thundercleetz

O's eye Valentine, Wedge in managerial search Both guys would be great, I think Valentine would be the ideal manager. However, hiring either guy would mean nothing unless they are fully allowed to assemble their own staff. I would imagine someone as high profile and opinionated as Valentine would only accept the job if he was given complete control.

Here is a solid article by Ken Rosenthal on exactly what the Orioles need. Here are some good points: Firing Trembley isn't the answer I agree with Rosnethal, we need to get rid of the losing culture. All the coaches in the dugout and bullpen need to go. We need someone who can relate to the young players, Girardi did a great job of that in Florida by not putting up with any crap. We need a guy like that.

The Bengals lost 24-14. Graham missed two field goals... 3 + 3 + 14 only = 20, that is still less than 24. It is not Graham's fault the Bengals snapping situation was horrible the whole season, or that Palmer was sacked 3 times that game and went only 18/36 for 146 yards with an INT. The Bengals defense let up touchdowns of 39 and 45 yards. Graham hardly lost that game and Bengals fans need to stop blaming him. The guy was an elite kicker from 2003-2008.

Happy birthday Crav!

The first time I heard Holy Diver it was the Killswitch Engage cover. I had no idea it was a cover of an original song until someone told me so. After going back to listen to the original version, I actually like Dio's version better. Both are great though.

I've actually heard the exact opposite. I heard he's a complete jerk that was not well liked in Cincy's lockeroom at all, which was a large reason in why he was not re-signed.

They look great! My brother gets compliments on his Ray Lewis jersey all the time! The Ray Rice one looks very good as well. I figure as long as you stick to black and white colors, as long as the font looks good in the picture, the jersey should be really good looking. For my next jersey I am thinking either Ngata, Oher, or Boldin. Can't go wrong with either of those, but an Oher jersey sounds really cool!

Welcome aboard ScottishRaven! It is good to see there is a Ravens fan internationally! Some teams' fans travel better then others, and location is also a big determinant. Like millz said, the United States, obviously, is very big and to travel long distances for just a Sunday afternoon is pretty unreasonable. Ravens fans have traditionally done very well showing up at away games in Miami and Nashville (Tennessee) against the Dolphins and Titans, respectfully. Of course, when we go up to play our archrival the Steelers in Pittsburgh we will get a good showing (Steelers fans do a great job of not selling their tickets to visiting fans though). Obviously there will be a lot of Ravens fans at games against the Redskins in DC, the Eagles in Philly, or the Panthers in Charlotte (North Carolina) because of the proximity, but we play these teams once every three years or so. Remember though, the Ravens were only inaugurated 14-years ago in 1996. So we do not have the rich history other clubs do, and thus our fan base is fairly local to Maryland. Teams like the Packers, Steelers, 49ers, and Cowboys traditionally travel very well. These teams were dynasties in the 70s, 80s, and 90s respectively (and the Packers are popular because of Favre, obviously), so they have a strong foundation of fan bases aross the entire country. When the Steelers played the Redskins in DC back in 2008 there were actually more Steelers fans in the stadium then Skins fans. Anyways, I hope this helps a little bit! Welcome again!

Welcome ufsrj2! I actually lived in New Orleans the past two years having just graduated from Tulane earlier this month. It was an amazing experience being in New Orleans when the Saints won the Super Bowl (although I would say it was more crazy when they won the NFC Championship two weeks prior). Having seen almost every Saints game the past two years, the team really grew on me. Those Saints fan love their football team like no other! It was good to see them win the Super Bowl, it was even better seeing them beat the Colts for us!

