In anticipation of this week's opening series against the Baltimore Orioles, our own R.J. Anderson exchanged a series of questions with our colleague Scott Christ of Camden Chat, the SBN site dedicated to the O's. What follows is the resulting insight that Scott was able to give us on our AL East rivals.
1. Many have essentially written the Orioles off for this season, how
is the fanbase taking to the team's less than stellar outlook?
Most are taking it in stride, understanding that this has to be done
to properly rebuild this franchise, and I think we're accepting of the
fact that this is going to be a really awful team. But sportswriters
have gone nuts about saying, "Boy, it's gonna be a long season for
Orioles fans!" Not really -- it's been a long decade. This team at
least has some actual young talent and a farm system that's not
completely barren. To be honest, it could be worse. It has been worse.
2. Who's the one player on the Orioles who most fans don't know about,
but will make the biggest impact this season?
I don't know, I think everyone knows most of the O's that will have
any impact this year, but as far as a sleeper goes, I like Luke Scott
a lot. That was a great pickup in the Tejada trade. Playing every day,
he could hit 30 homers.
3. What's the general consensus on Andy MacPhail's job thus far? Has
Angelos changed any since MacPhail took over?
I like what Andy's done. I think a lot of the general O's public
doesn't quite get what's happening, really. Tejada had to be traded,
and they literally didn't get rid of him a day too soon. Bedard
returned a nice package of talent including one of the most promising
young players in baseball. The only stop-gap guy he went out and got
was Steve Trachsel, so we're not back to the same old song and dance
of wanting to move forward, yet doing it with new contracts for washed
up players.
Angelos will never change, but I think he greatly trusts Andy MacPhail
due to MacPhail's experience. He reportedly made a commitment to
largely stay out of Andy's way, and so far, he's done that.
4. Rays fans aren't too fond of Aubrey Huff for a number of his
comments and actions concerning the Rays - including owning us on the
field last year - during the off-season Huff trashed Baltimore and
admitted he'd rather masturbate and watch porn than study film. Are
the bad feelings still around, and is there any chance Huff remains an
Oriole through July?
The bad feelings are still around and aren't going anywhere. Maybe if
we were talking about something more than a 31-year old league average
hitter who's a butcher in the field at every position he takes, it'd
be different. Maybe then it'd seem comical. But he railed on the city
after a pretty lackluster first season in Baltimore, so it becomes a
situation where the fans wonder why we even have this guy. He's no
great help to the team on the field, so why is he even here? The
answer probably has a lot to do with the fact that good teams didn't
exactly knock down his door trying to sign him when he was a free
agent. Huff's a jackass, and will have to do something pretty special
to get any goodwill back with O's fans.
5. Camden Yards is one of the nicest parks around, so I'll end by
asking when will we see October baseball at Camden?
2011, at the earliest.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, by the way, since this interview was conducted completely and totally by R.J. I had absolutely nothing to do with it, aside from segregated the content from another post and giving it its own space.