The dreary weather we had all weekend here in Charm City extended metaphorically, to a dark cloud hanging over our baseball team. In addition to losing a very winnable game on Saturday night, the O’s lost Zach Britton to an ankle injury with two outs in the ninth inning. On Sunday, the White Sox beat Ubaldo Jimenez around to leave town with a series split, and J.J. Hardy also left that game after fouling a ball off his foot. It was an ugly weekend in more ways than one, and the sun still isn’t out here in Baltimore…literally or metaphorically.
Let’s check in on things in the links.
Zach Britton Confident He Can Avoid Disabled List
PressBox reports that Britton would be “surprised” if he had to go on the disabled list, and that he hopes to test out the ankle in a few days’ time. Buck Showalter expressed some optimism as well, saying that at least it’s not Zach’s drive foot that he injured. Bullet dodged, hopefully.
As for Hardy…
Source: X-rays of Hardy's foot have O's officials very concerned. May be fracture.
— Peter Schmuck (@SchmuckStop) May 1, 2016
Ugh. A million times ugh.
Injuries Likely to Test Orioles Early in Season
Over in his weekly MASN column, our own Andrew Stetka opines on this recent run of injuries the Birds are dealing with. Not the most uplifting read for sure, but it isn’t the time to sugarcoat things – this team is about to be tested. How they get through the next several weeks could go a long way toward setting the tone for the rest of 2016.
Hyun-Soo Kim’s Improved Play is Winning Over Buck Showalter
Hyun-Soo Kim just keeps on hitting. He had two more hits on Saturday night, and is now 11-for-17 at the MLB level. With Pedro Alvarez heating up as well, Rich Dubroff of CSN Mid-Atlantic reports, Buck is facing quite a happy dilemma trying to get at-bats for all his players.
Chris Tillman is Trying to Reinvent Himself
Camden Chat’s Alex Conway took a look at Chris Tillman’s pitch data so far in 2016, and he says that Tilly is trying to reinvent himself. Chris has thrown far fewer four-seam fastballs this year than in years past, significantly increasing his percentage of sinkers and cutters. The results have been a missed bag (and he’s not getting grounders on the sinker like he did last year), so it will be interesting to see how Tilly continues to evolve going forward.
And in NFL News…
The Baltimore Ravens brass seem to be very happy with their 2016 Draft, but many fans are left nonplussed. They passed on many fan favorites, including UCLA’s Myles Jack. RSR Editor-in-Chief Tony Lombardi says that they’ll be judged accordingly in the coming years if Jack ends up being a stud.
