The Baltimore Orioles are the only undefeated team in MLB. Through some sketchy weather that has impacted the rotation and despite some early injuries; they are beginning their first road trip of the year sporing that unblemished record. A 5 game winning streak in June barely goes noticed. When it is the beginning of the year, it is blown up to more than it really is. Still, the team is playing well out of the box and despite not scoring a ton of runs so far, they have the best run differential in the AL.

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Contributions have been received across the board. So, let’s take a look at some highlights of how the team is off to a good start. (Note: These highlights are in not in any order of importance.)

1) Joey Rickard has provided a nice spark for this team. After the Kim saga, the Orioles turned to Rickard and he has instantly become a fan favorite. Fans love underdogs and he exemplifies that. His OPS is almost 1200, he has at least 1 hit in every game while flashing solid defense. He has already been moved to the leadoff spot and it hasn’t hurt him yet. Of course, we all need to take a deep breath and understand that this is just 15 at bats and we need to see him over a much longer period of time before we can truly judge his viability of being a valuable player. That being said, he’s playing good baseball and is doing everything his ability is allowing him to. You have to respect a kid who has bounced around in many different leagues, finally getting his chance and getting the most out of it.

2) The starting pitching has been very solid, highlighted by the 7 IP outing by Ubaldo Jimenez on Wednesday. Vance Worley ended up giving up 3 runs today in only 4.2 IP. However, he struck out 5 and only walked 1. Also, you could tell he was getting tired and, to me, never should have faced Corey Dickerson (Catcher interference was unlucky there for sure) or Pearce. Still, Worley was expected to go 5 innings or so and keep us in the game. He did that and could have done more with a little luck or Showalter getting him out earlier. Worley’s start was the worst of the year so far, at least in terms of runs allowed. Gallardo, Tillman and Jimenez have combined to allow 4 runs (3 earned) in their first 19 innings. In those 19 innings, they’ve struck out 23 batters and walked only 5. Gallardo was the shakiest and his velocity was down 2 MPH from last year. That is something to watch. The hope is that this is a guy who got into camp late and perhaps just doesn’t have the arm strength yet. It also doesn’t help that it’s been cold here in Baltimore, which isn’t the easiest to pitch in, especially at the beginning of the season. The Jimenez start was superb. He was shaky early on but he settled down and struck out 9 and didn’t walk anyone. He showed fantastic movement and had pretty good command. He is likely going to be up and down all season long but it’s still nice to see him get off to a good start. Tillman looked strong on Opening Day but unfortunately; his outing was cut short after just 2 innings. He came back on 3 days rest and while he wasn’t as sharp, he was still solid enough. We need these guys to go deeper into games and they will. That is really the only thing you can say against the staff as a whole for this week. They are in the top 5 in the league in Ks, BB rate, ERA and FIP. They are doing all of this without their best starter, Kevin Gausman, as well. It only means so much because it’s a small sample size but this is a staff that while not great, should be okay and if they can be okay, this team will have a chance at contention. This is a good start. Let’s see how they do as they go into Boston and face a tougher offense.

3) What isn’t a surprise with this pitching staff is the bullpen, which is playing without their LOOGY, Brian Matusz (which may or may not be a good thing).  The pen has been pretty dominant so far. Through the first 5 games, they have thrown 21.3 innings. They have given up 3 runs, all of which have been allowed by Givens, who had some bad luck in giving up 2 of the runs against the Twins. In those 21.3 innings, the relievers have struck out 26 batters, walked 7 and given up 1 home run. Their FIP is well under 3 and their WPA is second in the league. I would expect this bullpen to continue to be very good. It’s probably the strength of the team, especially if Givens is going to pitch in 2016 like he did in 2015.   They have some high strikeout guys now. It is good to see some power arms out there. They are going to be excellent as the season goes on.

4) The offense has been good. What I have liked to see early on is the approach. Obviously, we are talking 5 games here but so far, the Orioles hitters are making much better contact and seeing more pitches per PA than they did last year. The walk rate is up to 9%. It was 7% last year. They aren’t scoring a bunch of runs yet but many of them looked locked in and the ball is also not traveling the way you expect it to because of the cold weather. (This of course is also helping our pitching, so it goes both ways) Still, we are seeing some great early season performances. Manny Machado is off to a 3 HR start. He has an OPS of 1340 after his 4 hit game today. He looks poised to make a run at the MVP. Schoop has an OPS of well over 1000. He has 4 XBH already. He even has a walk! Davis has shown good power and he has walked 4 times already. He talked about how he needed to not go fishing as much this year. He should walk 100 times this season. He will certainly have the opportunity to do so, as teams try to stay away from his 80 Grade power. Matt Wieters, who had the game winning hit on Opening Day, has an OPS barely over 600. That’s obviously not good. But I absolutely love what he is doing at the plate. If he continues to approach his at bats the rest of the year like he has early on, he’s going to have a big year. He saw 20 pitches today in his 4 at bats. He has 17 at bats this year and has seen 82 pitches. That is just under 5 pitches per at bat. To put that into perspective on Friday, Chris Tillman threw 83 pitches in his start. He is seeing the ball very well and its nice to see, considering we thought he would start the year on the DL, just a few weeks ago. This team isn’t going to continue to win games where they score less than 4 runs but they are approaching their at bats well and they will score at a higher rate as the season goes on. Oh and they are doing this without Jones, who has missed the last 3 games with the oblique issue.

5) The defense has been very solid. The corner OF spots haven’t hurt the O’s yet. Rickard has replaced Jones well and the IF defense has been superb. They have been charged with 2 errors this year. One of them was on a hard hit, bad hop ground ball that Davis didn’t get in front of and then the Wieters Catcher interference in today’s game. Machado looks like he will win another GG this year and even looked great at SS. Hardy has been his normal steady self and Schoop has moved well and showed off that great arm. Baltimore is getting the quality defense we expect out of our catchers as well. The defense and the pen are the strengths of this team. The question about the defense will be the corner outfield spots. Last year, the Orioles trended to be more of a GB staff than in previous years. So far, their GB rate is 1.23. That will help cover up the OF defense if that continues. They entered today top 3 in BABIP as a staff. The defense helps that obviously.

All in all, it’s been an outstanding team effort early on. There are some warning signs and hopefully the O’s can get everyone healthy but this team got off to the start they needed to do. This quote is what I was kind of alluding to in my recent article about them getting off to a good start:

 Steve Melewski@masnSteve

Manny Machado: “You don’t win a championship in April, but you definitely learn how to play as a team.”

It’s good to see these guys having fun and playing with confidence. Remember, they lost 10 of their first 11 ST games (also had a tie) but still ended up 12-15. They played well at the end of spring and have carried that into the regular season.

This week, it gets tougher as the go on the road. They play in Boston for their home opener tomorrow and have to face Price in his Red Sox home debut. They end the week with a 4 game trip against a tough Texas team. Let’s see how the pitching does this week. It will be real test against 2 good offenses.

Rob Shields
Rob Shields

Rob has interviewed guests from outlets such as ESPN, Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, FOX Sports, Baseball Prospectus, Athlon, Sporting News, MLB Network, Brooks Baseball, Baseball Info Solutions, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Sports on Earth, Grantland, NFL Network, FanGraphs, Football Outsiders, ProFootballFocus, etc. etc. The Baltimore native lives in Perry Hall with his Wife Lindsay, and two young sons. He has appeared as a guest on 105.7 The Fan, Q1370, and WNST 1570. Co-Host of The Warehouse: https://anchor.fm/the-warehouse Co-Host of Sports Tonight: https://anchor.fm/sports-tonight

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