Leading Off

Remember that rough stretch in Chicago? Yeah, neither do the Orioles. The Birds returned to the Even-Friendlier-Confines of Camden Yards, and played like a playoff team, taking three of four from both the Tampa Bay Rays and Minnesota Twins. With their lead in the AL East widening, the Orioles are in the driver’s seat, as the final stretch of the 2014 season approaches.  After a (somewhat depressing) look at the Medical Wing, it’s time for This Week on the Twitters (TWotT):

* Shame on Twitter, as a whole. You know what we’re talking about.

* @OsFBCommenter – best thing or worst thing to happen to O’s Twitter?

* @DODay56 exponentially increases  the number of searches on “vestigial.”

* @CharlieHoppes11 has entertaining facial hair.

* @LuchadOrioles reminds us to read up on the Orioles Super Fans.

* @masnRoch notes that the Orioles are about to hit the 2 million mark at the gates.

* @Orioles prepare to celebrate 5,000 wins.

* @Matthewwalker47 takes umbrage with our disdain for the Delmon Young Left Field Experience.  No worries, fans are allowed to disagree.

 

 

A Walk to Remember

Remember when we were excited about the Ubaldo Jimenez signing? Yeah, it’s getting harder and harder for us, as well. Jimenez has been just short of a disaster, and since being pushed to the bullpen, hasn’t been much better. To convince us that there is hope  for the Jimenez experiment, the guys welcome Dan Weigel, who wrote an excellent piece on Beyond the Box Score on the effectiveness of Ubaldo’s stuff over the course of his career.

Spoiler Alert: it’s not happy-fun-time.

 

Dashing (Playoff Ticket) Hopes

The Orioles are very likely to make the playoffs. As such, what will actually be available for Orioles fans? The best way to get access to playoff tickets is to be a season ticket holder. With that population increasing by the minute (the Orioles are allowing fans to place deposits for 2015, and get access to this year’s playoffs), what will be left over for the general public? The guys argue about the wisdom of the Orioles’ approach to playoff ticketing, and give the organization props for handling at least one issue.

 

Fantasy Boss

Something must be wrong with our accounting software, because it looks like Jake may have won. Sure, his pick Steve Pearce got a boost from an injury-induced smaller sample size, but Scott’s pick, Nick Markakis, was terrible this week, from an OBP standpoint. The score, therefore, comes to 11-7-2. There is hope Jake could make this not-embarrassing if he wins out.

The category this week is innings pitched per start for Orioles starters. Scott selected Miguel Gonzalez, and Jake went with Wei-Yin Chen.

Who will own it?

 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Who had a great week? Who had a tough week? Who made us ashamed to be Orioles fans? Find out in this week’s GB&U. The guys run through their Good, Bad, and Ugly for the week. Be sure to drop us a line and send us yours.