Another rough week for the O’s

Here’s the good news – Brian Roberts and Matt Wieters are back. The bad news is they still can’t win. Oh, that and Mike Gonzalez is pitching again….

The Orioles had a rough week, facing the tough Tampa Bay Rays and then playing the Minnesota Twins in a four game series. Tampa took two out of three against the O’s, and the Twins took three out of four against Baltimore. Not a good week, but on the bright side, we’re hopeful with the O’s getting healthy, they can be more competitive than they have been for the majority of the season.

This week the O’s head out on the road for a three game set against the Blue Jays and then they face the Royals right after.

Some things to look for over the next few weeks is the never ending managerial search. Will Juan Samuel stay around for another week? Will players like Kevin Millwood or Ty Wigginton get traded before the trade deadline? At this rate, it would make total sense to jettison older players to bring in some talent.

The Orioles’ AAA Norfolk team isn’t exactly setting the world on fire, so maybe by trading some players that have good value they can build up their farm system. I mean, you can only call up Chris Tillman so many times….

Who’s Hot:
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s official: Luke Scott is on another tear. On the week, Scott hit .458 with four home runs and eight RBI. Hopefully his shoulders won’t get too sore from carrying the rest of the offense.

Ty Wigginton gets an honorable mention, as he seems to be finding his stroke after getting tossed for bumping an umpire. For the week Wiggy hit two home runs and drove in three runs, so hopefully this will spark his resurgence.

Koji Uehara has been very solid out of the bullpen this year (when healthy). Koji didn’t give up a run all week and struck out six hitters in 4.1 IP. Jeremy Guthrie also pitched a great game against the Twins, pitching seven innings and giving up only two earned runs while striking out six hitters.

Who’s Not:
Anyone who was called up from AAA this year. Sadly I’m not joking. Jake Arrieta, Chris Tillman, Brad Bergesen, and Brian Matusz (I know Matusz wasn‘t called up this year, but the other three were. Just go with me on this one). If you combine their stats for the week, here is their line: 18.6 IP, 27 earned runs, 18 K’s, 16 walks, and a record of 0-4.

Matusz pitched 6.2 innings, but sadly that was over the course of two games. It seems that these young pitchers are having control issues. That was always the knock on Arrieta, but it was thought to have been fixed this season.

After his ghastly performance against Tampa Bay, Tillman was sent back down. Again. At this point, it looks as if Tillman is trying out to be the first human yo-yo. Either that or he’s lobbying to start a AAAA league, considering how much he dominates AAA but can’t seem to get a grip on the Majors. Either way, I hope he will figure it out soon.