8 replies to this topic

[SportsGuy]

http://espn.go.com/b... ... ek-respect

[BSLChrisStoner]

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/25316/al-east-position-rankings-os-seek-respect

Not that it would have significantly altered the rankings, but having Davis at DH, Reynolds at 1st seems odd to me.

Ultimately a lot of the conclusions are sound. It is a long season, and the O's do trail at a number of positions.

However, I think it gives the impression that the O's are winning with smoke and mirrors, and that is inaccurate.

Why are the O's 32-24 overall, and 17-14 against the East?

To me, they score enough (11th overall), and their pitching (9th in era) has been good enough. Yes, they do not get on-base enough (though that can improve if Reynolds gets hot, and Roberts / Reimold / Markakis return), but the slugging (6th overall) is legitimate, and not going away.

When Britton returns, they will have the capability of a quality start every time out, and I'll feel good about 4 of the starters at-least. Maybe not elite, but a group that can keep you in games most time out. When the O's have the lead in the 7th, they win. Britton as the 4th, can help avoid the bullpen becoming overly taxed. After seeing the 'pen grow tired, they have gotten a fair amount of rest over the last two weeks or so. A healthy Lindstrom could be a shot in the arm as well.

As we mention above, returning players for the O's could change things. That is also true for the rest of the division. If Boston gets Ellsbury and Crawford back, that is a different lineup. But they are already 2nd in runs, scoring is not a problem for them. They are 28th in era. Maybe Dice K helps, maybe Bard gets it together at AAA... but they really need Buchholz to improve.

New York is 8th in runs, and 14th in era. The Rivera, Pineda, Gardner injuries have been huge. Andy P. has helped. Do they add another starter? Line up has a lot of pride, experience, and talent.... but also age. What happens with them the rest of the year?

Tampa Bay was my division favorite before the year, and probably still are. That pitching will give them a chance every game. They have pretty much weathered the Longoria injury. Still, they are 19th in runs, and 22nd in slugging. Longoria helps that, but does not fix it on his own.

Toronto is 5th in runs, but they have the same issues of getting on-base that the O's do. I love Romero, and Morrow at the top of their rotation, and I've also always been a fan of Drabek's potential. But even though they getting production from Alvarez (1.34 G/F), and Hutchinson; they are 20th overall in era.

[SportsGuy]

End of the day, this team still lacks talent.

Pythag theorem has them at a 500 team...They have the worst run differential in the division.

[DJ MC]

End of the day, this team still lacks talent.

Pythag theorem has them at a 500 team...They have the worst run differential in the division.

In other words, they're still better than most of us expected

[CrimsonTribe]

Decent back of the napkin analysis. Would have been nice to see him mention Britton's return somewhere in there, but the basic premise--the chances that Orioles hold up over a long season are slim--is correct.

[Slappy]

Nice article. My one quibble would be this line:

"But the reliability of the pen ties into the rotation's inability to pitch deep into games -- Orioles relievers have already thrown 39 more innings than Yankees relievers, for example."

It's a somewhat misleading stat. The Orioles have played one additional game and 27 extra inning frames vs. the Yankees' 4 extra inning frames. That's 36 additional innings played right there. If you account for roughly 26 of those additional bullpen innings based on this (23 + 3 of the extra game), the difference is 13 innings over 56 games, or about one additional out per game handled by the O's bullpen vs. Yankees.

[BSLChrisStoner]

Nice article. My one quibble would be this line:

"But the reliability of the pen ties into the rotation's inability to pitch deep into games -- Orioles relievers have already thrown 39 more innings than Yankees relievers, for example."

It's a somewhat misleading stat. The Orioles have played one additional game and 27 extra inning frames vs. the Yankees' 4 extra inning frames. That's 36 additional innings played right there. If you account for roughly 26 of those additional bullpen innings based on this (23 + 3 of the extra game), the difference is 13 innings over 56 games, or about one additional out per game handled by the O's bullpen vs. Yankees.

Good points here.

[Ovechkin8]

It's all semantics. What is "not going away"? Are we a division contender? That's not what O's fans are complaining about when it comes to respect. It's the people that still have us winning 69 games that has O's fans irritated. To me TB when they get Longoria back is the clear class of the division. Nobody can match Price,Shields,Hellickson,Moore, Cobb/Niemann. The Yankees should finish a close 2nd. The O's have a legit shot to stay in the race for 3rd all year and win between 77-87 games. I've said it since Spring training: Goal of O's fans should be a season that's good enough to change the perception of the franchise within the industry. They are well on their way to doing that. Win 85 games, have the 2 best prospects in the game knocking on the door and we are no longer baseball Siberia for free agents, front office types or managers. Edit: Unless Angelos steps in and does something crazy again to remind people why we've been a laughingstock. Everything I hear and read though is he's now pretty detached from the day to day operations

[Oriole85]

Everything I hear and read though is he's now pretty detached from the day to day operations

I think he's been pretty detached for sometime, I think the biggest problem with him now is that everything still needs his approval like how he runs his law firm being the only partner.