The O's have the better pitching

[pccp82]

Yet, we had our lowest ERA of any month this season in September, without Machado (2.67).

We still gave up 12 unearned runs in 30 days against teams that had mailed it in.

For fun this is who we played, and their batting average for the month:

Minn: 1 (.267)

Cinncy: 3 ( .223)

TB : 3 ( .235)

Bos: 6 (.249)

NYY: 8 (.224)

TOR: 6 (.255)

Color me not impressed by cherry picked numbers. We have made the 2nd most errors at 3B in the league...and a lot of them came in Sept.

I am not trying to be a FIP salesmen, just calling out obvious flaws with stats that are obvious.

[LoyalBirdFan]

I have 4 tickets if anyone cares anymore.

[mdbdotcom]

I'm not sure that logic is applicable or that previous performance is predictive to the playoffs. We'll just have to see what happens (which is the fun part, anyway).

[Frobby]

We still gave up 12 unearned runs in 30 days against teams that had mailed it in.

For fun this is who we played, and their batting average for the month:

Minn: 1 (.267)

Cinncy: 3 ( .223)

TB : 3 ( .235)

Bos: 6 (.249)

NYY: 8 (.224)

TOR: 6 (.255)

Color me not impressed by cherry picked numbers. We have made the 2nd most errors at 3B in the league...and a lot of them came in Sept.

I am not trying to be a FIP salesmen, just calling out obvious flaws with stats that are obvious.

I think Flaherty will get the starts at 3B and will be more solid there than Paredes and Johnson were. I realize that Flash made 3 errors at 3B in September, but I think he can and will do better than that in the postseason. He is no Manny Machado, of course; nobody is.

By the way, Sept. errors at 3B:

Flaherty 3

Paredes 3

Johnson 1

Davis 1

Pretty horrible.

[centralpaosfan]

Our starters need to just get us through 6 innings and have us within a run or two and I will be happy. I like our chances vs their bullpen.

[byrdz]

Against a very weak hitting schedule. One team that we played 8 times had a #2 hitter with an OPS below .600

The Tigers weren't exactly playing against strong hitting teams either.

[slakattack]

Fun stat that I find revealing:

Runs Against over 162 games: Bal. 593, 3.66/game Det. 705, 4.35/game

That is statistically significant especially since it is over the ENTIRE season and the Orioles played half of their games in a bandbox.

[backwardsk]

A healthy Sanchez in the bullpen concerns me. He makes a bad bullpen much better.

[pccp82]

I expect Verlander to throw 130 pitches in game 2 if he's on. All of their top 3 are work horses. No reason to think they will send them to the showers after 105 pitches if they are getting outs.

We are rightfully significant underdogs. The Tigers are good enough to scratch some runs across. If the Tigers aces are lights out, it could be over before You know it.

I just hope the rest was worth missing a legit shot at the number 1 seed.

But this is what we live for, yeah?

[LoyalBirdFan]

Good luck guys, just got rid of my 4 tickets for Friday. I was dreading the long trip to MD anyway, no reason to go and watch us loose.

[Ohfan67]

We still gave up 12 unearned runs in 30 days against teams that had mailed it in.

For fun this is who we played, and their batting average for the month:

Minn: 1 (.267)

Cinncy: 3 ( .223)

TB : 3 ( .235)

Bos: 6 (.249)

NYY: 8 (.224)

TOR: 6 (.255)

Color me not impressed by cherry picked numbers. We have made the 2nd most errors at 3B in the league...and a lot of them came in Sept.

I am not trying to be a FIP salesmen, just calling out obvious flaws with stats that are obvious.

Those numbers are a bit misleading. Minn and Toronto hit really well in September, both were in the top 5 of the AL. MLB average by team was .249 in September. It's a different offensive era.

[Ohfan67]

I expect Verlander to throw 130 pitches in game 2 if he's on. All of their top 3 are work horses. No reason to think they will send them to the showers after 105 pitches if they are getting outs.

We are rightfully significant underdogs. The Tigers are good enough to scratch some runs across. If the Tigers aces are lights out, it could be over before You know it.

I just hope the rest was worth missing a legit shot at the number 1 seed.

But this is what we live for, yeah?

They better be because if the O's get into their bullpen they are dead.

Scherzer is really the only one of their starters that is scary to me.

[wildcard]

A healthy Sanchez in the bullpen concerns me. He makes a bad bullpen much better.

But is Sanchez healthy? He has pitched 1 inning in the majors since August 9th. He's pitched no rehab games. Just a sim game.

[weams]

ERA is almost antiquated amongst the baseball intelligentsia though. Our ERA was without a doubt boosted by outstanding defense from Machado that is no longer there.

A high strikeout pitcher pitching 2 games is terrifying too.

FIP salesmen don't usually have a lot of luck around here.

Nor should they. It's a losing cause.

[larrytt]

It's mindboggling how so many people assume the Tigers have better starting pitching. Let's look at the stats further. Here are two listings of all ten starting pitchers for the Orioles and Tigers, in order, since Allstar Break and in September. I've bolded the Oriole pitchers. If we judge the pitching now by past years, the Tigers have the advantage. If we judge the pitching now by how they are doing now, the Orioles have a huge advantage.

SINCE ALLSTAR BREAK

Gonzalez 2.19

Tillman 2.33

Chen 2.76

Scherzer 2.87

Norris 3.22

Porcello 3.48

Price 3.59

Gausman 3.72

Verlander 3.97

Lobstein 4.35

SEPTEMBER

Gonzalez 1.69

Chen 2.05

Norris 2.08

Scherzer 2.48

Gausman 2.87

Price 3.00

Tillman 3.23

Verlander 3.89

Lobstein 4.88

Percello 6.20