Thursday Thoughts: Road Woes & Quiet Bats Could Sink O’s

This is a weekly column that dives into eight random thoughts about the Orioles/MLB. Why eight? It’s a nod to Cal Ripken Jr. of course. That, and doing 2,632 of these would be a little overboard. – A.S.

1. I think the Orioles bats need to start finding a way to score runs without hitting homers. This didn’t seem to be much of an issue earlier in the season. It’s become apparent over the last few weeks that they are becoming an offense that is more and more reliant on the long ball. That will be an issue down the stretch.

Everyone knew entering the season that there was this potential. A lack of players who consistently get on base coupled with high strikeout numbers will do that to a team. When the Orioles struggle to come back late in games against the Athletics without going deep, I worry that it’s a harbinger of things to come when they face teams with better pitching staffs down the stretch.

2. The offensive struggles of the Orioles have been magnified by those of Chris Davis. The first baseman is wearing the brunt of the blame for the lack of runs, especially since he’s only had a handful of hits since the All-Star break. But in my eyes, much of Davis’ woes are overblown. He’s going to get a lot of heat, especially after signing a massive contract this offseason, but isn’t this kind of the player we expected?

Davis is still playing much better baseball than he did in 2014. He’s more than a win better and even when looking at basic statistics, he’s outperforming that season. These drastic ideas to move Davis to the leadoff spot or to bench him for a stretch of time are overblown.

We’ve seen him go through this before and he’s been just fine. He’ll surpass his home run total from 2014 and might be a better defender. Virtually no one outside of Buck Showalter recognizes the fact that Davis is stellar playing first base. That’s an important part of his game.

GulfBird Sports/Craig Landefeld

Davis might be paid to hit the ball out of the park, but he’s also paid to be a baseball player.

3. It’s the ultimate small sample size alert, but Wade Miley has been just about as average as expected for the Orioles thus far. Miley has had one bad outing and one decent one. He’s pitched to about a 50-50 ground ball-fly ball rate and has been less than spectacular and better than awful.

Miley is the ultimate fourth or fifth starter for a team that didn’t really have one. He’s just another guy to fit into the fold, and I’m still convinced that the Orioles only traded for him because he throws with the funny hand.

4. The Orioles’ struggles on the road this season are tough to fathom. I don’t think there’s any real explanation for why a team would be so much better at home than on the road. Over the course of a 162-game season, those things tend to work themselves out. I was shocked when the O’s were able to win a series in Chicago last weekend, and it shouldn’t be like that.

The Orioles are going to have to play better on the road. Frankly, they are lucky they have been so good at home that it’s cancelled out the road record.

5. Speaking of the road schedule, this weekend marks the last real massive road trip for the O’s. It’s the last time they travel out of the Eastern Time Zone, and after this weekend, they only have three road trips left. One of those trips is a three-city swing from Tampa Bay to Detroit to Boston over the course of ten days.

The O’s got a bit of a tough break this year with having to travel multiple times to the west coast. Earlier in the year they had a trip to Anaheim as part of a trek that included a stop in Houston. They also had to head to San Diego, Seattle and Los Angeles on the same swing. Now they are back in California for a Bay Area double-dip against the A’s and Giants.

Not to mention they had to make one-day return trips to both Texas and Minnesota for make-up games.

It’s been a rough road for the O’s, but from here on out, it’s much smoother sailing.

6. I thought Buck Showalter and Adam Jones’ comments on Tim Tebow this week were spot on. If you missed what they said, it’s easy enough to find. Both were sarcastic, cutting and honest. If Tebow really believes he can walk right in and play professional baseball at a high level with any success, he’s crazy.

I don’t think Tebow is being egotistical by believing he can do this, I just think he’s delusional. Baseball is a hard game. Some of the best athletes in the world play the game. It’s crazy to think that anyone can just walk from one sport into the other and be good.

7. Orioles fans are going to have a task over the next few years – figuring out who to hate. With the retirements of David Ortiz, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, there is a void of villains in the AL East. Jose Bautista would be the easy answer, but he’s now injured and is also a free agent this offseason. He may not even be back in the division in 2017.

Truthfully, Ortiz is the only one of the three retiring players that I consider a true villain. He embodies everything that is icky about the game in my eyes. I never understood the “Baltimore hate” for Teixeira. A-Rod is an easy target with his steroid use, but most people forget that Ortiz also tested positive for steroids. I’m not here to get into a steroid conversation, but Ortiz has skated past that label because he did it before there were penalties.

I won’t miss any of these players, because they’ve been good and therefore a thorn in the side of the O’s. But I especially won’t miss Ortiz. He and his bullpen phone can be gone.

8. The Olympics are in full swing in Rio and it got me thinking about the 2020 Games, when baseball and softball will return. It’s clear that no MLB players will be taking part in the Tokyo Games. The league won’t stop its season for two weeks to send players across the world in a tournament.

But if MLB’s best were representing their countries, I wonder which O’s would make the cut. I was able to watch Adam Jones represent Team USA a few years ago just ahead of the World Baseball Classic. The team played an exhibition against the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was thrilling to see the Red, White and Blue on a baseball diamond.

I’m curious as to what country Manny Machado would represent. I’d also like to think that Zach Britton would be closing the door for the United States.

Are there any other Orioles that stand out as potential Olympians?