Other factors at play in Orioles' pitching situation

• Reading the news that Leo Mazzone is leaving the Orioles recalls other culprits:

***The World Baseball Classic which used up most of the Orioles starting pitchers:

• "In the 2006 World Baseball Classic, the Orioles contributed more players than any other major league team, with eleven players suiting up for their home nations. Erik Bedard and Adam Loewen Canada; Rodrigo López and Geronimo Gil (released before the season began by the club) played for Mexico; Daniel Cabrera and Miguel Tejada for the Dominican Republic; Javy Lopez and Luis Matos for Puerto Rico; Bruce Chen for Panama; Ramon Hernandez for Venezuela; and John Stephens for Australia." from Wikipedia. Posted on this blog 9/20/07.

***Per Dibs, some pitchers don't want to pitch in Baltimore because they play the Red Sox and Yankees so many times. Comment by Dibs on XM which I posted here 12/9/05:

• "He won't give names, but Dibs knew several pitchers in the past few years who had a chance to go to Baltimore, but wouldn't. One reason: they didn't want to face the Red Sox & Yankees so many times."

(As a commenter noted, this hasn't stopped the Blue Jays from getting excellent pitchers, so maybe there are additional factors). sm

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