As I write this, the Orioles are in second place in the tightly bunched AL East. They are 1.5 games out and in the midst of a stretch of games where they have lost 6 out of 8. They are less than a handful of games above .500 and are in a very competitive division and tightly bunched AL WC race. They are also 4 games into a critical 23 game stretch that ends on July 31st, the non-waiver deadline, and that precedes what is a very difficult schedule in the month of August.
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As they approach the deadline, I think its worthwhile to take a look at the areas where the Orioles struggle. Those are the areas where they should look to improve the team. The ironic thing about the areas where the Orioles tend to struggle are also the areas where they have struggled in this recent stretch of winning. In other words, they have done an excellent job of overcoming the weaknesses of the ML team and a lot of that credit goes to Buck, the bullpen and the defense and those areas are hiding the deficiencies again this year.
Looking at the struggles(or weaknesses if you prefer that word) of this team, a few things jump out. First of all, the Orioles just aren’t getting enough innings out of their starters. They rank near the bottom of the AL in this and while that has been a consistent problem for the last few years, at some point you start to wonder if the wear and tear on the arms in the pen start to be effected. The other thing the staff(particularly the starters) continue to struggle in are the walks allowed(3rd worse in the AL) and the HR allowed(worse in league by starters, 3rd worse overall). Now, because the defense is so good, they don’t give up a lot of hits, so they have that going for them in terms of the amount of baserunners they are allowing. That being said, if they walked fewer guys, they would probably lead the league in fewest baserunners allowed and that would further help out with the homers they are allowing. Obviously, it goes without saying, but fewer baserunners means fewer chances of multi run homers allowed. Also, if they could obtain a starter who keeps the ball down, that would be a bonus to help out this issue. I do expect the presence of Gausman to help out in terms of HR allowed.
The other issue this team has is getting lefties out. Its not that they are very poor at it but they don’t excel at it either and that is especially true out of the pen. They are middle of the pack in batting average allowed and lefties have a 700ish OPS vs the O’s pen. When you think about how one guy, Britton, is dominating everyone that number is actually a little worse.
On the offensive side of things, the issue continues to be OBP. I thought that the teams OBP would get better this year but I didn’t think Pearce would be as bad as he has been(although he has been better lately), and I didn’t think Delmon Young would get the amount of playing time he did. I also didn’t think Snider would struggle to get at bats on a consistent basis. The O’s still have a lineup of a lot of guys who don’t walk enough but the team does have the 4th best average in the AL, although it is just .257. Other than that, the offense is doing fairly well but it is the same story. They don’t have much speed and don’t walk a lot, so they can struggle to score at times. They will score in bunches and then nothing for a while(as we are seeing right now).
So, as we look towards the deadline, it appears to me that a few needs stick out:
1) A good starter who has good command and control and can eat innings. We can hope that Gausman in the rotation will improve things and that Tillman bounces back but having another guy to rely on would be good. (Cole Hamels please)
2) A lefty(or righty) reliever who does a very good job of getting lefties out. This team misses Andrew Miller, no doubt about that. Having a third shutdown reliever would be very nice, especially one who excels at getting lefties out.
3) A bat in the OF or DH who can get on base and take pitches.
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