Dont forget 105.7 post game call-in show

[jabba2]

Every weeknite at 10 PM until midnight. The Steve Melewski post game show. It should be a doozy tonite with Arrieta giving up 9 earned. If you cant have fun watching the game then maybe a fans take will cheer you up like it does for me.

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/station/1057-the-fan/

[dandrews]

I can't take listening to how stupid people are when they call in.

[jabba2]

I find Melewski has alot of good discussion and is objective. He also talks alot about the minor leagues. Im curious how he now feels about Arrieta's spot in the rotation.

[AntiMoon]

Melewski objective?! Ha that's the funniest thing I've heard all year.

[boulderterp]

Melewski is annoying, it's nothing but a ***** and whine show. Get nothing from it. Rather listen to Johnson and Marr.

[funkateer]

I find Melewski has alot of good discussion and is objective. He also talks alot about the minor leagues. Im curious how he now feels about Arrieta's spot in the rotation.

He's objective, and balanced....when they were playing fantastically in April and part of May, he didn't act like the team is inevitably going to the postseason or something, and more recently, when they began showing more flaws and losing a lot more games, he didn't say the team is "trash" and "a joke" (or that specific players are "a joke").....it's a more adult, less knee-jerk, juvenile way of looking at the team than you often get on this particular board.

He realizes that individual players—ones who haven't been in the big leagues all that long—are going to have their ups and downs as they figure it all out (hello, Jake Arrietta, Brian Matusz, etc).....he'd correctly note that anyone ready to throw these guys on the trash heap permanently and totally give up on them after the greatness they've shown multiple times, is quite clueless when it comes to evaluating professional baseball players. No GM or skipper in MLB would do this...it's not like pitchers with JA's skill set/velocity/youthful age are growing on trees.

[AntiMoon]

Melewski is annoying, it's nothing but a ***** and whine show. Get nothing from it. Rather listen to Johnson and Marr.

Marr? Lol, you mean Davis. BTW, how is Kitty Gerling still alive?

[dandrews]

He's objective, and balanced....when they were playing fantastically in April and part of May, he didn't act like the team is inevitably going to the postseason or something, and more recently, when they began showing more flaws and losing a lot more games, he didn't say the team is "trash" and "a joke" (or that specific players are "a joke").....it's a more adult, less knee-jerk, juvenile way of looking at the team than you often get on this particular board.

He realizes that individual players—ones who haven't been in the big leagues all that long—are going to have their ups and downs as they figure it all out (hello, Jake Arrietta, Brian Matusz, etc).....he'd correctly note that anyone ready to throw these guys on the trash heap permanently and totally give up on them after the greatness they've shown multiple times, is quite clueless when it comes to evaluating professional baseball players. No GM or skipper in MLB would do this...it's not like pitchers with JA's skill set/velocity/youthful age are growing on trees.

I don't get 105.7 where I live, so I've never listened to Melewski, but if this is how he is I might have to start. It's hard to find radio that doesn't have constant knee jerk reaction (both positive and negative).

[jabba2]

Right now talking with a caller about Orioles history of developing pitchers. Its aperspective that you wont find on MASN.

[Slidemaster]

Right now talking with a caller about Orioles history of developing pitchers. Its aperspective that you wont find on MASN.

Developing pitchers?

What's that? Certainly not something the Orioles do.

[Slidemaster]

He's objective, and balanced....when they were playing fantastically in April and part of May, he didn't act like the team is inevitably going to the postseason or something, and more recently, when they began showing more flaws and losing a lot more games, he didn't say the team is "trash" and "a joke" (or that specific players are "a joke").....it's a more adult, less knee-jerk, juvenile way of looking at the team than you often get on this particular board.

He realizes that individual players—ones who haven't been in the big leagues all that long—are going to have their ups and downs as they figure it all out (hello, Jake Arrietta, Brian Matusz, etc).....he'd correctly note that anyone ready to throw these guys on the trash heap permanently and totally give up on them after the greatness they've shown multiple times, is quite clueless when it comes to evaluating professional baseball players. No GM or skipper in MLB would do this...it's not like pitchers with JA's skill set/velocity/youthful age are growing on trees.

