick.

Currently, Wieters is tearing up Frederick to the tune of a 1.053 OPS with 8 HR.

And while it's a risky move to call up a player from single-A ball, Wieters is making the idea hard to simply reject.

At this rate, Wieters is looking like he'll be the starting catcher in 2009. Calling him up to replace Hernandez for a few weeks will allow him to get a feel for the big leagues so that he won't have to deal with the jitters when he returns to the Orioles either later this year or next.

However, Wieters would skip two crucial MiL levels to get to the majors, and his adjustment period would possibly be long and hard to watch. You don't want to damage his ego. But, Wieters definitely has "it", and given the right amount of time, he would more than likely get adjusted to the majors.

Personally, I don't see much of a problem with calling him up. If he's being over-matched, send him back down to Frederick to get him feeling good about himself again and then promote him to Bowie as soon as possible. But, if he comes here and looks good, there is no reason to send him back down.

I would like to get the adjustment period out of the way early so he can become a crucial part of the offense next year which could possibly have Mark Teixeira in it.

One thing is for sure though, if Ramon goes to the DL, the O's will need another catcher. If it's not Wieters, it should be Chris Heintz, who is currently holding his own at Norfolk with a .805 OPS. He would serve as back-up to Guillermo Quiroz, who deserves more playing time, even with Ramon healthy.

So, the Orioles have a decision to make, and for once, it's a decision they really can't screw up no matter what they decide.

Die Hard

It's been 10 days since the Bad Oriole returned to the nest with a worm in its beak, so I've got a lot to cover in this blog post. Open wide!

First and foremost, the Orioles have to be commended for their "never say die" spirit. Last night, after being down 5-0 early to the Seattle Mariners, the Orioles battled back yet again, and won the game 8-7.

They're 7-1 in one run games and have 9 comeback wins so far.

Since my last post, the O's have split 2-game series' with the Blue Jays, the White Sox, and took 2 of 3 from both the Yankees and the Mariners.

They now sit at 13-9, 1 game back of the first place Boston Red Sox, as they enter into a 4-game series with the first place Chicago White Sox.

The starting pitching has improved. Daniel Cabrera threw one of the best games of his career on Wednesday night, going 8 IP, allowing 2 ER, striking out 5 and wait for it..... walking zero.

Don't look now, but Cabrera has strung together 3 great starts, in which he has gone at least 6 IP and allowed 2 ER or less. His walks are now decreasing and it finally looks like he could be coming into his own.

On the flip-side, Adam Loewen took the hill last night, and got hit hard, only lasting 2.2 IP before being taken out. The bad news, Loewen complained of pain in his arm, and is now on the 15-day DL. It appears likely that Loewen is headed for another long-term shutdown, one that could end his season, again.

The good news is that the bullpen kept the Orioles in a game that was seemingly out of hand, allowing them to mount a huge comeback for the win. And on top of that, there are at least 4 pitchers either on the Orioles or down on the farm who are very deserving of taking Adam Loewen's spot in the rotation.

Other positives: Randor Bierd has been an anchor in the bullpen, eating innings like they are cupcakes. He's pitched 12.1 innings so far and has yet to allow an ER.

George "the Sheriff" Sherrill is 8 for 8 in save opportunities, and got another one last night, making that 5 against his former team. Think Seattle misses him much?

The Mariners are sure to also be missing Adam Jones, who had 3 RBI last night, and has raised his average to .270. Not to mention, his defense in CF is improving by the day.

Nick Markakis is blistering hot, with a .995 OPS. He's not getting much to hit in the #3 hole with a slumping Kevin Millar behind him, and being pitched around has raised his OBP to a whopping .468, but he's crushing everything that's in the strike zone.

Luke Scott has cooled down after he kicked his way through the gate, guns blazing, but his .878 OPS is still 70 points higher than the next man. He's also making up for his lack of HR's with doubles. He leads the team with 9.

And even though the offense is starting to cool down overall, they are at least getting hits and scoring runs when they need to, as they did last night.

One thing that is frustrating, however, is the questionable roster moves the Orioles keep making.

