Well, week one is in the books for the Orioles and after seven games the team finds themselves 3-4, under .500 for the first time since September 28, 2011, the last day of their 14th consecutive losing season. So what have we learned about the Baltimore Orioles after just one week?
The offense is potent
The team as a whole is in the top 10 in the majors in on-base percentage (OBP), slugging (SLG), on-base+slugging (OPS), and runs scored, and in the top five in the majors in hits, doubles, runs-batted-in (RBI) and batting average (BA). They also have the ninth fewest strikeouts. Adam Jones leads the majors with a .500 BA while Chris Davis…
Chris Davis is on another planet
Chris Davis, known in Baltimore as “The Deputy,” hit .417 over the first week of the season while mashing a home run in each of his first four games. He also set Major League record with 16 RBI in his first four games of the season en route to being named the American League Player of the Week. The Orioles were chastised for not signing a middle-of-the-order bat in the offseason, but Davis seems set to prove that that bat was already on the team.
The team goes as far as the pitching takes them
Through one week, the Orioles starters have the worst ERA in the AL at 5.45. Jake Arrieta failed to get beyond five innings in the home opener, surrendering five runs and Chris Tillman couldn’t make it out of the fourth inning in his lone start of the season. Jason Hammel has been solid but has been victimized by one bad inning in each start and a bizarre play that led to two runs, inflating his ERA. Wei-Yin Chen has been good, but seems to tire in the later innings, giving up all five of his runs in the sixth and seventh innings of his first two starts. Miguel Gonzalez was very good in his only start. The bullpen got off to a shaky start in the first few games but seems to have righted the ship, permitting just two runs (one earned) in their last 16 innings.
B-Rob up to his old tricks
One of the biggest question marks heading into this season was the health of Brian Roberts. Roberts has a solid spring training in which he hit .310 while leading the team in at-bats. He got off to a good start against Tampa, going 5-12 in the series, but in the 9th inning of the third game, he strained his right hamstring stealing second base on a head-first slide, an injury that will cause him to miss at least 2-4 weeks. In his absence, the combination of Alexi Casilla and Ryan Flaherty has gone a combined 1-14 with four strikeouts (Flaherty 0-11, 4 Ks). This team needs a healthy Brian Roberts to fill that hole at second.
The job of the designated hitter is to hit. That’s pretty much it. So where do the Orioles DHs stand in MLB? Dead last. The DH slot in the lineup is a combined 1-24 this season with three walks and 10 strikeouts. Steve Pearce, the Orioles’ spring leader in home runs, is 0-10 with five strikeouts. Bottom line, this needs to improve or the Orioles record will not.
So what does this all mean? Well, we can’t say it means nothing since the season is a week old and all of these games count, but what we can say is that the season is still too young to draw too many conclusions. On a good baseball team, which is what the Orioles are, most of these trends will turn themselves around. The O’s have played in three opening days in their first seven games (Tampa’s and Boston’s home openers, as well as their own). That can take an emotional toll with all the excitement surrounding the games. The season’s first off-day came at a great time for the Birds. We should expect to see a rejuvenated team take the field come Wednesday night.
