O's questions, links, and thoughts as Opening Day approaches

The Orioles begin the season on the road against Tampa Bay on April 6, and I can't wait. There's no guarantee that this Orioles season will be any different from previous disappointing seasons, but there is at least a bit of hope. Then again, it would be hard for the Orioles to do any worse than the Redskins or Wizards, so that's something to look forward to.

First things first: Here's the 25-man roster that the Orioles will start the season with, via Peter Schmuck:

Starting pitchers: Kevin Millwood, Jeremy Guthrie, Brian Matusz, Brad Bergesen, David Hernandez
Relievers: Mike Gonzalez, Jim Johnson, Mark Hendrickson, Matt Albers, Cla Meredith, Will Ohman, Jason Berken, Koji Uehara (DL)
Catchers: Matt Wieters, Craig Tatum
Infielders: Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada, Garrett Atkins, Cesar Izturis, Ty Wigginton, Robert Andino
Outfielders: Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Nolan Reimold, Luke Scott, Felix Pie

Not too shabby. You'll probably notice a few things: Craig Tatum made the team over Chad Moeller; David Hernandez beat out Chris Tillman for the fifth spot in the starting rotation; and Jason Berken apparently will be the long man in the bullpen while Uehara is on the disabled list. At least that's what caught my eye at first.

The real surprise (to me) is that Tatum made the team over Moeller. It's not that Moeller is any kind of spectacular back-up catching option, just that most O's fans were led to believe that Moeller would make the team and sort of groom Wieters and give him veteran advice throughout the season. (Peter Schmuck thought the same thing.) In parts of 10 seasons, here are Moeller's numbers: .226/.288/.351, 29 HR. Tatum (27 years old), on the other hand, has only played in 26 career games -- all of them coming in 2009 with the Reds. In those games, he hit .162/.250/.221 with 1 HR. For what it's worth, Tatum, in six minor league seasons, hit a combined .252/.318/.384 with 34 HR, so he's obviously not on the Orioles for his offense. Here is Dave Trembley explaining the decision to keep Tatum over Moeller:

Craig Tatum is regarded as the better defensive player, which is why he beat out Chad Moeller.

"I think that's the only consideration," Trembley said. "You come down to Tatum and his ability to catch and throw. And I think it's pretty obvious."

Trembley doesn't believe that Moeller is needed to mentor Matt Wieters or the young pitchers.

"This is Wieters' team," Trembley said. "This is Wieters' pitching staff. We're expecting a lot from Matt Wieters. Chad Moeller is not there for Wieters any more. We feel confident that Wieters now, boom, it's yours."

Pretty interesting stuff, and it tells you how much that Trembley and the O's front office think of Wieters to make a decision like that. There's obviously no way to know how much Moeller's mentoring and veteran leadership helped Wieters, but that doesn't mean Moeller didn't bring anything to the table. But again, it's nice to see that the Orioles aren't just keeping veterans around just for the sake of doing it. However, since Tatum isn't much of a hitter, he'll need to control the pitching staff and running game while Wieters isn't behind the plate.

Here's what Trembley had to say about keeping Hernandez over Tillman (from the same Roch link):

"What we're doing is the best thing for the team and for his development," Trembley said. "He was put in a situation last year where he came up to the big leagues because of need. We had an awful lot of injuries and we had an awful lot of movement. He is going to be a fantastic major league pitcher for a long time, but there are some things that he needs to get better at, and we'd rather see him do that at Triple-A than in the big leagues."

It's hard to argue with that, and it's nice that the Orioles don't have to simply rush Tillman's development along just because he was on the team last year for a few months. Hernandez showed some improvement and earned the chance to start the team as the No. 5 starter; it doesn't mean that he'll be in that role for the whole season. And it's also a positive that the Orioles have a few options to consider when it comes to competent starting pitchers -- and that's something that should be consistent in the years to come. Also, here's what Rob Neyer thinks (hint: it's a good thing):

[I]t's struck me this spring that, for all the talk about nobody having enough pitching, a lot of teams have a No. 6 starter with real promise. The Yankees, Red Sox, Reds, Orioles, Padres, Rangers, Twins ... there are a lot of good young pitchers out there who aren't quite good enough yet to crack their team's rotation.

As for Berken winning the long-man role by default, well, that's fine. Because there have only been maybe two or three televised games, I haven't had the chance to see him pitch. According to Dan Connolly, in six appearances this spring, Berken has an ERA of 2.84. Last year he was downright terrible -- 6-12, 6.54 ERA, 1.43 HR/9, 1.50 K/BB -- but maybe he'll do a little better in the mop-up role. As for Uehara, will he ever be healthy enough to contribute to this team again? The O's could really use him in the bullpen.

