If we're good for one thing.....

it's pictures of hot tennis players. Since Ashley
Harkleroad (is that her name) decided to bare all in Playboy and Jelena Jankovic (I spelled it right) was on the cover of FHM - there have been a lot of google searches recently looking for hot tennis players. Of course, we here at the fan know all about that.

But it struck as pretty cool that one
blogger thought he knew which 10 tennis players should follow Harkleroad's lead and show nothing but a net cord. And of course, as we always do, we had to disagree. I mean seriously what list is complete without Tamira Paszek and a historical shot of Sandrine Testud. That is them, pictured above. There is some comedic value to Testud, but you'll just have to trust me.

Of course since Greg Norman and Chris Evert are back in the news. Couldn't we stand a pictorial of Chrissy as well?

Morning Cup of Coffee

....Waking up this morning, trying to determine why the Astros traded for Randy Wolf? I mean seriously, is Randy Wolf going to lead the 'Stros back from 12 games back in the NL Central passing four teams in the meantime. And the outlook isn't that much better in the wild card. They need to pass seven teams in that race coming from 11 back. No doubt Houston's pitching stinks, but Randy Wolf is far from a difference maker. Silly.

....Greg Norman is trying to decide whether he wants to play the PGA or not. I guess his legacy can't afford another collapse.

....The Diamondbacks picked up Jon Rauch from the Nats. Is he going to be their closer? That wouldn't really make them much better than Brandon Lyon would it?

....Is this bursar sac thing really a big deal with Peyton? I mean I know the guy doesn't need anything hurting his mobility. But here's a thought, maybe the Colts could trade for Favre as an insurance policy. Has anybody thought of that?

....The summer prospectus is up on the Mount Athletics site on the men's basketball team. We're a little less than four months away from the opener versus Loyola. That will be a good one to start against. Lots of intensity and an inexperienced Hounds team. Wonder if Patsos, and his new contract extension, will talk about ending the series after we beat them? (again).

....Think Josh Vittek might have been trying to tell the O's they should have drafted him? He went 8-for-13 with a pair of homers and four rbis in the three game series. He also belted two doubles against the Oriole Rookie League team. He's raised his professional average to .300. The Mount St. Mary's project grew up in Maryland and had to have been somewhat disappointed when the Orioles didn't select him.

Catching Up

It's been almost a week since I posted anything, so some news and notes since then.

...Just how good is Matt Wieters? We might not know for a long time. But we're starting to think the answer is probably real good. Baseball America agrees. In their midseason update to their top 100 prospects list (they only list 25 at midseason), Wieters is the top rated position player, number three overall. He's currently at AA-Bowie. With most of his at bats coming at High A-Frederick this year, he's hitting .345 with 18 homers. His OPS is 1.013. And even though most of that did come in Frederick, his production hasn't really dropped at Bowie in 75 AB. He's hitting .347 there with a .977 OPS. Originally, I thought the earliest we'd see him in an Orioles uniform was sometime after opening day next year. I'm starting to reconsider. Although the economics of the game, still may lead to that.

...The over/under on Syracuse wins for the season 2.5. Real tough to recommend the over. Especially if the Orange is truly 12 points worse than season opener Northwestern, as the line suggests. If that is the case, the under is the safe bet. But in July, we're supposed to be optimistic. So I'm trying to remain that way.

...Adam Loewen might have picked the best option in his injury recovery. He's going to play the outfield/first base for the Oriole minor league teams and see if he can't continue a major league career that way. Truly that might be the best opportunity for him. But...we really think we saw his final major league action, when he had to leave July 6th's game with the Rangers with that recurring arm injury. It's a shame. But we wish him luck.

...Josh Vittek had a real good week. Given a chance to play a little bit for Burlington in the Rookie League, he delivered. He was 6-for-19 with 3 homers, including an extra inning game winner. He also drove in five runs during the week. Vittek, the Mount product, had not been seeing a lot of playing time in recent weeks, but got five starts this week including four as a catcher. He produced a real good week for the struggling Royals.

...

Watch at your own peril

The All-star game was a little boring....and then I found this. Apparently, Chris Snyder will return from his fractured testicle and begin wearing this thing.

All Star Game watching

I know my wife isn't going to let me watch this whole thing. I'm sure she's going to make me watch Big Brother 10. But sitting through a night of Tim McCarver might be too much anyhow.

A nice pregame ceremony but not sure Joe Buck was the best voice for it. Still it was nice to see all those legends together. And I guess baseball didn't even have a Pete Rose controversy, but the all-time hits leader isn't in the Hall of Fame. Problem solved.

8:48: Well we are now underway and Cliff Lee has struck out Hanley Ramirez. The Marlin shortstop was swinging for the Downs.

8:52: Lee has worked his way through the first inning. He added another strikeout of Utley. Now the AL gets its chance. I really think the American League is going to win tonight.

8:54: A good start for Ben Sheets as well. He got Ichiro to sky out. Derek Jeter is now up. I have to agree he's the most overrated player in the game right now. Don't get me wrong he's good, but he gets a lot of hits like that. I mean Utley could have maybe even should have made the play.

8:58: Sheets gets Hamilton and Rodriguez to finish the inning. Then they just showed that ballgirl video as part of the commercials. I guess Gatorade determined it wasn't such a bad spot after all.

9:03: Here's my wife to watch Big Brother. Chipper smacks a single to center.

A Michigan take on the Rodriguez settlement

I got a note from a West Virginia fan earlier today. He wanted me to read the column in the Detroit Free Press about the former West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez. The same Rodriguez who led the Mountaineers to back to back Big East titles and was cheered mightily by the WVU faithful. And yet the same Rodriguez who left Morgantown for the greener pastures of Ann Arbor, and is now the most hated football coach in WVU. Mountaineer fans will tell you it wasn't about Rodriguez leaving, it was about how he left. And well, while the end was ugly, the truth is they wouldn't like him no matter how the end came to be. The fact is because it was so ugly, they dislike him a little bit more right now.

