REALITY: Ryan Lavarnway has three hits on the season.
PERCEPTION: Lavarnway is the Orioles back-up catcher, and he is basically their Sunday catcher, as Buck doesn’t like to play the same catcher in a day game that follows a night game. Lavarnway is hitting 3-for-28, which is a .107 batting average. He has seven strike-outs.
Yet in the 8th inning Sunday, with the bases loaded and the Orioles down by three runs, Buck decided to let him hit, when he had Caleb Joseph and J.J. Hardy on the bench.
According to Roch Kubatko of MASN, Buck said he was giving Hardy the day off no matter what.
Buck said Hardy will be in lineup tomorrow. Didn't want to use him today. Says healthy and trying to keep him that way #orioles
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) May 24, 2015
In other words, "one game is not worth having Hardy go back on DL for the season".
I get it, but don't like it. https://t.co/qMPHEqiBia
— Joe Polek on Sports (@JPonSports) May 24, 2015
But when you pinch-hit Joseph in the 9th with no one on base, I scratch my head. I get that you don’t want to hurt the season, because of one game by potentially having Hardy hit for one at-bat and pulling something. But isn’t it more important to tie the game up in the 8th when you have a chance, instead of try to start a rally in the 9th with nothing happening?
You had a chance to tie the game up in the 8th and make the 9th matter. Instead you keep a guy who has three hits on the season, because you were thinking about pinch hitting for the pitcher in the 9th?
I’m gonna just keep repeating to myself….“In Buck We Trust.”
REALITY: Steve Clevenger is hitting .322 with two home runs and has a .390 OBP.
PERCEPTION: The biggest question a lot of fans have is why is Clevenger not in Baltimore? This is not a question about Matt Wieters or Caleb Joseph. This is strictly a back-up catcher question.
As I said, Lavarnway is hitting about .100 on the season. Clevenger is hitting three times that. What does Buck see in Lavarnway that he doesn’t see in Clevenger?
He is a player that could help the cold-hitting Orioles.
REALITY: David Hall, who covers the Norfolk Tides, says that Nolan Reimold plans to opt-out of his deal with the Baltimore Orioles around the All-Star break.
Nolan Reimold said he has an opt-out around the MLB All-Star break, but “I’m not really thinking about that at this point in time." #Orioles
— David Hall (@DavidHallVP) May 24, 2015
PERCEPTION: Reimold signed with the Orioles in Spring Training but had an opt-out clause so that if he wasn’t in Baltimore by July, he could be cut loose to try to sign with another team.
Reimold started the season off red-hot and has cooled a bit, but he is still hitting well. He has a .278 batting average, with a .340 OBP. He has two Home Runs and 55 total bases, which is third on the team.
He is another player that could help the cold-hitting Orioles.
REALITY: As I said in last week’s “Perception is Reality”, Buck Showalter said the Orioles are looking at bringing up Chris Parmalee.
PERCEPTION: Parmalee continues to hit the ball well. He is hitting .323 with a .396 OBP. He has three home runs, and leads the Tides with 71 total bases.
He is yet another player that could help the cold-hitting Orioles.
So as you can see, the Orioles have some options of players to help their struggling offense in AAA, if they wanted to go that route.
