6-6 at .500-Your Thoughts?

[xricci]

Not keeping Reynolds really bothers me - especially considering who they were counting on at DH.

Me too. Reynolds had great success against the Yankees.

I think they could have topped the Indians one-year deal for $6 million plus incentives.

[glenn__davis]

Only real disappointment to me is losing the series to the Twins.

Going 5-4 against the Rays, Sox and Yanks on the road is pretty darn good.

After a somewhat shaky start, bullpen looking very good.

Need the starters to get in a bit of a groove.

Top of the lineup looking strong, bottom, not so much.

Obviously need to shore some things up defensively.

My overall take is that it's early and while they may have given a few games away in disappointing fashion, they've also come up with some nice wins and haven't dug themselves a big hole early. I just want them in a spot to make a move in late August/September. Keep plugging away, fix some holes, improve slowly throughout the year. You know - sort of like last year

[SpinJr]

I'd like to see some better AB from our lineups. The plate discipline has been inconsistent. Some games we have a great approach and other's we don't, very frustrating.

The starting pitching has not been terrible, which leads me to believe the back end will work it out and it'll imporve. I'd be more concerned if they were getting shelled but that's not the case.

I think getting back to some decent weather and our home ballpark will do this team some good.

[SpinJr]

Only real disappointment to me is losing the series to the Twins.

Going 5-4 against the Rays, Sox and Yanks on the road is pretty darn good.

After a somewhat shaky start, bullpen looking very good.

Need the starters to get in a bit of a groove.

Top of the lineup looking strong, bottom, not so much.

Obviously need to shore some things up defensively.

My overall take is that it's early and while they may have given a few games away in disappointing fashion, they've also come up with some nice wins and haven't dug themselves a big hole early. I just want them in a spot to make a move in late August/September. Keep plugging away, fix some holes, improve slowly throughout the year. You know - sort of like last year

Good summary I think you put down my thoughts better than I did.

[webbrick2010]

It all stems from the offseason:

1. Black hole at 2B not addressed

2. Starting rotation weakened by not signing Saunders (16+ straight shutout innings for Seattle) or any other veteran starter.

3. Black hole created at DH by not signing Reynolds (5 HRs, > 1.0 OPS for Cleveland).

This was supposed to be the year that the O's added the pieces to supplement the core and make a run deeper into the playoffs. Not going to happen with the talent on this 25 man roster.

[DrungoHazewood]

6-6 is ok. They're not setting the world on fire, but they've been on the road a lot, played mostly competitive baseball, and there's 150 games to go. Stick with the plan for now, and see how things turn out.

[Rene88]

I wasn't aware Saunders was off to such a good start. I really wanted to resign him. I thought that resigning Saunders was more important than signing Reynolds, and not even close. He was cheap and a workhorse. You cannot go wrong there.

[Dr. FLK]

I'm surprised/pleased with being at .500 considering the team is making stupid mistakes fairly often. This team needs to tighten things up, and they will be OK.

[DrungoHazewood]

I wasn't aware Saunders was off to such a good start. I really wanted to resign him. I thought that resigning Saunders was more important than signing Reynolds, and not even close. He was cheap and a workhorse. You cannot go wrong there.

Saunders has had one bad start against a weak A's offense, one good start against the Astros, and a pretty good start against the Rangers. The two good starts in Seattle. But he's allowed 23 baserunners and 7 walks in 17 innings, just hasn't hung a gopherball yet. I kind of like Saunders, being a Hokie and all, but I thought it wasn't crucial to resign him. The O's already had four or five pretty solid candidates for the 5th starter job.

[Brendan25]

My thoughts is that last year we had one more win at this point. It's still early. Our pitching has looked solid, just not going as deep as they should be, but it's early. Bullpen still looks good, as I thought it would. I think rotation will be fine. Arrieta still worries me. Lineup seems to be our weakest spot on our team, but not sure what route to go to fix it at this point. Wieters continues to be below average at the plate. Just no growth.

[Brendan25]

It all stems from the offseason:

1. Black hole at 2B not addressed

2. Starting rotation weakened by not signing Saunders (16+ straight shutout innings for Seattle) or any other veteran starter.

3. Black hole created at DH by not signing Reynolds (5 HRs, > 1.0 OPS for Cleveland).

This was supposed to be the year that the O's added the pieces to supplement the core and make a run deeper into the playoffs. Not going to happen with the talent on this 25 man roster.

Wrong. This was the year that we confirmed that the core was good enough to win more games then they lose before we add any huge pieces to it.

[Frobby]

I feel exactly as I'd expect to feel about a .500 start: meh.

[DrungoHazewood]

Wrong. This was the year that we confirmed that the core was good enough to win more games then they lose before we add any huge pieces to it.

That's a strange way to look at things. I thought last year was the year that showed they could win with something resembling this team, but that they probably needed some additional pieces to mitigate the ways they won games last year. They got additional revenues coming in with the winning from last year, and conventional wisdom says to strike when the iron is hot - in this case they have a core in place and revenues available to supplement that core.

They didn't do that because Angelos is very fiscally conservative, and/or Duquette couldn't find a free agent or significant trade that met his and Angelos' criteria.

But what this shouldn't be is a year where we're doing a science project to see if the core can repeat an unlikely postseason run, and adjusting in '14 if the answer was no.

[Brendan25]

That's a strange way to look at things. I thought last year was the year that showed they could win with something resembling this team, but that they probably needed some additional pieces to mitigate the ways they won games last year. They got additional revenues coming in with the winning from last year, and conventional wisdom says to strike when the iron is hot - in this case they have a core in place and revenues available to supplement that core.

They didn't do that because Angelos is very fiscally conservative, and/or Duquette couldn't find a free agent or significant trade that met his and Angelos' criteria.

But what this shouldn't be is a year where we're doing a science project to see if the core can repeat an unlikely postseason run, and adjusting in '14 if the answer was no.

Everyone in the world including 99% of the fans are wondering if last year was a fluke or if this team is for real. Is Hammel really an ace. Can Chen be better. Was Gonzalez and Tillman a fluke. Is the core of the lineup (Markakis/Jones/Davis/Wieters) good enough. If the "core" of this team, the team that we have now is not good enough to be .500 or better, then no single free agent was going to make us a championship contender.

[glenn__davis]

Wrong. This was the year that we confirmed that the core was good enough to win more games then they lose before we add any huge pieces to it.

Seems that the bar keeps moving. Now we have to have two strong years in order to know that we are good enough to add pieces?

Seems pretty clear to me at least that the team won't be adding any more "big" free agents while Angelos is in charge.