Trachsel is done and he'd only make our bullpen worse. He's not getting paid much I believe so money shouldn't be a factor in his release. It's time to wish him well and let him get on with a coaching career. He'll make a good pitching or bullpen coach for some team down the road.
The next move I would make is benching Kevin Millar. Thankfully after a month of pleading from fans Trembley removed Millar from the cleanup spot. Now the next step he needs to take is benching Millar completely. It's what is best for the team. It's not like he'd take a hit in the trade value dept, because he's expensive for his limited production at 3.8 million (thanks Dave for last Sept) and he'd be at best a bench player on a contending team.
Millar is no longer doing what makes him famous. You don't hear him cracking jokes, but you also aren't seeing him taking pitches. He's become more impatient and at 36 when you are impatient and you don't have the bat speed to catch up to foul pitches off, the results are what you see now:
.214 AVG, .285 OBP, .342 SLG, .626 OPS
That isn't pretty and it's certainly not the stats of a ML cleanup hitter which is where Trembley had him for the entire month of April. Seriously, what took the guy so long? But I saw Millar creep back up in the lineup to #5 after being dropped to #7 on Friday. So you know Trembley is anxious to put him at cleanup again. The first multi hit game he has, I bet he's right back in there protecting Markakis. Anybody want to bet against me?
So the solution is simple. Since the O's seem to think Scott Moore is better served rotting away in the hitter's hell known as Harbor Park, there is a guy out there who the Texas Rangers of all teams have seemed to abandon. His name is Jason Botts and he sports a career OPS of .883 in the minors with a .484 SLG and a .399 OBP. However he doesn't have a position really besides DH. Right now the Rangers have that spot occupied and Botts has struggled somewhat in his time in the majors this season.
The Orioles are rebuilding though, right? If there's any guy to take a chance on - why not Botts? The guy is only 27. He could be the next Carlos Pena or the next Calvin Pickering, but we can afford to give this guy a shot to see if he could be a future DH for us.
So here are the moves:
Release Trax, trade one of our pitchers such as Jim Hoey or Bob McCrory and acquire Botts to DH. Bench Millar and put Huff at 1B. Millar is used as a PHer or defensive replacement similar to Payton. It will give him a chance to take a role he'll take if he's traded anyway as not one ML team would have him as a starter right now. And even as a rebuilding team he should not be starting when there are guys like Botts out there that are worth taking a chance on.
****
I don't know if the jet lag is still affecting the O's but they really need to wake up out there. In the past two games, they've basically taken themselves out of the game. In key situations on Saturday's game, apparently somebody put some pine tar in the gloves of the Orioles, because, not once or twice but three times, the Angels scored runs because an Oriole couldn't get the ball out of their glove. First Markakis could have nailed Wood at the plate, then Hernandez could throw out fellow catcher Napoli on a double steal attempt. And finally when Roberts could have gunned down the winning run, he threw it wide of Ramon Hernandez because he couldn't get the ball out of his glove in time.
And then there's all the baserunning errors - way too many Orioles have been picked off or turned hits into outs when they've overran bases or not made it to a base in time.
Trembley is known for making guys accountable, so let's hope he does something to refocus these guys. The schedule is brutal, but that's not an excuse for these mental errors.
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