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In honor of his crazy series against the Tigers (10-13, with two doubles, a triple, three home runs, 10 RBI, and six runs scored for a nifty .768/.800/1.769 line) I decided to take a look at Melvin Mora's bounce-back season. First, some history:
2003: .317/.418/.503, 15 HR, .398 wOBA
2004: .340/.419/.562, 27 HR, .419 wOBA
2005: .283/.348/.474, 27 HR, .352 wOBA
2006: .274/.342/.391, 16 HR, .323
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
Melvin Mora
So, you all remember that Miguel Tejada trade? Remember when Miggy got off to that scorching start in Houston and some people were saying he should have been playing shortstop for the O's instead of Luis Hernandez? Well - funny thing - Miguel Tejada has walked 21 times this year, and he has grounded into 21 double plays. Going back the last few years, I only found one non-catcher for whom that
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MLB
Shea Hillenbrand
Miguel Tejada
Baltimore Orioles
Houston Astros
Luis Hernandez
Luke Scott
The O's travel to Detroit to face the Tigers for three after splitting their four-game set in Cleveland. If the Orioles win two of three then they will leave Detroit with a better record than the supposed AL Central contenders.
Brain Roberts, batting righty against lefty Nate Robertson, flies out to short left-field. Nick grounds one up the middle, but Placido Polanco ranges to his right and
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
Detroit Tigers
The O's finally signed first-round draft pick Brain Matusz today. I'm glad it didn't go right down to the deadline, as the two sides weren't all that close in recent days. A major league contract with a $3.2 MM signing bonus was agreed upon, and Matusz should see action in the Arizona Fall League or Hawaiian Winter League. I was hoping for a $3 MM max, but $3.2 isn't that bad and isn't that
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
The blogosphere was buzzing today due to the continued stupidity from the Seattle Mariners. After asking way too much at the trade deadline and failing to complete a deal to send #4/5 starter (at best) Jarrod Washburn and his $10+ MM salary to the Yankees, the M's got another chance. The Minnisota Twins claimed Washburn on waivers, and then reportedly offered Seattle 26 year-old pitcher Boof
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MLB
Jarrod Washburn
Seattle Mariners
Baltimore Orioles
Boof Bonser
Inspired by UFC 87, I decided to check out their new biggest competitor: Affliction. Their first event, Banned, was held a little while ago, but I hadn't gotten around to watching it.
Megadeth was there to play some music, which I think detracts from it being a sporting event, and makes it more sporting entertainment. For me, mixed martial arts is just a more interesting form of boxing - I
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
I finally saw UFC 87 today, and man was Brock Lesnar impressive. He's huge, and strong, and fast, and relentless. He put Heath Herring (a pretty good heavy-weight in his own right) down with one punch just 8 seconds into the first round, causing him to role over back-wards, and then charged him like a bull. Lesnar dominated him on the ground, and a lack of experience and no submission skills
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
Today is a very good day. Today my life was made a good deal easier, as the fine people of LookoutLanding (a quality M's blog) have started a new site, StatCorner.com, that has several handy things on it which I will no longer have to calculate (often incorrectly, as I was using a simplified version of the formula - also, a typo in my spreadsheet has caused a general undervaluing of offense,
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
Haven't done one of these in a while.
Brian Roberts starts things off by beating at an infield grounder for a lead-off single against former Brewer, lefty Zach Jackson (who came over in the Sabathia trade). Nick Markakis erases him with a grounder to first, but at least he's able to beat out the double play. Melvin Mora ropes one off the wall in left and cruises in to second with a double.
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
Cleveland Indians
Random thoughts while watching the O's-Indians game:
* It's nice to see Anthony Reyes finally getting a chance to show what he can do.
* Nick Markakis is still the man.
* Why is Grady Sizemore (.267/.380/.521, 27 HR, 67 RBI) still batting lead-off? He doesn't have to hit clean-up, but maybe the #2 spot? If he had 100 RBI right now would he be getting more attention as an MVP candidate?
