Baltimore Orioles

I'm sorry O's fans: it's the truth.

The Orioles might have made some good additions such as Kevin Millwood to lead the young pitching staff and Mike Gonzalez to close out games, but neither has paid out yet.

Gonzalez blew his first two saves but is now on the disabled list after having trouble with his shoulder. Millwood hasn't even picked up a win yet, due to the bullpen and weak offense.

Baltimore is also home to some talent in Matt Wieters, Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada, and Nick Markakis. 

New York appeared ready to defeat the Orioles Tuesday night, heading into the top of the seventh inning with a 2-1 lead. However, with two outs, five straight Baltimore hitters reached base, and the Orioles scored three runs en route to a 5-4 win over New York Tuesday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Fresh off the Orioles third win of the year, a heart-pounding, nearly coma-inducing 8-7 win over the Bo Sox, I present the second edition of "Who's Hot and Who's Not" for 2010.

Several players from last week's list came back down to earth a bit, including Justin Dalles and Zach Britton, but they're far from being on the "Not" list.

So without further ado...let's check out who's hot...

...but not like that...

Begin Slideshow

After a seemingly endless nine-game slide, the Orioles have added one more notch to the win column and currently sit at the bottom of the AL East standings with a record of 2-11.

The Oriole Way

Peter Angelos, the Baltimore Orioles owner, has no idea what that means. It is a term every baseball fan in Charm City is well aware of, and a methodology that Angelos has seemed bent on destroying since he bought the ball club in 1993.

The Oriole Way had been very successful before he bought the club. For over three decades, from the 1960's to the 1980's, the Orioles had the highest winning percentage in all of sports, and the winningest team in all of baseball. They won six American League Pennants and three World Series over that time.

As usual, the focus of the Orioles' troubles lies on the mound. After falling to the A’s in the series opener on Thursday, manager Dave Trembley expressed during his postgame interview with MASN that he needs stronger performances from his starting pitchers, especially in the first inning. These are more than valid arguments; however, the Orioles are not only struggling on the mound, but at the plate.

I want to start this piece by making it clear that I have been a loyal fan of the Baltimore Orioles for 40 years and hope to be a fan for another 40 years.

The baseball season isn't yet two weeks old, but there has been a flurry of activity already in bullpens across the country.

In the past three days, four closers have been either demoted or placed on the disabled list, prompting four new pitchers to become must-adds for fantasy baseball players everywhere.

The coveted saves category can make-or-break a fantasy baseball season and if you were paying attention this week, you just might have begun your rise to the top of the fantasy baseball mountain.

Here's the situation as it stands now for four teams:

No doubt, it's been a rough week for the Baltimore Orioles. The roughest.

Blown saves, surrendering four leads after the 8th inning, struggling with men in scoring position. It's been downright ugly.

Luckily, things have been far more optimistic down on the farm, where the O's have had several sensational starts from their standout prospects.

If there is any consolation from the tough start for the 2010 Baltimore Orioles, it might simply be that they at least can’t match the start of the 1988 Birds.

Of course, that squad set a Major League Baseball record for futility by dropping its first 21 games on its way to a miserable 54-107 record.

The 2010 Orioles already have one victory, but following their three-game home sweep at the hands of the only team in the division predicted to be worse than the O’s, things are not looking bright in Baltimore.