REALITY: In the Orioles’ previous eight games, they were 3-for-57 with runners in scoring position. Sunday, they were 6-for-10.
PERCEPTION: The Orioles will live and die by RISP. If they hit over .300 with RISP, they are good enough everywhere else to win the division. If they go through more spurts hitting under .100 with RISP, they will fail to make the playoffs.
REALITY: The Baltimore Orioles are 5-9 in the month of July.
PERCEPTION: The Orioles were 10-10 in April, 13-16 in May, 18-10 in June, and are 5-9 so far this month.
(As a side note, Delmon Young was Designated for Assignment July 1st. Is there a curse of Delmon, who still remains a free agent?)
Everyone knows the O’s have been struggling this month, and it’s not going to get any easier. They are off to New York for three games and then to Tampa for three games, before coming home to play the Braves and Tigers to finish up the month.
The Orioles will travel to New York 4.0 games out of first place. They can’t get swept, while ideally, they’d obviously pull of a sweep of their own. If they go under .500 in the next three series, it could drastically change what the Front Office decides to do at the July 31st Trade Deadline.
REALITY: According to Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com, a few of Buck Showalter’s comments before Saturday night’s game could be implied as the Orioles “are –at the very least—entertaining the idea of shopping” Chris Davis.
PERCEPTION: It’s good to know the Orioles are keeping all of their options open as the trade deadline approaches. The Orioles will certainly have interest in players, but do the Orioles have enough pieces to interest other teams?
O's could trade someone in the outfield but you have to wonder what the get-back would be considering no one has seized a starting job
— Dan Connolly (@danconnollysun) July 18, 2015
If you want to get someone to make a difference, you have to trade someone of real value, like Davis. But if you get rid of Davis, is that really helping this year’s team push toward the playoffs?
According to Jon Morosi of Fox Sports, the Orioles have expressed interest in trading for Justin Upton from the Padres. But as Roch Kubatko of MASN and Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports said in order for the Orioles to get a player of Upton’s ability, they will either have to get weaker by giving up a MLB starter or get weaker in the future by sending a few top level minor leaguers. Do they even have the quality players in the minors to make it happen?
So, do you trade a few minor leaguers to San Diego to bring in Upton to play OF and move Davis back to 1B? That definitely improves this year’s team, but Upton is a free agent at the end of this season. That trade could easily turn into a repeat of the Andrew Miller deal all over again. Do you trade quality minor leaguers for a three-month rental?
REALITY: Kevin Gausman will start for the Orioles Wednesday, meaning the team will have to move someone off the 25-man roster before Wednesday night’s game.
PERCEPTION: I had a debate on Twitter at the start of Sunday’s game about some options for the Orioles. Some want to see Chris Parmelee DFAed. That is well and good, but how does that make this team better? So you move Davis back to 1B, but then you make your outfield weaker. Travis Snider, David Lough, Steve Pearce, Nolan Reimold and Parmelee are all about the same. Two of them have to play because if you put Davis at 1B, then you need LF and RF. Keep Davis at RF and you need a LF and a 1B.
Snider is hitting .253 with a .324 on-base percentage.
Pearce is hitting .227 with a .259 OBP.
Lough is hitting .226 with a .268 OBP.
Parmelee is hitting .225 with a .262 OBP.
Reimold is hitting .224 with a .309 OBP.
How does Young’s .270 with a .289 OBP look now?
The Orioles could very well cut Parmelee, who has struggled since the first week he was called up. But I might say it’s more likely the O’s cut Reimold.
With Davis in RF, Parmelee is at least playing a really good defensive first base. Reimold brings nothing else to the table.
I think Pearce is safe because he can play anywhere defensively. Reimold can’t.
Another move the Orioles could make to not have to DFA someone would be to send Ryan Flaherty down, since Jonathan Schoop is obviously not struggling. He is hitting over .300 with six home runs and 14 RBI in his 18 games this year.
