Good Guys Links - Orioles

It's been a couple days since I have posted anything about Baltmo's baseball team, not that you've missed anything or missed the Orioles period. Nonetheless, they are our baseball team and they do provide the placeholder in between Capitals and Ravens seasons...

"So they got that going for them...which is nice."

- The O's bullpen is looking to stay healthy this year. Having the starters last longer than 4 innings every start would help.

-Chris Gomez's roster status is "shaky" as spring training starts to wrap up. You could say Gomez's baseball talent is also "shaky"

- Former Oriole Curt Schilling called it a day. May you continue to rot in hell Glenn Davis.

- Happy news for Nick Markakis fantasy owners: he's looking to steal more bases this year. I also hope he keeps his awesome heavy metal hair all season.


- There will be no Rich Hill on opening day.

- O's blog The Wayward O previews the AL East.

- Another O's blog, Dempsey's Army, has some info on the Matt Wieters hype machine, including, apparently, Chuck Norris Facts.

- Peter Angelos says once the O's get into playoff contention, then they will start going after big name free agents. So the plan is, once we develop all this minor league talent we're trying to develop, then we can go out and get another Albert Belle to sink the franchise into another decade of 4th place finishes. Is it just me or is there a lot more optimism around the O's when Angelos doesn't talk?

Lazy links...

Here are some links to tide over the few, the proud, the Hangar 39 readership. I'll be back tonight with at least one new long-form post. Time will dictate if there is a second. If you can dig it...SUCKAAAAA!!!!

Lots of stuff from the Baltmo Sun today regarding the O's and Ravens.

-First up, is a story from Jeff Zrebiec on the O's left field situation with newcomers Felix Pie and Ryan Freel and holdover Luke Scott. I think O's manager Dave Trembley will be able to manage all these guys, giving Scott the bulk of the DH work while throwing him the occasional bone in left field. Freel will face left handed pitching and can play anywhere on the field except pitcher and catcher. You know management will want to see what Pie can do out there, so barring injury, he's going to get his chance. As a side note, how many headlines like this can we expect this year given the English pronunciation of Pie's (pronounced Pee-yay) surname?

-Zrebiec and the Schmucker have the story of another new face, pitcher Rich Hill. Hill, much like Pie, is another low-risk, high reward guy the O's got from the Cubs. He won a bunch of games for Chicago in 2007 before losing it last year. If he bounces back, he could give the O's a competent 3rd starter, something they haven't had since the halcyon days of Jimmy Key.

-Another one from the Schmucker about the optimism in O's camp this year.

-Jamison Hensley has the scoop about Ravens center Jason Brown, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent. Brown is looking to be paid like a guard (where he played in 2006 & 2007) while the Ravens want to pay him as a center. Oh boy. Personally, I wonder why Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome decided to use the franchise tag on Terrell Suggs and not Brown. I know he didn't want to risk Sizzle going onto the open market, but if you locked him up first and then franchised Brown, you would have to pay Brown a whole lot less than you're going to pay Sizz.
As a sidenote, I hope the Ravens are able to get Jason signed. He was the first Raven I ever interviewed for the Cape Gazette and I've always found him to be one of the nicest, quotable and most-accessible of Ravens along with Derrick Mason and Haloti Ngata.

-Recaps from last night's Caps game by Japer's and Tarik.

-Another one from the WaPo (Katie Carrera this time) about Nicklas Backstrom's unheralded play this year.

Non-sports links:

-Icon vs Icon has the details on this year's Crue Fest.

-Rejoice fellas, Megan Fox is back on the market. What the hell was she doing with Brian Austin Green anyway? (link found via The Big Lead & US Weekly)

-Music is causing teens to have sex. Really?We're breaking out this old hat again? Funny, when I was a kid I listened to Axl Rose sing about his serpentine and tell a woman to "Back Off Bitch," and yet I never had the urge to try any degrading sexual practices. Nobody I ever knew as a teenager ever had the urge to try them out after hearing Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg sing about "Deez Nutz." Maybe we were different? Or maybe kids today are just fucking stupid, did we ever think about that?

Finally, today's YouTube clip to swing your heavy metal hair to is "Taking The World By Storm" by Kataklysm...