Baltimore Orioles After the First Quarter of the Season

Well the good news is that the Orioles, are off to a far much better start than last year and are competing more than last year.  Also, the starting pitching has been surprisingly decent.  The bad news is that the O's are still in last place in the AL east, and the big off season acquisitions have been just ok.   And just when it looked like the O's would return to the .500 mark; a series of crippling losses, this past week, have washed .500 thoughts out of the window.  With series against the Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Mariners on the horizon, hopefully the O's can get on to the winning path.


I think all O's fans can be in agreement when I say Matt Wieters is starting to come around with his bat.  Wieters is batting .273 with 4 HR and 24 RBI, tied with Adam Jones for best on the team.  Wieters also has a few walk offs, in this early season.  Buck Showalter has rewarded Wieters efforts by moving him to 5th in the batting lineup.  Vladimir Guerrero leads the team in batting average with a .306 mark.  Vlady has been the most productive out of the new comers this year as he has 16 RBI and .429 slugging percentage.  Derek Lee has been more productive in the field that at the plate and is now on the DL, Lee should be kept around to tutor younger, future fristbaseman for the O's.  Adam Jones has been more consistent, this year, with a .295 batting average and 24 RBI.  Jones still miss plays a ball in center field every now and then, but not as much as last year.  I would like to see Jones end the season batting at least .300.  Then there's Mark Reynolds.  Reynolds, who is batting an amazing .190, sarcasm obviously, and leads the team in strikeouts with 45.  The sad part is Reynolds' strikeout numbers are down from last year.  Overall, GM Andy MacPhail got what he asked for in signing Vladimir Guerrero, Derek Lee and Mark Reynolds. 

Now to pitching.  As I stated earlier, the starting pitching has been better that what I expected, at the start of the season.  The bad news is that the O's are ranked 27th, in the league in ERA, 4.71 and ranked 26th in batting average against.  Zach Britton leads the team in ERA with 2.14 and continues to improve, but doesn't have move wins because of the lack of bullpen support.  Jake Arrieta surprisingly leads the team in wins, 5, and strikeouts, 49.  Guthrie cotinues to sturggle as the team's designated number one guy and I can see Britton taking over the number one spot by seasons end.  If Guthrie is as number two or three guy, I think Guthrie will be able to relax more and pitch better.

And this leads me to the blowpen, I mean bullpen.  Last Monday, the blowpen blew a 6-0 lead in Boston and wound up losing the game.  A 6-0  lead are you f@#$ing kidding me!!!!!  6 year old little league teams don't even blow that big of leads.  Kelly I mean Kevin Gregg has been horrible in the closer role I believe he has 100 blown saves and the O's haven't even played 100 games yet.  I call him Kelly Gregg because he pitches like a girl, he sucks.  Buck Showalter should put Koji Uehara as the closer instead of Kelly Gregg.  Uehara leads the bullpen in ERA with 2.50 and strikeouts with 22.  Then there is Mike Gonzalez who has an ERA of 8.59 and every time he comes in he always gives up at least 2 runs by my count.

GM Andy MacPhail has ignored the bullpen for years and now he is paying for out with poor performances like last Monday night.   If it was up to me, MacPhail should be fired as he has never thrown the money at players that are in there primes.  Andy MacPhail is the Vinny Cerato of baseball, like Cerato, MacPhail goes after players that are past there primes and like Cerato ignored the offensive line; MacPhail has ignored the bullpen. And it's coasting the Orioles way to many games.

Overall I can say I'm satisfied with the O's so far but I really do believe if the right moves are made, before the trade-deadline then this team can definitely reach the .500 mark this year.