Random thoughts

-I didn’t get a chance to see the Baltimore Orioles’ 6-1 win on Saturday night over Cliff Lee and the Texas Rangers, but it’s really nice to see Chris Tillman come back up to the big leagues and go 7.1 innings, only give up one run (unearned), while walking only one and giving up just two hits. He struck out three. The last start Tillman had in the bigs was in San Francisco, where the Giants made him look very overmatched. Tillman, whose confidence was visibly shaken when he was getting hit around like a pinata in San Francisco, was throwing 87 MPH fastballs right down the middle of the plate, belt high. That’s a recipe for disaster. He also didn’t throw anything besides a fastball and a curveball — also not good.

Tillman went back down to Norfolk and dominated in three starts, one of which was a one-hitter. He came back up on Saturday, and he apparently used a new pitch of his occasionally – a cutter. That’s good to see. Priority No. 1 for the Orioles during the second half of the season is having their young pitchers gain more and more experience with every outing — while making adjustments from outing to outing – and henceforth progressing at a good rate. Brian Matusz, Jake Arrieta and Tillman should be a part of an Opening Day rotation as a group for the first time in their career in April 2011.

-Speaking of the 2011 Opening Day rotation, the Orioles would probably like to ride out Jeremy Guthrie for another year, but to me, he’s pretty much already ridden out his usefulness in Baltimore. Guthrie was good in 2007 and 2008, sucked last year, and what we see this year — average to below-average results due in large part to an inability to miss any bats — is what we’ll continue for the rest of his career. I’d rather not see another year of Guthrie in the rotation, but I’m afraid that’s what we’ll see.

Also, I’d like to see Zach Britton pitch the rest of the year in Norfolk (enough with this talk that Britton should essentially skip Triple-A) and be on the Opening Day roster next year so the team doesn’t have to rely on Guthrie in the rotation. More likely, though, is that Britton struggles a little bit in Triple-A for the rest of the year and starts next season at Norfolk. He’d then be called up to the bigs after he pitches well at Triple-A — much like the path of Arrieta. This arrival time also means that the Orioles will probably get the extra year before Britton hits arbitration, which wouldn’t exactly be coincidental. That leaves the Opening Day rotation as Matusz, Tillman, Arrieta, Guthrie, and a Kevin Millwood-type. Although, maybe Britton’s heavy sinker will overmatch Triple-A hitters in the coming weeks and the Orioles have no choice to promote him this September and/or have him in the rotation for Opening Day next year.

-The player that was sent down to Norfolk on Saturday to make room for Tillman was Josh Bell, who got a little taste of the big leagues. The verdict is in — he’s no where near ready for the majors right now. The Orioles called Bell up once Luke Scott hurt his hamstring trotting around the bases after a home run (circling the bases after a homer always results in an injury, duh). The Orioles probably wanted to see what Bell could do and give him a taste of the bigs. In 15 at-bats, Bell struck out eight times. Methinks he was a little overmatched.

Have Bell play every day at Norfolk and let him learn. His statistics in Norfolk this year (.266/.311/.455 in 309 plate appearances) didn’t warrant a call-up anyway. I keep hearing people say that Bell should be up in the bigs playing every day and learn on the job at the highest level, but what’s the rush? There’s virtually no reason that Bell should be in the big leagues if he’s striking out two or three times in every game he starts. Let Bell master Triple-A this season, and if he really heats up and learns how to take pitches and work counts, then he’ll be in Baltimore come September. Otherwise, we’ll see plenty of him next year when he’s the starting third baseman on the 2011 Opening Day roster.

-Here were my thoughts when Matt Wieters hobbled off the diamond in Texas after aggrevating his hamstring injury.

-Here were my thoughts when Corey Patterson hit a game-tying grand slam during the wee hours of Saturday morning on a 2-2 pitch with two outs in the top of the ninth off Neftali Feliz, the filthy closer of the Texas Rangers. Take a moment to realize how ridiculous that statement is.

