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The Orioles are keeping Jose Contreras relevant.

Like, come on, you guys. Seriously.

But I'll let Sox fans worry about the 71-year old Contreras. I'm not all that concerned with him.

What does concern me is the turd brigade that the Orioles are running out there at shortstop. Not a single one of these guys is even good enough to be a major league utility player. In the last three games, Luis Hernandez, Eider Torres and Brandon Fahey have all been given starts.

None of them are really shortstops to begin with. Hernandez and Fahey do not have the arm for it. It's been very apparent. Fahey makes rainbow throws a lot of the time, and Hernandez's just have no zip and often come in really low. If Kevin Millar wasn't actually a pretty damn good first baseman, we'd have seen a lot more errors on throws from Hernandez. Having your arm compared to David Eckstein's is no praise.

I'm not telling anyone anything they don't already know, and I'm aware of that. But this is a serious issue. Even on a rebuilding club, even when you're talking stopgaps, these guys are completely unqualified for major league jobs. I'm sure they're all super dudes and work their asses off and are doing the best they can. But that's part of the problem. They aren't any good.

And please don't ask me or anyone else to wait on judging Eider Torres. He's 25 and wasn't even a footnote anywhere in this year's Baseball Prospectus. His career minor league line is .280/.325/.350. He's not a major league player. We said the same thing about Hernandez, and everyone said, "Oh but wait, oh but wait." Are you done waiting? He's terrible. When a guy hits as weakly as Hernandez or Torres (who is a better hitter than Hernandez, to be fair) in the minor leagues, they cannot contribute to a major league team in any real way.

You get 25 roster spots on a club. Three of them are being wasted on Hernandez, Fahey and Torres. It's bad math.

If you're going to ask me if I think Alex Cintron is better than these guys, then I'll answer: Yes. He's not any good, and certainly isn't a viable starting shortstop, but yes, he's a lot better than these guys. He IS a stopgap player, and not a good one. A lot of this is why I thought we should try to sign Adam Everett, who is a legit Gold Glove shortstop even though he can't hit. If we're going to have a guy who can't hit, let's get a guy who can pick it. That's been done before.

Of course, Everett's on the DL right now, but I still believe he would've been an effective one-year signing. Then you see where you're at after 2008, and maybe you give him another year, or whatever.

But let's move past that, too. The shortstop situation is a black hole of suck, and that's not going to change any time soon.

What killed us today, really, was LET'S GET GREG AQUINO OFF OF THIS TEAM FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. HE'S HORRIBLE. HIS ERA IS 14.21. I'D RATHER SEE FAHEY COME IN TO PITCH. HE'S JIM BROWER, THE DOMINICAN VERSION.

Also, the 5-through-9 hitters went 0-for-19 with one walk. You can't win like that.

We remain in first place. Thanks, Rays.

TV: MAS2, CSN  /  RADIO: WHFS 105.7, WSCR 670 (CHI), XM 181

	VS.
Jeremy Guthrie, RHP		Jose Contreras, RHP

GAMEDAY LINK (MLB)       ACCUSCORE LINK (ESPN)       BOXSCORE LINK (YAHOO!)

I'll let SC or duck pretty this one up, but it's 1pm, and in case they're not around....

It's your FIRST PLACE (by percentage points) Baltimore Orioles against the FIRST PLACE White Sox. Who knew?

St. Guts will take on José Contreras, who owned us last time out, but whom we have generally spanked over his career (5.10 ERA vs the Birds). Guts has not fared well himself against the WS, but when he faced them a couple weeks ago, he threw a QS, and the O's won it in the 10th. 

Let's see how few runs we can score for Jeremy today. Gametime is 2:05pm EDT.

In other news, the Redskins drafted 5 more wide receivers today and also signed Michael Irvin out of retirement. 

(UPDATE from duck @ 1:19)  I will post lineups when available. Here's some notes from MLB.com's Press Pass for the Orioles :

STAY UP LATE: 11 of the Orioles’ games this season, including three of their last four, have been decided in the 7th inning or later…The Birds are 7-4 in those contests.
ONE-RUN GAMES: The Orioles lost, 5-6, in Game 2 last night but are 7-2 in one-run games in 2008 after going 13-31 in such games last season.
COMEBACK KIDS: The Orioles overcame an 0-5 deficit to win, 8-7, on Thursday night and have rallied from a deficit to win in nine of their 14 victories this season…The Birds won games on back-to-back nights vs. Seattle last week on a solo home runs in the 8th inning – by Nick Markakis on Wednesday and Brian Roberts on Thursday.
SUPER SIX: Baltimore scored runs in the 6th inning of both games of the DH yesterday…The Birds have outscored opponents, 25-7 in the 6th inning this season, their most runs in any inning in’08...They have scored 14 runs in the 8th inning, their 2nd-highest total.
MAKING THINGS HAPPEN: OF Nick Markakis has reached base safely in 22 of 23 games this season, including each of the last 20.

If you've never seen the Press Pass notes from MLB, do yourself a favor and check them out. They're usually posted a few hours before each game, and it's the same material the clubs distribute to the journalists covering the game.