Getting Real on Spending

Skinflint governors Chris Christie and Tom Corbett have nothing on Andrew Cuomo.

“You can’t spend more money than you make,” Cuomo said on February 5, setting a tone for his administration. “There are only two groups of people who don’t understand this. No. 1 is the leadership of the New York State legislature. No. 2 are my daughters.”

See, he hates kids too. Even his own.

This Ain't 2010...Orioles Pull Off Sweep

This is a bit different, isn't it?

The Orioles completed a series sweep of the defending AL East champion Rays on Sunday to start the season 3-0. 

How did this happen? For all the talk of the improved lineup this season, the Orioles did not win on the strength of their bats. The O's have hit just .222/.250/.313 for the young season which leads you to believe that they are lucky to have scored 12 runs in the series.

No, the Oriole fortunes for 2011 still rest on the strength of their young rotation and that's how they beat the Rays. The three starters in the series gave up just one run combined and the entire staff gave up just three runs overall. 

Can the Young Guns keep this up? Chris Tillman and Zach Britton have done their part and now Jake Arrieta will take the hill against the Tigers at Camden Yards. He'll have to be ready to go. When your $8 million veteran cleanup hitter is OPSing .333, you aren't going to score a lot of runs.

Hopefully, that will change during this next series...

This Week in Chat - 4/3/2011

Where we distill all the weekly baseball chats down to their Oriole-centric essence...


Jonah Keri, FanGraphs

11:38 [Comment From kyle]
guerrero HOF career?

11:39Jonah Keri:
Vlad, of course. Yes, I'd vote him in, even if he retired today.

11:47 [Comment From Jason]
McLouth, Aaron hill and mark Reynolds, tell me why these guys do or do not bounce back this year

11:48 Jonah Keri: Hill
BABIP'd...what was it, .196 last year? Maybe the easiest bounceback pick in the league. Not a big McLouth fan. I could see a bump for Reynolds, sure. He's still fairly young.


Dave Cameron, Fangrpahs

11:41 [Comment From JTrea81]
Am I crazy or should Zach Britton have made the O's rotation?

11:41 Dave Cameron:
The O's are just playing with his service time. He'll be up in a month.

12:21 [Comment From Kolbe]
Do the Fighting Showalters break .500 this year?

12:21 Frankie Piliere:
Nope, division is just too potent.

12:15 [Comment From Matt]
Given that your org rankings seem reasonable (give or take minor quibbles) how would you change baseball to give teams like Jays and Orioles a decent shot?

12:16 Dave Cameron: I will continue to pound this angle forever - put a team in Brooklyn. Diluting the Yankees revenue stream would fix a lot of problems.

12:29 [Comment From Ian]
When do you see Zach Britton getting the call back up? Potential impact arm?

12:30 Frankie Piliere: He'll be down there a month tops I think. Very high impact guy. Potential #1, easily a #2. Very mature already and has the arsenal to go with it.

12:48 [Comment From Kolbe]
Santana, Posey or Weiters.. Who are you taking?

12:48 Frankie Piliere:
 Posey


Keith Law, ESPN

Jeff (Baltimore)
Who do the O's take in the draft? Starling?

Klaw (1:25 PM)
The only substantive thing I've heard on them is a preference for a college player, which would probably put them on Hultzen, Bradley, Jungmann, Gray.

Phil (NJ)
Still holding out hope for Wieters? What's his ceiling now?

Klaw (1:29 PM)
Yes. Unchanged.


Marc Hulett, FanGraphs

12:03 [Comment From D]
Manny Machado's ranking seems high. Is it + defence or his bat that has him that high?

12:03 Marc Hulet:
Machado's ranking might seem high but he has the potential to play good defense at shortstop while also displaying plus hitting skills... As we've seen recently, the pool of quality offensive shortstops in the MLB is dwindling.



John Manuel, Baseball America

Jeff Sullivan (Belchertown, MA):
Manny Machado or Francisco Lindor?

John Manuel:
Machado, though Lindor does seem to have some helium for this year's draft. Machado's bat projects to have more impact potential than Lindor's.

