By Zach Wilt, on May 17th, 2012  It’s May, which means it’s the time of year for Ed Reed to say something concerning about his future with the Ravens. Today he told SiriusXM that he’s “not 100 percent committed right now to playing this year.”
According to Rich Gannon, Reed is concerned about his health and long term future.
After Reed’s comments hit air, the local Ravens beat writers quickly extinguished the fire. ”Reed has also said this offseason that he’d like to play four or five more years,” The Sun’s Jeff Zrebiec tweeted.
Zrebiec also points out that Reed said nearly a month ago that he was not 100 percent committed to returning in 2012.
Not only is this story just Ed being Ed, but it’s something he’s already said.
By Zach Wilt, on May 17th, 2012  Yesterday we determined that “yes, in fact it is still okay for Baltimore fans to boo Mark Teixeira.” Today we pose another question to the boo birds of Camden Yards.
Is it time to cut Kevin Gregg some slack and stop booing him?
In Gregg’s last six outings for the O’s he’s surrendered zero runs on just three hits in 8 1/3 innings of work and has walked three and struckout eight. Oh, and he recorded the win in the Orioles fifteen inning Marathon against the Royals last night.
Yet somehow, every time Gregg gets up in the pen, Baltimore breaks the internet with #KevinGreggSucks tweets.
Yes, I know he blew seven saves last season, lost the closer’s role and wasn’t happy with the demotion. But that was 2011, a season in which the Orioles were 19-21 on May 17. They’re 24-14 now, this is clearly a different team.
All I’m saying is, there are plenty of guys in pinstripes and red socks that deserve heckling. Gregg has proven to be no longer deserving of the grief.
By Zach Wilt, on May 17th, 2012  Adam Jones and Bill Hall strangely celebrate AJ's go-ahead homer in the top of the 15th. Adam Jones should get used to hitting bombs at Kauffman Stadium. The American League is going to need that power when he’s starting in centerfield during the All-Star Game.
After going 0-for-6 with two strikeouts during the first fourteen innings of play, Adam Jones came up big again for the Orioles with a solo homer in the fifteenth that ultimately secured the Orioles 4-3 victory over the Royals.
This is nothing new for Jones though. Just ten days ago he smashed a three run blast over the monster seats in Fenway in the seventeenth inning. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Jones is the first player with two game-winning home runs in the 15th inning or later in the same season since Mark McGwire in 1988.
MASNSports.com’s Roch Kubatko tweeted that nine of Jones’ 12 home runs this season have tied the game or given the Orioles the lead.
That’s clutch hitting.
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By Zach Wilt, on May 16th, 2012  Try to argue against fan interference on this one... While DC has ignited their Natitude initiative to clean their ballpark of Phillies fans, Baltimore is still working on their own evil scheme.
Last night a Yankees fan spoiled a shutout for Wei-Yin Chen by interfering with a ball in play at the wall in left field. As rookie Xavier Avery leaped to make the catch on a Curtis Granderson fly ball, a fan snatched it from him. ”Hell yeah I had a shot,” Avery told reporters after the game. ”But they had that tenth man out there helping them out.”
Avery was clearly upset with the fan. ”I think (the fan) raised up his beer can or something to taunt me a little bit and I just turned around, went back to playing,” Avery said.
The Twitterverse exploded with Jeffrey Maier memories and many questioned why Buck Showalter didn’t argue the home run or request a review.
“I knew what the answer was going to be,” Showalter said according to MASNSports.com’s Roch Kubatko. ”I don’t know if it was somebody in midnight blue or black and orange there. I’ve got an educated guess, so our goal was to play well enough so they can’t get a ticket.”
By Zach Wilt, on May 16th, 2012 The Orioles finally cracked CC Sabathia. Last night Baltimore put up four runs on the Yankees ace and cruised to victory behind a dominant seven inning performance by 26-year-old Taiwanese stud Wei-Yin Chen.
The performance was not only enough to make Chen the AT&T Player of the Game (take that to arbitration), but it earned him a shaving cream pie from his teammates.
 A "pie" is baked...  Jim Johnson watches as his teammates torture Chen  My eyes burn just looking at this picture READ MORE >>>
By Matt Sadler, on May 16th, 2012  Last night, while listening to the radio broadcast, play by play announcer, Fred Manfra, made reference to the Orioles fans booing Mark Teixeira every time he made a plate appearance.
I know, I know. The guy betrayed Baltimore. He said he wanted to play closer to his home, and was allegedly offered a fairly lucrative deal to play for the Birds. He ended up taking the money ($30 million more) and the winning tradition in New York and betrayed his childhood team. We know it was a business decision, but then he had the nerve to talk about his love for the Yankees as a kid.
But really? That was over 3 years ago. Aren’t we bigger than this? Can’t we enjoy the Birds success without the hate? Can we just choose to move on?
NO FREAKING WAY! If he can live off the riches of his business decisions, he can face the consequences of being hated by another subset of fans. Keep it up O’s fans!
