Let's see your moves

The Orioles are 1-5 after the All Star Break, 11 games below .500 and in need of some immediate roster moves.

Rich Hill, in a word, is done.

Remember Adam Eaton? Hill is worse. Well, almost.

7.64 ERA in 12 starts? Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Rich.

Chris Tillman meanwhile is cruising in AAA Norfolk to the tune of a 2.42 ERA and 95 K in 93 IP. The wrap on Tillman at one point was that he needed to go deeper in games. Well, in his last 7 starts, Tillman has gone at least 6 IP in all of them.

So expect to see Tillman in Baltimore soon. Really soon. As in, When-Hill-is-supposed-to-start-next soon.

As for trades, they don't look very promising. The O's most valuable players, Luke Scott and George Sherrill don't look like they're going anywhere since they are cheap and under control for two more seasons.

Meanwhile, soon-to-expire players such as Danys Baez and Aubrey Huff don't have any trade value. Melvin Mora has little value and a no-trade clause as durable as the Great Wall of China.

Yes, Baez looked great at the beginning of the season, and was a trade waiting to happen, but since his hot start he had a 5.40 ERA in June and a 7.11 ERA thus far in July. Huff, meanwhile, is a notorious slow starter and I guess he never got the memo that it's now summertime, when he usually heats up. His .742 OPS is near the bottom of 1B's in the majors.

4th OF Felix Pie could be traded, only because he's not able to find any playing time in Baltimore, and could fetch a promising player much like himself, but it's unlikely MacPhail will part with Pie either. The Cubs connection runs deep with MacPhail.

So there you have it. The Orioles are a boring team right now, and seem prepared to take another second half nosedive. The call-up of Tillman could get a few fans excited for a minute, but it won't last. This still isn't a very good team and they continue to run themselves out of games, just like Monday night's debacle in New York when Caesar Izturis and Brian Roberts were both thrown out at the plate in the 8th inning of a 1-1 tie game that the Orioles eventually lost.

The bottom line is that this team has to get better, fast. The Orioles can only tease us with the excitement of rookie call-ups for so long.

Pretty soon we've got to see it all come together.