Talk about a roller coaster of a week in Birdland, huh? Over the last eight days, this team has: been no-hit, won a game 18-2, swept a four-game series, hit THREE walk-off home runs, and lost a game 15-2. That’s an entire season’s worth of craziness for some squads, but just another short stretch in the life of this year’s maddeningly inconsistent Orioles, who can look like world-beaters one night and doormats the next.
Here’s the good news: just like that 18-2 win only counted for one in the good column in the standings, last night’s embarrassment also notches just a single mark in the bad column. Go get ’em this weekend, Birds.
To the links!
Kevin Gausman and the Tale of Two Catchers
Joshua Sadlock of Baseball Essential tries to figure out what it is that’s making Kevin Gausman be so inconsistent in 2015. Is it his catchers? His ERA as a starter with Caleb Joseph behind the dish is 3.96, while with Matt Wieters it’s 5.20. What up with that? It looks like both of them need to call the change-up more often, but Wieters calls for Kevin’s (very inconsistent) breaking stuff a bit too much.
Should We Worry about Matt Wieters’ Plate Discipline?
(I didn’t set out to make these the “bag on Matt Wieters” links, I promise. That’s just what’s out there today. This will be the last Wieters-bashing link of the day!)
Ryan Romano of Camden Depot has noticed that Matt Wieters’ plate discipline has taken a dive this year, with his walks way down and his strikeouts way up. His previously-solid batting eye has really taken a dive after he sees a couple pitches in at-bats. Click on over for a bunch of charts and data, if you’re into that sort of thing.
THIS ISN’T A LINK – but here’s just a bit more on Wieters before we leave the topic:
The Orioles are 10-8 in August. Their record by starting catcher:
Joseph 9-1
Clevenger 1-0
Wieters 0-7
Make of that what you will.
The Orioles Need to Do Something About Miguel Gonzalez
Ok, that’s enough blame on the guy sitting behind the dish calling the pitches. Let’s turn our critical eye to the dudes throwing said pitches as well, because they’re certainly not innocent in all this. Chris Booze of Camden Chat, a self-admitted Miguel Gonzalez fan, says that after another awful start, the O’s need to give somebody else a chance in his spot. He suggests a pitcher you may not have considered.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing watching MiGo’s disastrous second inning last night (5 runs, 5 hits, 40 pitches), was that he had gotten ahead of, by my count, at least three batters 0-2, all of whom reached base (including the leadoff walk). That simply cannot happen. Gonzalez talked to Steve Melewski of MASN about this, as he obviously noticed it as well.
“Get ahead and once you are ahead, the only thing that is missing is finishing hitters. That has been the struggle. I’ve been changing a little bit of things here and there. It’s a process. And you know, go out there and forget about this one and get ready for the next one.”
More quotes at the link.
Baseball’s Secret Weapons: Orioles, Cardinals Bullpens
David Schoenfield of ESPN’s Sweet Spot network says that he wouldn’t be surprised to see an O’s-Cardinals World Series this year, because of the teams’ strong bullpens. We O’s fans know that we can stack our pen up against anybody’s (yes, even without Andrew Miller), but for the Orioles to reach the postseason at all, we really need to get more from the starters to GET to said bullpen (see previous links). This being down 1, 2, 3, 4 runs in the first third of the game is really getting tiresome.
