Ah, I Really Miss Jon Miller

Rate the Orioles' broadcasters from the following list: (I skipped the more rare appearances of several others (Viviano, Anderson, Murray) ...
Joe Angel
Fred Manfra
Gary Thorne
Jim Palmer
Mike Flanagan
Jim Hunter
Rick Dempsey
Amber Theoharis
Dave Johnson
Tom Davis

Here's my ranking of my favorite to least favorite:
1. Joe Angel (he's no Jon Miller, but he'll do - what a great era having Miller and Angel together in the late 80s)
2. Jim Palmer (the man flat out knows baseball and actually has a good on-air voice)
3. Thorne (makes some mistakes but has a fantastic play calling voice and a decent sense of humor)
4. Amber Theoharis (enjoy her while she's here - it won't be long til ESPN snatches her up ... smart and sharp on the sidelines, and she ain't hard to look at, either)

Here's where there's a serious drop in the rankings, as I don't care for any of the rest of the bunch ...

5. Jim Hunter (so-so at best)
6. Dave Johnson (bad on-air voice, but he actually makes some good points and is critical of the team when necessary)
7. Tom Davis (he's harmless, but wayyy too much of a homer to even take seriously)
8. Mike Flanagan (I literally cringe hearing his nasally, monotone drone on air. I also happen to think most of his points are obvious and cliche)
9. Rick Dempsey (he's also hard for me to listen to - what can I say? I just don't think he's a very smart man to paraphrase Forrest Gump)
10. Fred Manfra (I don't even know how this guy has had a job for this many years - while he has a nice voice, I've never heard such mistake-prone playcalling. It just seems he has no feel for the game)

A Hole in the 4th Spot

FYI to Juan Samuel:

Ty Wigginton's numbers hitting 4th:
142 AB, .211/1/13
And an absolutely horrendous .275 SLG

When's it going to be obvious that he doesn't belong in the 4 slot?

Shouldn't Jake Fox be getting some starts at first and in the 4th spot with Wiggy hitting so poorly? Or is the team forced to play Wigginton daily to showcase his trade value (or what's left of it)? If so, perhaps he should DH and hit 6th?

I'm also starting to wonder what Jake Fox is doing on this team if Cesar Izturis is left in to hit with 2 outs and the bases jammed down by one run in the 9th.

The Bell Tolls for Thee

Josh Bell is in Baltimore and in the starting lineup tonight. Pretty exciting, even if his AAA numbers weren't great.

To me, this means someone in the infield is likely to be traded soon. Because the team's replacing an outfield/DH guy in Luke Scott (on the DL with a freaky hamstring strain seen here), and Felix Pie is due back on the team soon, you'd figure when Pie gets the call, an infielder is likely to go. But whom? 

The most likely prospect to me is a trade of Ty Wigginton, who is one of only a few O's with real trade value heading into the trade deadline at the end of the month. Tejada could be of value as well. But while Bell is on the team, you'd have to figure Miggy will be the primary DH.

Cheers to Miggy on his decent work at 3rd. Even with his subpar range (although if we knew his real age, we might be more impressed by his play), he's done a decent job transferring to the hot corner.

Looks like Bell's time has come. Hopefully, he's another piece to the puzzle. God knows Andy MacPhail could use some good PR right now, and Bell's positive play would mean more success from the Bedard trade. (For those of you just tuning in, the O's got Josh Bell from the George Sherrill trade to the Dodgers last July, and Sherrill was received as part o the 5-player package for Bedard.)