Os vs Red Sox

Tonight the O's start a three game series versus the Red Sox and hope to maintain their momentum that has seemed to have been building all season long. I still find it hard to believe that most mornings I wake up to see the birds in first and I can say that that is an awesome feeling especially this late in the season. I thought this past weekend would have been a much tougher test against the Nationals, honestly I wasn't sure they could take two from them. But the Orioles pitchers showed up and the hitters showed they could stand their ground against a very good Washington rotation. Sunday wasn't as good, it is especially embarrassing to give up a home run to Strasburg but for the most part we had another great series against a very good team.

Moving on to the Red Sox, this series should be very different from our first series which ended up being a three game sweep in our favor. At that point of the season the Sox were woeful at best and did little to slow us down, we ended up out scoring them 23-12 over that series in their house. Right now the sox are surging they are on a two game win streak and have won eight of their last ten. All phases of their game have improved and you can bet they will be looking to get some revenge on the first place O's. Also the Sox play a little better on the road so it may not be to our benefit that we are home for this series. The pitching match ups look pretty good with Tommy Hunter vs. Clay Bocholz in game one, then Brian Matusz vs. Felix Doubront, and ending up with Jake Arrieta vs. Daniel Bard. I am most comfortable with Jake the snake in their, which of course means Daniel Bard will probably no-hit us. Tommy Hunter has also seemed to lower his fastball a bit which has helped keep the extra base hits down a bit. Brian Matusz is still the wild card, as. he has been all year long. He might only give up three runs and go six innings or he could give up six runs and only go three innings. You can pretty much count on him giving up a few runs but he has been slightly better as of late. Hopefully playing the Sox will crank him up a bit for this series.

All in all I think this series being a good one and I think we could win two out of three but it is hard to tell how much better the Sox are as I haven't watched them play a game since our last series. As for the season, I know it is still early yet but as Buck said the other day we are a quarter of the way through the season and we are still in first place, we are 12 games above .500 and we aren't showing signs of that changing any time soon. We have fought through every injury, bad start, and 17 inning game so far and came out on the winning end of almost every one of those tests. Most importantly to me we are hearing all the right things come out of the club house. I haven't heard any of the guys start running their mouth about how much better we are than anyone else, in fact the one thing you do hear is the guys saying how much more professional this club house is compared to years past, which is a very welcome change. I can't pinpoint what the biggest change is this year from last year but there is just something different about this team. They don't flip out when they strike out or make a bad play. And the pitchers don't implode when they give up a run. They are vastly improved from last and they still have room for improvement. Hopefully everyone can come back strong from the DL and keep this thing going all year. I know there will be low points but I think this team will be able to break out of those much easier than we have seen recently.

One last note, Dylan Bundy is freaking amazing, the kid has yet to give up an earned run in something like 30 innings of professional ball. I don't care what level you are playing at that is crazy production and I can't wait to see this kid live. I wish we were hearing more from our other pitching prospects but for now it looks like we will have to be patient until this kid breaks through. Also I would like to give some kudos to whoever made the call on Xavier Avery and called him up. I remember seeing him in the past and was not that impressed but he seems to be much better this year and it was definitely time for him to move up. Of course that happened partly due to injury but it was easily the best move to make. Any of you wishing we had hung on to Matt Angle now?  Let's hope we come ready to hit tonight and keep the sox in last place, Let's Go O's!

Mother's Day Baseball

Today the O's face off against the Rays and hope to improve their record in these Mother's Day games. We are on a five game losing streak in such games and that includes the Mother's Day massacre. A game in which Dave Trembley pulled Jeremy Guthrie in the ninth inning with a 5-0 lead. We ended up losing that game and many more after a decent start up to that point. Hopefully today will be another massacre just with us on the winning side of it.

This has been a crazy week for the O's and honestly they probably got the most they could get out of it. It was certainly disappointing to drop 3 of 4 to Texas but you have to remember we had played 13 and 17 inning games over the weekend and our pitchers were pretty much gassed. Something that is not good at all heading into a series with probably the toughest lineup in baseball and includes a guy on pace to break Barry Bond's record for homers in a season. But to get one against them and be able to rest some pitchers and then move on and get the first 2 of 3 from the Rays is quite a feat in my mind.

