What Now for the Orioles?

This has not been a good start to the month for the Orioles to say the least. Not much seems to be going right. Other than the series win over the Rangers over the weekend, numerous events have left the Orioles in trouble:
--A series sweep to the Yankees at home, or at least in Baltimore.
--A two-game series sweep to Boston on the road, with the second game ending in yet another bullpen collapse.
--Adam Jones shut down for the year due to a severely sprained left ankle, the second straight year where an injury kept him out nearly a month.
--Kam Mickolio had to see a specialized doctor about a sore arm (reported by Peter Schmuck, Baltimore Sun)
--Chris Tillman and Brian Matusz will be shut down soon due to the front office deciding to limit their innings in their rookie year.

This month just got underway, and the Orioles still have a number of games left. It is perfectly reasonable to be careful with young players, but that will not comfort fans. Plus, the Orioles are now selling one-dollar tickets to get fans in the stands.

So what now? With many young players ending their seasons early, what will happen for the rest of the year? Really, there is not much left to do. We have seen from yesterday that Trembley will use numerous pitchers for short periods of time to take advantage of matchups, so he is trying to win games, as he should. Sure Wieters and the rest of the young birds can benefit from the time, but the vets who are playing already know what to do when the season gets down to the final days.

But these last few weeks will be about Dave Trembley. With all the talk about him at the end of the year, each game Andy MacPhail will analyze and determine if Trembley should return next season. Given the expanded roster he has, can he work his hardest to win games while still protecting his young players, all while keeping your cool if the Yankees, Red Sox and the rest beat you down? We have already seen Trembley and Juan Samuel call out their players on things a few weeks ago. With a number of games left against strong teams and a problematic roster, this could get ugly. But in this month, Trembley can be a manager of a team. He can call changes on the mound at will and do everything he can to win games as opposed to constantly having to look out for the young players.

I'm not sure if Dave Trembley is the manager of the future for the Orioles. I'm not sure who can be better at this point in time, but these last few weeks will determine if he has the skills needed to be a big league manager.