Blue Jays at Orioles, June 18-20

The Orioles have been bad since Ubaldo Jimenez pitched to Edwin Encarnacion with the score tied in a winner-take-all game, while a man with 47 saves and an 803 ERA+ looked on from the bullpen.

But when you've just lost 9 of 13 against the good teams, it's nice to see a bad one on the schedule. Baltimore is a bad team, in case the 22-46 record didn't give it away. Their offense is decidedly below average, and their starting pitching is grotesquely awful. They have one legitimately good starting pitcher (John Means) but he's on the IL. Their bullpen isn't so great either. They've probably got more reliable relievers than the Blue Jays have at the moment, but that's setting the bar pretty low.  What's especially disturbing, I would think, is that this is not a particularly young team. Most of their roster is in the 26-29 age range. These guys are in their prime. Cedric Mullins is 26, Trey Mancini is 29, and they've both been very good. Our old chum Freddy Galvis has been doing a nice job for them as well. Galvis is the oldest regular at 31.

It's unlikely that anybody we see this weekend, with the possible exception of Mullins, will be a part of the next good Baltimore team. But the franchise is obligated to field a team in the meantime. What we'll see this weekend are the placeholders until some real baseball players show up.

Matchups

Fri June 18 - Ray (4-2, 3.45) vs Eshelman (---, -.--)

Sat June 19 - Manoah (1-0, 2.66) vs Kremer (0-6, 6.65)

Sun June 20 - Ryu (5-4, 3.43) vs Harvey (3-8, 7.76)

In a late development, LH Bruce Zimmerman, Baltimore's second best starter, has joined Means on the IL with biceps tendinitis. Thomas Eshelman has been added to the active roster, and will start tonight's game.