After winning both series in Detroit and Kansas City, the Baltimore Orioles dropped 2 of 3 in Atlanta, and lost the series opener to Tampa Bay last night. This 3-4 stretch in the last 7 games has the Orioles at 22-13 overall entering tonight’s game vs. the AL East leading Rays.
Baltimore trails TB by 6.5 games in the East, but remains the top AL Wild Card.
Quick Hits:
1) As we said last week, the expectation bar has been raised, and increased scrutiny is coming. As a fan, we go into every year with anticipation of the team, and individuals performing at a certain range of levels. Surprise is when teams or players surpass or fail to reach those initial expectations. In the early parts of any year, the pendulum can swing to unsustainable levels for both teams and players. Then the games pile up, and with further sample size, we typically arrive at levels more expected. 35 games into this ’23 season, I feel like we have an increasingly accurate understanding of this team. This is a good team. A playoff caliber team. What impressed me over the last week was not just that they played a very competitive series in Atlanta vs. the Braves; but that they were consistent and able to take care of business vs. the Tigers and Royals. Beat-up the bad teams, play .500 vs. the best. That’s a good recipe.
2) While I think this is a good, playoff caliber team; I’m also coming to the opinion that an acquisition or two is going to be necessary for this team to have legitimate World Series aspirations.
3) One thing I happily got wrong this past week was that Dean Kremer made another start. I figured he was ticketed for AAA, and swapping places with Cole Irvin this last time through the rotation. Instead, Kremer took the ball Friday night in Atlanta, and earned the win with 6 quality innings. He certainly earned another start. The key though is consistency. After a great start in DC, that was followed by two duds prior to the outing vs. the Braves. Can he start stacking positive outings?
4) Kyle Bradish followed Kremer’s start, with a very solid outing of his own vs. the Braves. WBAL Radio relayed comments that Bradish said he felt like that was his best out of the year. Which loosely translates to, “Competing over 5 innings vs. Atlanta and that lineup, is better for my confidence than overwhelming that AAAA Nationals lineup like I did earlier this year.” It’s easy to forget that professionals have confidence issues too. Bradish is a young man, who has now made 28 Major League starts. Each outing is a learning process. How do I compete when I don’t have your best stuff? How do I set-up hitters? At this point, Bradish knows he has the ability to get ML hitters out, but he’s still figuring out just how good he can be. He’s talented enough to get into a groove, and really show out the next few months. He’s also inexperienced enough, where finding that consistency in ’23 might allude him.
5) Stop me if you’ve heard this one; Grayson Rodriguez is also seeking consistency. Kremer is good enough to help a ML team in some capacity. Be it back of the rotation when he’s going good, or potentially in the bullpen. Bradish and Rodriguez have the ability to be elite front-end starters. Someday. Asking them to lead the staff in ’23, seems like a tall order. All I want from Rodriguez this year, is for him to typically give the O’s a chance to win. He had back-to-back outings vs. Detroit with no runs allowed over 10 innings, with 15 k’s vs. just 4 walks. Excellent performances for where he is in his career. But that was followed by a really weak outing Kansas City, where he didn’t get out of the 4th, and allowed 3 homers.
6) Adley Rutschman has appeared in all 35 games so far. Over his last 7 games, he’s 5 for 26, with his OPS dropping to .799. He’s very talented, and has the ability to impact games even when he’s not hitting. But the lineup looks a bit lacking when he’s cold. How many games does he get behind the plate this year? How many days off does he get (not just DH, but totally off)? At his worst, he’s an All-Star, and in the running for the best catcher in the game. When we talk about individuals having ranges of performances, All-Star is his floor. Can he reach his ceiling this year?
7) Welcome to 2023 Tony Santander! 13 for his last 30, with 6 xbh’s, has jumped his OPS to .804. There will be highs and lows with him offensively, and his bat is completely power dependent – but the power is real.
