Just how bad are the 2010 Orioles?
Apologists will say if you were to drop their 2-16 start, they’re not that bad. Oh really?
Do the math. Since their miserable start, they are 13-19, a .406 record. That’s just a little better than their miserable play last year. .406 would project to a 66-96 finish, two games better than last year. Right now, only the Cleveland Indians (.370), the Seattle Mariners (.404), and Houston Astros (.333) are playing worse. The Pittsburgh Pirates who aren’t even trying to win are 20-29 (.408).
Even ignoring the horrible 2-16 start, the Orioles are still among the bottom feeders. However, the wicked start counts. The official record is 15-35 (.300). The sorry Houston Astros project to finish 54-108. If their current level of play continues, the mighty Orioles are heading for serious misery, 49-113.
Watching this team is not enjoyable baseball. A young team that is still learning the trade can be most entertaining even if they don’t bring home the wins if they play with reckless enthusiasm, kids that go out there and play hard and their screw ups are essentially errors of enthusiasm. There might be some isolated instances of that in the Orioles play, but most of the trouble we’ve seen so far falls into two areas: bored, indifferent play or tentative, overly cautious, scared silly play. That’s hard to watch. When someone like Garrett Atkins makes a right turn to the dugout rather than running out a ground ball out or we see some of the “I give up” base path exploits of Julio Lugo, what are fans left to think?
On offense, most of the starters are batting .250 or better, but only three players have more than 20 RBI: Ty Wigginton, 32; Miguel Tejada, 22; and Luke Scott, 20. For homeruns, Wigginton has 13 homers; Scott has 9. Nobody else has more than 4. Only Nick Markakis is in double digits with doubles, 13. Three players are tied with 8. For stolen bases, two players have five steals but one of them has been caught stealing four times. Beyond that, one player has three steals. Remember Brian Roberts, only played four games? He has two steals. How about this? Five players have hit double digits for extra base hits, only two as high as 17, and one with 21.
Look at some other stats, seven players have grounded into double plays more than five times; two at 6, and two at 7.
Turn this around to the pitching staff, Kevin Millwood has a respectable 3.89 ERA but has a 0-5 record. Jeremy Guthrie has a 3.64 ERA, but only a 3-4 mark to show for it. The other starters have ERA’s approaching six runs a game. How sad it is to have seen Brian Matusz come up to the majors with so much promise, but at the rate things are going now, he’ll be spending July in Norfolk. The starters also have to deal with the bullpen has blown 10 save opportunities. With a 15-35 record, had those saves been converted, that looks like a .500 record, doesn’t it?
So much enthusiasm and high hopes surrounded some of the young talent ready to break through with the Orioles, but it seems like collectively they’ve all become overwhelmed, over matched, or just plain scared of life in the bigs. Norm Reimold is now retooling in Norfolk. Ironically, he had 10 RBI’s better than most of the current regulars. Adam Jones, last year’s all star, has done a little better recently, shows only five homers, 15 RBI’s, and has seldom been a factor in helping toward a win. Matt Wieters looked strong early in the season but only has four homers, 16 RBI’s, and .255 average.
Taking a closer look at Brian Matusz, who was expected to be a top quality starter, what has caused his fall off into horror? Three games he has no decisions because there was no support on offense or the bullpen crashed on him. His May 4th loss to the Yankees, he only gave up one earned run in six innings. Where did the two unearned runs come from? On May 15th, Matusz pitched seven scoreless innings, but did not get a decision for that game. Since then, Brian Matusz looks like a candidate for a little trip down the bay to Norfolk, seven earned runs to Texas and six to Oakland. Is Brian Matusz a casualty to the toxic clubhouse environment on this rudderless ship?
How much hope does the team have invested in Matt Wieters? There’s no question the kid has abundant talent and loads of potential, but he appears to be losing his way. He has only one extra base hit, a double, since May 8th, his last home run, May 1. He’s lost 20 points off of his batting average since May 13th, add to that only 3 RBI’s since May 5th. What will it take to get this talented young man back on the upswing toward the all-star potential he clearly has?
