If you talk to the fans… or at least the ones on social media and the callers to Sports Talk radio… you’d think the Orioles were in dead last with the worst record in baseball.
After Sunday’s loss, the Orioles are 23-20 which is good enough to be tied for 2nd place in the Wild Card Standings, and tied for 6th best in the American League.
Yes, they have lost 5 in a row, but they are still right in the thick of things.
Last year, the Orioles had a 6 game losing streak and still went to the ALDS. The Orioles 1983 World Series team had two 7-game losing streaks that regular season.
Despite 5 straight losses, O’s maintain baseball’s best record since July 29, 2012, at 64-39. But you wouldn’t know it by listening to callers and reading Twitter. “The Sky Is Falling” is the mentality of fans and it’s driving me crazy! It’s like fans just don’t know how to act. They fall back into a “woe is me” this team is pathetic mentality that they had for the previous 15 years. We need to move past that Orioles fans… we have a really good baseball team! The Orioles have scored the 3rd most runs in all of baseball.
They will be okay.
Yes, their pitching staff is struggling, but didn’t we all agree that there was no way that staff would be able to duplicate what it did last season? We’ve played 43 games and still have 119 games to go. Do you see the craziness in “The Sky is Falling” approach when we are only 1/4th of the way through the year?
The trade deadline is still two months away and the non-waiver deadline is 3 months away. I am convinced that the Front Office sees the same issues that we all see and will do what’s necessary to make things better. They did it last year when they got Nate McLouth and Joe Saunders and they turned out to be huge for us in the playoff run.
The more the Orioles lose, the more people lose faith. Even watching twitter over the last two days, I’ve seen some of our own Eutaw Street Report writers jumping off the warehouse… saying things like:
“Is there any #OriolesMagic left? I’m not so sure”
“Welcome back, 2010 Orioles!”
And those of you calling for JJ to be benched need to take a deep breath. Yes, blowing two straight is not good. But he just set the record for the most consecutive saves for the Orioles. I still think 35 of 37 is darn good.
I will take 23-20 and playing competitive baseball with guys who love to play the game, over most of the Orioles teams from the past 15 years of big name players who could care less – ANY DAY!
It’s okay to get frustrated. But cooler heads need to prevail. Baltimore has two sports teams that are fighting for the division title each year now. Let’s get behind the Orioles and support them.
The sky is NOT falling… it’s May.
3 Responses
For the most part I agree with you. Anyone who says JJ should be benched is just dumb. Mariano Rivera blew two saves in a row 10 times in his career (according to Ken Singleton on The Fan this morning). Sometimes even the best fail. Our offense is stout. What concerns me is our starting pitching. We need something to happen sooner rather than later. We’ve only had a starter complete 7 a few times. That is unsustainable for a season. Are these the 2010 Orioles? Not a chance. They are good. Real good. But the starting pitching needs to be addressed ASAP.
I agree with you Bruce. SP is an issue. But this team is still good and the sky is not falling
The “Sky is not Falling” however, the confidence in the pitching has already fell. 15 years of losing makes a fan tend to pack it in early. However, this is the O’s nucleus from last year and a hard nosed manager with a few motivational tactics. The FO knew of the potential pitching woes, however, being fiscally responsible instead of being quick on the trigger like LAA and TBJ. Have the O’s looking pretty good albeit the first 5 game losing streak of the season. If a fan can look at the real picture, Tillman looks really good, Wei was starting to improve on the innings and Miguel was also getting going. Injuries played a part in the current losing streak and ineffective pitching through the early part of the season wore down some key arms out the pen. That’s the cocktail for disaster. The O’s need about 3 inspired series wins in a row and the dooms day fans will see the light.