My wife Janet and I are going to tonight's Orioles game, and I'm approaching it with a deeper sense of foreboding than usual. Buck Showalter was kind enough to shuffle the rotation to ensure that I'm saddled with a second consecutive start from the highly-compensated and monstrously inefficient Ubaldo Jimenez. The lanky ex-Rockie has 15 erratic games under his belt for the O's, and he's 2-8 with a 4.63 ERA and a league-high 51 walks in 81.2 innings (5.6 free passes per nine innings). He's yet to win a game at Camden Yards. When the Birds gave Ubaldo a four-year, $50 million deal, I'm sure they weren't expecting to get Daniel Cabrera with better composure. What exactly they did expect, given that he spent 2011 through the first half of 2013 scuffling along before beefing up on a soft slate of opponents in the later months of last season, is another matter. Anyhow, nothing is forever, and this evening's rubber game against the White Sox and crummy righthander Hector Noesi is as good an opportunity as any for Jimenez to pick up his first 'W' in front of the home crowd. Pretty please?
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