I guess this is the crux of the questions many are asking ourselves about the O's thus far. Is the "true talent level" better than we thought entering the season. I think the offense is about what most thought it would be, a mid 700 RS with the upside of less than 800 RS that was power driven and needed to get on base at a better rate. Well thus far we are on a pace for 757 RS by hitting a bunch of HRS not getting enough guys on base and striking out more than you would like. I think it is fair to say this is what would have been reasonable expected entering the season.
I think it is not to early to say the true talent level is higher than we thought on the pitching side of things. Is it playoff level? It is much to early to say, even though we have pitched at playoff level thus far, IMO. In games that our opponents have played against teams other than us they have averaged scoring 4.3 runs per game over 169 games. Against us they have averaged scoring 3.43 runs per game over 28 games. We have suppressed our opponents scoring over 20% in the games we have played. Doing this while giving up the most unearned runs in baseball. The pitching has been exceptional across the board even the goats have been good compared to what we are used to. Think of how many pitcher over the past few years we would be happy to plug in Hunter or Greg's number for. Now I don't have the delusion that we will maintain the 561 RA pace that we have put up so far but I also think that we will be at least 150 runs better than the 860 we gave up last year.
I would propose that we can say at this point that the projection of our real talent level was wrong. I think it would be reasonable to say that have a 740-790 offense and a 700-750 defense which is better than a 72 win team.
Now guys don't make me look like an idiot over the next few months, lol.