Yoon: (Shrieks) -- Your 2014 Baltimore Orioles

prob too late to blow it, tho still 7 h2h games vs nyy

i still don't understand this team.

i've followed the o's for 30 years and even i'm confused.

9.5 game lead and i still can't stop thinking we'll blow it. it'd be worse than the 2011 red sox but still.

i don't know how to be a fan right now. it's so weird seeing other o's fans old enough to act like this is normal. it's totally exceptional to me. totally unexpected. for years i've wondered what it's like to be, like, a brewers fan, and go into the season thinking "hey maybe we'll get to the playoffs this year. wouldn't be strange." like no matter what the brewers always have a chance and there's enough random variance for them to either win the division or finish 15 games out. while my whole life AL East ball has been a gargantuan hill. not for boston or ny but even for them it's always been a battle. our only hope has ever been the wild card. it's as far as my hope has gone. i'd ruled out the division before the season began and figured at best, we'd compete for the top spot until the last few weeks. now the rest of the East has retreated for the first time in my memory as a baseball fan and we're (possibly) easing our way to winning the entire division and i don't know how to exist. it's bizarre. i don't understand how everyone else isn't responding like they're alice in wonderland or something. i don't know how to think. my entire brain is toast. i am dead. how am i supposed to act or think. it's so weird we'll (possibly) be in the playoffs and i won't have to worry about the play-in game.

also if the yankees are eliminated it'll be the first year since the strike (and the year before) that neither they nor the red sox qualify for the postseason.

I understand your superstitious nervousness--everyone's been there--but 9.5 games on Sept. 7? That's gotta be like a 10-0 lead heading into the ninth inning.

i remember going to a game against the angels where the o's scored like 10 runs in the 9th to tie it. still lost but your post has now given me more reason to be paranoid as we will now likely finish out of the wild card.

currently at 99.4% to win the division

of course the brewers' playoff chances have dropped from roughly 85% to about 25% in two weeks

lol yeah

sox were as high as 99.6% in 2011!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/842229-mlb-14-of-the-most-shocking-september-collapses-in-baseball-history/page/1

Using that article as a guide, the biggest blown lead I could find on Sept. 7 was actually the most recent: 2009 Tigers, who led by 7.0. There were another half-dozen teams that led by 6.0 or 6.5. Some of the most famous collapses--'51 Dodgers, '69 Cubs, '78 Red Sox--had had their leads already substantially cut into by Sept. 7. The one closest to home for me, the '87 Blue Jays, were a little odd in that the lead they blew wasn't built up until after Sept. 7; they spent much of the summer jostling with the Tigers and Yankees, but moved ahead by 3.5 on Sept. 26 and seemed safe.

Anyway, unless that round-up missed someone, I don't think anyone has ever blown a lead of more than 7.0 games on Sept. 7.

Quintin Berry ('12 Tigers, '13 Red Sox) is on this team now, huh?

Still hasn't been caught stealing (25 for 25).

Everyone knows it's been a while for the Orioles. This is really amazing, though: when they clinch the division about 10 minutes from now, it'll be the first time they've done so at home since 1969. (According to Buck Martinez, anyway, so that may or may not be true.)

=DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

i was 9 the last time this happened

Un-freaking-believable

Adam Jones pies fans

https://vine.co/v/OWm659gY9M6

https://vine.co/v/OWmwFBLVIXv

I like the Orioles--I'd as soon they win it all as anyone. They're the shock of the year for me, even more than KC. I evidently missed something; never in a million years would I have guessed they'd win 95-100 games and lap the division. It was only a few weeks ago when I saw them at the Skydome and they were all of 3-1/2 games up on the Jays.

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/d9e28b9f8cb58a1e25e7cd4ab8af54a28dacf8f7/c=330-110-1422-931&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/DetroitFreePress/DetroitFreePress/2014/09/17/1410980752000-AP-Twins-Orioles-Baseball-OT.jpg

i might root for the Orioles depending on matchups, but Showalter is p much an obstacle.

how did Steve Pearce get on the bWAR leaderboards, btw?

wtf is your deal with showalter

pearce is a great mystery, but i love it. at least w/ fWAR you can (maybe) point to noise in defensive metrics goosing his number a bit...

he's an oldschool prick xp

i searched the archives and 100% of the posts mentioning showalter over the past 14 years is just you going "fuck that guy"

i am consistent

1) used to manage the Stankees

2) blasted Ken Griffey Jr for wearing his hat backwards PRE-GAME

3) was full of candyass Jeter-worship quotes in last Sunday's Times

after years of listening to his interviews and pressers i'm pretty sure #2 can be attributed to reckless youth, he'd never say something like that today. every time i read about buck in the 90s he sounds radically different than he does today. he seems weathered now

and everyone's worshiping jeter, come on. if it makes you feel any better the orioles literally gave him crabs.

it's just baseball, hating is fun

really from the AL side I want the WS to either be Oakland's happy ending or a showcase for Trout.

i want the A's to collapse completely bc a job should never be halfassed and also it'd be hilarious given beane's late season trading strategy also because of sean doolittle's gnome beard

I don't like that comedian named Showalter either.

If you don't believe in halfassed World Series champs, may i introduce you to TOURNAMENT BASEBALL and the 2006 Cardinals in particular.

in case you missed it i hate the cardinals

and you conveniently ignored my point about sean doolittle's fucking gnome beard

hey he's Australian, that's bad enough

if by australian you mean south dakotan...

ok they do still hv an australian or was that last year

balfour

orioles are on a small run of inexplicably getting value out of shitty former pirates

gorkys hernandez should give them a call

the mclouth effect

13 wins against the yankees this year, most since '76

i have a brief opportunity to buy tickets to the ALDS! i hope i obtain some!

i mean, without paying 6x as much on stubhub

too soon for a hot stove thread? jj hardy just signed a 3 yr extension

weird timing on that (see the cautionary tale of Roger Peckinpaugh)

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/10/9/6952859/jj-hardy-contract-extension-orioles-alcs-2014-world-series-1925

Chris Cotillo @ChrisCotillo
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#Orioles aren't done after signing Hardy. Latest on extension talks with Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis: http://sbnation.com/e/6716684
3:00 PM - 9 Oct 2014

lol ok

sentimental me wants to keep nick around knowing he won't be worth it

cruz would be a terrible move tho, just give him a QO and let someone else deal with the inevitable disappointment

aaaand markakis denies any extension talk.

http://deadspin.com/a-partially-annotated-list-of-baltimore-orioles-promoti-1693563998?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

every child's dream has clearly been to inherit a buck showalter garden gnome

although it does sort of make sense he is def comparable to a potentially murderous occult creature

makes more sense than the Mets' deGrom gnome

“What is the purpose?” Showalter asked later. “Do people get up in the morning and they go, ‘Honey, are we going to the game today? …They’ve got that gnome tonight. Pack up the kids. We’re going?’”…Really?!”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2015/03/11/orioles-manager-buck-showalter-is-not-looking-forward-to-his-garden-gnome-giveaway-night/

hah

can that be the 2015 orioles thread title plz