-If you haven’t seen Patterson’s grand slam, I implore you to view it. Jim Hunter’s voice cracks. I’m not even lying. Also, I just realized that the baserunners during Patterson’s slam were Craig Tatum, Jake Fox and Scott Moore. I guarantee that given all of the circumstances, this might be the most unlikely grand slam in the history of baseball.

-I saw Mike Gonzalez in Aberdeen on a rehab assignment a little while back. My thoughts: I want my second round pick back (the same thoughts as three months ago). The Aberdeen crowd didn’t boo him at all — I was a bit surprised that there weren’t even a few scattered boo’s. My dad was the only one I heard boo. Disappointing.

-The Orioles have an atrocious history in regards to international scouting. They simply haven’t tapped into the international market at all in the past. For the Orioles to truly be competitive in the American League East, they need resources everywhere internationally, which means a high number of scouts and facilities abroad, as well as finances readily available to sign international free agents. The New York Yankees will always be able to trump an Orioles’ offer for a free agent, but the Orioles have absolutely no excuse not to dump a ton of resources into the amateur draft and international market. That’s why the signing of 16-year-old Dominican third base Hector Veloz is such a huge step in the right direction internationally. Veloz reportedly got about a $300,000 signing bonus from the Orioles — a club record for an amateur free agent out of Latin America. Those record deals internationally need to be happening more and more often.

-Let’s change course a little bit here. Ravens’ training camp in Westminster isn’t far away. It’s like two weeks away. Hard to believe, I know. But enough of this Super Bowl talk. It’s July. Do people know how ridiculous they sound when they’re preaching about the Super Bowl in July? This is pretty much what they sound like:

“ZOMG WE GOT ANQUAN BOLDIN!!! JOE FLACCO!!! I’M GOING TO FLY MY ROFLCOPTER DOWN TO DALLAS FOR THE SUPER BOWL LAWL K THX BYE!!!”

That’s usually how a Ravens-related phone call into a Baltimore sports talk show goes these days.

-Oh, here are my thoughts on Ed Reed wanting a new contract: LOL

-Anyway, I think the biggest question coming into training camp on offense is whether Cam Cameron can save himself from himself. For the initial handful of games last season, he couldn’t. He had a maturing quarterback in Flacco and had him sling the ball all over the field despite the fact that Flacco wasn’t quite ready for such a large duty, nor did Cameron have the receivers to support a pass-happy offense. Cameron forgot that the Ravens’ offensive line was better suited to go straight ahead and run-block for the Ravens’ three quality running backs — Ray Rice, Willis McGahee and Le’Ron McClain.

Cameron, unfortunately, did not go to a run-first offense until mid-season, and by then, Flacco had a gimpy ankle. During the second half of the season, it seemed apparent that Flacco’s injury was bothering his throws, and the Ravens became a predictable offense because they needed to run so much and they could only consistently complete short passing patterns to Rice. My question now is whether Cameron can maintain a 50-50 split on offense this year to keep opposing defenses on their heels, especially now that Cameron has two new toys to work with in Boldin and speed demon Donte’ Stallworth. Cameron can’t go all Andy Reid on us and pass every play just because he now has legitimate targets on the outside. The Ravens have Rice. He’s pretty damn good. Rice needs touches for the Ravens’ offense to be fully effective. McGahee needs to be a part of the offense. McClain needs to be the team’s power back in short-yardage situations.

-Speaking of Reid, I like Kevin Kolb as a fantasy quarterback this year. I wouldn’t particularly like Kolb as the quarterback of my favorite NFL team, but with the way Reid calls passing plays, any Eagles’ starting quarterback with a functioning arm should be a decent start every week in fantasy. Kolb has a good receiving corps with DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and tight end Brent Celek, all of whom I like in fantasy, as well. I think Kolb puts up a lot of yards and touchdowns this year, but also a lot of interceptions. I really like Kolb as a nice late-round value pickup.

-Yes, it’s July 11 and I’m already pumped up for fantasy football. And no, there is nothing wrong with that. Honestly, I can’t wait until I’m agonizing about what running back to start right before the 1 p.m. games start with my dad calling me every 10 minutes with similar agony.

-But no, I’m not particularly looking forward to the inevitable week in which I bench a 34-point wide receiver, costing me the victory.