Baltimore Orioles Soundoff

Who remembers last year?

Who can recall that the Orioles struggled to get base hits and score runs?

Who recollects the garbage that was the Orioles offense during the second half of last season?

I do. And guess what?

They're back!!!

Sure, Dontrelle Willis is one of the league's top pitchers but this was the first spring training game and hitters are supposed to prosper over pitchers this early in camp. Maybe the D-Train was on his game, but come on, the O's offense was still almost non-existant.

Six hits in a spring training game? Not acceptible.

The anemic offense must pick up, everyone knows that. I am not saying that this opening spring game is any kind of indication on how the Orioles will hit during the regular season, that would be ridiculous and unfair, but it would make me feel better if the O's could put some runs on the board, get some base hits, and, some home runs would be nice too.

At least he got a run-scoring hit

You want to trust Luis Matos. Want to think he will put last year behind him and become the player he was destined to be.

And he came through in the Orioles first spring game when he laced a run-scoring single, one of the only hits the O's could muster.

But, it seems, with Luis anyway, that good always is coupled with bad. And the bad eventually happened.

Miguel Cabrera lifted deep shot to center and Matos made a great play to get to it and then, oops. The ball bounced off his mitt and the result was a triple for Cabrera. Not the impression you want to make when you are vying for a starting position, especially when it will be the only impression you can make for a while due to the World Baseball Classic.


Lopez passed his first(base) test

Hallelujah! Now pass the next one.

And freakin stop trying to catch grounders like a catcher. I don't care if it is efficient, you look like you don't know what you are doing. Mike Piazza looked dumb doing it and you do too!

Repeat after me, Javy, "I will not drop to my knees when a ground ball comes my way," again, "I will not drop to my knees when a ground ball comes my way," one more time, "I will not drop to my knees when a ground ball comes my way."

Good. Now do it again!


Sal Fasano sighting

While playing beer pong in a local New York City bar last night, I happened to glance at the taped version of that day's exhibition game between the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Geriatric-Yankees.

My jaw dropped as the Phillies' catcher threw out a speedy runner at 2nd and I realized that catcher was none other than former Oriole backup, Sal Fasano.

And I hate Sal Fasano.

Sure, he did the best he could for the O's when they lost Javy last year, but that is no excuse. That man should be bagging groceries or fixing cars, not playing baseball.

Sure, he has his fair share of home runs for the O's last year, but in between the home runs was, most of the time, a sure strike out. The man swings and misses like he was intentionally swatting at something other than the ball.

He is Pedro Serrano from the movie, "Major League." The man can not hit a breaking pitch. Give him a fat fastball right over the plate and he is all over it, but give him a curveball, low and away in the strike zone and it is whiff city, with a capital W. (sorry for the bad Dick Vitale reference)

So, good luck Sal, you need it. Oh, and Phillies: God have mercy on your souls if he makes the team.