You can imagine how much it pained me, as I'm sitting there watching another O's lifeless defeat, to see that the Red Sox came back to win the game, 7-6.
Then to learn how they did it was yet another dagger in a painful season.
Darnell McDonald, former 1st round pick of the Orioles in 1997, and one of many busts for the organization over the last 20 years (Beau Hale, Mike Paradis, Chris Smith, Richard Stahl, Mark Smith, and the list goes on and on ...), tied the game with a pinch-hit 2-run-HR in the bottom of the 8th and then won the game with a single off the Green Monster in the bottom of the 9th.
Now, I'm under no impression that this is a case of the O's giving up too soon on a guy. Far from it. They obviously made a mistake even drafting the guy. (This is his 6th club over the course of an almost non-existent career.)
But to see the also struggling Sox get an emotional walk-off win spurred not once, but twice, by another example of why the Orioles organization has been a disaster for oh-so-many-years is yet another indignity suffered. All while watching a passionless, emotionless, apathetic Orioles club meekly lose again.
We get Boston Red Sox cast-off Julio Lugo not running out ground balls.
They get game-saving heroics from Darnell McDonald.
And who thought things couldn't get worse?
Now pitching for the New York Yankees, Adam Loewen ...
Mark Smith was the worst pick of them all. There was basically no one on this planet who couldn't tell that Manny Ramirez, drafted 4 picks later, was going to be an absolute monster.
ReplyDeleteBut no, we wanted a college OF. Forget about the high school guys who were the cream of the crop talent-wise in that draft. Why go for a high-ceiling high school OF? I mean, you might get Ramirez (#13), or Cliff Floyd (#14), or Shawn Green (#15).
But no, we wanted the college boy from USC. The surfer-dude at #9 who gives us 7 HR in 3 part-seasons.
Thanks a lot, Ken, for bringing back such wonderful memories.
Darnell McDonald? At least he was taken at #26 overall. And believe it or not, it was the right pick, given the circumstances. The best player taken after him in the next 26 picks was Jack Cust. Only one other OF taken after him in the 1st round ever even made the majors. In fact, our other pick in that year's first round was also a good selection: Jayson Werth. But we never gave him a chance, nor did we ever think to try him somewhere other than at catcher.
I did notice that Jayson Werth was taken in that same draft.
ReplyDeleteWell, the good news is that Matusz and Wieters seem like the real deal, and Hobgood looks great so far. So perhaps 3 good years in a row? Billy Rowell seems like a bust.
Actually the greatest run was 1987-1990:
Harnisch, Olson, McDonald (Big Ben) and Mussina.
The real question is whether Joe Jordan is any good.
ReplyDeleteWieters and Matusz were no brainers. Any primate would have taken them at the spots we were drafting.
Hobgood is a bigger question. I wouldn't say he looks great so far. He's shown some promise at times, but other times he looks downright awful. I know he's young, but it's not like he's been overly dominant to this point, last night notwithstanding.
And the Rowell pick is one of our worst ever. I mean, given that the guy taken immediately after him has won 2 Cy Youngs already, and the Blue Jays current starting LF was taken about 5 picks after that, he's not only a bust, but a supernova.
I'm not convinced Jordan is all that great.