Leading Off

If you were looking for a series of not-so-fun baseball, you found it in the Kansas City series. In three games all too reminiscent of the 2014 ALCS, the O’s watched three straight one-run games at Kauffman Stadium. I don’t care if they’re going to be in playoff contention, We hate watching the Orioles lose to this team. The fact that Jake’s son plays for the t-ball Royals does not help.

A rain out in Washington may have come at the best time. Otherwise this four-game losing streak may have stretched to five. Regardless, the MASN Cup stays in Birdland. And even if it’s not a real rivalry, that still feels nice.

The Medical Wing

The Medical Wing is at full capacity this week It’s absurd how many people are hurt, and how significant some of the injuries are.

Zach Britton – shut down 45-60 days with forearm discomfort
Gabriel Ynoa – hamstring
Welington Castillo – set to come off the DL on schedule

This Week on the Twitters

https://twitter.com/BarstoolRDT/status/862127674839502848

The rain is basically over in DC. Postponing is real dumb.

-The Meteorologist of Os Twitter

— Ranting Oriole Bird (@RantingOriole) May 11, 2017

#PiratesLife pic.twitter.com/9GXS5QB931

— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) May 13, 2017

https://twitter.com/steelbaru/status/863838135540690944

Want to go at Buck? No Britton in the WC game/managing by the save rule stand out. But there is no debating his ability to manage workloads.

— Matt Kremnitzer (@mattkremnitzer) May 10, 2017

Blame the Buck!

Embed from Getty Images

Some have said that Buck gets away with avoiding criticism far too often. In fact, they tweet it. Angrily.

And it’s possible there’s some truth to that. Buck Showalter, one of the driving factors in the Orioles’ return to relevancy, the man who set the culture, selected many of the players, and pushed the right buttons for five years of winning baseball (okay, not losing baseball) gets a pass fairly often.

But before we beat him up, we make a point of noting that Buck Showalter is all those things. And while not infallible, his team is winning, just as it’s done before. That having been said, here are all the things that we can find to play Blame the Buck!

25-man roster construction
failing to utilize the bench
mishandling the starters
not pushing the right buttons in the bullpen
potpourri

Deep Cuts

Scott has replaced our old Fantasy Boss segment with something he can hope to win. After having had his doors blown off in successive seasons, he unveiled Deep Cuts, a segment that pits Jake’s love of old, obscure music against Scott’s desire to talk stats.

The concept is simple. Scott presents a deep cut each week (usually something from the 60s to the 80s), and if Jake can’t name the artist and song, then Scott’s stat talk goes on as planned.

It’s a brutal game. C# Major vs. Barrels.

Who will own it?

Blowing the Save

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Most podcasts try to end on a high note – the perfect coda to a quality program. That’s just not our style. Each week, we’ll end on a weak note, blowing the save with an item that didn’t quite fit into the episode, or something they simply need to get off their chests. It’s our version of taking the ball and pulling a Kevin Gregg.