When the O's sent Adam Loewen to the DL, they called up middle-infielder Eider Torres, creating the redundant trifecta of weak hitting middle-infielders currently made up of Luis Hernandez and Brandon Fahey.

Torres was hitting well so far this season in Norfolk (.338 AVG, .795 OPS), but Torres should prove to be no better than Hernandez or Fahey with his career .675 MiL OPS.

One would hope that if Torres can swing a bat well, it would result in sending one of Hernandez or Fahey back to Norfolk where they belong. Alex Cintron is also in the mix, and is currently getting into baseball shape in Norfolk as well, so the trifecta could become even more crowded.

Meanwhile, Luis Terrero is hitting well (.877 OPS) and could be used as a bat off the bench late in the game.

Another head scratcher is why Greg Aquino is still taking up space in Baltimore. He's only pitched 6 innings thus far and has looked terrible in each one. Manager Dave Trembley clearly doesn't trust Aquino in close games, and for good reason. If this is the case, the Orioles should release Aquino and call up one of the impressive relievers in Norfolk.

Lance Cormier (1.15 ERA), Alberto Castillo (2.70 ERA) or Bob McCory (1.93 ERA) would fit the bill.

All in all, the Orioles are fun to watch. When it looked like they would fall into a season-ending nose dive after getting swept in a double-header by the Rangers, the battled back to play well over the last week or so.

They've got a stiff challenge ahead of them in the White Sox, who seem to be doing everything really well. Splitting the series seems like a possibility, and would be a success in my opinion.

But with the way the O's are playing, a letdown seems inevitable.

We shall see.

That time of year again...

In what appears to have become an annual thing, there are rumors going around Orioles Hangout that the Orioles are considering putting Baltimore back on the road uniforms for 2009.

I don't know what there is to consider.

Baltimore should have been put back on the road uniforms years ago, and it should be added now, especially since the Nationals are in Washington, DC.

The deadline is May 1st to submit uniform changes to the MLB.

This has become one of those much-debated issues concerning the Orioles. Some people dismiss it as meaningless fodder, and then there are others, like me, that think it is a big issue, and a problem that the Orioles have repeatedly failed to fix.

There has always been a disconnect between the Orioles and the city of Baltimore ever since the Orioles moved to Camden Yards. And that disconnect only got bigger once the Ravens came to Baltimore and won over the hearts and minds of its people.

It's a small thing, but adding Baltimore to the road uniforms would be an olive branch from the Orioles to the city and its people. And there is no better time than now, as the Orioles are turning over a new page in their history books, and are rebuilding for the future the right way.

Not only would it surely increase merchandise sales, it would reconnect the team and the city. It's much harder to bad-mouth a team that wears the name of your city on its uniform.

But apparently, the only people who don't understand this are the Orioles, who appear more interested in milking the last penny from the regional territory outside of Baltimore than listening to the fans who live inside of the 695 loop.

The Orioles play home games in Baltimore, and will be doing so well into the future. So they might as well go ahead and put the city's name back on the uniform.

It's about time.

Roster Blunder

The Orioles needed an extra arm in the bullpen after the double-header with Texas screwed up the starting pitching schedule, so they called up Jim Johnson from Norfolk and sent down utility-man Scott Moore, opting to keep Brandon Fahey in Baltimore.

And so starts the 2008 Campaign of Awful Roster Moves.

Last year, the Orioles mistakenly kept career minor-league sluggers Jon Knott and JR House down on the farm for most of the season while Jay Payton, Brandon Fahey, Freddie Bynum and Paul Bako collected a total of 740 AB's to the tune of a .580 OPS.

Scott Moore and Brandon Fahey fill the same role. They can both play multiple positions. The difference is Brandon Fahey makes Scott Moore look like Jim Gentile at the plate.

The Orioles probably kept Fahey because of his ability to play SS, but in doing this they lose Moore's bat off the bench. Now, the O's will be forced to send Luis Hernandez or Fahey to the plate late in close games instead of being able to pinch hit for them with Moore.

To everyone's surprise, Luis Hernandez isn't horrible at the plate so far this year, which makes Fahey that much more expendable.

But the O's got it wrong again.

