Orioles Fire Perlozzo

In a highly unexpected move, the last place Orioles fired another manager, Sam Perlozzo. The Orioles, who are in the midst of their 10th consecutive losing season, have a tradition of firing managers every 2 or 3 years.

Current owner, Peter Angelos, hopes to hire a new manager who will be as successful as Phil Regan or Ray Miller. Angelos is well known in the baseball world as the worst owner in this history of the sport. Many players have rejected offers by the Orioles to play in Baltimore, only to accept offers for lesser amounts of money in other cities.

It is difficult to understand why the Orioles are so bad. Back when all the players were on growth hormones and steroids, they were awesome. They are now stocked with the best young raw talent that money could buy. Look at this year's team. We have Kevin Millar who's batting over .240, Melvin Mora, the former All-Star, who's batting .245, and future superstar Jay Gibbons who has 3 HR's and is hitting .210.

The Orioles' Iron Curtain pitchers bring out the fear in in hitters' eyes. Middle reliever Todd Williams has a stellar ERA of 7.53, Danys Baez, who's on a mission to break the single-season blown save record, has an ERA of 6.52, and John Parrish, considered another piece of a successful foundation for the future, is giving Baez a run for his money for blown saves. And let's not forget about our superstar signings from the past two years - Steve Trachsel, Jarret Wright, and Kris Benson. How did we outbid the Yankees and the Angels for them??? It utterly stuns me that the Orioles didn't try harder for Ryan Dempster and Adam Eaton. If the Orioles are shooting for last, they obviously need to go all in and try a little harder.

Seriously, have you been to a game this year? You can sit wherever the hell you want. Attendance is reported around 13,000, but I knew all 5 people in the stands. You can hear conversations on the third base side for the right field mezzanine. Where are all of the fans? Half of them are now watching the Nationals. Yeah, they suck, too, but at least it's something new. They're getting a new stadium so the attendance at Orioles games can only get worse. Fans for the opposing team regularly outnumber the Orioles fans. That's really sad when you're playing the Devil Rays.

Is there an end to the downward spiral? Of course. I predict that the Orioles will give up, just like they do every other year, and they will drop players in order to "build for the future", which is a euphemism for dumping salary and picking up no name minor leaguers who they have no intention of ever using. The Orioles will dump Bedard, Guthrie, Cabrera, Tejada, and Brian Roberts. These players would be wanted elsewhere. The bottom is when the Orioles lose the rest of the games for the season. As it is, it won't be hard to lose 100 games this year.

Bedard, a young pitcher with a 3.64 ERA will succeed on a team that provides run support. Cabrera needs a team that can help him get his pitches under control. Guthrie is already a proven winner. If he's allowed to finish a game, I predict his record would be 8-1 so far this year. Tejada is name brand talent who's lazy because he doesn't care anymore. Brian Roberts is a feisty young athlete who will succeed anywhere. The Orioles should have listened to Peter Gammons several years ago when he said that the Orioles should trade Roberts to the Red Sox, Peter's favorite team, and built the infield around Jerry Hairston Jr., who's now playing for last-place Texas and hitting .239 and playing mostly in the outfield.

There are rumors that the Orioles may interview Davy Johnson, who was run out of town 10 years ago, and Joe Girardi, the former manager of the Florida Marlins. Girardi, as you will remember, took a team with players as well-known and recognizable as the high school cross-country team, and kept them in the playoff hunt most of the season. He won the NL Manager of the year award and was promptly fired.

Unfortunately for Girardi, I think Angelos has already fired him before he even interviews. John Kruk, the former first-baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, reported on ESPN (and interpreted by me) that anyone that accepts the Orioles manager position is an idiot. Kruk said that if the job was offered to him, he would reject it.

Oh, Orioles, where have you gone?