Another Orioles Player Bites the Dust

It all comes down to wins and losses and the Orioles are off to a 5-1 start and are atop the AL East. I start with that because if you go by the list of players on the Orioles roster who are injured you may start to get depressed. Brian Roberts is the most recent Orioles player to succumb to sickness or injury. Yesterday, Roberts was taken to the hospital with stomach pains. There is no word yet on how serious the situation is or if Roberts is using the same hospital bed that Jeremy Guthrie used. Maybe the Orioles should just rent a hospital room for its players this season. They can put up a nice flat screen HD tv that only plays Orioles games and Baseball Tonight.

Ok now a look at the injuries/illnesses that have hit the Orioles roster since the beginning of the season. I know the Orioles don’t have a lot of depth on their roster, but you tell me what major league team can get through this many losses to their roster.

The Orioles projected number two and three starters Brian Matusz and Justin Duchscherer are on the disabled list. Their number one starter Jeremy Guthrie missed one start and could have his projected start on Sunday pushed back. J.J. Hardy is questionable for this weekend with tightness in his left ribcage area. Along with Roberts in the hospital the Orioles may have to play Texas without their double play combination.

Guthrie, Hardy, and Roberts are all still possibilities to have to go on the disabled list in order to create room for someone to be called up. The Orioles bullpen has stayed healthy thus far, but you have a lot of fragile arms down there and Showalter needs to make sure he doesn’t overwork them too soon. Especially with a doubleheader today.

I’m sure there will be some kind of roster moves made today or tomorrow depending on how Guthrie, Roberts, and Hardy feel today. Troy Patton and Chris Jakubauskas are two names who have been mentioned as possibilities to be called up to help ease the strain on the pitching staff. Depending on how serious the situations are with Hardy and Roberts will depend on if there is a move made to call up someone from the minors to replace them. The Orioles already have Izturis and Andino who can step in and start in their place for a game or two. If Hardy or Roberts has to go on the disabled list you may see Brendan Harris, Nick Green, or Ryan Adams summoned from Norfolk. However, neither of those guys are on the 40 man roster, so that may present a problem.

Regardless of all the injuries that have hit the Orioles early on, there is no crying in baseball and there certainly are no excuses in baseball. Good teams find ways to win, even without their best players. If the Orioles are truly for real this will be a good test for the team. If the Orioles can manage to weather this storm of injuries than they will be in a good place to be a force in the AL East once their roster starts to get healthy. Let’s see what the Orioles are made of.