Andy MacPhail has proven that he knows what he's doing when it comes to making trades and envisioning the future of the Orioles. But he still doesn't appear to know how to make roster moves in-season, as this move proves.

Keeping Fahey over Moore is just plain old stupid.

The Orioles said they wanted Moore to get more AB's in Norfolk, and they played him at SS in his first game, perhaps hoping that he could potentially play some SS in Baltimore. He was after all, drafted as a SS.

But if there is anyone in Baltimore who needs "more AB's", it's Fahey who has done little to prove himself deserving of a major league roster spot throughout his career.

The only positive that comes with adding one more arm to the bullpen is that Matt Albers gets a spot start today. Albers has been dominant out of the bullpen so far this year and deserves the chance to start.

But it still doesn't justify the move.

Let's just hope this isn't the first of many bad roster moves in 2008.

Ours - Mercy (Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy)

I discovered Ours while working long hours at BWI Airport. I was able to listen to WRNR, an independent radio station out of Annapolis, that luckily for me, played music not heard on commercially-owned radio stations.

I instantly fell in love with the acoustic version of "Sometimes" that they occasionally played, and after doing some searching on the web, I was able to find out the name of the band.

The next day, I bought the album, called Distorted Lullabies, off the strength of that one song, and after skipping through the rest of the CD, I was proud of myself for discovering a little-known band that kicked the living shit out of most bands played on commercial radio.

Jimmy Gnecco's voice was an instrument all it's own, and at the risk of sounding pretentious, it ripped through my soul and spoke to me in a way that few bands did. Maybe it was the connection I had with them, since I felt like I had discovered them, and I recommended them to friends whenever I had the chance.

But then again, maybe it was just because they were an excellent band, and Gnecco's lyrics were moody, depressing, and dark -- and that's usually the kind of music I like.

After relentlessly spinning the album for months, I grew tired of it, and hung it up to dry.

Then September 11th happened.

And it the midst of doing some serious soul-searching during the aftermath of that horrible day, I found myself listening to Lullabies again, and was amazed at how much the album spoke to the current times, despite being released almost a year before 9/11. Songs and lyrics took on different meanings, and it really opened up another window for me to discover this band and this album.

Luckily for me, I didn't have to wait long for their follow-up to Distorted Lullabies, as the band released their sophomore album, Precious, in the fall of 2002.

At that time, I had just gotten married, and was beginning a life on my own, free of my parents house and their authority. Precious was there for me at another important time in my life, and it will always be special to me because of that, even though it was a lacking album in many ways.

In listening to Precious, you could tell the band was being pushed in directions they didn't really want to go. Still, Gnecco's influence was able to shine through on certain songs, and his voice and lyrics were as strong and haunting as ever.

But when I listened to their flat cover of "Femme Fatal" by Velvet Underground, I had a feeling that Gnecco had compromised himself in a way that would change him and the way he dealt with his music in the future.

Boy was I right.

It is now 2008, a full five and a half years since Ours has released an album. It has been delayed numerous times, survived a record label dispute and label change, and even more delays.

Luckily, Ours toured frequently in-between albums, and kept promising his small but extremely loyal fan-base that a new album was forthcoming. Their live shows featured the newly written songs that Gnecco hoped to get recorded, and they were great songs, which made the wait that much more frustrating.

I saw the band for the first time in August of 2004 at Fletcher's in Fells Point, Baltimore. It's a small upstairs venue and the crowd was sparse but energetic. The band had sound problems and the show started an hour later than scheduled.

To make up for the delay, Gnecco played a 2+ hour long set, and when the band took breaks, he remained on stage, playing acoustic versions of previously recorded songs, as well as new ones.

After the electric set was finished, my wife and I headed for the exit, but when I heard Gnecco come on stage again, I immediately raced back into the club and listened as Gnecco played another acoustic set which lasted another half an hour and pushed his strained voice to the breaking point.

Gnecco is known for his fan appreciation and has been known to play short acoustic sets in the parking lot after shows for the few remaining fans. Unfortunately, that didn't happen for me.

Over the years, without a new album to look forward to, Ours disappeared from my radar. I discovered new bands like Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade and The Walkmen. But I always looked forward to a new Ours album, and hoped that someday it would find a release date.