Also we had 4 guys go on the DL this week and after today we will have something like 5 guys make their Orioles debuts. Today Xavier Avery will start the game and lead off against the Rays and this will be his major league debut. Hopefully he can make a similar impression to what the guys have made as Bill Hall hit a homer in his O's debut and Steve Tolleson has played some great defense as well as aquitting himself well at the plate. We shall see, it isn't an easy task but it seems like they know when to bring these guys up and they all seem to make a positive impact.  Happy Mother's Day and to every mother out there, Thank You for all that you do.Let's Go O's!

Orioles are awesome!

Ok, I know it has been over a month since and I wish I didn't have to wait this long to write something. In short me and my family are going through a lot at the moment but hopefully soon I will be able to write with more regularity. For now I just wanted to comment on a few things that I am excited about. First and foremost are the mother f@#*ing Orioles! They have gotten off to an incredible start and I can honestly say that this is the most excited I have ever been as an Orioles fan. To see this team finally compete at a high level has just been awesome. Hopefully they can maintain some of this early production through out the year but the odds are not with us. Right now I am just enjoying this to the fullest because I know the other shoe will eventually drop, it always does. I plan to get more in depth with the Orioles later this week as long as I can find the time to do so.

Second, the mother f@#*ing Devils! They have been awesome in the playoffs and remind me of those early 2000's teams that made me a fan. Obviously part of what made me a fan was that they won a lot but also I liked the kind of defense they played even though most others bitched about it, also they had and still have Martin Brodeur who is, in a word, awesome. This team seems faster and while the defense isn't quite as stifling and slow it is still effective. It's a great feeling to beat any team from Philadelphia and it feels even better when it happens in the playoffs, as it did last night when we sent the Flyers home for the rest of the year. Next up we will face either the Rangers or the Capitals. My money is on us having to beat the Rangers to make it to the finals as the Capitals seem to be following their script of forgetting how to win in the playoffs. Obviously this year's Capitals weren't expected to do as much in the playoffs but after their round one win some thought they might have turned a corner. They do still have a chance as the series is 2-3 in favor of the Rangers, and honestly I feel a bit more comfortable playing them than the Rangers, but I doubt they have 2 wins left in them especially with their anemic offense. The good news is we won our series and are currently resting up for whomever we get next. Gotta love playoff hockey, it doesn't get much better.

Next has to be the basketball coaching situation at VT. This has been one of the crazier off seasons for any VT team in a long time. I don't remember a situation quite like it but that may selective memory as well. Seth Greenberg's dismissal came as somewhat of a surprise but with everything leading up to it I believe it was the only acceptable outcome. Three more assistants were choosing to leave VT and there was word that player's were starting to lean that way as well, and this is not the first time this happened under Greenberg. Almost every year there has been turnover in the coaching ranks and usually a kid or two would decide to transfer. None of that is terribly uncommon in NCAA basketball but for a school at our current level of competitiveness that much turnover does nothing to help build something bigger. In the end the school decided to go with someone who might be able to bring the same kind of family atmosphere to basketball that Frank Beamer has done with football. The man they chose was James Johnson, one of the three assistants who had accepted a job elsewhere before Greenberg got fired. I don't know much about him but he always seemed like a good motivator and an energetic coach on the bench. I like the hire, I do wish Seth could have done a bit more in his time at Tech but apparently he hurt himself when it came to keeping people around him. Hopefully James can hang on to some of our recruits and next year won't be a complete wash. It's hard to tell how things will go until we know who exactly will stay on the roster and we get to see how they play together. Congrats and good luck JJ here's hoping for a great first year.

There is much more to discuss, RGIII is a REDSKIN!!! and that's pretty awesome, however I need much more time to write about the Redskins and the draft as whole. Also the Hokies spring game got cancelled due to lightning but many people around the team expect this year's squad to be even better than last years. I think the defense will definitely be better but it may be hard for the offense to improve with basically a brand new line in front of LT3 etc... I need more time to get into all of that as well. Also Kevin Harvick has done fairly well, he is still in contention for the chase but he better get some points from wins before to long as he needs all the bonus points he can get. I am sure they are things I am missing but hopefully soon I will be able to get to everything. Thanks to everyone who reads me and soon I hope to be more prompt with this stuff. As for now, Let's Go O's and Devils!