Wieters bat speed has been very disappointing. I didn't want to believe the pessimists when Wieters first came up saying he has slow bat speed, but I think I am starting to see it. He has a very nice swing, but he just does not have the bat speed to be an impact hitter. Who knows, maybe he is still adjusting to MLB pitching. I cannot complain about Nick. The guy is the only person in the lineup that takes pitches and works the count, and he almost never has people in scoring position when he hits either. This must be very frustrating for Nick, probably to the point where he just wants to get up there and start hacking like the rest of the guys. It is disappointing that Nick's homerun numbers have dropped since hitting 23 in 2007, but his eye is as sharp as ever and you have to love his plate approach; he just looks to put the ball in play. He is not an All-Star hitter, but he would probably put up some very solid numbers if he had a Tex behind hitting him, and B-Rob hitting infront of him. Put Nick in the Yankees lineup and he is probably easily a .320/.410/.500 (a .900+ OPS guy) hitter with around 20 homeruns and over 100 RBIs and walks. The frustrating thing about Adam Jones is that the guy works his ass off in the offseason. He trains all offseason in Arizona at API. He runs, lifts, watches his diet, hits, and does positional drills all year round. With all the work he puts in he should be seeing major improvements going into his third full MLB season, especially after a very impressive season last year when he was healthy. That just shows that baseball is as much of a natural talent sport as any other sport. Sure, hard work could push you over the top, but so much of it is your natural demeanor and hand-eye coordination. Adam would probably be one hell of a football player with his build, athleticism, and work ethic (Adam was a high school teammate in San Diego of Ravens WR Marcus Smith). Think he could play corner or safety for the Ravens?

I completely agree with you max. Last Wednesday was my first bad experience at the Yard where I felt the team just didn't even want to play that day. I am not sure I want to go back after that, they are that bad. Then they expect us to somehow sit through that disaster when beers are $8-10 a pop. What the heck!? I agree with an earlier point by dc. I am not sure how much a new manager can do at this point in the season. But at the end of this season serious changes need to be made. The losing culture needs to be gotten rid of. I am talking about getting rid of Trembley and all our positional and assistant coaches/managers. We need a fresh start on that front and hopefully the young talent will respond.

I just saw this, thanks guys! My brother took to an O's game for my birthday, so other than that it was a great day!

I believe the secondary is going to surprise. Fabian will be full speed by training camp, and Webb should be back by Week 2, Week 6 at the latest. And Cary Williams continues to impress, he could definitely be a big addition for us with his size and speed combination. He has been in the league for a couple of years now, we could be ready to break out. Add in an improved pass rush and this secondary should be improved from last year. I like our chances here.

HAHAH good post! Baltimore definitely has potential for a Super Bowl in the future. Like you said, the harbor could be used for boats for further lodging. But I am not sure if development is completely there yet. If the Westport development can be completed as planned (and possibly a brand new soccer stadium would be there as well), that offer some more nice lodging. Sure, 1st Mariner is big, but it is really old. If Baltimore ever gets a new arena, which they probably will, that would help a Super Bowl bid as well. What we do have going for us is the MSA keeps our stadiums in great shape.

I completely agree with your last statement, which is why Andy McPhail should be just as much at fault as Trembley. Are we really a team of potentially brilliant youngsters? I am starting to question actually how good guys like Markakis, Jones, and Wieters are. If they are potential stars, Trembley and the staff should be fired. If they are really just average/above-average players then Trembley is not much at fault. I think the problem with Trembley is that he came within the organization. Not only that, but he was not originally hired as the fulltime manager. So in some ways he still represented the "losing ways" instead of the "Oriole way" as advertised as nothing really changed. Another thing is many of our same assistant coaches are in place. We really need a complete overhaul of everything and just start fresh. We thought 2011 was going to be the year to compete, but this season has shown we are a lot further away than that.

What I think this team needs is a disciplinarian. A guy who will chew your ass out if you don't hustle out a ground ball or a fly ball. We need someone who teaches their players to work the count. No one on this team is entitled to anything, no one is a superstar, so I wouldn't care who the manager pisses off because at this point we are pretty much a team of nobodies. Free agents already do not want to come here, it won't matter if we have a douchebag manager. A new manager won't change anything but it is a start. Even though this might not be Trembley's fault, this team is going nowhere with Trembley. There is no potential.

