Erik Bedard is Masterful...Again

Erik Bedard was dominant against the Rangers last night, striking out 11 and moving himself up in the Oriole record book.

Rube Wadell  238  1908
Bobo Newsom  226  1938
Erik Bedard  218  2007
Mike Mussina 218  2000
Mike Mussina 210  1996
 
 

How about that? Bedard struck out Adam Melheuse in the 4th to pull into 2nd in Oriole history and struck out Jarrod Saltalamacchia to tie the record in the 7th.

Now Bedard is chasing ghosts and has the all-time franchise record in his sights. And nobody seems to care.

Kevin Millar extended his streak of getting on base to 47 games. He has now pulled ahead of Cal Ripken for second and is just behind Ken Singleton (49) in club history. Not too shabby.

It's a great day for baseball. Let's play two!

Tributes to a Legend

Wild Bill Hagy has passed on yesterday at the age of 68. The guys at Roar From 34 have a tribute to their namesake.

I typically don't have many nice things to say about Nestor Aparicio but he writes a nice tribute to Wild Bill in his blog.

James Baker wrote a nice tribute to Hagy over at Oriole Magic.

Anthony at Oriole Post has a remembrance along with a photo and video of Wild Bill.

Rick Dempsey remembers Wild Bill along with some classic Wild Bill Hagy video.
(edit: My original link didn't work. Try the link now and scroll down to the video clip...)

Here's the story from the Sun. The team also planned a moment of silence before Monday night's game and a video tribute to Bill. I assume those gestures will occur tomorrow due to the rainout.

I won't get too much into Will Bill Hagy, others have done it better than I could have. But his passing does bring to mind the differences between Memorial Stadium and Camden Yards. Memorial Stadium had a much more working class feel to it, grittier, rougher and more down to earth. As fine a stadium as Camden Yards is, when it opened it immediately had a much more corporate, much more yuppie feel to it. In the early nineties it was actually difficult to get tickets (hard to imagine now, but true) but I always wondered how many people were buying up the seats because it was the hot ticket in town and how many were the diehard Oriole fans. That's why I used to see a lot of games against the Milwaukee Brewers - I couldn't get tickets to the premier matchups. Wild Bill Hagy was a link back to the days of Memorial Stadium, Natty Bo, and cartoon Orioles on the caps.

Meet The Neighbors

Erik Bedard is in rarefied Oriole air this season as he closes in on the Oriole record for strikeouts in a season. He has already passed the likes of Jim Palmer and Dave McNally and has only Mike Mussina to beat for the record. But there are more impressive goals that Bedard can meet this season. Remember, this franchise was the old St. Louis Browns whose history goes back to the turn of the last century and Baltimore's lefty ace has a very good shot at becoming the franchise leader in strikeouts as well. Here's the top five strikeout performances in franchise history:

                Ks     Year



Rube Wadell    232     1908



Bobo Newsom    226     1938



Mike Mussina   218     1997



Mike Mussina   210     2000



Erik Bedard    207     2007






 

Bedard is all but assured of passing Mussina's seasons (barring injury, don't want to jinx it) and with more than a month left in the season has a very good shot at taking the top spot as well.

So who are these guys? Any fan of Baltimore (or baseball in general) of the last 20 years knows Mike Mussina's story so I'm gonna skip him. Let's meet the rest of the company shall we?

Bobo Newsom (1929-1953)

Bobo had one of the most unusual careers (and nicknames) you will ever find in baseball. He was the classic journeyman but was able to parlay modest successes into an unusually long career. He played for 9 different teams over the course of his career and made multiple stops at most of them including 5 different stints for the Washington Senators and 3 different stops as a St. Louis Brown. He started his career in Brooklyn in 1929 playing for manager Wilbert "Uncle Robbie" Robinson. This gives Newsom yet another Baltimore connection as Robinson was the great catcher for the champion NL Baltimore Orioles of the 1890's.

