This Is Not Looking Good

That 11-10 loss yesterday was not a good sign, not only was it the Orioles 13th straight Sunday loss, but Lowen was injured, and a lot of the teams needs were brought to the surface. It has become apparent that the O's are in desperate need of their starters to have long outings. Now lets look at it this way, last years best starting pitcher averaged about 7 innings per game the bottom 3 of the Orioles rotation is lasting an average of just under 5. That's is not just two innings the bullpen has to pick up, that is four innings. The O's only have two pitchers that average more, both Daniel Cabrera and Jeremy Guthrie average about 6.5 innings, but that number is skewed for Cabrera, who has two complete games. This comes into play with the second weakness, which used to be a strong point, the bullpen. Plain and simple, they are worn out, good that this All-Star break is soon.

The third weakness is shortstop, easy, but no easy fix. Before the trade deadline, I think, as much as I like watching this group, that we need to unload some of the players, Huff and Payton, to get some infield prospects. Maybe trade something to the Royals for their top SS prospect, supposedly awesome bat. But who are we kidding, the Royals aren't making a push at a postseason berth. But someone who is sure would like a hot bat like Huff, or a steady player like Payton.

Mr. McPhail is doing a great job, I hope that, even though he doesn't want to "Pull the rug out from underneath these guys," he pulls the rug out from underneath them. That would be doing whats best for the franchise, tough, but necessary, maybe not yet, but in the very near future.