In week one of the 2014 season, the Orioles went just 2-5, including a four-game losing streak after a win on Opening Day. The rotation was a mess as Chris Tillman provided the only quality start of the week, going 8.1 innings in his 3-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers, while the offense just couldn’t seem to get anything going as the team was held to four runs or less six times. So what would week two have in store for the residents of Birdland?
The Orioles started week two off with a bang, pounding out 20 hits en route to a 14-5 shellacking of the New York Yankees. All told, the team went 4-2 in week two of the season to improve their record to 6-7 heading into game two of a three game series at home against Tampa Bay. So how did the Birds turn around their misfortune from week one?
The Good
After a disastrous week one that saw just one quality start in seven, the Orioles starting rotation put together a solid performance in week two. Miguel Gonzalez, Chris Tillman, Bud Norris and Wei-Yin Chen all contributed quality starts to the cause. In those four quality starts, the foursome allowed just four runs in 27.1 innings for a 1.32 ERA.
The offense seemed to wake up a bit. After hitting just .231 as a team in week one, the Orioles hit .297 in week two. The team scored more than five runs just once in the first seven games (a game they still managed to lose). They also collected 10 hits or more just once in the first seven games. In the six games since, the Orioles have scored five or more runs and collected 10 or more hits three times as the offense averaged 5.17 runs/gm in week two.
The defense has been stellar. The Orioles have the fewest errors in all of baseball with just three and have the highest fielding percentage at .994. Two of those errors came in one game against Toronto, but they were crucial as they led to the only runs of the game in a 2-0 loss. Aside from that, the team that set a record with 119 errorless games in 2013 already has 11 such games through two weeks of the 2014 season, all without Gold and Platinum Glove-winning third baseman Manny Machado and with J.J. Hardy having missed six games early on.
The Bad
This category has a population of one, but that one is costing the Baltimore Orioles $12.5m/year. Ubaldo Jimenez has had a rocky beginning to his Orioles career. In week one, Jimenez pitched twice, walking eight hitters in 10.2 innings while hitting another and allowing eight earned runs.
Week two wasn’t any kinder.
In his lone start of the week, Jimenez went 5.1 IP allowing 5 ER, 10 H, 2 BB. For the second time in three starts, Jimenez served up two home runs. All this from a pitcher that allowed just 16 home runs in 2013, including just six after the All-Star break.
The silver lining to this–there’s always a silver lining–is that this is what Ubaldo Jimenez does. In his career, the season’s first month has been cruel to Jimenez. He sports a 10-12 record with a 5.21 ERA in March/April, and that includes 2010 when he went 5-0 with a 0.79 ERA. His highest ERA in any month the rest of the way? 4.29, which gets you about $10m/year on the open market (just ask Scott Feldman).
Still, with each five-inning start, fans in Baltimore are getting more and more impatient. Tough to preach patience when your $50m investment is 0-3 with a 7.31 ERA.
The Misleading
The Orioles bullpen would appear to be average based on the numbers. They rank seventh in the AL and 13th in the Majors with a 3.48 ERA and closer Tommy Hunter has converted 3/4 save opportunities. However, numbers can be misleading.
Josh Stinson was bad in mop-up duty on Sunday, allowing six runs in two innings of an 11-3 loss to the Blue Jays. Without his ‘pen-saving performance, the Orioles would have a bullpen ERA of just 2.29, good enough for best in the AL and fourth in the Majors.
What the numbers also don’t tell us is that Tommy Hunter should be 4/4 in save opportunities. On Saturday night, Hunter was ahead of Colby Rasmus 0-2 with two outs in the ninth as the Orioles were clinging to a 1-0 lead. Rasmus checked his swing on the 0-2 pitch and the third base umpire said he did not go around. All replays indicated that Rasmus was unable to check his swing, which should have ended the game. Instead, he was awarded ball one and homered on the next pitch to tie the game.
Offensively, this team has been misleading in week two. Yes, they hit .297 as a team and averaged 5.17 runs/gm. But when we look closer, we see that 26 of the teams 31 runs in week two came in just three games, an average of just under nine runs per game. In the other three games, they scored just five runs total, just under two runs per game. While the offense has seemed to turn a corner, they are still wildly inconsistent in the early going.
What Does it all Mean?
It means the Orioles are 6-7 and still a sub-.500 ball club since last season’s All-Star break. This schedule is not going to get any easier as the next nine games are against division opponents. The same problems that plagued the offense in the second half last season are still evident today:
OBP: .303, 25th in MLB.
BB: 25, 29th in MLB.
The club is not seeing enough pitches, not getting on base enough, and with the power that led them to 426 home runs over the last two seasons having seemingly disappeared early on, this offense doesn’t have an identity. The five players that hit 20+ HR in 2013 (Hardy, Cruz, Davis, Wieters, Jones) have combined for just seven in the first 13 games. When a team relies on the long ball to score runs, that just isn’t going to cut it. Frankly, they’re lucky the record is what it is.
Looking Ahead
Week three features the last two games of the three-game series with Tampa Bay, followed by a four game series in Boston, including an 11:05 a.m. game on Patriots Day that follows Sunday Night Baseball. Tampa Bay (7-7) sends Jake Odorizzi to the hill Tuesday and David Price on Wednesday to face Miguel Gonzalez and Chris Tillman, respectively. Boston, the defending World Series champions, find themselves in last place in the division at 5-8.