Bobo was an eccentric character and pioneered the art of referring to oneself in the third person 40 years before it was popularized by Moses Malone and Rickey Henderson. Bobo pitched opening day during one of his games for the Senators and President Franklin D. Roosevelt was in attendance. An errant throw by his own third baseman fractured Bob's jaw but he continued to pitch and finished the game. When asked why he stayed in the game he replied, "When the president comes to see Bobo pitch, Ol' Bobo ain't a-gonna disappoint him."

The highlight of his career was in 1940 when he won two games for the Detroit Tigers in the World Series and pitched a masterful game in a losing effort in Game 7 as they dropped the series to the Cincinatti Reds.

In 1938, Newsom went 20-16 despite his 5.08 ERA. He struck out 226 in 329.7 innings (!). He has held second place on the franchise list for 69 years.

Rube Waddell (1897-1910)

Waddell was a pitching star at the turn of the last century and is in the Hall of Fame. Oddly enough, he too was quite an eccentric character although in slightly more frightening ways.

Waddell liked to drink but had some eccentric quirks besides. He used to chase fire engines, wrestle alligators and had to be escorted by teammates to ensure he would make it to the games. There's more, a lot more here.

However, his pitching prowess was never in question. At his peak with the Philadelphia A's he led the league in strikeouts for six straight seasons, set an AL record with 349 strikeouts in a season that would stand for 70 years (broken by Nolan Ryan) and recorded 50 shutouts for his career. Rube was famous for going out for the final inning of exhibition games and telling his outfielders and infielders to stay on the bench and then striking out the side. His fastball was only rivaled by the great Walter Johnson.

The Athletics sent him to the St. Louis Browns after the 1907 season due to perceived declining skills. He put together one last great season in 1908 going 19-14 with a 1.81 ERA. His 232 strikeouts that season were second most in the AL. The first time he faced his former Philadelphia teammates, he struck out 16 of them.

If and when Erik Bedard passes him, he will break a franchise record that has stood for 99 years.

Meanwhile, On the Field of Play...

...the Orioles struck a blow for all that is right in the world by beating the Yankees in extras and taking the series in the Bronx. Winning series against the Red Sox and the Yankees back to back...that's very sweet.

I feel bad that Bedard did not get the win but it was almost sweeter to come back and win it in extras.

Have I mentioned how much I hate Shelley Duncan? He hits that fluky three-run homer and gave me a heart attack. With a name like his he should be playing Peter Pan or something, not playing major league baseball. And I hate how he jumps up and down like a friggin' 8 year old everytime on of the Yankees hits a homerun. Sit down and act like you belong in the major leagues. Stupid little forearm bashes. He makes me sick...

Anyway, a win is a win. Jeter got plunked, Jeter made an error, Jeter went 0-4 with two strikeouts, all good things.

Trembley gets some heat for how he's using the bullpen but, hey, he's only using wht he's got. With injuries and bad free agent signings (Mr. Reluctant...I'm looking at you), he's done a pretty good job at juggling guys around. If it doesn't work, he's not afraid to change it and try something else. I like that about this manager.

So it's off to Toronto and then the Rangers, Twins and Rays come to Baltimore. Hopefully, the momentum will continue...

Dodging a Bullet

"Today I didn't even have to use my A.K. I gotta say it was a good day." - Ice Cube

Yes, the not so subtle irony of Ice Cube's "Today Was A Good Day" really applies to the Orioles this morning.

First, the draft. I had to scrap my original post about how the Orioles have failed yet again to secure their top talent and continue to strangle the farm system but somehow, some way, at the last minute Matt Wieters signed his contract and the Orioles brought him into the fold.

"They got the deal done," said an elated Orioles scouting director Joe Jordan. "You can tell the city of Baltimore that the old evil owner stepped up and took care of things tonight. We had to fight to the end."

Hey, f you dude. As if we didn't have reason to be concerned. As if not signing the top pick hasn't happened before in the last three years. Yeah, we don't like the owner and he didn't step up and take care of anything tonight. We got lucky.

As far as I can tell, the O's front office didn't come close to Wieters' demand of $10 million dollars. They moved from $5 mil to $6 mil and seemingly made most of that money signing bonus but it's not like they met him halfway. the bottom line was this: Wieters didn't want to go back to school. At all. So he took the best offer he could get and the Orioles dodged a bullet.