Having a couple of good starts isn't greatness. It's expected of even mediocre pitchers from time to time.

Neither Matusz or Arrieta have ever shown anything remotely close to greatness.

[Jabez]

Melewski will defend the local club putting the Wharehouse spin on all aspects. In the truest sense of the word, he is the supreme APOLOGIST. The best and most candid sports talk show host on 105.7 or any station in this town is by far, Terry Ford. His nighttime revelations are worth listening to. No sugar-coating, just direct and right on the mark.

[funkateer]

Having a couple of good starts isn't greatness. It's expected of even mediocre pitchers from time to time.

I certainly agree with you that "a couple" of "good starts" ≠ "greatness".

That said, it's a good thing that both JA and BM have had much more than "a couple" of "good starts" over their short big league careers thus far....both, in fact, have had a good deal of GREAT starts. It is these GREAT starts that leads me and others to consider both of these pitchers as potentially very good to even possibly great pitchers one day.

Now, it could just be that you just define things differently than most baseball fans would; it could be that you consider that if a pitcher starts a game and pitches a 2-hit SHUTOUT over 7 innings, that this start pretty much just deserves to be called "good." That was Jake Arrieta on Opening Day, actually, and most knowledgeable ppl would consider such a start to be "great" (not great as in "the best ever....pitching of Roger Clemens or Nolan Ryan-like Greatness....but great as in "a performance that doesn't occur every day....better than just 'good''"). Both Jake Arrieta and Brian Matusz have, repeatedly, pitched games of this caliber, or darn close to it. Both have pitched gems in their short time in the big leagues. But they both also have a problem. And their problem isn't that they they can't seem to do it often enough (although that is true, too); it's that it seems that when they aren't pitching at this high level, they are pitching at an unacceptably bad level. Of course no pitcher, even a professional one, is great every time on the mound, and everyone has those days when they don't have their A game, but it actually got to where Matusz never had his A game anymore, and had to go to the minors for a longer-than-usual stint to find it again (mostly, it seems he has, with like four or 5 really good-to-great performances in a row). Now, it would appear, Arrieta is boarding that same bus himself, and is headed to the minors to fhopefully ix this problem without having to hurt the team in the process. He needs to become more consistent, more reliable. I think he can, and will. But even if he can't....you can't tell me that his best starts were no more than "good"...something any mediocre pitcher is expected to do, as you wrote.

Look, I'll agree with you all day long that when both these guys have been bad, they have been truly ABOMINABLE. And it's incredibly frustrating to watch. I think you aren't, however, giving credit to either of them for the times they've been truly GREAT. You underrate their better performances, and I think you lack perspective in this way, judging Orioles players with harsher standards than you probably do other young pitchers on other ball clubs. Your prerogative; just don't be surprised when other people point it out to you that your judgement seems flawed in this way, and that you have this blind spot when it comes to the O's. I think most baseball observers who have even just a basic grasp of the game would consider these some great pitching starts:

IP H R ER BB K
5.0 3 1 1 3 4

7.0 3 0 0 2 8

6.0 2 1 1 2 9

That's just three (the final three) games Matusz pitched in 2010; he was close to unhittable during much of the end of this season. I reject the notion that "mediocre" pitchers can pitch games like this, one after another, or even that they are expected to do it. If the guy was so mediocre, it would not have been at all surprising, or awful, that he completely reversed course last year and had the godawful year he had...it was the contrast with the promise of 2010 which made it so particularly bad. As far as 2012 goes, yeah his most recent game sucked, but again, that's in stark contrast to the two two-hitters he threw in late May and early June this year, which were total gems, ie, GREAT STARTS!

Neither Matusz or Arrieta have ever shown anything remotely close to greatness.

Riiiight. (psst: only by YOUR yardstick)

[johnpolitics]

Steve treats Angelos the way Monica treated Bill except he swallows.

