Orioles: Last 7, Next 7 June 10th Report

There are seemingly an unlimited amount of different turns over the course of a 162 game Major League season.
Even when you think you have a firm grasp on a team, something unexpected always still occurs.

Aaron Hicks batted cleanup for the Birds last night vs. the Royals. He’s played all 7 games for the Orioles so far here in June.
Tyler Wells earned win #5 last night. He’s now started 12 games. He wasn’t expected to hold his rotation spot very long.
Yennier Cano has come back to Earth some, but if the All-Star game was today, he’d likely be representing the O’s on the American League team.
He didn’t come North with the Birds when Spring Training ended.

The Orioles won 2 of 3 in San Francisco, winning the last game of that series after getting some offensive contribution from Josh Lester.
The O’s avoided a sweep in Milwaukee by beating the Brewers in the third game there. Ryan O’Hearn was in the lineup that day, for the 5th time during the road-trip.

There are always more turns coming.

Quick Hits: 

1) Cole Irvin is back up and making his 4th start as an Oriole today. He’s got a total of 13 Major League innings this year, entering today. It’s quite possible that he’s a rotation fixture the rest of the way.

2) Ryan Mountcastle is crushing LHP, and struggling mightily vs. RHP.  No idea if it’s a fluke or not, but he’s producing at much higher clip during day games vs. night. He missed last night due to illness..696 OPS in April. .710 OPS in May. xSLG 91% percentile. Barrell 92% percentile. Avg Exit Velo 80% percentile. BB% 8 percentile. Chase Rate 2% percentile. 2 for 15 in June.  He really does have to get going this month.

3) The offense has been cold here in June.  Bringing up Colton Cowser, and Jordan Wesburg seem like fairly easy decisions, though neither are on the 40 man roster. Bring up Cowser, and put him LF, with Hays’ better arm in RF.  Santander moves to DH. Bring Westburg up as well. Insert him at 2nd base, until / if he shows he can’t handle the position defensively. It feels like Jorge Mateo has been hitting better in June than he did in May – and he is – but his .579 OPS in June is still horrible, it’s just not quite as abysmal as his unfathomably bad May (.316 OPS). If you also want to bring up Joey Ortiz for SS, I’m not opposed.

4) The O’s were able to comeback in Game 3 vs. Milwaukee, because Kyle Bradish was able to right the ship after a disaster of a 1st inning. Bradish was able to get through 5 innings, with 10 k’s, vs. just 1 walk for the game. That was easily a game where he potentially could have been knocked out right away. Him finding a way to get through the early struggles, and give his team a chance was huge.

5) Other potential additions can be debated, but finding another high-leverage bullpen arm to team with Cano, and Felix Bautista at the end of games needs to happen.

6) Gunnar Henderson went 3 for 3 last night vs. KC.  His opposite field homer Thursday in Milwaukee, was similar to his opposite field shot early in the year at Texas. He covers a lot of the plate, and he’s got the strength to take balls on the outer half of the plate out of the park.  His overall OPS is up to .752. Him finding himself is a big step-forward for this lineup overall. As we mentioned last week, the O’s will clearly try and protect him some vs. lefties going forward this year. Still want to see him get some ab’s vs. southpaws.

7) When Cedric Mullins returns, what’s going to happen with Hicks and Ryan McKenna? I think McKenna is a quality 4th OF, but the O’s grabbed Hicks and are playing him everyday. Maybe that’s just riding the hot hand, but they signed him to play everyday in Cedric’s absence, when they could have just turned to McKenna.  They didn’t. So when the O’s front-office has to choose again, can we assume they’ll want to keep HIcks over McKenna with the active roster?

8) Dean Kremer started the road-trip with a quality outing in San Francisco before getting drubbed around Wednesday in Milwaukee. After allowing 7 homers in April, Kremer limited the big flies in May – only being taken yard twice. In these two June starts, Kremer’s allowed 3 more homers.

9) The O’s are 15 games over .500 entering play today, but have fallen to 6.5 games of Tampa Bay in the American League East.  The Rays have won their last 7, and are currently on a blistering 115 win pace. Baltimore remains the lead Wild Card in the AL, with a 3.5 game lead over the Yankees for that lead WC position.  Teams 2-4 in the WC race (New York, Houston, Toronto) all have a better run-differential mark than the Birds.

10) Baltimore is still Top 10 overall (8th) in runs scored, but has fallen to 13th in Slugging Percentage, and 19th in On-Base Percentage.

Next 7 Games:

6/10 – 6/11 Kansas City
6/13 – 6/15 Toronto
6/16 – 6/17 @ Chicago Cubs

The Royals are wretched. You want to pin them down, and earn a series sweep.
At the minimum, win today, and earn a chance to sweep tomorrow.

Toronto is in 4th place in the AL East, 10.5GB of the Rays. The Jays are 7 games over .500, and have won 7 of their last 10 entering today.
The Jays are 4th overall in on-base %, and 2nd overall in quality starts. You’d like to see the O’s get 2 of 3 at home in the divisional match-up.

Despite being 9 games under .500, the Cubs are still within reach ( 6.5 games back ) of NL Central leading Pittsburgh.