3 Up, 3 Down – May 10, 2021

Welcome to ‘3 Up, 3 Down’, the weekly column breaking down the three hottest and three coldest Orioles players based on their performance during the previous week. It has proven to be an interesting exercise and good opportunity to highlight the highs and lows of a long baseball season. This week comes after series against the Mariners and Red Sox.

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3 Up

John Means – 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 9 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 12 K, 0.00 WHIP

There is no other way to kick off this week’s column than to talk about John Means’ no-hitter. It happened early last week so pretty much everything that can be said about it has already been said but it was a special moment to be able to watch live. I missed a few innings in the middle of the game to record a preview of the Aberdeen Ironbirds on the Locked On Orioles podcast but the last three innings of the game got progressively more nerve-wracking with every out. It was the most invested I’ve been in an Orioles game since the devastating wild card game against the Blue Jays in 2016. It was great to have that feeling again and to me it signals the spark of the next great Orioles teams. Even though the Orioles have yet to win a game since it happened on Wednesday afternoon it is just so easy to spring the optimism that came from that moment forward especially with the minor league season kicking off right around the same time. Means should be the first extension of the Mike Elias regime. I would lock him up for the five or six years. He spun a masterpiece and didn’t allow the fact that he was continuously squeezed by the home plate ump to distract him from attacking hitters to the tune of no hits, no walks, no base runners other than a dropped third strike, and 12 strikeouts. It will be interesting to see if there is a let down of sorts in his next start against the Mets on Tuesday.

Cedric Mullins – .280/.357/.600 (.957), 5 R, 2 doubles, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 SB, 25 AB

The story of the 2021 Baltimore Orioles, at least over the first five or six weeks, is a 1-2 punch of John Means and Cedric Mullins. I keep waiting for Mullins to come back down to earth or go on a cold streak but its starting to look like he is just bringing the earth up to him. He continues to hit left handed pitchers like he’s Steve Pearce and has the highest OPS against sliders in the league. At first he was lacing singles and doubles all over the field but over the past two weeks he has had a power surge with four doubles and five homeruns. It seems like he starts every game by getting on base. He’s starting to use his speed on the basepaths, stealing two bases this week, finally taking over the team lead in steals from Ryan Mountcastle. At this point I would be surprised if Mullins and Means weren’t both representing the Orioles at the all-star game this summer. The early 2010’s Astros found Jose Altuve and Dallas Keuchel out of the scraps that the front office inherited, maybe Mullins and Means can be those guys for the Orioles.

Freddy Galvis – .375/.444/.813 (1.257), 2 R, 1 double, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 16 AB

For as poorly as Galvis started the season its pretty amazing that he has the second best batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage on the team – only behind Cedric Mullins in every category. I hate to constantly compare Galvis to Jose Iglesias but it is just such a direct corollary and I’m going to do it anyway. Gavlis has a .284 batting average and .845 OPS on the season compared to .271 and .637 for Iglesias respectively. Looking at Baseball Savant it is shocking to me to see that Iglesias is in the bottom two percent in outs above average on defense at shortstop. I can’t believe that he has been one of the worst defenders at the position this year but Galvis is closer to average using the same metric. Also, Garrett Stallings pitched in his first professional game for the Ironbirds this week and was excellent over five innings. As long as Freddy doesn’t go ice cold again before the trade deadline its starting to look like Elias might be able to turn him into something.

3 Down

Maikel Franco – .100/.100/.150 (.250), 1 R, 1 double, 1 RBI, 20 AB

You know you’re not going well when you get benched in favor of Rio Ruiz at third base but in this case I get it. It may just be one game but if neither Franco or Ruiz is going to hit then you want the guy with the better glove out there which is clearly Rio. Its still relatively early and anyone can have a rough patch at any point in the season but even early on Franco wasn’t exactly lighting the world on fire. Overall on the season he is batting .210 with a .607 OPS. I was going to say maybe the Orioles should’ve tendered Hanser Alberto a contract with the weaknesses that have been third and second base but he has a .566 OPS over 67 plate appearances. Fortunately for the O’s they have some options at AAA Norfolk that can eventually try to fill those gaps if Franco and/or Ruiz eventually need to be designated for assignment. Rylan Bannon has a .781 OPS in his first week of the minor league season and Jahmai Jones has a .924 OPS. Jones is obviously looking like the first call-up but its looking more and more realistic that we could see Bannon as well before too long.

Pedro Severino – .000/.063/.000 (.063), 15 AB

What a difference a year makes. After the first six weeks of the 2020 season the Orioles had one of the best catching tandems in the league with both Severino and Chance Sisco performing well at the plate. This year after the same amount of time they’re sitting at .542 and .422 OPS’ respectively and are the bottom two in MLB in pitch framing. Neither can barely catch a ball pitched to them. That fact was glaring during John Means’ no-hitter on Wednesday when the only batter to reach base was a strikeout on a breaking ball that Severino didn’t get down to block. To be fair to him he then proceeded to throw that runner out (his first of the season) but that error cost Means a perfect game. More than at third base if these guys aren’t going to hit then the Orioles need to put someone behind home plate that can help our pitchers out. Nick Ciuffo may the baseball gods heal your hand as quickly as possible.

Zac Lowther – 0-1, 27.00 ERA, 2.1 IP, 7 H, 1 HR, 2 BB, 3 K, 3.86 WHIP

I was so excited to see Lowther make his first major league start after getting to make his major league debut in a low leverage situation during a blowout. Unfortunately it had to be against the AL’s best offense the Boston Red Sox and they put their bats on full display against the rookie. He struck out the first batter he faced and pitched a scoreless inning in the first but gave up four runs in the second inning including a two run homer to Michael Chavis. The third inning started with a walk sandwiched between two hits to allow another run in but he left on a high note with a strikeout. Shawn Armstrong came in and did him no favors by allowing both inherited runners to score (and then two of his own in the next inning). The good news is he wasn’t optioned after the game so it looks like he will get a chance to redeem himself with at least one more turn through the rotation. The bad news is that if he does get that chance it will be against the high powered Yankees.