While I agree that Mazzilli needs to be thrown out of a game soon, the call in the seventh inning that went against the O's wasn't the one that lost us the game, and it didn't even cost the O's the lead. No harm, no foul.

Fasano sucks, but he's no worse than Gil, IMO.

Joe Torre would have argued. Joe always backs up his players, even when they are obviously in the wrong.

Mazzilli's lack of arguing doesn't really bother me. His lack of managerial skill, however, does.

For instance, why, when the Orioles are doing great and scoring tons of runs, do you split up the Roberts, Mora, Tejada trio at the top of lineup (putting sub .250 hitters in the 2 hole)?

Makes no sense. In my opinion, if anything causes the Orioles to blow their chances at the postseason this year, it won't be talent, it will be the manager.

Or even better why take a scalding hot Palmeiro out of the lineup like he did this weekend against Detroit? And why let Steve Reed give up five runs and blow the game Sunday? Or why take Penn out after 5 1/3 when he struck out the only batter he faced in the sixth? Dumb, dumb, dumb.

As far as why Gil didn't hit for Fasano-- I don't know what the exact situations were but probably the answer can be found in six figures:

Fasano Gil

OBP 05 .739 .548

OBP vs rhp .810 .518

OBP May .876 .403

Now consider this-- if you pinch hit for Fasano with anyone else, Gil is still going to come in defensively. So you've used two players for one at bat. Now what if he breaks his thumb on the first pitch? Gibbons used to catch didn't he? But he DH'd for 3 of the 4 games-- if he goes behind the plate, the pitchers will have to hit. So it has to be Surhoff, who hasn't caught an inning in HOW LONG and is 40 years old? So if Surhoff is in the game he can't be pinch hit for AND WHOEVER'S LEFT ON THE BENCH WHO CAN PLAY OUTFIELD CAN"T BE USED. If Surhoff's not in the game he can't be used to hit for someone. So you are basically using Gil as well as a pinch hitter and denying yourself the use of either your best remaining bat on the bench or a potential pinch runner of value (assuming its Nivar or Calzado -- I havn't been paying attention to how they're patching up the outfield these days...)

I'd let Fasano hit for himself every time.

As for the scalding hot Palmiero, he's 40 years old and had played 15 straight games; you gotta rest him sometime...

Penn was pitching on short rest-- they took him out at 81 pitches. You're going to see a lot more of this-- its getting pretty standard.

I don't know why Maz split up the top of the lineup, but one thing I learned quickly managing softball teams is: you build the top of your lineup to score runs- you build the bottom of your lineup to avoid double plays. The Orioles have some missing teeth--Matos, Bigbie and Lopez-- at the moment; perhaps he was trying to get someone's bat started and wanting to avoid a specific combination lower down? Killing two birds with one experiment?

Steve Reed threw 14 strikes out of 20 pitches in giving up 4 runs-- the other was charged to his predecessor. Perhaps he didn't think Kline was going to do better against that part of the order? He certainly has expert advice in Ray Miller-- bum Mazilli all you want, but if you want a better pitching coach, youre going to have to find a way to pry either Mazzone or Hershiser loose from their present jobs...

Folks, they're in first place. They split a series with the defending World Champions. They're playing better than almost anyone thought they would-- give the guy another 40 games before you charge the jury, huh?

I just heard this while watching the Reds/Orioles game. Why did Lee Mazilli pinch hit Brian Roberts when he had a 20 game hitting streak on the line? He didn't have anyone that could step in to hit one time? Roberts has now hit in his last 2, would've still had the streak going if he didn't have that one AB. And as hot as Roberts is, who knows what would've happened?