Have the Orioles hit their ceiling?

[gallden]

Sadly I agree with Malike. I would be thrilled with .500 anything better than that is a bonus to me.

[eddie83]

I don't know but I do know we need to start getting our guys back. Reimold's injury is starting to hurt us. Britton can be huge, we need him big time. We have hit our ceiling in terms of winning the way we have.Very little margin for error.

I am getting greedy, I want a season going into September where we are in legit contention, like a 1992 or 1993 season.

[Slappy]

One game at a time...

[RavNMadMan]

It seems like the team has been hovering at 11-12 games over for about a week now. The bullpen has looked quite human in that stretch. I'm getting the feeling that this may be as good as it's going to get.

If we're 11-12 over late in the season, that will be an overwhelming success. I think we are going to need to do more than extending Jones to get there. We need Britton to step up and pitch well ala 2011 and somebody needs become a consistent 3rd baseman on both sides of the ball. If neither of these occurs, we are going to need bring in more pieces.

[Grt 2BA FL Gator]

To answer the OP: We are most definitely not a 100 win team like we have been playing.

That being said (to address the other nay sayers in this thread), I'm not quite sure what the panic is about..

Chen and Hammel have been pretty remarkably consistent and I don't see any reason why we can't expect a quality start from them each time out. Matusz is starting to look that way as well. Those three alone are already light years ahead of what we've had at SP for the last 7 years. Throw in Jake and Britton, and you have the potential for an above average rotation. I think the rotation will end up being middle of the pack by year's end, a very nice step forward from last year.

We know the bullpen is really good and I think it will continue to be. (Even with regression it will be really good)

The offense has been above average and could/should continue to be.

All this is to say I think that we look the part of a good baseball team. Maybe we don't make the playoffs as the Red Sox and Yankees start to heat up, but I think .500 is very much within reach this season.

[tennOsfan]

If a .500 stretch is the worst we get out of this bunch, then we're doing alright.

Avoiding long losing stretches is the key, and we've done that thus far.

[oriole]

I like to think Britton and Reimolds return, some better offense out of Wieters, and when some of Reynolds bombs that he is getting paid for start leaving the park that this rough-ish stretch will just be a bad-ish dream...

[LookitsPuck]

We're 2 loud foul balls away froma win last night, and a phenomenal catch almost made by Lin from a win against the BoSox. That's baseball. Win today.

[wildcard]

Says the king of small samples.

Pardon? What does small samples have to do with this discussion?

[SrMeowMeow]

If our ceiling is a .617 win team, I am happy.

Even if our true talent is 11 games over 500, that's still like 87-65. Destiny will take us the rest of the way.

[waroriole]

Says the king of small samples.

If they win 2 of 3 from KC, they're clearly a 108 win team

[wildcard]

If they win 2 of 3 from KC, they're clearly a 108 win team

You and Jim are way off IMO.

Frobby is projecting that the O's will now play at a .500 pace instead of a .600 pace (as they have done all year) because of what has happened in 6 games. That is a leap. It is based on a feeling according to him. Now that is him basing something long term on a small sample. Him not me.

I am talking about a trend that has occurred all season. The O's winning series. If they win today the will continue a long term trend. If the lose they will have lost two series in a row. I have not projected that over the rest of the season as Frobby did in the his OP.

[crissfan172]

It's pretty simple. If Hammel, Chen, and Matusz continue to pitch well and Britton can come back and be above average, we'll keep winning. If not, we won't. Basically, give me 4 QS a week, and I like our chances.

[Roll Tide]

It's pretty simple. If Hammel, Chen, and Matusz continue to pitch well and Britton can come back and be above average, we'll keep winning. If not, we won't. Basically, give me 4 QS a week, and I like our chances.

Still a upgrade at 3B (Headley) would help the team cut down on the monster error pace and reduce the runs needed to win some games.

[RHall31]

It seems like the team has been hovering at 11-12 games over for about a week now. The bullpen has looked quite human in that stretch. I'm getting the feeling that this may be as good as it's going to get.

Hard to say...I didn't expect them to be 11 games over .500 to begin with. To tell the truth, I'd be happy with an 82 win total for the season.