I'm not trying to defend Rodriguez. There is no doubt he's a great football coach. But he seems to lack a little in the character department. And the fact that he thought he get everyone to see it his way, when arguing that he shouldn't have to pay the $4 million buyout clause, is fairly laughable.

But fans must remember that coaches should look for "better" opportunities. Because fans are always looking for "better" coaches. That makes it difficult for coaches, makes their desire to look for other jobs more reasonable. RichRod (as he's now known in Michigan - the rest of the internet community uses an appropriate nickname for RichardRod) wasn't reasonable in expecting to not have to pay WVU the money he owed them. However, short of a lifetime contract, he was reasonable to wish to leave.

That is something we as fans have to realize and accept. Simply that if we want to able to call for coaches heads - and put them in a non-stable environment, we have to understand that when they move on its that environment that led to some of it. We can't want coaches fired after they goto bowl games, if we don't expect they will leave for "better" opportunities after striking gold.

Watching Baseball

Some random thoughts as I'm watching games on this Wednesday night.

I know that Howie Kendrick has been hurt, but I never would have thought that he wouldn't have a homer by this point of the season.

Why can't a game be stopped in the middle of the inning for rain? It's raining as hard as it can possibly rain, or so it seems in New York and they aren't stopping the Mets and Giants game. They stopped the game after the third out and the game is in a rain delay now.

In case anyone was wondering, the Kansas City Royals are in fourth place in the AL Central. They are two games ahead of Cleveland in the Central. And the Indians are sellers. Maybe just maybe, I'll win that double cheeseburger.

Josh Vittek hasn't played at Burlington in about a week. He's not in the lineup again tonight. I don't know if that is because of an injury to Vittek or because the Royals recently sent David Wood down to Burlington. Wood had started the year with Wilmington, but was struggling in Delaware and has been sent back to Rookie ball. Vittek not playing has coincided with Wood's arrival, but I'm not sure if there is more to it or not.

Another Mountie Michael Gioioso has had some injury problems but is trying to get back in shape in the Gulf Coast League with the Orioles. He's 0-for-10 thus far.

Keep an eye of Chris Salberg in the Orioles chain. Salberg was a 22nd round draft pick out of Florida Atlantic in 2006. He did not pitch in the minors in '06, and he made just one start in 2007 and was hit hard in 2/3 of an inning at Aberdeen. But the lefthander is 2-2 with a 2.10 ERA in 6 starts (4 at Aberdeen, 2 at Delmarva) this year. He's in line to get his third win with the Ironbirds tonight, as he went five innings and left with an 8-2 lead.

The White Sox seem like a team that could totally tank to me. I just don't totally believe in everything they have going on. I know that Paul Konerko could get hot for them. They certainly haven't gotten the best from him. But I'm just not sure I expect guys like Carlos Quentin, Nick Swisher, AJ Pierzynski and Alexei Ramirez to continue to perform at this level. I expect either Minnesota or even Detroit to win that division.

Brandon Snyder's hot streak continues again for Frederick. Hitting .366 in his last 10 games, Snyder has homered again tonight. Jake Arrieta threw seven strong one-hit innings and the Keys hold a 3-2 lead late.

Scary thought that Esteban Yan is starting for the Norfolk Tides tonight. Jeff Fiorentino has two hits tonight - and you've got to think he's in a position to battle for an outfield job with the Orioles next year with Jay Payton unlikely to return.

A couple of real good pitching performances have my eye tonight. Carlos Zambrano has looked unhittable the last few innings versus the Reds, retiring 12 in a row. Meanwhile, in Texas Jared Weaver is shutting down a good Ranger lineup. Although it did take a lineout double play to end the first inning and preserve Weaver's shutout early.

NBC announces Olympic Programming Schedule

Here is a link to the broadcast schedule.....

All 65 pages of it

Click

Too Many Crooked Numbers

I was one of the 22,276 fans at Oriole Park yesterday. I stayed until the bitter end. Actually, I stayed a lot longer than that. It was Kids Run the Bases Day and my daughter wasn't leaving til she touched home plate. Unfortunately, she didn't carry the tying run.

I've watched a lot of Orioles games this year. Yesterday was the first time, I got that disgusted feeling. The feeling that this team didn't have a chance. Six pitchers, most of which couldn't throw strikes. Errors in the field (of both the physical and mental variety). Stranded base runners. It just didn't seem like a very good effort.

And there I was with two outs in the ninth. Standing and clapping. Urging those that had stayed to do the same, because these guys deserved it. Down 11-5 in the eighth, they could have packed it in early and gotten an early start on the day off. But they didn't. They rallied. And they nearly came all the way back. There is no quit in this team. Even on a day when they didn't seem to have all the good qualities that have kept them over .500 into July, they didn't quit. You've got to give them credit for that.

A couple of other thoughts though....

Brian Roberts deserves to be on the All-Star team. But I don't think it happens. I doubt he finishes second in this voting. But help him out.

The bullpen which has been phenomenal all season, seems a bit creaky right now. Still I think the Birds have to show confidence in Lance Cormier and Fernando Cabrera right now. They've pitched well in the innings they've thrown. Now we need to see if they can step it up in Matt Albers absence.

There is no one on the horizon to help the starters. The only "prospect" who appears close to ready to at least throw in the major leagues is Hayden Penn. And he's having trouble getting guys out in AAA. All of this could lead to a very scary second half. Anybody have Victor Zambrano's number?