Now, on to another surprising move: Apparently Miguel Tejada will begin the season as the O's cleanup hitter. Dan Connolly:

If Roberts has rebounded from a herniated disk, he'll bat leadoff, with Adam Jones likely second, Nick Markakis third and Miguel Tejada at cleanup. Trembley has juggled several lineups this spring, including using various options in the fourth spot. Tejada has been there the most, and Trembley acknowledged Sunday that he thinks the veteran is his best current option at cleanup.

"He is the most experienced guy," Trembley said about Tejada. "That doesn't mean he will be there all the time, but he is the most experienced guy."

Trembley said he prefers to have a left-hander or switch-hitter behind Tejada, which means switch-hitting catcher Matt Wieters or lefty designated hitter Luke Scott likely would bat fifth. Trembley has used Wieters at fifth and fourth at different times this spring.

Roberts appears to be healthy, so he should have no problem starting the season at second base and in the leadoff spot. And that's great; losing Roberts for any significant chunk of the season would be rather detrimental to the O's offense. And although the Orioles don't really have a prototypical cleanup hitter at the moment, Tejada may not be the best option for that spot. Since Wieters isn't quite ready yet and Nolan Reimold won't be starting the season at 100 percent, Luke Scott seems like the better option to hit fourth. Now, I'll preface this by saying that it's not really a big deal, but let's at least see which one-through-four combination looks better:

Roberts, Jones, Markakis, Tejada; or
Roberts, Markakis, Jones, Scott.

Roberts definitely stays in the leadoff spot, and Nick Markakis and Adam Jones simply flip-flop spots. Now let's compare Tejada's and Scott's career numbers:

Tejada: .289/.341/.469, 285 HR, 6.3 BB%
Scott: .264/.350/.495, 76 HR, 11.1 BB%

Tejada is still a good hitter, and he even hit 46 doubles while batting .313 during a much-improved 2009 season. But Scott hit 11 more home runs last season (25 to 14), drew 36 more walks (55 to 19), and simply seems like the better option to hit fourth right now. Starting the season with Tejada hitting cleanup is one thing, but keeping him there for an extended period of time doesn't seem like a good idea. Unless Tejada starts out the season on fire, hopefully Trembley moves him down the lineup a few places.

Two other notes: Millwood will get the Opening Day start, which was expected, and Felix Pie will start in the left field as well. The start for Pie is a little surprising, only because of how well Reimold played last season. But Trembley's reasoning makes a lot of sense:

"This is not a slight on (Nolan) Reimold, but this is the right thing for Reimold. He's not 100 percent. You think I'm going to go ask him to bust his butt on turf?" Trembley said.

"That kid is as tough as nails. We all saw him play for three months last year, half a player. Never complained, never did nothing."

Even if you're the biggest Reimold fan, it would be hard to disagree with Trembley. The goal is to be healthy for the whole season, so what's the rush in hurrying Reimold along while he's healing? Pie is also the better outfielder and has been steadily improving at the plate.

The roster is slightly different from what I thought it would look like on Opening Day, but it's not too difficult to see why the O's are making certain decisions. I'm excited to see what they can do this season.

Site news

I know it's been a few days since I posted something, but I'm working on a decent-sized Orioles post, which should be up in a day or so.

Wizards lose 13th in a row, this time to Indiana

It wasn't just any game that the Wizards lost last night. Sure, the Wizards have been awful lately -- 13 losses in a row awful, which ties the franchise record -- but last night was a different kind of bad. The Wizards lost by 17, 99-82, despite a bench player, in this case James Singleton, posting 19 points and a whopping 21 rebounds. The Wizards also allowed Josh McRoberts, who currently averages 3.6 points and 2.3 rebounds, to score 14 points and grab 12 rebounds. And Troy Murphy collected a Pacer-high 19 rebounds. And although the Pacers shot much better from the field than the Wizards -- 44.6 percent to 36.5 percent -- the Pacers made just six of 28 three-point attempts and still won by a comfortable margin.

But, again, the Wizards have been terrible lately, so it's not surprising that they lost to a rather mediocre team last night.

You also may have heard about this Andray Blatche-Flip Saunders ordeal, which was kind of a big deal Tuesday night and yesterday. Long story short, Saunders tried to discuss a bad defensive play by Blatche in transition against the Charlotte Bobcats, only Blatche was having none of it and apparently ignored Saunders and the rest of the coaches while he sulked on the bench for whatever reason. After that, Saunders removed Blatche from the game in the first quarter, and Blatche never went back into the game. After the game, Saunders had this to say: "In my fifteen years [of coaching], I've never seen anything like it. I'm more disappointed in him that I've ever been with a player in my coaching career."

