Reality: The Baltimore Orioles are 4-6 in their last 10 games.
Rough week to be an #Orioles fan.
— Chris Montcalmo Music (@ChrisMonty) May 28, 2016
Perception: Yes, it has been a rough week to be an Orioles fan.
The Orioles pitching, no thanks to Ubaldo Jimenez, has been okay, but the hitting has been a major worry this week.
In the last 7 games, the O’s have been outscored 25-40. They have struck out 89 times (most in MLB). They have left 58 men on base, while going just 11-for-59 with runners in scoring position. They have also committed 11 errors.
Orioles have now scored 3 runs or fewer in 5 straight games, and 7 of 9. 3-7 since 2nd 7-game win streak ended. Still 12-10 in May.
— Eutaw Street Report (@EutawStReport) May 27, 2016
The Orioles have scored three or fewer runs in seven of their past 11 games. We knew they were going to live or die by the home run, but man, it’s brutal to watch when they are dying.
They broke out Saturday with six doubles, but those doubles still didn’t lead to much scoring. Hyun Soo Kim started five games in a row because he has been one of the few players making solid contact nearly every time at the plate, even hitting his first MLB home run Sunday. They brought Kim in to help with the On-base Percentage and he is slowly showing that he can do what they wanted him to do. The problem is the guys behind him in the line-up aren’t doing what they are supposed to be doing, on a regular basis, to drive him (and others) in.
But as bad as the last week might have seemed, the Orioles went 4-5 on a road trip with two series wins. They are still 8eightgames over .500 and are only a game back in the AL East.
Reality: Buck Showalter has been shuffling the line-up, including hitting Adam Jones in the lead-off position, playing Kim in multiple games in a row, and putting Pedro Alvarez in at 3rd base.
So you play an incompetent fielder at 3rd who hasn't hit even poor AL pitching vs a stud starter all to bat 8th. Got it. Genius
— BMore Opinionated (@BMOShowPod) May 28, 2016
Perception: A series of tweets went out on Saturday by the @BmoreOpinionate tweeter handle. That’s the name of the podcast that Jason La Canfora and Jerry Coleman do together. It’s beginning to feel like a twitter handle that two “media professionals” are using to vent out their obnoxious homer thoughts that their bosses might not like them saying on their other twitter accounts.
Listen, I vent and I complain about my teams on twitter, but I’ve always said that if you are going to complain about it, you must be able to present some sort of fix to the situation. You can’t complain without recommending a better option.
They complained on Saturday about having Pedro Alvarez playing third base multiple times throughout the game. However, they never gave their choice on how to fix it. With J.J. Hardy out, are you saying that you want to play Ryan Flaherty or Paul Janish at 3rd base and sit Alvarez? But when Buck does that, fans complain about how bad Flaherty and Janish are at the plate.
The Orioles pitching staff has been doing a decent job of keeping the team in the game. The bigger issue is trying to find ways to produce runs. Buck’s best option for doing that is by getting Alvarez in the game over Flaherty or Janish. If you play Flaherty or Janish at 3rd, that means that Alvarez goes to DH (do you really want to sit Trumbo?) or to the bench.
Did he hurt them defensively? Sure, he made an error… but one of the best fielding teams in baseball has committed 10 errors over the last week. Alvarez also made a stellar diving grab of a ball and nearly threw the runner out.
Buck knows that he loses something defensively at 3rd, but what he loses there he is trying to gain at the plate. And right now, what happens at the plate is more important for this team stuck in a slump.
Showalter is doing all the he can to try to help break this team out of its slump, but it’s up to the players to make contact.
Reality: Jimenez 2-6 with a 6+ ERA this season.
Last 4 starts for Jimenez: 16 2/3 innings, 27 hits, 23 runs, 19 ER #orioles
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) May 28, 2016
Perception: After Saturday’s debacle, fans were calling for the Orioles to just cut Jimenez on the spot and leave him in Cleveland. That all sounds fine for a fan to say, but a fan who actually knows that baseball is a business understands that there is way too much money at stake with Ubaldo.
The Orioles owe Jimenez the rest of his $13 million for this year, and $13.5 million next year. That’s a lot different than the $3 million they owe by getting rid of Brian Matusz. There is no way at all the Orioles just cut Jimenez and eat that kind of money. Sorry O’s fans, it is not going to happen.
Yes, he stinks right now and deserves the same fate of Matusz, but his contract says otherwise. We just have to hope that Buck finds one of his mystery injuries and sends him to the DL, because if he doesn’t then we will see him every 5th day, or we’ll see him relegated to the bullpen. But if that happens, he becomes another Rule 5-type guy, that you try to hid in your 25-man roster, but don’t want to play. So, the Orioles play another man down.
The only good result that is going to come from all of this, is that hopefully Jimenez can go on the DL, work through some things on a rehab assignment, and hopefully become a useful 5th starter. If he doesn’t, it only hurts the team, because he is here to stay.
Reality: The Orioles have won 10 of their first 16 series of the season.
Orioles improved to 15-10 in games decided by 2 runs or less and are now 10-5-1 in 16 series.
— Steve Melewski (@masnSteve) May 29, 2016
Perception: Eight games over .500 and within a game of the division lead is a great place to be as we head into the month of June. Now the Orioles open up, what could be, the most important series of the season so far…four games at home against the AL East leading Boston Red Sox.
[Related: Series Preview – Orioles (28-20) s. Red Sox (30-20)]
With how the O’s have been playing over the last 10 games, a split of this season would be a real positive. If the Birds take three of four, they leave this series in a first place tie.
This is a big series as the Orioles begin, what looks like, the toughest month of the season. 21 games against the AL East and three games against the Royals.
When we flip the calendars next month, we’ll be able to tell how far this Orioles team is going, and it all starts with this four-game series at home against the Red Sox this afternoon. Let’s fill up the Yard!
