A Bird’s Eye View: May 27th

This is a weekly wrap up of the goings on in with the Orioles and all throughout Major League Baseball. Each week I’ll dive into a few news items and include what teams are hot and cold. I’ll also give you the Orioles player of the week, as well as one from the American and National League.

A lot will be said and written today about Jim Johnson, and for good reason. The Orioles officially have a problem at the back end of their bullpen.

There are other options to turn to aside from Jim Johnson, but none of them jump off the page as GREAT options at this point. Darren O’Day stands out as one option. Tommy Hunter (depending on the severity of any hand injury sustained from this beauty yesterday) could also step into the role. Pedro Strop could have been an option before he went on the disabled list Saturday with what the team calls a “lower back” injury. That sounds more like “inability to throw strikes” to me, but you can be the judge.

Perhaps Jim Johnson will be diagnosed with a similar flaw in the coming days.

The issue with putting anyone else into the closer’s spot is that it shuffles the deck on what are already some fairly well-established roles in the bullpen. Moving one man into a different role leaves his role unclaimed, and down the line the problem gets shifted. It wouldn’t shock me to see Buck Showalter stick with Johnson at least for another week. We’ve seen such loyalty from Buck in the past. We watched that loyalty in action on Sunday afternoon when Johnson simply couldn’t get the ball over the plate without it coming on a belt-high fastball. Showalter stayed put in the dugout, refusing to give the ball over to someone else in the pen.

Instead, the Orioles gave the game over to the Blue Jays.

With all the issues the O’s clearly face in the bullpen, it wasn’t all bad for the entire team this week. I’m not pushing any sort of panic button, merely glimpsing at it from across the room. The Birds did win more games than they lost after all, taking a series at home against the Yankees before splitting the four-game set in Toronto. Things really looked grim after losing Monday’s game to New York, but the O’s battled back and took the series. The same could be said after the Orioles lost Thursday’s opener in Toronto in what turned out to be the MLB debut of Kevin Gausman. Oh yes, Kevin Gausman made his debut last week. We haven’t even gotten there. Many of my thoughts on Gausman were spelled out in my piece earlier this week.

I thought Gausman looked very strong in his debut despite less-than-stellar numbers. It’d be nice to see him provide a little stability to a rotation that needs it. Freddy Garcia has proved that he is nothing more than a fifth starter fill-in. It was really nice to see Garcia pitch well and get his first win in a Baltimore uniform in Toronto, but once Wei-Yin Chen returns, Garcia could be the odd man out.

The O’s face some challenges this week for sure. Four games against the “rival” Nationals will prove to be a test. I’ve really enjoyed watching this rivalry grow over the years, even if it is mainly just among fans. The “Battle of the Beltways” or “MASN Cup” will be decided over four games, split between Nationals Park and Camden Yards. If you can, get down to DC to support the Orange and Black, and definitely fill OPACY with orange while blocking the red out later in the week.

The Detroit Tigers are in Baltimore over the weekend in another series that is sure to test the pitching staff. The defending AL champs can swing the lumber and the starters will need to go more than five innings each time out to keep up.

The Blue Jays have quickly become one of the least likeable teams in baseball. They have a few players that really rub you the wrong way and for different reasons. Brett Lawrie is a perfect example. The guy plays with his heart on his sleeve, but he does it in the most arrogant and pompous way possible. Melky Cabrera comes to mind as well, especially after his suspension for performance-enhancing drugs last season when with the San Francisco Giants. I did however, find one player on the Jays I can really say I enjoy watching play the game. (Even before this delightful postgame interview? I guess you can call it that) yesterday, you can tell Munenori Kawasaki plays the game for fun. His joy and antics after beating our beloved O’s yesterday hurt, sure, but it was actually somewhat fun to see as well.

Orioles Player of the Week

Chris Davis (1B) – Chris Davis continues to tear it up at the plate. “Hulk” hit .407 this week and smashed four homers with six RBI as a part of the Birds’ offensive onslaught in Toronto. He now leads the majors in homers with 16 on the season and continues to be the heavy power threat in the middle of the order that the O’s need.

American League Player of the Week

C Jason Castro (HOU) – Stop the presses because a Houston Astros catcher is the AL Player of the Week. Castro hit .579 on the week and slugged 1.105, but even more impressive – his 1.742 OPS which dominated the league. Castro added three homers with five RBI for Houston, which couldn’t find much help for him in that putrid lineup.

National League Player of the Week

C Buster Posey (SF) – Last year’s NL MVP gets the nod this week after hitting .440 with a homer and two RBI. It was slim picking on the NL side this week, but Posey did have an OPS of 1.062 and helped San Francisco to a 4-2 record against the Nationals and Rockies.

That’s this week’s Birds Eye View. Go O’s!