Dan Connolly

Around the Beat: Ken Rosenthal talks Britton, Machado, trade market and O’s second-half chances

By Dan Connolly

Posted on July 15, 2016

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When it comes to baseball reporting — the combination of institutional knowledge, mining sources, ability to write and doing it all with integrity – for my money, no one beats Fox Sports’ and MLB Network’s Ken Rosenthal.

Fresh off conducting dugout interviews at the All Star Game in San Diego, Rosenthal joins me on this week’s “Around the Beat” podcast to talk baseball as the second half begins Friday night.

Rosenthal looks at the available starting pitching market (this was recorded hours before Boston acquired Drew Pomeranz) and what some of the contenders need to make a pennant push. He breaks down which teams in the AL can make a run and how the races may shake out.

As a former Baltimore Sun baseball writer and columnist, Rosenthal knows plenty about the Orioles organization. He refers to what’s going on now in Baltimore as “quite refreshing.” And so most of the podcast is spent talking about the Orioles, their strengths and their weaknesses.

We talk Zach Britton’s emergence, Ubaldo Jimenez’s disaster, the offense’s fear-inducing lineup and the need for rotation help.

He also takes a look at the strengths of Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter, gives his pick to win the AL and whom he’d select as his first-half AL MVP (it’s not Manny Machado, though Rosenthal said he’d be close).

As always with Ken, it’s fascinating stuff. So check it out.

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