So you probably know how this whole thing played out last night. Saunders was so upset with Blatche that Blatche started last night's game and played 39 minutes. Wait, what? How is that possible? Even if Saunders deserves some blame for the whole incident, how does Blatche get off basically scot-free despite angering his coach to the point of making him go on a post-game tirade that made all the rounds in sports radio and the blogosphere? Did Ernie Grunfeld have the final say in this? There's just no way that Saunders got over Blatche's actions that quickly. For the record, this is what he said after the Bobcats game:

"I would doubt it," Saunders said when asked if Blatche would play against the Pacers. "Right now I don't know, but I would doubt it."

And then before the game, Saunders acted like the whole thing was behind him, which led to some curious comments:

"He's going to start," Saunders said. "As I told him, when he came out of the game, it was a situation that if he wanted to go back in the game he had to talk to me, accept coaching. We talked about the situation, he didn't want to talk during the game about it, so he didn't play. We talked. It's over with. You move forward."

When someone mentioned to Blatche before the game that he was going to start, Blatche said, "I wonder why."

He said he never worried about not playing. "I wasn't worried at all," Blatche said. "I didn't do nothing wrong, so I didn't have anything to worry about. It was a situation that occurred. It should die down within time. Most important thing right now is to try to get a win."

For Blatche to say with a straight face that he did nothing wrong is downright laughable. He showed up Saunders and his coaching staff by ignoring them for the rest of the Bobcats game, and then yesterday he even went on The Mike Wise Show on 106.7 The Fan to make it seem like he was the victim in this situation. To defend himself is one thing, but Blatche didn't just do that:

"[Saunders] said that in the meeting after the game. Coaches are never wrong. And that's the problem. That's the problem right there. I mean, as a man, everybody makes mistakes. But as a man, you have to learn how to apologize, and therefore he needs to apologize, because he was wrong, because I never said that."

Wow. Of course coaches make mistakes, but you don't say something like that on a radio show for everyone to hear. And it's probably best to not mention that at all, especially less than 24 hours after the whole thing.

So, again, I don't really know why Blatche played last night, though this whole thing will probably go away. Hopefully it doesn't resurface down the road, but with a player like Blatche who seems to always have a dark cloud following him, I wouldn't be all that surprised.

I'd be thrilled if Blatche grew up and realized just how good of a player he can be. The saddest part in this whole mess is that Blatche has been awesome since the departure of Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison. He's one of the few bright spots this team has, and fans want to side with him in most cases. But trying to throw Saunders under the bus is the wrong way to grow as a player. The last thing the Washington sports world needs is another prima donna athlete, especially a 23-year-old one on a team that just lost its 13th straight game.

Here are some other Blatche-related links to check out:

• "The Play That Got Andray Blatche Benched" -- Truth About It
• "Blatche benched again for behavior" -- DC Pro Sports Report
• "Flip Saunders and Andray Blatche: the video" -- D.C. Sports Bog
• "Seven Day Dray Travels Back In Time" -- Truth About It
• "What Andray Blatche's benching looked like" -- D.C. Sports Bog
• "Andray Blatche: Not good at handling failure, not good at handling success" -- Bullets Forever
• "Blatche Says Saunders Post Game Rant Is Not True" -- CSN Washington
• "Andray Blatche 'just didn't want to play'" -- Ball Don't Lie
• "The Other Side of Blatche's Coin" -- FanHouse
• "Wizards prove to be nothing but pushovers" -- Adrian Wojnarowski

Landesberg leaving Virginia

This isn't news about one of my favorite teams (far from it), but it does impact one of them (Maryland basketball). Apparently Virginia sophomore guard Sylven Landesberg is leaving the University of Virginia to "pursue a professional career":

"I have discussed Sylven's future with the Landesberg family and been informed that he will be leaving the University of Virginia to pursue his professional aspirations," [head coach Tony] Bennett said. "I am thankful for the significant contributions Sylven made to the Virginia basketball program and wish him success in his future endeavors."

Virginia (15-16, 5-11) wasn't a great team last year, but they did improve somewhat under Bennett in his first season as head coach. And Landesberg could have been an important part of that growth process going forward. According to the ACC's website, Landesberg was the fifth-highest scorer in the ACC this season with 17.8 points per game, and he was the highest scoring sophomore ahead of Al-Farouq Aminu (14.8 points).

Since the Terps are losing three seniors -- Greivis Vasquez, Eric Hayes, and Landon Milbourne -- not having to face Landesberg twice next season helps Maryland out a little bit.

