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Sorry guys. Was busy most of the weekend and have to be on the road for work later today so only time for a quick Know the O's preview.
Many of you probably know the O's have been in first place in the AL East for a while, and they're hanging in there still. This is due almost entirely to a pretty good offense and very good relief pitching covering a shaky rotation, the butt-end of which we'll see this week. The O's strike out a lot and hit lots of home runs. They never steal bases. With little expected of them they have been thriving on guts and ingenuity and Buck Showalter, and kind of do the things the Mets do well poorly and vice versa.
Their regular lineup looks like this:
Robert Andino's been playing 2B but Brian Roberts has just returned. Andino's a light hitter who you might remember from the Marlins. He strikes out too much. Roberts is a career Oriole (12 years now) who just came back after a lengthy concussion layoff and has spent most of the last 3 years DLed.
JJ Hardy is the shortstop, he has 11 home runs and doest embarrass you defensively but that's about all the recommend him. His OBP is below 300. He's an excellent table tennis player.
Center fielder Adam Jones is The Man on this club, and a legit MVP candidate. 18 home runs, including 4 in extra innings, and a 311/360/583 slasher. He's kind of the Kemp of the AL, and a great return as it turns out for Erik Bedard, one of the Orioles' best trades in a long while.
Chris Davis has been the better of the Davises manning first base in this series, although he plays more like Duda and might be in the right field to get the hot Mark Reynolds in at first. Davis has 12 jacks so far, is not a good fielder. Reynolds is a really shitty fielder but happens to be on a roll right now and of course had no problem hitting it out of Old Citi Field. Reg'lar right fielder and all around Professional Hitter Nick Markakis is out with an injury.
Journeyman reserve Wilson Betemit has been at third base. For a hot-potato kind of guy (the O's are his 7th team in the last 10 years) he's a pretty good utility man who switch hits. Andino, Reynolds and shitty hitting rookie Ryan Flaherty have also manned the hot corner.
Left field belongs to some guy called N.D. Chavez while Nolan Reimold is out with an injury. Chavez (163/192/210) could probably use all the applause he'll receive in the event he's not released before the game starts.
Matt Weiters is the catcher. Superstardom has eluded him so far but he's a switch hitter with a good glove and dangerous power (9 homers), most teams would be thrilled to have that behind their dish each night. If he takes the night off it's Ronny Paulino time, so, you know, be ready and all.
Various benchies include names you might know including Nick Johnson, Steve Pearce and Bill Hall and some you don't (Xavier Avery, Luis Exposito, Steven Tolleson).
The bullpen has been great. Famously fumbled lefty sidearmer Darren O'Day (ERA+ 236), out-of-nowhere righty Pedro Strop (ERA +286), you've-gotta-be-joking Luis Ayala (ERA +234) and Troy "Magnificent Son of a Bitch" Patton (ERA + 118) set up closer Jim Johnson (ERA + 336). I mean, Jesus. Matt Lindstrom is recently returned to action too. Lots of X-Mets on this team.
Jake Arrieta starts tonight. He was the O's opening day starter but pitched badly enough to earn a "paper" bullpen demotion (he was assigned there but had no appearances before a spot-starting thing got him back into the ro'. To his credit he got the message and went 7 innings, 1 run. Otherwise this is a guy is leading the AL in losses and earned runs allowed and he's opposing Real American Dickey in what looks like a mismatch tonite.
Tuesday at 7 it's Santana vs. righty Tommy Hunter. He's 3-3, 5.58 with just 38 K's in 71 innings and 17 homers allowed. This looks like a guy to get healthy on.
Wednesday's finale pits Brian Matusz (5-7, 4.94) against Dillon Gee, You're Last Outing Really Sucked. Matusz is one of those precious lefties who walks too many guys, strikes out his share, and once in a while gets it all together and shuts you down. His last two starts were pretty poor.
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