Getting to Know: Jason Berken

In Getting to Know... by aisle42467 Comments

Name: Jason Berken

Position: Starting Pitcher

Bats/Throws: Right/Right

Current Age: 28

Uniform Number: 57

Who is this fucking guy?

He's a former sixth round pick of the Orioles (2006). He got a chance to start for them in 2009 and sucked. He was part of their bullpen in 2010 and wasn't too bad. Then he went back to sucking in 2011 again.  He has made one appearance for the Orioles this year, where he got lit up like a Christmas tree. His ERA is only 18.00 because five of the seven runs he gave up were unearned.  He will be taking Jeff Samardzija's spot in the rotation for the rest of this season.

How the hell did he end up on the Cubs?

The Orioles designated him for assignment and the Cubs swooped in to claim him four days later. He joins Miguel Socolovich as another former Oriole that the Cubs claimed on waivers in what will hopefully not become a reversal of the MacPhail trend of picking up the Cubs' castoffs.

Did he enjoy the Bears/Packers game on Thursday night?

I would imagine so. He's a Packers season ticket holder.  I suppose he can't help it.  He was born in Wisconsin.

Is his page on Baseball-Reference.com available to sponsor?

Why yes it is.  For the low, low price of $25, you can sponsor Jason Berken's player page on the off chance that someone visits it one day. (By the way, I bought Jeff Baker's page a couple years back for $8 and was shocked to see the prices that B-Ref's pages sell for now).

Is there any particular reason you are highlighting him in a post?

We haven't had a new post in awhile and he happens to be making his first start today for the Cubs.

Why We Might Like Him:

  • That is an excellent, excellent question.
  • To the best of our knowledge, he is not a serial killer.

Why We Might Hate Him: 

  • He's not very good and some fans still expect this team to win occasionally.
  • He's a Packer fan.
  • God help us, he could make us miss Jeff Samardzija

If You Rearrange the Letters in His Name You Get:

BAN JERK NOSE

What Cubs Blogosphere Thinks of Him:

Bleacher Nation:

He’s not going to knock your socks off, but he’s got as good a shot at locking down a fifth starter’s job as does someone like Justin Germano.

Cubs Den

His stuff is better than some of the more recent pickups. He has a solid arm, sitting at around 91-93 mph and also throws a slider, curve, and change. As recently as 2009, he was rated as the Baltimore Orioles #17 prospect, according to Baseball America.

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  1. Author
    Aisle424

    Jorge Soler is apparently putting on a show during BP today at Wrigley. Kaplan reported 3 out of 4 balls were crushed onto Waveland. If the wind is blowing out, it isn’t blowing much today.

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  2. Rizzo the Rat

    http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/when_is_middle_not_the_middle/#28

    pm, the refrain from all the tax cut advocates is that by cutting taxes, you stimulate the economy, thereby substantially raising the tax base, more than making up for the lower taxes per dollar. That is the essence of the Laffer curve. At very low tax rates, you stimulate the economy and raise the tax base but not enough to make up for the lower taxes per dollar. At very high rates, you increase taxes per dollar, but that dollar amount (the tax base) goes down a lot because people/business are discourages from making money (that is a simplistic explanation).

    Somewhere in the middle is the optimal rate, although it is more complex than that of course, since it depends whom, how, and what you tax.

    Seems like in 2012 someone (a consensus) should have a pretty good idea as to what the optimum tax plan is. And if no one does, then we shouldn’t worry about it, or at least we should spend some time, money, and energy figuring it out. And if you are not an economist, which Romney and Barack are not, STFU! It is like baseball managers arguing about something sabermetric…

    Wow, that’s extreme even for MGL.

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  3. Author
    Aisle424

    mb21 wrote:

    BAN JERK NOSE

    (dying laughing) how did you even come up with that?

    There are a few anagram sites that I’ve used and I sift through and find one or two that strike me as funniest.

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  4. mb21

    New forums: http://obstructedview.net/forums

    You will have to register again, which kind of sucks, but it’s not that big of a deal. There is a widget on the sidebar with the most recent topics that has replaced the one from our old forum. There is also a link to the forums on the menu below the banner image.

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  5. mb21

    WaLi wrote:

    I don’t think there is a link back to the main site from the forums (or the link doesn’t work)

    There is a link on the navbar back to Obstructed View Blog and down in the footer menu to Blog.

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  6. 5 Run Home Run

    @ Rice Cube:
    Oh, so that’s why the world’s going to lose all electricity and be plunged into apocalyptic chaos. Damn it! Why does NBC always have to give away the big reveals in their commercials?

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  7. Rice Cube

    @ Berselius:

    I’m not sure what the premise of the show is but I assume it’s slightly more plausible than a bunch of technologically advanced humans deciding to travel back in time and forgetting that “oh yeah, dinosaurs lived here too”…

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  8. Suburban kid

    I just found a blurry unicorn and rainbow icon on my phone and thought my daughter downloaded something. Nope. Just OV. (dying laughing)

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  9. Truth About Abs

    naturally like your website but you have to take a look at the spelling on several of your posts.

    A number of them are rife with spelling problems and I in finding it very bothersome to tell the truth on the other hand I’ll definitely come again again.

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