By Dave Gilmore, on May 15th, 2012  The 2011-12 Capitals were as frustrating as a hockey team can be. From night to night they vacillated between inspiring play and sheer disorganized chaos.
They were a team that played for two head coaches, three starting goaltenders, and were without two of their stars for long stretches of the campaign. And yet, they not only made the playoffs, but made enough noise in them to take the number one-seeded Rangers within a few minutes of an Eastern Conference final.
Yet, there are few who’d call the season successful by the measures set out in September. It was supposed to be cruise control until the playoffs, where things were supposed to go much differently than they had in the team’s four previous attempts to break through to a Stanley Cup final. Instead, we got the manic collection of talent that reached its apex for brief stretches and its nadir for much longer ones.
To a certain extent, every year in the modern NHL is a reset of sorts. But for Washington, 2012-13 will absolutely look more different than any Caps team has in five seasons. Here are twenty burning questions we have about next year’s team, and a few futile stabs at some answers.
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By Zach Wilt, on May 15th, 2012  Not many Ravens fans questioned Billy Cundiff’s ability until he shanked a potential game tying 32-yard field goal in the AFC Championship. I still blame head coach John Harbaugh, who failed to call a timeout while Cundiff raced to the field to kick the most important field goal of his career, but that’s beside the point.
This summer, Cundiff will receive some competition from undrafted rookie Justin Tucker and the early reports from rookie camp on the new kid are pretty good.
I can’t wait to head out to Westminster to check out this competition! …wait…
Tucker kicked a 55-yard field goal and almost made one from 60 out at Owings Mills according to Jason Butt of CBSSports.com. ”All I can say is I look forward to it, competing with a guy who’s had success,” Tucker said.
If you’re worried a rookie in a clutch situation, Tucker, from the University of Texas, is most famously known for hitting a game winning 40-yard field goal against Texas A&M during his senior year.
By Zach Wilt, on May 15th, 2012  Even Wieters knew it was a rocket. Last night Curtis Granderson became the fourth player to hit a home run to Eutaw Street in 2012. Of those four homers, only one has been hit by an Oriole.
Chris Davis’ 418 foot blast on April 28 is the O’s lone Eutaw Street slam of 2012.
Granderson’s homer in the 61st to reach Eutaw Street and he’s the first Yankee to hit one since Nick Swisher in August of 2010.
Shockingly, the Orioles lead all of baseball in home runs with 57, but they have hit 29 of them on the away from Camden Yards.
By Mark Brown, on May 15th, 2012  Raw begins with Triple H walking in the back. John Laurinaitis walks up to him. He says he had no idea that Brock Lesnar was going to attack him two weeks ago. He says it was embarrassing for him to watch Lesnar humiliate Triple H. Triple H says what he has to say he’s about to say in front of the world. The Raw intro video airs. Immediately I think that this segment could have been cut out since we have to watch Triple H in the ring in a few moments. I’m sure that 30 seconds could have been used to make the Diva’s match 1:30 instead of 1:00 later tonight…
WWE Monday Night Raw Results 5/14/12 from Pittsburgh, PA.
Triple H comes to the ring. His arm is in an arm contraption. Unlike when he was with Floyd Mayweather last week. So Triple H makes a joke about Lesnar trying to make the WWE legitimate. He says during his Wrestlemania match he was waiting for someone to come out and make it legitimate. #TimeToPlayTheGame and Triple H are trending on Twitter. He drops a bunch of legendary names and said that they are all offended by Lesnar. That gets a big pop from the Pittsburgh crowd. He puts Lesnar over by saying when he met him he knew he was “The Next Big Thing.” Then he takes a shot at him by saying that when it got too hard he quit and went to the UFC. And then he dominated UFC. But then someone kicked his ass and he quit again. And then he came back to the WWE, targeted Cena, lost, and quit. He says quitting is what Brock Lesnar always does. Lesnar’s music hits.
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By Mark Brown, on May 14th, 2012  Sorry for the Boston picture, but they own this week’s top pickup. Read on for more. Introduction time: The Orioles are in first place, Nick Johnson has more HR’s than Albert Pujols, and Justin Upton is the worst fantasy OF on his team. This has been a highly unusual fantasy baseball season. Chances are if you have a stacked team your probably struggling. Here are some good pickups to help you out.
Jonathan Lucroy- C (MIL)- Good hitting catcher. Expect him to hit .280 + Not bad if you just lost Wilson Ramos for the season.
Allen Craig- 1B, 2B, OF (STL)- Since he’s come off the DL he’s been on fire. This playoff hero has long term value. He’s a good hitter with excellent eligibility. Playing time could be a bit of a concern with Berkman coming back, but I feel that he’s too good of a hitter to leave out. He’s been hitting cleanup for the World Series Champions. Grab him.
Ike Davis- 1B (NYM)- Last week I said he was too good to not be owned. Then he hit 2 HR that week. Right now the entire Mets clubhouse is sick and he is having flu like symptoms. Once he is over that, I like him for the long haul.
