Baltimore Orioles Mid Season Report: Well Better Than Last Year... Barely

With Buck Showalter at the helm, many thought the Orioles had a good shot of breaking the streak of 13 straight losing seasons.  Well those thoughts seem to have gone out the window as the O's sit in last place, in the AL east, with a mark of 36-52; 16 games under .500.  The good news is that at the all star break last year the O's were 29-59.  So there has been a seven win improvement in a year's time, but the way the past few weeks have gone the improvement seems to be minimal.  The O's were last at the .500 mark on May 26 and have been in last place since May 27.  Yes, I was part of the crowd that thought there was a shot at .500 the beginning of the season, but that meant that the bullpen would have to mature.  That didn't happen and Vladimir Guerrero and Derrek Lee have shown there age as Guerrero is batting under .300 and D-Lee is on pace to have a career low, in batting average, as he is batting .234 and only 8 homers this year; while Guerrero has only 7 homers with all of them coming at home.  Personally I think GM Andy McPhail is to blame as he has ignored the pitching staff during his whole time in Baltimore.  The lack of improving the pitching staff shows as the O's are ranked last in team ERA, and are ranked in the bottom five in quality starts, WHIP, and BAA (batting average against).  McPhail has also shown a lack of scouting or lack of hiring a good scouting staff as the only successful prospect has been Matt Wieters.  While the minor league teams have had success, in the past few years, that success has not transferred over to the O's.  That statement, right there, shows that someone is not doing there job and people must be fired in the front office this winter.  With that being said here's my mid season awards.

MVP:  Nick Markakis.  Markakis, didn't start out well, with his bat, as his batting average was around the .230 range.  Markakis has since raised his average to .292 and leads the team in hits.  Markakis has no errors, so far, and leads the team in put outs with seven.  Markakis has also played in all but one game, during the first half of the season.  If the O's are looking to be sellers at the trade deadline, this year, Markakis should be the one untradeable guy as Markakis shows that he is a leader as he has played in almost every game and was able to fix his swing early in the season.  Markakis' attitude is one that the young players on the team should follow.

Biggest Surprise: Matt Wieters:  Wieters lack of production at the plate, the past two seasons, had many "experts" calling Wieters a bust.  The word bust never entered my mind as Wieters defense has been stellar since he came up.  Wieters has only 5 career passed balls and his career caught steeling percentage is .318.  Wieters leads the majors this year in that stat with a caught steeling percentage of .444 and that's why he is the O's only all star selection.  Another reason why Wieters is heading to Phoenix is that he has finally come around at the plate.  Wieters is batting .265, is fourth on the team in RBI with 34.  Wieters has 8 homers on the year, but could have more if there wasn't a 30 foot wall in left field of Camden Yards.  If Wieters can stay in the .260 range, for batting average, Wieters can show that he is a complete player.

Bum: No debate here, Mike Gonzalez.  Gonzalez had an ERA of 5.46 and has allowed the most homeruns in the bullpen with 7.  Surprisingly enough, Gonzalez has only 1 blown save, but he's supposed to be more of a middle reliever so that could explain the lack of blown saves.  Seriously I have never in my life seen a pitcher this bad, on the rare occasion that the O's are up by a few runs, I don't feel comfortable that the O's will still have that lead when Gonzalez is in.  Gonzalez is so bad that on Sunday he tried to intentionally hit David Ortiz and missed.  One who misses on a pitch that is meant to intentionally hit someone, and two Ortiz is one of the biggest players in the league.  How do miss hitting one of the biggest player in the league?  Unfortunately, Gonzalez is signed for another year and at $6 million a year and sucking, he is most likely untradeable.

Overall looks like it will be 14 straight losing season and will become the baseball team with the longest consecutive losing season streak as the Shittsburgh Pirates are only one game back in there division (great now the annoying ass Shittsburgh fans will talk trash about that now, even though none can name a player on the Pirates, but as we all know that's typical Shittsburgh).  Anyways, as is the case with the Redskins, same holds true for the Orioles.  It starts at the top, yes you Peter Angelos.  Or Aholelos as I like to call him.  It's obvious that Angelos does not care about this teams success and just wants to make money.  That's a shame since the O's play in one of the best, if not the best ballpark in the country.  Even though Andy McPhail has failed at his job, rumors are Angelos will resign McPhail this winter.  Well Mr. Angelos I hope you are ready to actually open the check book and add some actual talent to the roster because that is what its going to take for this team to be good again.