Hey, I'm ALIVE! Birds on the Rebound?

Wow, been that long since I have updated? Sorry Flock faithful, but work has been hectic recently, what with interms and High School Assessments coming up I haven't had a TON of free time recently. Thankfully, for you and me, that will be ending soon and I can re-focus some energy to this glorious web-mo-tron portal you see before you.

Now that THAT is out of the way.. How 'bout dem O's?

It has been an interesting couple of weeks. First, Adam Loewen is gone for virtually the rest of the year with a stress factor in his elbow. Combine that with Hayden Penn electing to have surgery to remove bone spurs from his forearm that makes a grand total of 4, that is FOUR, "starting" pitchers that the team has lost for pretty much all year. Kris Benson went down first, then Jaret Wright's continuing arm problems resurfaced. Now Loewen and Penn. Seriously sports-fans, have you EVER heard something so ludicrous. I know the Yankees were a little banged up to start, but FOUR pitchers? its like someone has it out for us or something. Speaking of those horrible, wretched, disgusting pinstripers: They went out and acquired Roger Clemens to the tune of more money than you care to know about.

Now its not that I hate Roger Clemens, I DO but that is not the point. The point is this: This is a perfect example of the imbalance in baseball today. The Yankees have always spent a ton of money but this is ridiculous, they went out and did something that only THEY, and maybe one other team, could do. Also the fact that Roger Clemens can just bounce from retirement to playing again and again like some sort of mercenary, or cheap Howard St. hooker, is just a slap in the face of not only the Astros but baseball itself. Micheal Jordan is telling this guy to give it a rest. George Foreman has had enough of this guy's antics. I'm praying nightly he gets lit up like the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller.

Back to the good guys. After the Orioles were left for dead at the beginning of the month they have rebounded rather nicely winning 4 of their last 6 and are poised for a 3 game sweep of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays tonight. Last night was a nail-biter until the end when Aubrey "Call me Huff-Dizzle" Huff launched the game-winning homerun into the Orioles bullpen to win the contest in the bottom of the tenth. Erik Bedard had an amazing night, going 7, scattering 4 hits, no runs and striking out 10. John Parrish got the skin-of-his-teeth win pitching a scoreless top of the 10th where he got BJ Upton to swing at ball four, breaking his bat and stranding the bases-loaded. You could hear the collective sigh of relief around the Baltimore metro-area last night. Seriously, it was audible. Orioles win 1-0.

Looking ahead: The Orioles' make-shift rotation will get a real test as they travel to Boston for three games with those horrible individuals. (Mrs. Pat, if somehow you read that, sorry but well, you understand) So those HORRIBLE HORRIBLE sub-human Red Sox will have a chance to tee-off on the likes of Burres, Guthrie and Trax-a-million. That series could get ugly guys, of course it could be the greatest thing ever when we sweep them! My prediction, 1-2.

If you haven't heard I am doing a weekly podcast over at MVN. Beltway Baseball with Anthony and James. We take calls and emails and IMs and EVERYTHING. LIVE. Every Saturday at 1PM, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to take part in the grand discussion our IM name is BeltwayBaseball on AIM and the phone number: (646) 478-4728, 1PM Saturday afternoon. We talk Orioles and Nationals baseball. We are a lot like MASN, except we have less money and we don't make bad jokes about really serious horrible issues.

Seriously Demper, what the hell? Just when you think things are going okay...

That's all for now O's fans.