Kila Ka’aihue- 1B (OAK)- He appears to be the everyday starter now. He’s a good hitter who’s never been given a long enough leash. He’s hitting for average right now and has decent power. Not sure how many long balls he can hit in that gigantic stadium, but he’s a nice deep league add.
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By Zach Wilt, on May 14th, 2012  In 2006, Billy Rowell was the 17-year-old slugger selected in the first round by the Orioles who confidently told Baltimore fans he would one day hit the warehouse.
Today he’s the guy the O’s selected ahead of Tim Lincecum who was attempting to convert to pitching and was suspended 50-games for a drug violation.
Rowell finally made it to Double-A Bowie in 2011 after spending six seasons in Blue Field, Aberdeen, Delmarva and Frederick. He hit just.227 with no home runs and 11 RBI with the Baysox.
By Zach Wilt, on May 14th, 2012  Perhaps the best thing that could happen to the Orioles tonight would be if this bad weather holds up and they get a freebie off day. Roch Kubatko at MASNSports.com says that there’s a 90 percent chance of rain this evening, I couldn’t tell you because I literally never check the weather.
I look out the window.
Jake Arrieta’s 3 2/3 innings of work on Sunday certainly didn’t help an already overused bullpen and the O’s next off day isn’t until May 24. Their last off day was May 3.
The Yankees come back to town for a four game series between the 6th-9th of September with an off day on Monday the 10th. Sounds like a perfect time for a makeup game.
While injuries continue to pile up in Baltimore, guys like Jason Hammel (sore right knee), Nolan Reimold (herniated disc), Mark Reynolds (strained oblique) and Matt Lindstrom (right middle finger injury) could all use the rest.
By Dave Gilmore, on May 14th, 2012  After a mammoth start by “The Avengers”, let’s check in on Week 2 of the BSR Fantasy Summer Movie Leage. Here’s a quick primer on our league if you missed it before. You can go back and hear our draft on the BSR podcast, as well, or just nerd out on our spreadsheet.
Well, as predicted “The Avengers” piled on another massive weekend, and could possibly sniff $500 million before all is said and done. Against my better judgement, I went to a predictably unruly showing of the film at White Marsh last night. People are just the worst, especially at the movies. Anyway, while I don’t think it deserves the absurd 93% it’s hauling on Rotten Tomatoes right now, it wasn’t a bad way to spend two and a half hours.
Meanwhile, the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie factory churned out “Dark Shadows” this weekend. Considering that “#DarkShadows” was a promoted trending topic on Friday, things did not bode well for the campy comedy. Look, there are over 1200 episodes of the original series for fans to fawn over. And what exactly was another two hours going to cover? And who wants to go watch unsexy vampires? Haven’t they learned anything? The results were rough, with a poor 42% fresh rating and $28.8 million in domestic grosses, which won’t climb much higher going against even more competition the next couple weekends.
Things get much broader this weekend as “The Dictator” and “Battleship” hit theaters. The Sacha Baron Cohen/Larry Charles formula may be dead, but man does “Battleship” look boring for a movie with lots of explosions. On a side-note, not to brag but I owned ELECTRONIC Battleship growing up, which had the greatest sound effects of all time. Pyeeeeeeewwwww boooosh!
Standings: 1-Zach Wilt (71.04), 2-Matt Lund (22.89) four others tied at 00.00
League Activity: No adds/drops
Opening Next Week: “The Dictator” (Dave Gilmore), “Battleship” (Zach Griffin)
By Ross Gore, on May 14th, 2012 
What’s up with Jake Arrieta? He began the year with improved velocity and through May 2nd he had two outings where he gave up 0 runs and only one disastrous outing (a 4 inning, 5 run outing in LA against the Angels). However, since May 2nd Arrieta appears to have turned into a pumpkin. On May 8th against the Rangers Arrieta gave up 6 runs in 6 and 1/3 innings and yesterday as the O’s appeared poised for a sweep of a hobbled Tampa Bay team, Arrieta was chased in 3 and 2/3 innings after giving up 7 earned runs.
It’s undebatable, right? Arrieta was good, then something happened and now he isn’t good anymore. However, Arrieta’s skills (strikeout rate and walk rate) in his two bad starts appear strong. The factors that are causing Arrieta to look inept (high batting average on balls in play, a high home run to fly ball rate and a low strand rate) are typically considered “random” or “luck-based”. Here we’ll look at Arrieta’s skills (strikeout rate and walk rate) in more detail and explain why Arrieta doesn’t have as much control as you may think he does over the three factors that have doomed his last two starts. Analysis after the jump, all graphs in the posts are courtesy of our friends at Fangraphs.
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It’s May, which means it’s the time of year for Ed Reed to say something concerning about his future with the Ravens. Today he told SiriusXM that he’s “not 100 percent committed right now to playing this year.”
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