Earl Weaver Rules

The Orioles have designated RHP Jeremy Guthrie as their opening day starter for the 2008 season. Guthrie had a 7-5 record last season, his first full season in the Bigs, with a 3.70 ERA in 175.1 innings pitched. Hopefully he will be able to keep up his winning ways in a successful season. Erik Bedard’s trade to the Mariners is what opened the door for Guthrie to step in as the O’s ace, and there are lofty expectations for this young gamer. He will most likely be followed in the rotation by Daniel Cabrera, Adam Loewen, and Steve Traschel, with the 5th starter TBD. Not an imposing starting staff, but one that is loaded with potential, and even a little veteran leadership. Here’s hoping pitching coach Rick Kranitz can work a little magic out of these guys.

The O’s lost to the Mets today, 1-0. On a bright note, the game was highlighted by an excellent outing from Adam Loewen, who gave up only 2 hits in 5 innings of work, surrending 3 BB’s and racking up 3K’s.

6 Days until opening day.

So in a significant decision, Manager Dave Trembley has decided to bat Kevin Millar in the cleanup spot in the opening day lineup. This should absolutely terrify O’s fans, as last season Millar hit .254 with 17HR’s and 63RBI’s. Clearly huge numbers… I’m hoping Millar gains some access to the new Cream or Clear that some genius out there is developing in order to boost those power numbers. Otherwise, expect him to “cowboy down” to the bottom third of the order by June.

The O’s were blanked by the Mets yesterday, 7-0, which is encouraging considering the University of Michigan baseball team played the Mets to a 4-4 draw a few weeks ago… The O’s managed 6 hits in the 9 inning game.

Today, the O’s are at the Cards, and tomorrow, home against the Marlins.

15 days until opening day.

The O’s are 7-8 thus far in spring training games, which we know must be taken very seriously considering Billy Crystal was batting lead-off this past week for the Yankees.  Just goes to show you that if you have a lot of money, you can pretty much do whatever you want…  But you’ll still have no athletic talent.

On an encouraging note, as of yesterday, Melvin Mora was batting .483 during the spring, with 11 RBI’s in 11 games played.  It’s going to take an extremely productive season from MM in order to have the Orioles in any position to battle with the Yanks and BoSox (insert “boo” here).  With an extremely thin lineup offering no protection (ask Jamie Lynn Spears about this), the O’s are really going to count on significant contributions from MM in order to stay competitive.

 The O’s lost today to the Marlins, 7-6, with Steve Traschel giving up 5 earned in 4IP.  Tomorrow they take on  the Nationals at home.