Dave Trembley remains as manager. Fans can say all they want about what a class act he is and how it’s not all his fault. Fine, but the team is not playing for him. Either the team is not responding to him or he’s not “managing” his personnel when some of the same kinds of mistakes and lack of effort continue nightly. While it certainly is difficult to appear before the microphones after another loss, one does not get the impression that Mr. Trembley has any kind of command when attempting to account for yet another loss. During the game, his pitching strategy seems lacking too. Way too often, have starters been left in too long. The general principle is: don’t let the starter remain in after a tying run reaches base. Bullpen choices seem to be mandated far more by textbook and not a sensible head-in-the-game approach. Granted, the bullpen has been plagued by injuries, but a little more thought in how to who needs to go where as if there is no depth chart.
The prognosis for improvement is slight. While it was good to see Chris Tillman pitch well this afternoon, it goes down as a loss to the bullpen. Jake Arrieta will surely see action in Baltimore, but wouldn’t it be a bitter irony if it was to replace a burned out and dispirited Brian Matusz? Arrieta is 5-2 in 10 starts with a brilliant 1.82 ERA.
There could well be a steady stream of pitchers floating up and down the Chesapeake Bay as things develop in Baltimore. Their most recent move was sending Cla Meredith to Norfolk making way for Tillman.
Looking at the medical report, Brian Roberts has resumed baseball activities reporting to Sarasota for rehab. Perhaps he will be back in Baltimore by the end of June and stabilize the top of the lineup and shore up the middle of the infield. Felix Pei is on the 70 day roster, no report on him. The bullpen has Jim Johnson, Alfredo Simon, Koji Uehara on the 15 day disabled list, but how many of them could be ready in about two weeks is hard to say. Michael Gonzalez hired to be the 2010 closer who failed miserably not making it past the team’s first weekend remains on the 60 day list. When and if he returns remains a mystery.
Clearly, the Orioles can draw all the pictures of rainbows and flowers they like, reality is they are well deserving of their current status as the worst team in baseball. Yes, the sad truth is, the Baltimore Orioles are the worst team in baseball. Only three teams have scored fewer than the Orioles at 174. Five teams have given up more runs.
There is no room for optimism given how poorly the Orioles are playing across the board and players expected to show growth have plateaued or fallen off the plateau altogether. They refuse into inject new leadership into the clubhouse perhaps fearful that a frustrated fan base could either resort to rebellion or disappear completely if there would be little improvement with a change at skipper. Young players do have their down spells, but their difficulties are looking less and less like errors of enthusiasm but errors of poor preparation. How much of that lies on the players and how much is it a matter of the coaching staff not preparing them is hard to determine, but given the total lack of motivation shown by many veteran players, that might make the choice more obvious.
It’s beyond talking about who will be the long term options at first and third base while the rest of the starting pitching prospects come of age. The problems with the Baltimore Orioles right now run far deeper. They do not look like a team ready to compete in the foreseeable future. It would not be wise to compare this year’s Orioles to the 2003 Detroit Tigers who lost 119 games in 2003 but turned it around to dominate the playoffs and make it into the 2006 World Series. While Andy McPhail’s master plan of stockpiling pitching makes sense, moves like signing Michael Gonzalez and Garrett Atkins, clear failures, make his long range vision seem less credible with such miserable short term but necessary solutions.
Baseball is becoming increasingly irrelevant in Baltimore where fans anger and frustration after a decade plus of losing has turned to total indifference. There just isn’t anything entertaining to watch when the team looks so lackadaisical and ill-prepared.
At very least, fans need a burnt offering for their tortured support. If we’re still writing about the need to replace Dave Trembley by July 4th, it might mark something good happened in June, because it would show we’re still paying attention which gets harder and harder with each passing series down the drains.