Related links on Michigan St. vs. Maryland

I realize this is a few days late, but wow, what a way to lose. But maybe Mike Wise was right (link below) -- maybe that was the only way the Greivis Vasquez era at Maryland could end. I thought about dissecting the game, but really, I don't think there's a point. Michigan State played better for most of the game. They shot better and held a huge advantage on the boards. Many times, the Spartans were quicker to the ball and there's no question they were physically better than Maryland. In a way, you could say they deserved to win, but there's no such thing in sports. That run by Maryland at the end was amazing -- no one could say differently. Vasquez helped bring the Terps back at the end, but it just wasn't enough.

The Terps didn't make it to the Sweet 16, which is obviously disappointing. But by no means does it mean that this season wasn't a success. Maryland did just as much in the NCAA Tournament as Georgia Tech and Wake Forest (more counting the regular season) despite not having the same level of talent. That might seem like a moral victory, but instead of focusing on a few negatives about this team or their limitations as a whole, I'll focus on that collective effort with time running out that almost put the Terps in the Sweet 16. I'll remember the heroic victory over Duke in front of a raucous home crowd and that huge double overtime win over Virginia Tech that was delayed several hours because of a water main break. I'll remember the performances by Vasquez and the Terps in front of crowds at Florida State (yelling "Deport Vasquez!") and Virginia Tech (chanting "USA! USA!"). I'll also remember that hard-to-stomach home loss to William & Mary (because I was there) and watching Maryland transform into a much better team by the time I went to another game -- an 88-64 blowout win over N.C. State. And obviously it'll be difficult to forget Vasquez and Eric Hayes -- not to mention Landon Milbourne -- for how hard they played and how much they meant to this team.

Here are some links reflecting on the Terps' latest crushing loss and their overall season:

• "Maryland Terrapins go down with a fight against Michigan State" -- Mike Wise
• "Michigan State's last-second shot leaves Maryland's heralded senior trio at a loss" -- Steve Yanda
• "Thoughts on Greivis Vasquez and the Maryland's Seniors' Final Game, 24 Hours Later" -- Testudo Times
• "A dozen things I'll remember" -- Andy Katz
• "Maryland's season ends with 85-83 loss to Michigan State" -- Terrapins Insider
• "Eventually, I will learn not to bet against Tom Izzo in the NCAA Tournament" -- Ballin' is a Habit
• "Lucious Beats Buzzer, Maryland for Hobbled Michigan State" -- FanHouse
• "Remembering Greivis Vasquez" -- DC Landing Strip
• "Gary Williams gets choked up over Greivis" -- D.C. Sports Bog

Maryland beats Houston, moves on to second round

Fourth-seeded Maryland took down No. 13 Houston 89-77 last night with an impressive showing, particularly by Jordan Williams, who scored 21 points on 9-14 shooting and also grabbed 17 rebounds (nine more than anyone else). Other strong performances:

Greivis Vasquez: 16 points, seven rebounds, six assists (though only 5-13 from the field)
Eric Hayes: 11 points, six assists
Landon Milbourne: 19 points, seven rebounds (though only 6-15 from the field)

The bench -- Adrian Bowie, Cliff Tucker, and Dino Gregory -- chipped in 18 points in 49 combined minutes. Tucker also grabbed seven rebounds in just 10 minutes, but he did commit two pretty bad turnovers late in the second half. Bowie also did a pretty good job against Aubrey Coleman in the second half and seemed to do a better job staying in front of him -- not an easy task.

With the win, Maryland will face No. 5 Michigan State at 2:30 on Sunday.

I'm not going to do a more in-depth comparison of the teams like I did with Houston-Maryland, but quickly, here are how the two teams stack up in terms of season stats.

Team	PTS	REB	AST	FG%	3P%	FT%	TO	PPS
Maryland	79.6	38.9	16.4	47.2	37.9	72.6	11.8	1.28
Michigan State	72.5	39.1	16.7	47.1	33.5	68.2	13.9	1.28

Interesting matchup. Maryland is a little more efficient on offense -- better three-point shooting and free throw shooting -- but the field goal percentages are almost identical. Maryland plays a little more up-tempo than Michigan State, who likes to slow things down Big Ten-style. One odd thing is that Maryland plays a little faster but commits fewer turnovers, which may be something to pay attention to. The Terps do seemingly hold an edge -- but just a slight one.

Happy tournament day

May all your upsets take place (unless you have Maryland losing tomorrow) and all your picks be correct. Good luck and enjoy the games.

Oh, and one more thing: Get ready for some Gus Johnson!

