Surprise! I know we said we wouldn't be back until next week, but we changed our minds, much like the Orioles changed their minds between Saturday and Sunday about whether Brian Matusz would be returning to the big leagues on Wednesday.
Though it's only been a few days, there's a lot to process in that time, including most importantly the Jason Hammel injury, which should end any discussion about whether the O's should be buyers at the trade deadline. They probably won't be sellers either, for reasons we get into in a little more detail in the show.
What else is going on? Andrew had an article published on ESPN (Insider) about how the Orioles are the worst baserunning team in baseball and we talk about that a bit. In fact, the Orioles are bad at just about everything that isn't hitting home runs and relief pitching. What hope is there of fixing that? Perhaps Nick Markakis batting leadoff can stabilize one thing, but with a rotation full of unknown quantities (and known bad ones, like Tommy Hunter), where can they possibly go?
The next series for the O's will be against the Minnesota Twins, so we dove in to try to look at what the Twinkies are doing this year. Their greatest problem is starting pitching, and they've shuffled the deck much like the O's have. Whose joker will trump the other will be the biggest question in the series. We also take a crack at some surprising Twins hitters, including Josh Willingham and Trevor Plouffe. Hold on to your butts for the series, is our conclusion.
Along the way, a little reminiscence about our shared experience at Jim Palmer statue night, a quick word on Andrew's favorite L.J. Hoes, and one really, really bad pun.
All this and more in this week's episode, which has a running time of one hour. An embedded player is below the jump for your listening convenience.
If you were subscribed to Camdencast on iTunes, you might have been able to listen to the podcast even before this post went up. You can also use another program of your choice and find us through the XML link.
Camdencast remains safe for work, provided that your boss doesn't mind you listening to podcasts instead of while doing work.
This time it really will be a week before we're back again. Feedback is always appreciated. Please let us know how we are doing and if we can fix anything to make a better listening experience. Take care in the meantime, and go O's!