Small Sample Hero? Control Freak? Flamethower? Sounds like a comic book convention gone horribly wrong…

Phillies at Reds, 9:35 a.m. PT — Fire up a pot of coffee and sidle on up to the Internet (really, I’d like to see that). Cole Hamels and Bronson Arroyo square off in Monday’s first game. Plus you get a chance to watch Jeff “Offensive Beast” Keppinger in action. Honestly, I always thought that guy could be useful if given the chance, but .435/.480/.826 through the first week? Man, I love small samples. They’ll show you just about anything you want to see.
Mariners …read more

The Chicago White Sox have signed right-hander Octavio Dotel to a 2-year, $11 million deal. On the heels of their November signing of Scott Linebrink, the White Sox appear to have adopted the same strategy that worked so well for the Orioles last winter.
Like Linebrink, Dotel was a dominant reliever several years ago. Now he’s mostly just hurt. Here’s what Dotel has done recently:

Octavio Dotel, 2005 – 2007

IP
ERA
H/9
BB/9
SO/9
HR/9

Statistics are courtesy of David Pinto’s Day by Day Database.

56
5.14
9.16
5.46
10.29
1.29

You’ll notice in the caption that this is Dotel’s record for the past 3 years. Last season he worked 30 2/3 innings, which was …read more

   Photo by ▌ÇP▐   some rights reserved
So I take the wife out shopping today. She shops, I sit in the car and read Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2008, everyone’s happy.
On page 145 of the Annual, I come across an amusing anecdote about a gentleman named Clay Dalrymple:
One July day in Baltimore in 1969, the umpires were faced with a problem. Clay Dalrymple was to catch for Baltimore that evening, but he emerged from the dugout with both a catcher’s mitt (on his hand) and a fielder’s glove (in his back pocket).
“I asked him about it,” reported home plate umpire John Rice. “And …read more

You are wondering which games to watch on Wednesday. Not a problem, I’ve got your back:
American League

Orioles at Yankees, 10:05 a.m. PT — Intriguing pitching matchup here between Erik Bedard and Philip Hughes. Over at Mr. Irrelevant, Jamie Mottram ponders Bedard’s chances of reaching 300 strikeouts this season. Meanwhile, Carlos Gomez at Hardball Times (full disclosure: I am a contributor to THT) analyzes Hughes’ delivery and compares it to that of fellow pinstripe prospect Joba Chamberlain.
Tigers at Indians, 4:05 p.m. PT — The Tigers prevailed in round one of the AL Central showdown. Wednesday sees Fausto Carmona and his improving …read more

What are we watching? Whatever FOX wants us to watch, of course.
Unfortunately, two of the three games they’re offering on Saturday (12:30 p.m. PT) are complete dogs. Dodgers at Cardinals? Eh, mild playoff implications there. Pirates at Giants. Ooh, the battle for — what’s the opposite of supremacy? — in the NL Central and West, respectively. With luck, you’ll get the Red Sox at Orioles. This still isn’t the best game on tap (that would be Dan Haren and the A’s at Detroit, which counters with Justin Verlander), but at least Josh Beckett is pitching.
My recommendation? The Tigers …read more

Another day, another slate of games…
American League

Devil Rays at Tigers, 10:05 a.m. PT — Yeah, the Rays are a crap team going nowhere fast, but they have some terrific young talent, and Scott Kazmir vs Jeremy Bonderman is a fun pitching matchup.

National League

Braves at Mets, 9:10 a.m. PT — As was the case on Wednesday when these two teams hooked up at Shea, we have a game with potential playoff implications and a great matchup. Tim Hudson is pitching better than he has at any point since 2003, the last time he garnered any support for the Cy Young Award, …read more

Somehow I got out of the habit of doing these. With the pennant races heating up, I reckon it’s time to bust out the previews again:
American League

Mariners at Orioles, 4:05 p.m. PT — How are the Mariners doing it? Ichiro Suzuki, Adrian Beltre, and Jose Guillen all are having decent (not great) seasons on offense. The starting pitching has been okay. The relief pitching has been pretty darned good. They score about as many runs as they give up, and yet, they’re a game out of the AL wild card. Felix Hernandez starts tonight, which is always a good reason …read more

I couldn’t find any good videos for your viewing pleasure this week, so here are a couple photos I snapped during Wednesday night’s Padres-Orioles game at Petco Park in San Diego. The O’s should do whatever they can to keep Nick Markakis in Baltimore as long as possible. Dude has serious game.

Something is rotten in the state of Maryland. The ballclub from Baltimore is in full free fall, and manager Sam Perlozzo has been let go. As everyone knows, when your superiors make poor decisions, you will be the one to suffer for it. Perlozzo ultimately couldn’t rise above his organization’s ineptitude, and now he is looking for work again.
The Orioles, meanwhile, are talking to former Florida Marlins manager Joe Girardi about the vacant position. Girardi, you may recall, led a team with a $15 million payroll to 78 wins last season. That’s a little less than Baltimore is paying Danys …read more

I have a hard time imagining that this is what Peter Angelos expected when he laid out serious cash to “fix” his team’s beleaguered bullpen. I wondered at the time what Angelos was thinking, and with news that the Orioles have placed right-hander Danys Baez on the disabled list due to a “forearm strain,” Baltimore’s woes have reached a new low. Here’s how their three big free-agent signings from this past winter (Baez, Chad Bradford, and Jamie Walker) have fared to date:

Baltimore “Big Three” Relievers

 
$M
IP
ERA
H/9
HR/9
BB/9
K/9

Stats are through games of June 17, 2007, and are courtesy of ESPN.

Walker
3.00
25.1
3.55
8.53
0.36
2.49
6.75

Bradford
3.00
26.1
3.76
11.28
0.00
2.05
5.47

Baez
4.00
29.0
6.52
8.38
1.86
4.97
5.28

Total
10.00
80.2
4.69
9.37
0.78
3.24
5.80

AL average
–
–
4.23
8.60
0.84
4.10
7.10

According to Cot’s …read more