*
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
Nick Markakis
Another poorly played game resulted in an O's loss yesterday, as the team fell to the Cleveland Indians. A solid offensive performance was wasted as the defense committed four errors (and generally wasn't very good) and Garrett Olson and the usually reliable Jim Johnson got touched for seven runs. Earlier in the year, the O's were above .500 because their defense made their pitching look better
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
David Price
It's nice to see Rocco Baldelli back in the big-leagues with the Rays. Before the season started, Baldelli's entire career was in jeopardy because of a mitochondrial something-or-other that left him too tired to play. With that hopefully squared away, or at least under control, Rocco is in a position to really help out the club with both Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria on the DL - the former
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MLB
Tampa Bay Rays
Baltimore Orioles
Rocco Baldelli
After Ken Griffey Jr. was traded last week, I had a discussion with someone about the impact of the deal on the White Sox. My point (as stated in the post about the trade) was that Junior's bat is still pretty good, but it's no longer great and that his horrible defense (in RF no less) counteracts it, and then some. The counter-argument was that Griffey is going to a contending club, which
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
During the O's game a few days ago, I was having a discussion with a friend of mine about Mark Teixeira, Brian Roberts, and player valuation in general. My points were that (1) Tex isn't going to be worth as much as he'll get, but I'd still overpay a little (say, 5 years / $100 MM, which I doubt he'd accept anyway), (2) Brian Roberts is in the same situation, but he may actually accept a little
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
Kudos to Andy MacPhail on sticking with the plan. Chad Bradford was claimed on waivers by the Tampa Bay Rays (as if they need more bullpen help) and a deal was worked out with a PTBNL coming over to the O's. If the asking price was that low (depending on the N of the P), then it seems a trade could have been made a week ago (before the deadline) and so there would have potentially been more
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MLB
Chad Bradford
Baltimore Orioles
Tampa Bay Rays
Andy MacPhail
I know I've been less than kind to the Mariners organization this year - and I did say they'd lose a bunch of games (though not this many) - but I'll give credit where credit is due. In the last week the team has (1) traded an old free-agent reliever for a young pitching prospect, (2) sent Brandon Marrow (who had been used out of the pen) down to the minors to begin his conversion to starting
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
Seattle Mariners
I haven't written about the O's games much lately, but yesterday's deserves some special attention. 27 year-old lefty Chris Waters made his major league debut on the mound for the Birds against the team with the best record in baseball, the LA Angels (of A?). He came out throwing strikes, getting Chone Figgins looking on three pitches. While not blessed with particularly great stuff, Waters
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MLB
Baltimore Orioles
Chris Waters
Los Angeles Angels
Chone Figgins
What a crazy, crazy day of Manny Ramirez rumors.
I'll skip to the big one, which was a three-team deal.
Boston got:
Jason Bay (from Pittsburgh)
Pittsburgh got:
Jeremy Hermida (from Florida)
OK prospects (from Florida and Boston)
Florida got:
Manny Ramirez (from Boston) + cash
lesser prospects (from Boston and/or Pittsburgh)
This seemed like a pretty bad deal for the Marlins, so I'm glad
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MLB
Manny Ramirez
Baltimore Orioles
The Mariners finally started their rebuilding (reloading?), while the Marlins, unable to get an impact player (MannyBeingManny, for example), just picked up that lefty reliever they've been after.
Florida got:
Arthur Rhodes, 38 year-old LHRP, 2.86 ERA in 22 IP this year, with 26 K's, 13 BB's and a 1.36 WHIP.
Seattle got:
Gaby Hernandez, 22 year-old RHP, 7.24 ERA in 64.2 IP in Triple-A this
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MLB
Florida Marlins
Arthur Rhodes
Baltimore Orioles
Seattle Mariners
Gaby Hernandez
I have no idea what Ed Wade is thinking. Does he actually believe that the Astros (13.5 back in the NL Central, 9.5 back in the Wild Card) have a chance at the play-offs this year?
In another perplexing move, Houston traded second-base prospect Matt Cusick to the Yankees for LaTroy Hawkins. Now Cusick is no great shakes (he’s hitting .285/.356/.462 in A-Ball, but is already 22 years old), but
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