The O’s are, as we all know by now, off to one of their hottest starts in team history. They’ll be severely tested over the next seven games though, as they now head off to the northeast corridor for three in the Bronx followed by four at Fenway.
Nobody ever said this AL East stuff was gonna be easy. Hopefully the bats bust out starting tonight. Let’s see what’s up in the Blog O’sphere:
Despite Mixed Results, Tillman Feels Ready to Join O’s
Melewski has the quotes from Chris Tillman following his rehab start for single-A Frederick last night. Steve and Chris both implore us to not pay too much attention to the pitching line, which…wasn’t good. Perhaps good, though, is that Tillman might be able to make his next scheduled start, which would be Tuesday in Boston, against the Red Sox. He says his shoulder isn’t bothering him anymore, so it’s all systems go.
Speaking of Birds pitchers and bad lines, there’s Kevin Gausman. We used to call him “Gas Man” because of his devastating heat, but lately it’s a much more pejorative term – meaning that he sets things on fire. Beyond the Box Score’s Joe Clarkin tries to figure out what the issue is.
Rickard’s Return from DL Shouldn’t Last Long
Joey Rickard is set to come off the DL today, with LHP Paul Fry being sent back down without even throwing a pitch. Brian Reid at Orioles Uncensored goes into all the detail about why Rickard has no spot on this team, at least right now. Amen.
It’s Early, but Adam Jones Looks Like a New Player
Another OU guy, Dillon Atkinson, in his weekly MASN guest column, goes into AJ’s impressive start. We already know all about how Jones is playing deeper in the outfield, and watching his ABs, we can see a bit of improved plate discipline and some hard-hit balls. So is Jones turning back the clock? Or is this just a good start because he is fresh and rested, and as the season wears on, he’ll regress back to the guy we’ve seen steadily declining (not a lot, but noticeably) over the past few seasons? Time will tell.
Orioles Slugger Trumbo Isn’t Hitting the Mark
Mark Trumbo has been straight up awful so far. It continues a trend that started after July or so of last season, though even then it wasn’t quite this bad. Camden Chat’s Nick Cicere looks at some video to try to see where Trumbo’s swing mechanics are off. Hindsight is 20/20 and all, and Mark is bound to pick it up (at least a bit), but doesn’t a Pedro Alvarez/Trey Mancini DH platoon sound nice right about now?
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Alvarez is hitting .183 in AAA right now. No, it doesn’t sound good.
He’s also trying to learn to play outfield. We saw how he can hit at the MLB level last year. I’d venture that if he was focusing on hitting, he would be raking. But we’ll never know.