The Orioles were destroyed by Jair Jurrjens last night, one hit shutout. Ugh.
The Orioles are sitting at nine games under 500 right now, 13.5 games out of first and fans are pretty much ready to once again call it a season before the All-Star Break. The Baltimore Sun ran an interesting story today entitled “A Step Forward?” Basically, yes the Orioles record is better than last year, a lot better actually but so what. The same problems are still lingering. It still boggles the mind how year-after-year the worst-case-scenario happens for the Orioles.
Take last year: Injuries to the starting staff, Reimold’s ankle and other struggles, Adam Jones can’t take a walk, Brain Roberts’ back, Wieters’ struggles, Garrett Atkins, Kevin Millwood, Michael Gonzalez.
Now this year: Markakis has no power; Brian Roberts (again); Wieters still not Jesus; Vlad is a singles hitter; Matusz ; Tillman; Bergesen; Guthrie; Britton struggles out of the gate, Michael Gonzalez.
The Orioles starters still aren’t pitching deep into games, there are still bullpen concerns and the offense disappears so often that they are starting to put pictures on milk cartons. Buck Showalter is not a miracle worker and too much weight was put on his shoulders from day one. You can blame the Orioles marketing department for that one as it played on the emotions and desires of a long suffering fanbase. But he is a manger, a great manager, but anyone expecting a complete turnaround simply because of his presence in the clubhouse was kidding themselves.
So now the Orioles have improved from historically bad to just bad. There really isn’t any way to sugarcoat it anymore. Yes, teams have come back from lower lows and there is a lot of season left to play but what can the Orioles do?
- Move Vladimir Guerrero out of the cleanup spot. Vlad does not have the power to keep him in the spot, but Mark Reynolds does. Reynolds is on pace for a 30+ homer season and has a much better OBP.
- Move Felix Pie for anything. Felix Pie is a lost cause. He can’t take a walk, he is not playing the + defense he is supposed to be playing and he still has not developed the “baseball” smarts that he should have by now. Nolan Reimold needs to be the fourth outfielder right now. This leads me to…
- Get Nolan Reimold more at bats. Be it at first, DH or left field his bat needs to be in the lineup somehow. He hustles, he plays smart baseball he is at least the same defensive level as Luke Scott and he is twice the bat on the bench that Pie is.
These are just the things that Buck Showalter and the Orioles have direct control over. I keep hearing that the Orioles need to get a “young proven hitter”. Well GEE! I hadn’t thought of that, let me just go out to the “young slugger tree” and pick one off and slip him in the lineup! If only it were that easy guys. Bottom line is Markakis, Jones and Wieters aren’t going anywhere. Vlad is not hitting at a level that would get us much, neither is Scott who has a shoulder problem on top of everything else. J.J. Hardy is a huge trade chip, but he IS a young strong hitter, so trading him makes no sense. Guthrie won’t get you that much either – the Orioles do not have the chips to trade for said “young hitter”.
Once again the Orioles’ season rests on something that the organization has no real control over. It rests on the shoulders of Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman, Brad Bergesen and Zack Britton. Buck Showalter and Andy MacPhail can’t simply hit the “pitch better” button that some people think exists. Rather, the pitchers simply have to, well, pitch better. If that cabal of young pitching talent fails to live up to expectations then the Orioles, as an organization, is in a world of trouble.
Listen to me now, we will never beat the Yankees and Red Sox through the free-agent game. We are only going to succeed when our young talent actually starts to play like we all thought they were capable of. This is the cavalry that we wanted and were hoping for the last couple of years and it has all been very disappointing thus far.
Meanwhile, Bartolo Colon is happening. The Rays somehow picked Casey Kotchman off the scrap heap and he is terrorizing the ball. The Orioles are seeing all that they’ve grown choked in the weeds right now and unless something drastic changes they are going to be looking up at the rest of the AL for a very long time.
