Good morning internets!
The Orioles have had quite the season series against Tampa so far. First we sweep them in Tampa, then they sweep us in Baltimore. Friday Jeremy Hellickson shut the Birds out in a complete game, yesterday afternoon Brad Bergesen returned the favor using 108 pitches to make the Rays batters look silly for nine innings.
Can we take anything more away from these games? Probably not. But maybe it is a sign that confirms what a lot of people thought at the beginning of the year: Outside of the Red Sox, the Yankees, Orioles, Rays and Jays are all very evenly matched.And seeing as how the Red Sox have gotten off to a limping suppurating start to the year the entire AL East looks much more evenly matched than it did in March.
The Orioles are currently sitting in last place, but mainly by default. They are 4.5 games out if first, 2.5 games out of second and only half a game separates them from third. The margin between first and last in the AL East is the smallest in the MLB right now because each team seems to be much more flawed than originally thought and those flaws are keeping anyone from busting out.
The Orioles: Roberts and Markakis and still struggling, as are Lee and Reynolds. The overall offense is wasting away in the bottom third of the league because of these slow starts even as the pitching staff seems to be gelling and getting into a rhythm.
The Yankees: Finally starting to show their age. Posada and Jeter are liabilities. The back end of the rotation is in flux and one has to wonder how long the Yankees can ride the bloated corpse of Bartolo Colon. When the offense is hitting homeruns they are winning, but when they are not – they are not. Only one starter is batting over .280 and the vaunted back-end of the bullpen has not necessarily been what everyone thought it would be. After his white-hot start Russel Martin is playing more like his history stated he would.
The Red Sox: The biggest surprise of the year thus far. The backend of their rotation has been abysmal. Their overall pitching staff is ranked 12th in the AL even as their offense remains strong despite Carl Crawford’s ridiculously slow start and the black hole they currently have at catcher.
The Rays: Possibly the most complete team in the league right now, so long as that bullpen holds up. The best thing that happened to that team was Manny Ramirez retiring and allowing Sam Fuld to get starts. Fuld’s defense has been such a boon to that pitching staff even if his bat is starting to cool off since April. The Rays are still young however and their offense will probably be right around league average at the end of the day. It is all about the starting pitching for Tampa.
The Jays: Outside of Jose Bautista’s homerun bat they are a crushingly below average team. They aren’t a bad team, but there is nothing to them outside of Bautista, and possibly Adam Lind. Their rotation is young and has a lot of upside, like the Orioles and they haven’t been bad – but they haven’t exactly been good either. Now they are carrying Jo Jo Reyes in that rotation, that won’t help.
Every team has holes right now and the only thing to do is wait and see how the season plays out. If nothing else this early spate of parity in the division has made the early games a bit more fun to watch. With every team so close it makes you think that they carry just a little bit more weight than they probably should.
Today the Orioles will send Jake Arrieta out to the mound during the rubber game of a three game series against the Rays. Arrieta has been more than solid for the O’s in the early going. With a 4-1 record in eight starts he has only allowed more than three earned runs once. He is holding opponents to a .226 BA and a sub .300 OBP. Outside of Guthrie and Britton Arrieta has been the Orioles most reliable starter this Spring. The Rays will send in Andy Sonnanstine a pitcher the Orioles have gotten to in his career. The O’s have tagged Sonnanstine to the order of an ERA over six, a .316 BA and an OPS just a shade under .870.
After this series wraps up today the Orioles get back-to-back two game series against the Red Sox and Yankees. Seven games against divisional opponents at a time when the division is doing all it can to stay bunched together. Most teams are fighting to get to or stay above .500 and everyone’s flaws have been on stark display. The next five games seem just a little more important than they probably should.
