Same shit, different season...

Unless you've been stranded on Dobbins Island for 10 years, and have avoided the people who climb up the hill to drop a deuce, you'd know that the Orioles are free-falling toward their 10th consecutive losing season.

Let's face it, the Twins, one of the best teams in all of baseball, stomped a mud-hole in the Orioles. The Birds were in oh... say 5 innings of the 27 played in the whole series. Yeah, I know they lost 3-2 on Tuesday night but let's face it, when you're sending up Freddie Bynum to pinch-hit against Joe Nathan, you might as well be losing by 10. And even in the earlier innings, when they were down by only 1-run, did you really think their offense would be able to get that 1 measly run back? They're averaging 2.6 runs a game for crying out loud!

So the O's are 0-3 to start the season. The first time they've started the season 0-3 since 1995. Sidebar. Ahhhh, remember 1995. That year my friends and I used to call the Orioles the "Borioles, the whorioles, the non-scorioles" because they were very mediocre what with Phil Regan at the helm and Brett Barberie at 2B. Now I'd give my left nut for a 71-73 record and Brett Barberie on the bench. And I'm pretty sure that Regan would be an upgrade over Perlozzo. If we only knew what lied ahead in the next 12 years...

Anyway, what is even more telling than the 0-3 record, which let's face it, is easily surmountable with a well-placed winning streak, are the errors and mistakes this team has been making for the last 7-8 years.

Players come and go, but the results are still the same...

1. No patience at the plate. Every time I see someone swing at the first pitch and then pop it up to the SS I want to fucking shoot myself in the head. Whatever happened to making a pitcher work for an out? Whatever happened to "a walk is as good as a hit?" Christ, I learned that when I was playing T-ball, and there weren't even walks in T-ball! And you even got snow-cones after losses!

2. Walks. It's still early, yes... but so far the O's have given away 13 base on balls -- which is already 4th most in all of baseball. The O's must really want to get that "most walks allowed" award they got last year again, because it's the only thing they're doing well. I thought Leo Mazzone was supposed to help our pitchers, especially Jared Wright, Mazzone's personal reclamation project, who walked 6 batters on his own in only 2.1 IP. Wake me when that happens, will you?

3. Errors. Whether it's over-running pop-ups in foul territory, mis-playing routine ground balls, or trying to throw out a crawling base runner from your knees, the O's are making plenty of mistakes, whether they be physical or mental. Remember Javy Lopez running past Tejada last year, which turned Lopez's 2-run HR into a solo shot? Remember Todd Williams' intentional walk that turned into the game winning hit? Remember Melvin Mora tagging up on a fly ball to the SS and getting thrown out at home to end the game? I do, but the Orioles obviously don't because they're making those same kinds mistakes again. Dumb mistakes that even good high school teams don't make. And remind me because sometimes I forget when watching this team, this is the major leagues, right? And players who are paid millions of dollars shouldn't be making these kinds of mistakes, right? RIGHT???!!!!

I could easily go into the make-up of the roster again, a subject that gives me no shortage of pleasure discussing, since it's such a one-sided argument -- much like laying into your girlfriend after you just saw her make out with your best friend -- but no, I've already discussed that.

The bottom line is this. If players come and go, but the same shit keeps happening, who is to blame? Let's take a look... the only people to be here longer than a few years during this decade long losing streak are... Sam Perlozzo and Terry Crowley (which by the way is unfortunately NOT the Terry Crowley that Vic Mackey killed in The Shield).

So when are their heads gonna roll for this sloppy play?

If I were a betting man, which I am, I'd say that either of these guys should consider themselves lucky to make it through to the end of the season with a job.

As much as I loathe Peter Angelos, even he is not responsible for the circus-like antics the O's put on every night.