8) Gunnar Henderson had another tough week (2 of 18, 5 bb’s, 7 k’s). He’s batting just .174 after his initial 92 ab’s. Ramon Urias has been placed on the 10 Day IL with a hamstring. O’s General Manager Mike Elias says Urias is going to miss some (read extended) time. Urias’ injury means any discussion of Henderson being sent back to AAA isn’t likely to happen. Which makes sense to me with or without the Urias injury. My inclination has been to just keep starting him daily. My general thinking being that baseball is always about adjustments, and that’s certainly true for a guy not yet 22 in what is hopefully his first full year in the bigs. I’m not sure what sending him back to Norfolk to demolish AAA pitching does for him. On the other-hand, at some point his offensive production has to get going. This can be a competitive everyday lineup, but it’s not Murderers Row. It’s not good enough to sustain someone being a black hole. No surprise that he’s really struggling vs. LHP (3 for 26). That should improve as he ages, but it’s a real issue right now. If you get to the end of May and he hasn’t picked up the offense, maybe you switch Henderson out with Jordan Westburg (if Urias isn’t back himself). Gunnar did make a couple of real nice defensive plays in Atlanta.
9) Kyle Stowers is 2 for 17 since coming back up. The opportunity is there for him to grab regular playing time, but he has to earn his way into the lineup each night. The O’s could use him to get going.
10) Cedric Mullins is 13 for 44, with a .949 OPS vs. LHP. Some fantastic glove work from the O’s CF on the road trip.
11) Drew Rom is up to help the bullpen, replacing Keegan Akin. Terrin Vavra is back up from AAA. He figures to compete with Stowers for some time. Ryan O’Hearn is also back, replacing 3rd catcher Luis Torrens. I’m happy about that, as I really dislike carrying a 3rd catcher.
12) Mychal Givens and Dillon Tate continue to inch closer to the big league roster. I’m quite pleased with the pen overall, and think that everyone will get a boost when Givens and Tate are back (if they are at the levels you would expect them to be at). Everyone gets slotted down a spot. Everyone can get more rest. If you think back to the Buck Showalter days, he often Managed the bullpen to the point he had 3-4 guys available on Night A, and the other 3-4 guys available on Night B. The ’23 O’s should be able to do something similar. Maybe one difference is that Buck isn’t the current Manager. I’ve talked about the scrutiny increasing, as the expectations rise. I find myself questioning Brandon Hyde’s bullpen management fairly often, and I think Buck was one of the few ML Managers that could make a difference as as tactician. (Yes, I know someone will bring up the Wild Card loss at Toronto.) But to be fair to Hyde, the rotation isn’t providing many innings in-front of his relievers, and bullpen management is the easiest thing for arm-chair analysts like myself to pick at. It’s similar to how Football fans feel about the Offensive and Defensive Coordinators of their favorite teams. There is always complaining and second guessing to be found. I have no idea how good of a Manager Hyde is or isn’t. I do know that in-game Management is a very limited part of the job overall. Of far greater consequence is his leadership skills in the Clubhouse. His ability to deal with the Front Office and the Media. How prepared players seem to be. What tone is set for the players. Can they shake off bad nights? Right now, even if you don’t love Hyde’s bullpen decisions, you’d have to say this team shows up ready to play pretty much every night, and they battle. He has to get some credit there.
13) Attendance will go increase as the weather warms further, and school gets out; but there was less than 13,000 in the stands last night for the battle of the AL East’s top two teams. The season tickets are obviously sold. It will be interesting to see what the O’s do going forward this year with day off attendance. My guess right now is that if this team remains in contention all year, is that we see increasing amounts of orange this Summer.
Next 7 Games:
May 9th – 10th vs. Tampa Bay
May 12th -14th vs. Pittsburgh
May 15th – 16th vs. LA Angels
You’d love to win tonight vs. the Rays, and give yourself a chance at the series win tomorrow.
You also want to win tonight, to avoid any chance of being swept.
Pittsburgh is leading the NL Central, but is just 3-7 in their last 10.
You should take 2 of 3 at home vs. the Pirates.
It’s a 4 game home series vs. the Angels, with May 16th looking like the O’s will face Ohtani on the mound.
LA is 4 games over .500 at 20-16, which has them in 2nd place in the AL West, and 1 game out of the 3rd AL Wild Card.
Owner
Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.