And finally, on April, 15th, Ours will release their third album entitled, Mercy (Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy), and one thing is for sure despite the long break in-between album releases -- this is the album Gnecco wanted to make.

He teamed up with super-producer Rick Rubin, who signed the band to his American label, a sub-genre offshoot of Columbia. It's the same label Johnny Cash was on late in his career. But whereas Precious producer Ethan Johns suffocated the band in forced trendiness, Rick Rubin guided Gnecco, giving him advice when needed, and allowed Gnecco to do what he wanted to do.

At first listen, Mercy is very much an Ours album. The soaring vocals of Gnecco are still there, but it's much more focused than Precious, and hearkens back to the epic moodiness of Distorted Lullabies. The glimmers of U2, Radiohead and Jeff Buckley are all still there and in full effect.

I'm still in the beginning stages of listening to this album, and I've barely touched the second half, but I can say this, Mercy is Gnecco's album and it's the one he wanted to make. So far, so good.

It was well worth the wait.

ALBUM SCORE: *** (out of ****)
BEST SONG: I Ran Away To Tell The World
SEE THEM LIVE: Yes! Expect to be there at least 2 hours.

Twin Billing Killing

After beating the Rangers in the first game of a 3-game series to extend their winning streak to 6, the Orioles dropped the final two games of the series, being swept in a double-header yesterday.

First the good news.

The Orioles were in both games, losing 3-1 and 5-4, so at least there were no 30-3 debacles to be had in double-headers so far this year.

Steve Trachsel kept his tightrope act going, at least for another start, allowing only 2 ER in 6.1 IP with 4 BB and 2 K. Again, the bullpen was good, although Chad Bradford allowed a run in the 8th inning of the second game when the score was tied 4-4. He was saddled with the loss.

In the second game, the offense woke up a bit, as the O's battled back from a 4-1 deficit with a 2-run HR from Jay Payton and then tied the game up in the 8th before Bradford gave it away in the bottom of the inning.

Now the bad news.

The offense fell silent against Kevin Millwood in the first game, racking up only 3 hits and 1 run. In the second game, Adam Loewen imploded in the 3rd inning, walking 3 batters which lead to 3 runs. Loewen's final line wasn't horrible, as he settled down after the 3rd, but the 4 BB in 5 IP are par for the course for Loewen. In the 3rd, it appeared as if he was having a Rick Ankiel-like meltdown, not coming close to finding the plate during his 3 BB.

But at least the O's managed to prove again that they are going to be in most games because of their bullpen and the never-say-die attitude of the offense. But the fact remains that the O's were not as good as their 6-1 start and now sit at a more realistic 6-3 record, heading into Tampa with what is sure to be a tough 3-game series with the new and improved Rays.

The Orioles could be fun to watch this year, but they will occasionally let you down like they did yesterday.

As long as we keep that in mind, we should be fine.

Road Warriors?

The Orioles did it again.... they mounted another come-from-behind victory yesterday and won their fifth straight to sweep the Mariners in four games.

They are off to their best start at 5-1 since 2000.

No comes the real test: Playing on the road.

In the past, the Orioles have been absolutely dreadful when it came to playing away from the friendly confines of Camden Yards. In 2007 they were 34-47 on the road. In 2006, 30-51.

Now that they are playing well, and given fans reason for hope, playing on the road will offer us a good look at whether this hot start is just another flash in the pan.

Not that Camden Yards is exactly a safe haven, with dwindling attendance and mediocre records at home he last two seasons, but the road has always been a different story for the Orioles.

Today they begin a 3-game series against the Rangers, who are playing their home opener today at 2 p.m. EST. Then the birds travel to Tampa to take on the Rays for three more before returning home to host the Blue Jays (2), White Sox (2) and Yankees (3).

The Rangers and Rays are slated to be two of the lesser teams in the AL, albeit somewhat improved, but if the O's are as good as their 5-1 record, they should be able to pad their record against these teams before returning home to face some better competition.

So, the question remains. Even though the O's are rebuilding, and expectations have been lowered, they've played well and could be better than we thought.

They'll have their chance to prove us wrong yet again, on the road.