So I went to an O's game on Wednesday. This team is absolutely horrible and that is not even the worst part. The team just doesn't look like they want to play with the exception of a couple of players (Cory Patterson to name one was hustling his ass off). The team was slow to the ball in the field and did not work the count at all (swining at a lot of first pitches). I know everyone says changing the manager will not do much, but to me it looks like this team is poorly coached. There is no sync in the lineup at all. Everyone looks like they are trying to swing for the fences on the first pitch, there is no directional hitting, no one seems to know how to run the base paths except Cory Patterson, and the defense is terrible. It seems like we are just waiting for the big inning for a guy to hit a homerun. That would be okay if we had some big sluggers, but we don't! We need to be playing small ball. I was looking at the A's lineup and they have no more talent than we do, but they do a very good job of playing small ball and keeping that lineup in sync. The most pathetic thing I saw was Trembley's pitful attempt to get ejected on a close call at first. The Athletic runner was obviously safe, and even if it was close, there was really nothing to argue. Trembley knows he is going to get fired, it looked like he was trying to get ejected to inject some energy into the team. The problem is Trembley was an absolute joke when he went to the field. I don't even think the ump was taking him seriously, he simply walked Trembley to his dugout and led him in. I am sorry, Trembley is a joke and needs to go. Wednesday was my worst experience at a baseball game ever. I am very close to be done with this team and just start following the Nats. I cannot watch a team that doesn't even give an effort like these Orioles do. The Nats are a .500 team because the hustle every game, the O's are just pathetic.

I am not much of a basketball fan, but my little brother is a Wildcat so he was excited. Although he was really annoyed with all the people who jumped on the John Wall bandwagon acting like they have liked him for awhile now. Never the less the guy is an exciting, explosive player who will sell tickets and jerseys. The Wiz need a lot of work, but building your team around John Wall is definitely a great place to start. The guy is a pure point guard so maybe he can get some of the young big men involved. A guy like JaVale McGee should certainly benefit from Wall penetrating and throwing McGee oops or giving him free lanes to cut into. I don't think LeBron is a possibility this year, but Baltimore-native Carmelo Anthony is a free agent next offseason. Maybe he would want to return to the area and play with Wall next year.

I think it was more of a perfect storm, max. Especially after the Super Bowl DISASTER in Detriot a few years back, if there was a Northern city with an outdoor stadium to have a Super Bowl first, New York would be the market. Think, if they had it in Pennsylvania or Maryland and it was a failure, the argument would be the market was not big enough and New York would always be in the conversation. But having it in New York first, if New York fails then we know it would not work in Maryland or Pennsylvania. But if New York works, like Harbaugh said, suddenly other Northern cities are in the conversation. BTW, thanks for the video on the '58 Championship!

I thought for sure you of all people max would be for a championship game in New York. Outside in the elements, the way football was supposed to be played. I mean the '58 Championship game was played in New York. Teddy Bruschi made a good point, think of all the classic NFC/AFC Conferance Championship games that were played in the elements. I am willing to give this one a chance.

I am still not a believer in Mark Sanchez. I just don't think he's anything more than an average QB. I guess with that defense and running game, you don't need to be. And the Jets have certainly done a good job of surrounding him with weapons. Luckily Santonio Holmes will be out when we play them, he would probably kill us like usual.

Considering Fabian injured his knee in late November, the fact he will be ready for training camp is very remarkable. Fabian also said he trains with Webb and Webb is about six weeks behind him. So consider both guys are "on schedule" and if my math is correct, that would mean Ladarius would be ready by about week 2? That would be huge for us! And if Cary Williams can continue to impress, he would strenthen and add size to our secondary. Lets hope Washington and Webb can continue to heal quickly!

As unreliable as Clayton was for us over the years, it's not like we had anyone that was better than him. Can you name our #3 receiver from the 2008 AFC Conference Championship game? Terrence Copper. He was signed as a free agent only a few weeks before.

Are you sure it wasn't the Killswitch Engage cover?

I see Harper as a legitimate darkhorse if he improved his catching ability. Harper's route running ability improved dramatically last season. He was always open, and demonstrated the ability to get deep. The only problem is that he couldn't catch the ball. If his hands improve, it would be hard to get him off the field as he can get open anywhere on the field.