Oriole #886- Pedro Viola

Pedro was the second player to make his Orioles debut this week (after Brandon Snyder, see the previous post for that write up), but this wasn't Pedro's Major League debut.  He pitched in 9 games with the Reds last September and had a 5.14 ERA over 7 innings.  Some eagle-eyed readers might notice that I included this card in last Wednesday's Adios Baysox post.  The O's claimed Pedro off waivers from the Reds on April 21, 2010 and he started the season with the AAA Tides where he "pitched" in 11 games to the tune of 17+ ERA before being demoted to the AA Baysox for the remainder of their season. 

I wasn't really sure how Pedro belonged on the Orioles 40 man roster for the duration of the season, but he somehow survived various roster cuts and releases to be called up to the Baltimore on September 7.  He appeared in his first game with the Orioles last night and it looks like my confusion was justified, at least in a small sample size.  Pedro was brought in to the game with a runner on and two outs in the bottom of the 8th inning with the O's leading the Blue Jays 9-0. He promptly walked the free-swinging Lyle Overbay and then gave up a home run to the light-hitting Aaron Hill before finally striking out Adam Lind to get out of the inning.

My prediction is that Pedro will not make any additional appearances for the remainder of the season, unless the Orioles are winning or losing by more than 9 runs.  The man has a 54.00 ERA and cannot be trusted in close (Orioles lead/deficit < 9 runs) games. I don't mean to be hard on the guy, but I just don't like what I see; he reminds me too much of Daniel Cabrera, which is not a good thing.

Before I wrap this up, I also want to mention that I got this card signed at one of the Baysox meet-the-team days.  Pedro signed it with one of the markers on the table, not my preferred sharpie, but at least I have his autograph, which is good because I didn't see him sign before the games at all.  He wasn't included in the Baysox or Tides team sets, so I'm not aware of any Orioles' affiliates cards that he could have, so this will stay in my collection for now.