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Here's a quick look at our upcoming foes, the division rival Toronto Blue Jays.

Bluebird Banter is the SBN Jays blog, and they do fine work, including their most recent headline as of this writing: "Burres Gets Hit So Hard It Knocks Him Back to the Minors, Jays Lose"

Friday, May 1, 7:07 PM

Mark Hendrickson (1-3, 5.40/1.96) v. Roy Halladay (4-1, 3.75/1.08)

Hey, let's book a bigger mismatch...

Halladay dominates the O's for his career. In 28 games (24 starts), he's 18-4 with a 2.86 ERA and 1.16 WHIP. Melvin Mora has done well against Doc, though, hitting .323/.338/.468 with two homers in 62 at-bats. Brian Roberts is hitting an empty .321 (17-for-53). Ty Wigginton slugs .611 in 18 at-bats.

The only current Jay with any real experience and success against Hendrickson is Alex Rios (.333/.394/.533). Vernon Wells (5-for-28) and Aaron Hill (2-for-19) have struggled badly against the tall lefty.

Saturday, May 2, 1:07 PM

Brad Bergesen (1-0, 5.59/1.76) v. David Purcey (0-2, 7.01/1.79)

Bergesen has never faced the Jays, of course. Purcey was hit hard by the O's once last year (5 IP, 11 H, 6 ER).

Sunday, May 3, 1:07 PM

Jeremy Guthrie (2-1, 5.20/1.63) v. Scott Richmond (3-0, 2.79/1.20)

It's no stretch to say that if the O's are going to stay watchable, Guthrie needs to play better. He's quite good in seven career starts against Toronto: 3.09 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, the 1-2 record is not his fault. Lyle Overbay (1.080 OPS) and Vernon Wells (1.389) have his number.

Richmond also faced the O's once last year, but fared far better than did Purcey: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R allowed.

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The good news? Boston is really struggling. The bad news? We go into this series off of a 19-6 loss in Arlington, though we do get a day off.

Friday, 7:10 PM: Jeremy Guthrie v. Brad Penny

Brad Penny has thrown almost 1500 innings in the majors but has never faced the Orioles. Guthrie was 1-2 (4.13/1.67) in four starts against Boston last year, and is 0-1 (3.93/1.64) in three career starts at Fenway.

A couple Orioles have beaten Penny up over their careers. Ty Wigginton is 7-for-18 (.389/.450/.611) with a homer, and Ryan Freel has hit 8-for-19 (.421/.522/.632) with two doubles and four RBIs. So if Freel starts tomorrow, you know why.

Others haven't done so well: Aubrey Huff is 0-for-7, ZAUN is 0-for-3, and Cesar Izturis is 1-for-8. Might be a day to stick Freel at short. Luke Scott is 2-for-3 against Penny.

Guthrie actually has pretty good numbers against most of the Red Sox, but David Ortiz has pounded him a bit (5-for-15 with four doubles and a homer).

Saturday, 7:10 PM: Adam Eaton v. Josh Beckett

Eaton has never faced Boston, but he has faced Josh Beckett plenty of times. Get this: Beckett is 4-for-8 with three doubles against Eaton. I say the Red Sox forfeit the DH and let Josh hit. Ortiz will need a day off.

Last year the O's put the wood to Beckett pretty well, hitting .311 off of him in three games and tacking a 5.60 ERA and 1.64 WHIP onto his total line. He also struck out a batter per inning (18 in 17.2 IP). He's 4-2 (3.73/1.14) in nine career starts against the Birds.

Three O's have some really big numbers against Beckett: Wigginton (8-for-22, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 1.300 OPS), Brian Roberts (8-for-26, four doubles, HR, 4 RBI, 4-for-4 SB) and Luke Scott (5-for-8, HR, 3 RBI, 1.700 OPS).

Beckett was suspended for six games for a pitch that nearly hit Bobby Abreu in the head, but he's appealing, so he'll pitch. (Dig the Sox and Angels fans having a spat!)

Sunday, 1:35 PM: Koji Uehara v. Jon Lester

This one could be rough. Koji was decent in his debut against the Yankees, but the Rangers really beat him up pretty hard in Arlington. Here he'll be facing a lineup that can mash in his first trip to Fenway Park, and he'll be facing a guy that is on his way to becoming the Boston version of Andy Pettitte. Lester is 6-0 in eight starts against the Orioles career (2.81/1.40). Last year he was 3-0 in five starts (2.70/1.33).

Monday, 11:05 AM: TBD

With Alfredo Simon out, who knows who this will be for the O's? Daisuke Matsuzaka is on the DL with "mild arm fatigue." It'll probably be Justin Masterson, or maybe Tim Wakefield.

Hey, sue me, I'm really bored.

If this doesn't give you an idea of what we're looking at this weekend, nothing will. Waters-Richmond is a perfect end of the season, both teams done playing matchup.

I can't be the only one that hopes this is the last time we see Bass, can I? It speaks volumes of the state we're in where we take a bad Twins reliever and make him an Oriole starter.

I still hate you, John Parrish.

Yeah, that's right. Our awesome stat provider is giving me Jeremy Guthrie's batting numbers. And apparently in 5 at-bats, he has 170 hits, 57 walks and 119 strikeouts. It's truly amazing. Guts will be on an unspecified pitch count.

I was trying to imagine Litsch with a beard, since I think he needs to look less like a 13-year old. Maybe some Danny Trejo-style facial weathering would be better.

It's been a while. Where should we begin? Feels like forever.

Yeah that's some Creed, wanna fighdabouddit?

The 2008 rivalry between the Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles really started on February 8, 2008.