We got lucky, O's fans. The end result today was good but we're still stuck in south central L.A. when it comes to the draft.

On the plus side, the Orioles did manage to sign 7 of 8 of their players drafted in the first 10 rounds when it looked like they might not sign 4 of them a couple of days ago. I am of the opinion that you need to get all of your players drafted in the first 10 rounds into the fold but occasionally a player jsut doesn't want to go pro yet. 10th round pick P Eryk McConnell went back to school and eludes the Orioles' grasp. I would usually give that a pass if it wasn't such a pattern for Baltimore. They have failed to sign at least one player in the first 10 rounds for the last five years (the exception being 2005...the year after the Wade Townsend fiasco).

The bottom line is, we're lucky we got him but we did get him. And 6 other guys who can lend a hand. We are better off than we were 24 hours ago even if the front office succeeded despite itself.

Pinstripe Destruction

O's win. 12-0. Over the hated New York Yankees.

Take that one to your grave Phil Rizzuto.

Phil Rizzuto is the perfect example of why I hate the Yankees. If he had played in St. Louis, you never would've heard of him. Because he played on some great teams for the Yankees, it got him into the Hall of Fame. It's a joke. A .273 career hitter. Career OPS+ of 93. He somehow managed to win an MVP in 1950 even though he was only the third best player on his team that year (behind Yogi Berra and Joe Dimaggio). All because he was an average hitter who was little and played for the Yankees. He never led the league in anything but sacrifices. Feh.

Anyway, the enigma that we call Daniel Cabrera shut down the Yanks last night for 6+ innings and allowed the mop up guys to mop up.

Hopefully, Erik Bedard shuts them down this afternoon and drops the Yankees further back in the playoff hunt.

Paul Bako Can Really Handle A Pitching Staff...

You heard that a lot about Bako when the O's signed him. Great glove man. Handles pitchers well. Intanglibles baby!

Well, when Paul Bako is behind the plate the league hits .267 against O's pitchers, a full 20 point above the .247 the league hits against Baltimore when Ramon Hernandez calls the game. They also slug 33 points better with Bako donning the mask (.409 to .376) instead of Hernandez.

While we're at it, opposing baserunners have stolen bases at a 72% success rate against Ramon this year. Not great. But our great glove man Bako has allowed them to steal at an 81% success rate.

Why do we still pay this guy?

Quick Notes

Aubrey Huff is (finally) having a truly great month in August, hitting .395 with 3 homers and 4 doubles thus far, good for an OPS of 1.191...Corey Patterson continues to (oddly) wear out lefty pitchers hitting them at a .322 clip for the season, 80 points better than his career average...If Erik Bedard strikes out 6 batters today he will pass Dave McNally (1968) and Mike Mussina (1996) to place third in Baltimore history in single season strikeouts (behind only Mussina's 2000 and 1997 seasons). He will also be 4th in franchise history which includes the St. Louis Browns.

Quick note...

"If Jay Gibbons is really that hurt, put him on the DL and bring up J.R House. House can flat out hit and he doesn't have a position either!" - Me, August 10th

J.R. House finally makes it to the big club after posting a .295 average and 10 homers at Norfolk. How much he'll play is anyone's guess but if Tike Redmond gets playing time, why not House?

Despite the loss, as an objective baseball fan, it was a good game last night. Guthrie didn't have it but the bullpen held and the batters scrapped their way back in, keeping it close and tying the game off of Mariano Rivera. Only a seeing-eye grounder sunk the O's last night.

I read this in Jonathan Mayo's Geeking on the Draft blog on MLB.com:

The Orioles and No. 5 pick Matt Wieters are not going to get a deal done by the deadline. Word is Wieters is looking for a huge bonus plus a Major League deal and it's a price tag that might prove to be too high for the O's to pay.

Now obviously this is all conjecture at this point but if Baltimore does not get this deal done it's going to spin me into a world of pissed off I've never experienced in my life. (to paraphrase Ron White...)