More-balanced Maryland should be able to handle Houston

(Note: I realize that things here have been a little Terps-heavy lately, but really, what do you expect? It's almost tournament time. Baseball season is right around the corner (thankfully), but the Wizards have been awful lately and the Redskins haven't made a whole lot of headlines, other than signing Larry Johnson. Seriously though, how bad of a Redskins offseason would it be if their biggest free agent move is signing Johnson and their first-round pick is Jimmy Clausen? Count me among the fans who would rather the Redskins didn't draft Brady Quinn version 2.0. But back to the Terps.)

If you've heard anything at all about Maryland's opponent on Friday, the Houston Cougars, it's probably that they have the nation's leading scorer, Aubrey Coleman. Coleman (6'4, 200 pounds) averages 25.6 points per game on 42.5 percent shooting, though he isn't a particularly great three-point shooter (31.8 percent). He does get to the free throw line a lot -- nine times a game -- and he is a solid shooter from the line (74.5 percent). Coleman also averages 7.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2.3 turnovers, and 2.7 steals in nearly 37 minutes per game. As you would expect from the nation's leading scorer, Coleman scored 30 points or more nine times, and in the middle of the season he had a stretch of 11 straight games in which he scored at least 22 points.

But while Coleman is a fantastic talent (and someone you don't want to take a charge from at mid-court), it's not surprising to discover that he takes a lot of shots. He's taken nearly 700 shots and 20.5 field goal attempts per game, which both lead the nation. When Coleman has the ball, he is looking to attack and put up points -- not so much to set up his teammates.

It'll be interesting to see whether Greivis Vasquez guards Coleman or not. I'd like to think Sean Mosley would start the game out defending Coleman, but I'm sure that, at some point, Vasquez and Coleman will face off against each other. The two guards weigh about the same, but Vasquez (6'6) is a little taller and his length may be something that bothers Coleman for a brief period during the game.

Comparing Coleman is Vasquez is a little difficult because there's no arguing that Coleman is a scorer before anything else. Vasquez is more of a playmaker; he averages fewer points (19.5), rebounds (4.6), and steals (1.7), than Coleman, but he dishes out more assists (6.3) and, unfortunately, commits more turnovers (3.4). Vasquez is a little more efficient, though, shooting slightly better from the field (42.9 percent), better from three-point range (37.0 percent), and better from the free throw line (85.1 percent).

As for looking at the rest of Houston's team, they're similar to Maryland in that they use a rotation of eight-to-nine players. And you might have guessed from this post's title that they're a little top-heavy in terms of scoring. After Coleman, Kelvin Lewis averages 15.3 points per game in 36.5 minutes. His overall field goal percentage is pretty low (41.1 percent), but he shoots threes better than Coleman (39.8 percent), which makes him a decent sidekick. After Lewis, things drop off significantly (scoring wise): Maurice McNeil (8.3 points), Adam Brown (7.8), Desmond Wade (5.9), Zamal Nixon (5.8), Kendrick Washington (4.2), Sean Coleman (3.9), and Kirk Van Slyke (3.5).

The Terps usually share the scoring burden and shoot more efficiently from the field than Houston. After Vasquez, Maryland's leading scorers are Landon Milbourne (12.5 points), Eric Hayes (11.1), Sean Mosley (10.5), Jordan Williams (9.2), Cliff Tucker (5.8), Adrian Bowie (4.5), Dino Gregory (4.4), and James Padgett (3.0).

Houston plays an up-tempo game and is looking to shoot three-pointers whenever they're available. Maryland, on the other hand, is more concerned with getting quality shots -- even though that doesn't always happen -- and running Gary Williams's offense (the flex). Scouting reports on Houston basically say they have a wide open offense without many set plays, other than setting some screens. Maryland has had some trouble defending teams like this in the past (think the Memphis game in the NCAA Tournament last year), but no one on Houston is nearly as talented or as athletic as Tyreke Evans.

Maryland should have the advantage inside and on the glass, which isn't something they could say a whole lot this year going into any game. As long as Williams stays out of foul trouble, Maryland will likely feed him the ball early to get him going. And when Maryland gets some scoring in the post, their offense usually opens up and shooters frequently get open looks.

It's not shocking to look at both teams and come to the conclusion that Maryland (No. 4 seed) is better than Houston (No. 13 seed). But the Terps (cliche alert) still have to play their game and focus on trying to lock down Coleman and Lewis, or if they can't do that, then at least locking down the rest of Cougars. If Houston hits a ton of threes or Maryland (i.e., Vasquez) starts putting up shots at the same rate that Houston does, this game could come down to the wire. However, I expect Maryland to play disciplined basketball and represent the ACC well.