That was the day we traded Erik Bedard to the hopeful Mariners, who thought their 88-74 season in '07 was no fluke (it was), and that Bedard probably pushed them into serious contention (he didn't).

Let's compare the results of this trade. Bedard has gone 4-4 with a 4.26 ERA and 1.30 WHIP in 61 1/3 innings for the Mariners. He currently sits on the DL with "left shoulder stiffness." He is VORPin' a cool 11.0 this year.

And then there's Adam Jones. Happy 23rd birthday, big guy! Jones is hitting .274/.317/.403 -- not a world-beater yet, but he can clearly play. He's also a funny dude and is destined to be a long-time fan favorite. AdRock's VORP is 9.3.

George Sherrill is overrated as all hell by his 30 saves (4.23/1.46), but he had a great performance as the O's lone All-Star and has done a nice gap-filling job as the closer, a role for which he's just not particularly suited. That's not his fault; he's best maximized as a LOOGy who can not totally die against right-handed hitting, but he's done his job.

We won't even count the prospects we got back.

The Mariners came to town on April 4 for a four-game set. We swept them right the hell out of town, a series that included the amazing Luis Hernandez as Hero moment, his game-winning single that propelled the O's to a 3-2 win and popularized the phrase "This is Birdland." It was Luis Hernandez and that win that made "Birdland" go from laughable marketing gimmick to something bigger that we now love.

Later in the month, we went out to Seattle, lost the first game, and then won the next two, including a big comeback in game three sparked by a Jay Payton home run and -- if I may be so bold -- my own personal, undying optimism (which has since died).

But baseball moves fast. Luis Hernandez isn't with us anymore, nor is the outstanding honorary Oriole in the Mariners bullpen, Eric O'Flaherty.

But all great rivalries must begin anew, really, year-by-year. Players come and go -- it's the passion and joy that makes fierce competitions like Orioles-Mariners what they are.

The last time we saw Seattle, Lookout Landing user 'Happybelly' remarked, "Get the Orioles the f--k out of here."

Look out -- here we come again!

Photo © Charles Krupa / AP

In preparation for the season-opening series against the newly-renamed Tampa Bay Rays, myself and R.J. Anderson of DRays Bay and Beyond the Boxscore exchanged five questions apiece. Here's some scoop on the Rays.

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1. You know what it's like to go through a true youth movement. We've lost plenty over the last ten years, but do you have any advice on what it's like to deal with talented young players on the Major League level? Because that's not exactly an Oriole trademark lately.

The key is the term "talented", the 2002 Rays were young, but that youth included Toby Hall, Brent Abernathy, Jared Sandberg, and Jason Tyner. I would simply advise to not expect too much. B.J. Upton had a rough stint in 2006 that had most writing him off, meanwhile everyone expected Delmon Young to win rookie of the year last season, Upton not only had the better season, he didn’t run himself out of town with his mouth. I can’t help but look at Adam Jones nad have a feeling that he’s going to sneak up on a ton of teams this year, I know he’s not technically a rookie, but if you’re going to put high expectations on a youngster he’s the one.
 
2. Seriously -- how exciting is having Kazmir, Shields and Garza fronting the rotation?
 
Very. Troy Percival seems to think so too, he even had a t-shirt made comparing the trio to the eerily similar Braves’ trio from the early 90’s; Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Steve Avery.

3. There is a lot of talent in Tampa. How soon do you think the Rays can really become contenders in the AL East, given that most things break right with the players, and also assuming the Red Sox and Yankees keep on keepin' on?

Hopefully next year, but just because you’re a contender doesn’t mean you have a chance to win the division, as you guys know. In a way it’s easy to get down on the idea that even if everything goes our way – the rotation filling out and bubbling over to a dominant pen, the lineup being good like people think, ect. – it still might not be enough to win the division. Then you remember that Hank Steinbrenner won’t shut up and that this, after all, is baseball and you have to believe that before 2012 the Rays will have reached the playoffs. 
 
4. We all know the pitchers, Crawford and the finally-emerged Carlos Pena, but who's the most underrated Ray?

Akinori Iwamura. Some Rays fans have ran their mouths saying he’s an average player from being benched, frankly they don’t know what they’re talking about. His transition from third to second has been seemingly flawless, and while he’s not a huge power hitter, his approach to hitting is far better than people give him credit for. 
 
5. What's the general feeling on manager Joe Maddon? We never hear anything about this guy.

He’s polarizing, mainly because he’s quirky and he’s  managed the Rays to the worst record in each of his seasons at helm, but when we win – if we win perhaps – he’s going to be a blast. He’s a very intelligent guy, upon arrival an article was written about his fascination with Malcolm Gladwell’s great book Blink. He’s a fan of red wine, and to reference what I mean look up his quotes about "face", liking "we, not I", and about talking to Joe Girardi regarding the Elliot Johnson collision at the plate where he essentially takes a question and turns it into a conversation on what he likes including the line: "I like iTunes, I’ve downloaded some stuff off of there…"

This thread from last week sure was fun.  

So, since we're all typing away waiting for 7:05 to arrive, let's have a place to jabber at each other. About the Bosox, or just about ... life.

I'll go first. I hate the Red Sox because as much as the NYY have gained bandwagon fans in the past decade, the Sox have outsdone them. It's impossible to travel north of Connecticut without being overwhelmed by Massholes sporting Sox paraphernalia. Where were all these people before, say, 2000 or so?

Yes, I know, there was a Red Sox Nation, but it was much smaller (and I might add, politer and humbler) back then.

Oh, yeah, also, the incredibly nasty accents. They ah the wuhst.

Considuh this yaw puhseuhnal conveuhsation pit.