Reality: Manny Machado issued an apology, but it will take time to regain what he had.
Perception: After clearing the benches twice over the weekend, and reportedly smiling after Athletics catcher Derek Norris was hit in the head by a backswing, Machado lost a lot of respect throughout baseball among players, fans, and media.
Oakland’s Norris labeled Machado’s behavior “a disgrace to baseball,” and said “things like that stain your career.” The A’s weren’t the only ones saying Manny needed to grow up. Quotes from players across baseball were showing that Manny lost a lot of respect within the game.
Before last night’s game, Manny offered an apology in an exclusive interview on the Orioles network, MASN. Watch it here.
After his apology got out, a lot of fans said it was good enough for them. Some in baseball, including Norris, said it was good enough for them. While others, including Josh Donaldson, said he has to earn back their trust.
Before I saw his apology, but heard that Manny only issued a statement to MASN and didn’t take questions from other media, I was thinking this was like the Ray Rice press conference all over again. But after viewing the apology, I changed my opinion.
Machado seemed genuine and he did take questions…granted, it wasn’t from a wide variety of media, but he did take questions from Roch Kubatko during the MASN interview. I’m not sure that it’s a done deal for me or for others, but it’s a step (and a much better step than Rice took). Now, he needs to let his actions do the talking.
Reality: The Orioles seem to favor the best defensive option behind the plate.
Perception: With FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal’s tweets yesterday stating that Matt Wieters was going to see Dr. James Andrews because he is still having discomfort in his elbow, it seems more than likely the Orioles would be without Wieters for the rest of the season.
When Wieters first went down, the Orioles went out and traded Troy Patton for San Diego catcher Nick Hundley. It appeared at the time that Hundley would be given the starter job, and surprisingly, the O’s sent down Steve Clevenger, instead of Caleb Joseph, even though Clev was hitting better than Hundley or Joseph.
Since then, Joseph has seemed to take over the starting job with Hundley getting occasional starts. But the only stats that seem to back up that decision would be the defensive stats. Joseph has thrown out seven of 16 runners, while Wieters, Clevenger, and Hundley have thrown out just five runners combined. Steve Melewski of MASN said, “Joseph’s caught stealing percentage of .438 would rank 3rd in AL in he played in enough games to qualify for league leaders.”
Offensively, Joseph is batting .128 in 18 games with a .241 OBP and Hundley is batting .125 in 7 games with a .185 OBP. Clevenger batted .243 in 24 games and a .300 OBP, but has hit .696 with seven doubles, nine runs, and 13 RBI’s in his last five games for AAA Norfolk.
Last night, Clevenger said, “I’m going to play with a chip on my shoulder and show them that I deserve to be back in the big leagues.”
That’s why I really believe that Buck prefers a defensive catcher more than an offensive one. Clevenger would seem to be the option if Buck wanted a hot bat. But Joseph is the one giving pitchers what they want behind the plate. They are getting comfortable with him there and he is throwing out nearly half of base runners. That could prove to be more helpful to a club that has the highest team batting average in all of baseball since May 18th. They can hide a catcher who doesn’t hit great, but they need his defense.
Reality: The Orioles are winning games against the division, which matters most.
Perception: The Birds are 32-30 on the season, and trail the Blue Jays by 5.5 games in the AL East, and trail Seattle and the LA Angels by 1.5 games in the Wild Card. If the O’s want to win their division, they need to beat AL East teams, and so far they are. Against the AL East, the Orioles are 14-8, which leads the majors in wins versus the division. Against the AL Central, the Orioles are just 7-13 and they are 7-6 against the AL West.
After last night’s 4-0 win against the Red Sox, the Orioles are now 36-27 vs. Boston since 2011. That is the most wins against the Sox by any team in the AL East. If the O’s can keep beating the Sox and find a way to beat the Jays, Rays, and Yanks, then the O’s can win the division. You can say what you want about the AL East, but it’s all about winning the division and getting to the playoffs. Even if the division is mediocre, it’s important to win it, and give yourself a chance to play for the pennant. And we should find out a lot this month, as the Orioles play 22 of their next 33 games against the AL East.
