Bird Watching - O's Head Home After 4-5 Road Trip, Head Home To Take On A's And Mets
What a crappy road trip. Started off on a nice note with the grand slam in extras to beat Oakland, then they played two absolute terrible series, including getting no hit. Looked at first like they could go 6-3 during the roady, but ended up 4-5. They’ve had some real pathetic performances recently, all while the Blue Jays are the hottest team on the planet, and the Yankees are finally starting to show their age and shut down. Want to know why the Orioles can’t gain any ground in the division? Look at their last 11 games, W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L-L. Hard to gain ground when you can’t throw together a winning streak.
I feel like I say this every damn week too, but even with how bad the O’s have been playing, they are still only 5.5 games back of the division lead. Wild Card is more realistic, as they’re only 2.5 back of the second spot. Looks like it will come down to the Yankees, Angels, Rays, and Orioles for two wild card spots.
Offense Struggling
While the main parts of the offense are still playing well (Manny, Jones, Davis), there are STILL some major holes in this offense. The role players are struggling hard and giving the opponents a shit load of free outs. Just look at these stats…
Jimmy Paredes (July and August)- 19 for 104 (.183), 3 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 6 BB, 37 Ks.
David Lough- 16 for 129 on the year (.202), 0 for last 17, 34 Ks, 5 BB, .243 OBP. 2 for his last 26.
Ryan Flaherty (July and August)- 6 for 54 (.111), 1 Hr, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 10 Ks, 0 for his last 33.
Nolan Reimold (July and August)- 10 for 49 (.204), 0 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, 4 BB, 14 Ks. 2 for 14 this month.
No wonder Iwakuma threw a no-hitter with Lough, Paredes, AND Flaherty in the lineup. Pretty much nine free outs right there. Not easy to score runs in a game when you have a giant black hole at the end of you lineup. These were guys who the O’s thought could contribute this season. Looks like the book is out on Paredes now, guy swings at EVERYTHING and has no patience up there. He literally has one job as DH, just hit the ball, and he can’t do that. Wouldn’t shock me to see one of these guys DFA’d real soon.
24 Man Roster
This is getting insane now. Rule 5 pick Jason Garcia came off the 60-day DL last week and has been hidden in the bullpen ever since, leaving the Orioles with essentially a 24 man team and a short bullpen. Buck refuses to use him unless the game is essentially out of reach, and for good reason, he sucks. 5.52 ERA, 11 hits, 9 ER, 8 Ks, 12 BB in 14.2 innings. Before this season, the highest level the 22 year old had pitched at was AA Bowie. But because of his Rule 5 status, he has to be on the roster all year, or be sent back to Boston. So the O’s have really handcuffed themselves.
Garcia has shown he is not ready to be an MLB pitcher, as not many 22 year olds are. But hiding him in the pen is killing the O’s. I hear “all they have to do is hide him for 2 more weeks until September call ups”, but guess what, playoff teams don’t hold spots on their roster for Rule 5 picks who may be a good reliever in 2 years. My head almost exploded when I heard local radio clowns say they are keeping Garcia because “He may be the next Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, Darren O’Day, or Zach Britton in a couple of years.” All because he hit the upper 90s in Spring Training? Give me a break. I’m not worried about 2016 or 2017, I’m worried about right now. With Garcia, Reimold, Lough, Mcfarland, and Junior Lake on the team, it’s almost like the O’s have a 20 man roster.
Upcoming
O’s return home for a 10 game home stand, and start it off with four against Oakland, and then two against the Mets. It looked like the O’s would luck out and miss seeing Sonny Gray, but since he was scratched yesterday, there is a chance he makes a start in this series. Hoping that isn’t the case. However the O’s just took two out of three from Oakland and should take this series too. With the Yankees and Jays playing each other again, it’s crucial the O’s beat up on the A’s and get at least three wins. The Angels take on the Royals, one bad series for them, and the wild card standings could look very different.
The Mets stop by for a short two game series and will be throwing two of their young studs, deGrom and Syndergaard. A split is realistic here, just can’t get swept. Every series they lose just digs them a deeper hole, let’s hope they can stop alternating wins and losses and throw together a winning streak.
Could see some players coming up this week too, with Wieters tweaking that hammy the other night, there is talk he may go on the DL. Roch Kubatko was reporting that Steve Clevenger and Henry Urrutia may be on their way up to Baltimore. Clevenger would replace Wieters, and maybe look for Junior Lake to be optioned down? Who knows, maybe getting some new faces in here will spark something.
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