If that's a pulled groin muscle, you're looking at a month off. Stowers and Cowser are both on the IL. Westie has been playing some LF, and pounding the snot out of the ball. There's a space on the 40 man. Why the hell not?

Bring him up. He will probably hit better than Gunnar.

I'm not sure what happens next.....but here are a few observationsfrom the last few games.

It didn't hit me until today that the O's suck against left handed pitchers. I didn't research this or anything....just a gut feeling. Texas threw a lot of left handed pitchers agaist the O's and for the most part shut them down. Today a lefty completely dominated them. I guess I need to go back and look at some stats to see how they have done againt lefties this year.

At a time when it looks like the fans might be returning to the stadium as evidenced by the last three games it would seem like that would be a plus in terms of uplifting the O's game. Instead they lost two of three and were really lucky to win the one game they didi win. O's fans are fickle. Well have to see how attendance plays out over the next few weeks.

The O's need to tale a hard look at some guys and find a solution. Mateo, after a hot start to the season but has apparently reverted to the all field light hitting guy from previous years. I thought he had gotten away from the wild swings at balls down and away but apparently thats not the case.. Gunnar has been reduce to only playing against right handed pitching...and he still is not hitting well....his only contributions of late are his ability to take a walk. Montcastle will have a great game and then follow up with several so so games. His play at first base is average at best. Givens in my opinion has little value to the team and I am beginning to think Perez's performance last year was an abberation.

Gunnar has to be mentally stressing at this time and I fear the longer it goes on the more damage it might do to his psyche. Why not send him down to find his confidence and bring Ortiz up. He is almost as good if not better fielder as Mateo and I think he is a better hitter as well. Put Ortiz as short and use Mateo as a late inning baserunner.


Anyway...thats where i am at right now. Maybe things will turn around for some of these guys.....and I hope its sooner rather than later.

No argument on any of those points. It comes down to how badly they really want to win this year, and get out of rebuilding.

I think I shorted McKenna, who's actually hitting something like .275 this year, and Vavra who always seems to make contact. Both can play the outfield. Both are on the 40 man roster.