[Slidemaster]

Arrieta and Matusz have both pitched great games but they've never been an example of greatness. Maybe it's just a matter of semantics, but nobody will look back on these years of 4.5+ ERAs and consider them great. Lincecum's first 5 seasons were greatness. Santana's time in Minnesota was greatness. Hell even amazing single seasons could be considered a flash of greatness. A couple of great starts in a row is nothing. Virtually every established starter in MLB has had a stretch like that. They aren't all great.

Matusz and Arrieta have never displayed anything close to even sustained competence, let alone being above average or great for any appreciable stretch at a time. Rather than my definition being too harsh, I would argue that yours is far, far too lenient.

[can you hear me now!]

I certainly agree with you that "a couple" of "good starts" ≠ "greatness".

That said, it's a good thing that both JA and BM have had much more than "a couple" of "good starts" over their short big league careers thus far....both, in fact, have had a good deal of GREAT starts. It is these GREAT starts that leads me and others to consider both of these pitchers as potentially very good to even possibly great pitchers one day.

Now, it could just be that you just define things differently than most baseball fans would; it could be that you consider that if a pitcher starts a game and pitches a 2-hit SHUTOUT over 7 innings, that this start pretty much just deserves to be called "good." That was Jake Arrieta on Opening Day, actually, and most knowledgeable ppl would consider such a start to be "great" (not great as in "the best ever....pitching of Roger Clemens or Nolan Ryan-like Greatness....but great as in "a performance that doesn't occur every day....better than just 'good''"). Both Jake Arrieta and Brian Matusz have, repeatedly, pitched games of this caliber, or darn close to it. Both have pitched gems in their short time in the big leagues. But they both also have a problem. And their problem isn't that they they can't seem to do it often enough (although that is true, too); it's that it seems that when they aren't pitching at this high level, they are pitching at an unacceptably bad level. Of course no pitcher, even a professional one, is great every time on the mound, and everyone has those days when they don't have their A game, but it actually got to where Matusz never had his A game anymore, and had to go to the minors for a longer-than-usual stint to find it again (mostly, it seems he has, with like four or 5 really good-to-great performances in a row). Now, it would appear, Arrieta is boarding that same bus himself, and is headed to the minors to fhopefully ix this problem without having to hurt the team in the process. He needs to become more consistent, more reliable. I think he can, and will. But even if he can't....you can't tell me that his best starts were no more than "good"...something any mediocre pitcher is expected to do, as you wrote.

Look, I'll agree with you all day long that when both these guys have been bad, they have been truly ABOMINABLE. And it's incredibly frustrating to watch. I think you aren't, however, giving credit to either of them for the times they've been truly GREAT. You underrate their better performances, and I think you lack perspective in this way, judging Orioles players with harsher standards than you probably do other young pitchers on other ball clubs. Your prerogative; just don't be surprised when other people point it out to you that your judgement seems flawed in this way, and that you have this blind spot when it comes to the O's. I think most baseball observers who have even just a basic grasp of the game would consider these some great pitching starts:

IP H R ER BB K
5.0 3 1 1 3 4

7.0 3 0 0 2 8

6.0 2 1 1 2 9

That's just three (the final three) games Matusz pitched in 2010; he was close to unhittable during much of the end of this season. I reject the notion that "mediocre" pitchers can pitch games like this, one after another, or even that they are expected to do it. If the guy was so mediocre, it would not have been at all surprising, or awful, that he completely reversed course last year and had the godawful year he had...it was the contrast with the promise of 2010 which made it so particularly bad. As far as 2012 goes, yeah his most recent game sucked, but again, that's in stark contrast to the two two-hitters he threw in late May and early June this year, which were total gems, ie, GREAT STARTS!



Riiiight. (psst: only by YOUR yardstick)

so a pitcher with a career record of 18 and 22 with an ERA 5.24 in 53 starts meets your standards for what? for every great game there are 2 or 3 bad games...inconsistency abounds

and another is 21 and 29 with an era of 5.39 in 65 starts meets your standards for what? again he has a great start with 2-3 bad ones for every great one...

in 118 combined starts neither has thrown a complete game and neither has pitched a shutout....

by most objective standards these two are not living up to their hype...some might even say the at their ages 25 and 26 they ought be be better than they are....these two scream mediocre at best....