Reality: The Baltimore Orioles are in the bottom half of the league in most statistical categories, yet they are winning.
Perception: The Orioles have the 6th best record in baseball and the other five teams are all in first place in their respective divisions as well. The O’s are the only division leader that has been outscored by opponents. They are 22nd out of 30 teams in baseball in runs scored. They are 19th in home runs, and 16th in RBIs. The Orioles are 21st in ERA, 28th in Quality Starts, and 27th in Batting Average against their pitchers.
But the Birds are winning. If you just look at the stats, you’d think we were losing, but that’s not the case. They are above .500 and they are winning series, which is the most important thing. They are 7-4-1 in series this season.
Reality: The Orioles are 20-16 and hold a 1.5 game lead in the AL East.
Perception: We are hard to please. In March, if you said the Birds could be over .500 and in first place, you would have taken it any day of the week. But you’d think the O’s were at the bottom of the standings by the things you hear/read fans saying about this team.
Let’s put it all in perspective for a minute. The Orioles will go until at least late May (probably longer) before having their full lineup playing together. Manny Machado, J.J. Hardy, David Lough, Chris Davis, and Matt Wieters have all seen periods on the Disabled List. Look at that list of names. That’s half an All-Star team! That’s nearly an entire infield that has all been out of the lineup.
With those caliber of players all being injured for a time, any team would be happy being close to .500. But the Orioles have done better than that; they are over .500 and in first place! It’s actually really impressive how well this team has done with all those injuries, while also struggling to score runs. Just think how much better this team will be when they get fully healthy and start hitting.
Reality: Players originally thought to be backups have seen a lot of playing time this season.
Perception: Dan Duquette has done a great job at filling a roster with quality depth.
When Machado and Hardy were out, the Orioles were able to fill the holes with Ryan Flaherty, Jonathan Schoop, and Steve Lombardozzi, along with Jemile Weeks. Chris Davis gets injured, and Steve Pearce does a phenomonial job filling in. Now, Matt Wieters is on the DL and Steve Clevenger is doing a nice job as the primary catcher.
Duquette brought in a ton of extra players in the offseason, many of which Orioles fans needed to google to find out about them. But his diligence is paying off. The Orioles have lost some major players in their lineup, but the team is still winning thanks to the replacements.
Last night, Clevenger went 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and it now batting over .300. He also threw out a baserunner trying to steal.
Over the weekend, Ken Rosenthal said the Orioles were aggressive in their search for a back-up catcher, and they’d be willing to trade Troy Patton to make it happen. I said it over the weekend and I only feel stronger now, after Clevenger’s recent play: do the Orioles really need to make that deal? Is trading Patton for a back-up catcher really an upgrade? I’m not sure it is. Our catchers are playing well, and I think we might need some trade chips for after the All-Star break when teams who have fallen out of contention look to dump players.
So let’s be patient… this team is winning.
photo: Craig Landefeld
