we'll miss you BJ.

Probably should adjust those ERAs down with Leo Mazzone in the fold.

Sosa .227/.313/.409

My. how the mighty have fallen. Couldn't happen to a nicer, more humble, guy.

Dan,

Where are you getting those defensive numbers? What do they mean?

Also, from what I recall from last year, ZiPS is pessimistic when it comes to most pitchers. I really like Rakers chances to beat that projection, if given a shot. And Ray, if he could control the home run a little, would be a dynamite reliever. I'll say both beat the ERA projections by at least a half a run, and thats before the Mazzone factor.

Also, from what I recall from last year, ZiPS is pessimistic when it comes to most pitchers. I really like Rakers chances to beat that projection, if given a shot. And Ray, if he could control the home run a little, would be a dynamite reliever. I'll say both beat the ERA projections by at least a half a run, and thats before the Mazzone factor.

Overall, pro-rating the pitcher projections with reality, ZiPS wasn't pessimistic - it just saw offense at '02-'04 levels instead of '05 levels. Compared to league, outperformers were nearly identical to underperformers.

Also, you're looking at mean projections essentially, so the range is going to be smaller. But we see the overachievers at the top while the underachievers at the bottom end of the range are down in the minors playing poorly.

Sosa .227/.313/.409

My. how the mighty have fallen. Couldn't happen to a nicer, more humble, guy.

Palmeiro .227/.317/.359

BJ Surhoff .260/.302/.344

The Orioles need to lure Alomar out of retirement.

Steroid Man - 227/317/359, 15 HR

PWN3D

So BJ finally retired? Somehow I missed that. What an interesting baseball career he has had.

Jack, I was referring to the other BJ, the one we will be losing to free agency.

Oh, of course, Charlie. I just assumed that Surhoff was going to finally pack it in.

Anybody know whether Aaron Rakers is related to the Jason Rakers who used to pitch for the Royals?

Jack, I was referring to the other BJ, the one we will be losing to free agency.

I thought he was talking about Denny Neagle.

You can bet your sweet bippy that neither "steroid-man" will be returning to the Orioles.
Sammy is toast; Raffy burned any possible bridges he ever had with his team mates with his fingering of Tejada as his source of the possible steroid.
The O's free up $10M+ by jetisoning those two plus a 41 yr old BJ Surhoff who finally hit bottom last year.
That said they desperatly need a power hitting 1B-man and an every-day LFer. A young catcher with promise should be high on the list as well 'cause the days of Javy catching 120 games are over; he needs to DH 2 out of 5 games.

My hope is exhausted. If we're lucky, it'll be a coupla years - but I fully expect the O's to make at least one albatross signing this offseason with the dearth of talent available and Angelos' "best product" philosophy... which is essentially a Yanks/BoSox strategy minus the endless bucks (and intelligent front offices).

Can't we just officially rebuild one year so we can compete sometime in the next ten? We've got some good players coming up a couple years from now, when Cabrera might be a star and Markakis a solid or maybe plus player... but you know we'll be paying someone old $15 mil to rehab by then...