Sport: MLBPick Selection: orioles
At 1:35pm our complimentary selection is on the Baltimore Orioles over the Toronto Blue Jays. There isn't much that the Orioles can salvage from this dreadful season, but perhaps there is one last (albeit faint) silver lining in the fact that their #1 starter, Jeremy Guthrie, who hasn't started in a month due to injury, threw a 50-pitch bullpen session recently and felt no pain thereafter, thus putting him in position to start this last game of the season for his team. If Guthrie has a quality outing in the last game in front of the home fans, there may be at least some cause for optimism heading into the offseason. After all, the trade that sent lefthanded ace Erik Bedard to the Mariners in exchange for five of Seattle's top young players is now looking like one of the best offseason moves that Baltimore has ever made. Bedard only threw 81 innings in his injury-plagued season, and one of the five players obtained was an All Star (reliever George Sherrill) and another (Adam Jones) is now looking like he will be a fixture in the O's outfield for a long, long time. If Guthrie can get a win this afternoon, he would get to .500 on the season (11-11) and that, combined with his excellent ERA of 3.57, would be quite an achievement on a team that has failed to win 70 games. Young Toronto righthander Jesse Litsch has had a great season and should also be in the Jays rotation in '09, but he has really struggled on the road. Away from Toronto the 23-year-old is 5-6 with an ERA of 4.57. Take the Orioles. As always, good luck...Al McMordie.
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