Urban Outfitters DIY contest

SmartnSnazzy informed me of this fun diy contest organized by Urban Outfitters. The prize is a $1000 shopping card!The contest is opened to US residents.To enter you just have to show a pic of your diy project enter here

Chris Tillman Takes a Step

The Orioles went to 2-0 last night as they continued to get amazing performances from all areas. Jeremy Guthrie threw 8 shutouts innings Friday night. Brian Roberts tripling Friday and hitting a three-run homer last night. The great defensive plays by Felix Pie, Matt Wieters and, of course Nick Markakis.

And last night, Chris Tillman, a guy whose spot in the rotation was in jeopardy less than a week ago, stymied the opposition for 6 innings last night.

Chris Tillman really needed to make the most of his opportunities early in the year. Last night, he took a step in the right direction as he threw 6 no-hit innings against the Tampa Bay Rays. How did he do that? Plain and simple, he threw more strikes. At least relatively more.

PitchFX data generated for the great tool on BrooksBaseball.net.

Tillman stayed in or around the strike zone pretty well last night. He threw 57.4% of his pitches for strikes. He only exceeded that percentage three times all last season when he threw 6 or more innings. Not surprisingly, his line looked very good for two of those games and he got the win.

Tillman's stuff plays in the zone. He froze hitters, got swinging strikes and had the lineup off balance all night. There were only two well-struck balls all night by my count.

Tillman seems to have gained a bit more control by taking a little off his pitches.

Tillman got the best results when he kept his fastball between 88-92 MPH. Sure, he can dial it up an hit 93-94. But the 90 MPH fast ball paired with that curve...well, when he's throwing them for strikes it's a pretty potent combination.

Tillman has not has control issues in AAA. I believe he is still gaining confidence that his stuff is good enough to get major league hitters out and as his confidence grows, he will attack the zone more and get more results like last night.

And yeah, he walked three guys and he needed 101 pitches to get through 6 innings. It was not a wholly masterful performance. But my advocacy for Tillman in the rotation has not been that he is a finished product but that he needs to improve on his game in the majors. And last night, he took a big step. Now he needs to build on it against the Tigers in Baltimore.

Fur tails for spring:hot or not?

Prada Spring 2011


Anna Dello Russo at the fashion week


Louis Vuitton bag charms

Victoria Beckam with

It's a fashion prerogative to shuffle the cards,to suggest trends and accessories that have nothing to do with the characteristics of a season; do you remember summer shoes worn in winter without tights?
This time is the turn of fur worn in spring.Because of the weather we cannot actually wear fur jackets or stoles in summer and that's why this soft fabric changes shape and becomes a funny colored giant tail to carry around the city. I think they're funny as long as they are in faux fur,let's leave real tails attached to the rest of the animal! As every runway curiosity, fur tails have started to pop in high street shops,i've seen a whole box full of orange tails at H&M to wear as a bag charm. What do you think?Hot or not?How would you wear them?


E' una prerogativa della moda mischiare le carte,suggerire trend che vanno al di là delle caratteristiche di una stagione,vi ricordate dei sandali senza calze in inverno?
Questa volta è il turno della pelliccia indossata in primavera. Il clima estivo però ci impedisce di indossare giacche e stole in pelliccia quindi essa cambia forma e diventa una gigantesca coda colorata da portare a spasso per la città. Io lo trovo un trend divertente a patto che le code siano di pelliccia sintetica!Lasciamo le code vere attaccate al resto dell'animale,il legittimo proprietario. Come tutti i must-have di stagione,le code colorate hanno cominciato a fare la loro comparsa nelle grandi catene di negozi,ho visto un intero cesto di code arancioni ad H&M da attaccare alla borsetta.Che ne pensate?Come la indossereste?

Metallic anatomy

Lips by Jewellery Designer Hollie Bonneville

Metal jewelry from fashion week and street style fashion.These pieces are very particular and interesting. They're strange more than ornamental,they cover parts of the body that are usually ignored by normal jewelry (even because they limit the mobility of the decorated parts),like lips or the back of the hand,what do you think?