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.)

That's an 0-for-3 for Bergy

Brad Bergesen's 2010 totals:

3 Starts

10.1 Innings Pitched

21 Hits

20 Runs

14 Earned Runs

6 BB

5 K

4 HR

1 Trip to the Minors??

Unfortunately for Bergy, he's been the recipient of some bad defense, most notably Ty Wigginton's botched double play ball in the 3rd inning tonight with one down and the bases jammed. As we all know, that only counts as one error, but the inning should have been over with the O's down 1-0. Instead, as "luck" would have it for the 2010 O's, things ballooned and before you knew it, 7-0 Seattle. Hey, what do you expect when you have all kinds of players out of their natural positions?

Berken's looked great again out of the pen and has done a great job in what is becoming the role of Bergy's mop-up man. I'm sure it will be tempting to replace Bergesen with Berken in the rotation, but why tinker with success? Some guys are just suited for the bullpen (see Hendrickson, Mark).


Meanwhile, who knows what to make of Brad Bergesen. The guy who was the Orioles most consistently good pitcher in 2009 and was such a pleasant surprise is seeing his star sinking fast. I'll ask again ... is he possibly still harboring a shoulder injury from the infamous off-season commercial shoot?