After a washout on Tuesday, the O’s lost a nooner on Wednesday to Philadelphia to finish up their first successful homestand of the year at 5-3. They now head off on an 11-game road trip, a terrifying prospect to any O’s fan. The Birds have lost 12 straight road games, and are a woeful 3-16 away from Camden Yards, with those only three wins coming at Yankee Stadium nearly six weeks ago.
What would constitute a “successful” road trip for this team? 3-8? 4-7? Sad state of affairs. Hopefully they surprise us all.
To the links.
Is Manny Machado a Legitimate MVP Candidate?
Our own Andrew Stetka joined the Locked on Orioles podcast with Justin McGuire to talk about Manny Machado’s MVP case…specifically, if he were to get traded and help his new team get into the playoffs. Andrew & Justin also discuss Gregg Olson’s stint in the broadcast booth, which Andrew mentioned in today’s Thursday Thoughts.
Is it Already Time to Sit Chris Davis More?
Need more bad news about Chris Davis? He homered in back-to-back games recently, and hit a double yesterday, but there has been no consistency. Certainly not nearly enough to get his numbers up to a respectable – and, as Matt Kremnitzer of Camden Depot points out NOT HISTORICALLY BAD level. Damn it all, man.
Triggering “Miguel Castro Starting Experiment” Makes Sense
Did you realize that Miguel Castro is younger than Hunter Harvey? That raised my eyebrows, honestly. Anyway, Dan Connolly says Castro should get a chance to be a starter at some point in this very likely lost season.
Looking on the Bright Side: Jonathan Schoop is Healthy & Has Improved
Over at Baltimore Sports Report, Connor Guercio is taking on the herculean task of trying to find silver linings to this Orioles season. In this edition, he says that Jonathan Schoop is on his way to yet again being Dope, and thanks to Robinson Cano doing some Dope, he could even sneak his way onto the All-Star team again.
Is Brad Brach Really This Bad?
Ben Palmer of the Baltimore Wire digs into Brad Brach’s struggles to start 2018, concluding that it’s a lack of fastball command that’s really been the culprit. Here’s to Brach finding that command and showing that he can be the lock-down arm that he has been over the past few seasons. We just need about a month-plus of additional sample size there to make him a nice little trade chip.
