Reality: Hyun Soo Kim batting .377 with a .449 on-base percentage.
Most hits in 1st 22 games in @Orioles history:
1. Billy Ripken 29
2. Curtis Goodwin 27
3. Hyun Soo Kim 26
Rickard 26
B. Roberts 26— O's Stats & Facts (@BirdlandStats) June 5, 2016
Perception: I don’t know what’s more surprising about the stat in the tweet…that Kim is doing so well, or that Billy Ripken actually holds an all-time Orioles record.
Before we saw Kim step on a field in the United States, all I heard was that he is very much like Ichiro in that he will get base hits consistently and help the Orioles with OBP. In Spring Training, we did not see that. But now that Kim has gotten more adjusted to the Major Leagues, we see that everything we heard has turned out to be correct. The guy has a great eye at the plate and has a knack for just finding holes to put the ball in.
Buck may not be ready yet to say he’s an everyday player, but I feel so much better about Kim, Nolan Reimold, and Joey Rickard, than I have felt about the rotating outfielders the O’s have had in a number of recent years.
Reality: Dylan Bundy has stopped using his cutter while pitching for the Orioles…the same thing that Jake Arrieta did.
Dylan Bundy from this morning on not using cutter/slider https://t.co/LJmNDN2sFe
— Steve Melewski (@masnSteve) June 5, 2016
Perception: The big difference is that Arrieta was told to not use that pitch as the team was nervous it could hurt him long-term, whereas Bundy saw the pitch was causing pain in his own body and decided to stop throwing it on his own.
After hearing so much about how Arrieta didn’t work in Baltimore because the team didn’t let him pitch the way that he thought he could, and then seeing him succeed in Chicago, some are worried that the same might happen for Bundy. However, Bundy is squashing those thoughts quickly. As he spoke to the media this weekend, he said, “I…told them I quit throwing it.”
Bundy has had so many injury issues that I think it’s the smartest decision he could make. Frankly, I have been so down on Bundy that I had been saying at the start of the season that I didn’t think he would ever get a win in an Orioles uniform. Well, he got a win as a reliever, but he also has a 4.94 ERA in just 23 innings of work out of the pen.
Could Bundy finally work his way to be the player that we all wanted him to be? Maybe, but I don’t have confidence in him yet.
Reality: The Orioles bullpen has 2 more wins than the Orioles starters.
You want to know how the O's are challenging in the AL East? Mychal Givens is 5-0. Brad Brach is 5-0.
— Pete Kerzel (@masnPete) June 4, 2016
Perception: Yes…read that stat again. The O’s pen leads baseball with 17 wins, which is two more than their starters have. That’s not the case with any other team in MLB.
I don’t know if that shows how great the O’s pen has been or how bad the Birds starters have been. But it’s not all the starters’ fault. The Orioles have had their late-inning magic again this year. In innings 1-6, the Orioles rank 18th in baseball in runs. In the 7th inning or later, the Orioles rank 4th in baseball in runs. When you look at those stats, you see O’s starters are not getting the run support they need to get wins…but the bullpen is.
Mychal Givens, Brad Brach, Darren O’Day, and Zach Britton are benefitting greatly from that run support, as those four pitchers are a combined 14-2.
Reality: The Orioles were 31-23 after 54 games this season.
Perception: If you’ve been reading Perception Is Reality this season, you know that I’ve talked twice now about breaking the MLB season into nine 18-game segments, and if you win six of those segments then your team would be in the playoffs.
The Orioles are now 2-1 in the first three segments, going 11-7, 12-6, and now 8-10 in their last 18 games. They have been in first place at the end of each of those segments, and they are nine games over .500.
They have started 1-0 in the fourth segment and will continue a tough month tonight as they start a three-game series against Kansas City. After that, they play the Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Blue Jays again. It’s a crucial time for the Orioles.
