I wish I had some better news for you, Birdland. Everything is pretty awful. These links reflect that.
Jake Arrieta Tosses No Hitter – It Would Have Never Happened Here
As if the wheels coming off the O’s season wasn’t bad enough, last night Jake Arrieta rubbed a few bags of salt in our wound by tossing a no-hitter on Sunday Night Baseball. Unfortunately, I have to agree with Mark Brown of Camden Chat here – while Jake Arrieta might have lucked into a no-hitter at some point if he’d remained an Oriole, he’d have never put together the kind of consistent success he has for the Cubs since being traded. The question, though, is WHY? The Orioles organization needs to be looking at themselves in the mirror very hard here as Jake puts together a Cy Young-caliber resume in 2015. How can we prevent the same mistakes with Kevin Gausman, and anybody else who comes through the system?
Don’t Expect a September to Remember
Some guys named Jake leave Baltimore and do great things. Others put it together for the right team, and I’m glad that at least Jake English of Bird’s Eye View falls into the latter category. Unfortunately, it’s bad news that Jake is delivering this time – that the O’s have already exceeded their 2014 loss total…with 32 games left to play. This September has the potential to be Trembley-esque, so hold onto your butts.
The Orioles’ Frustrating Season
So, just how has it managed to all go so, so wrong? Paul Swydan of Fangraphs gives a pretty comprehensive review of all that things that haven’t turned up Orioles in 2015. No, bringing back Nelson Cruz wouldn’t have saved the season (though of course, it would have helped), not with the laundry list of things that didn’t work out at all.
Chris Davis, Possibly Lingering Injuries, & Looking Ahead
We head back to Fangraphs for some good news, as Adam McFadden dove into Chris Davis’ peripherals and concluded that Crush’s awful 2014 was mainly attributable to his oblique injury (so, is it injured again right now?) and that the hitter he’s been this year is likely to be the one he is going forward. But, as I said above, this post isn’t about good news, so let’s move right past that and not kid ourselves. In all likelihood, Davis will be mashing (and whiffing) for another team next fall.
