Orioles compared to other AL East teams

[Aglets]

Observations:

Our offense has fallen off a bit lately, but thankfully the Yankees have crashed a bit more so it's nice to see our offense overtake theirs.

Our team ERA continues to trend in the right direction. Hopefully by next week it will be under 4....that would be great. Nice to see the Yankees ERA spike up a lot in the past week, that has to be a good thing too!

Overall the trends seem encouraging to me.

[ShaneDawg85]

Observations:

Our offense has fallen off a bit lately, but thankfully the Yankees have crashed a bit more so it's nice to see our offense overtake theirs.

Our team ERA continues to trend in the right direction. Hopefully by next week it will be under 4....that would be great. Nice to see the Yankees ERA spike up a lot in the past week, that has to be a good thing too!

Overall the trends seem encouraging to me.

A good start by Tillman would help that cause.

[Scrat1]

Heading in the right direction.

[srock]

Little more data from BBref

17-19, 4th place in AL East

Scored 165 runs, Allowed 159 runs. Pythagorean W-L: 19-17

PyThag (yes it pretty meaningless in this sample size) indicates some bad luck.

I might argue bad defense and terrible starting pitching by Tillman and Norris have caused this bad luck. And Hardy/Wieters missing so much time.

But overall, this team is playing well enough to stay in the race. At some point they need to turn it on, just like last year.

[El Gordo]

Even the god awful Phillies have managed to win 6 in a row, why can't the O's?

[ledzepp8]

Little more data from BBref

17-19, 4th place in AL East

Scored 165 runs, Allowed 159 runs. Pythagorean W-L: 19-17

PyThag (yes it pretty meaningless in this sample size) indicates some bad luck.

I might argue bad defense and terrible starting pitching by Tillman and Norris have caused this bad luck. And Hardy/Wieters missing so much time.

But overall, this team is playing well enough to stay in the race. At some point they need to turn it on, just like last year.

It would seem to be the one run games. I think Palmer said the other day, they're like 3-6...someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[glenn__davis]

Games started by Tillman and Norris: 4-9

Games started by everyone else: 13-10

Need Norris and particularly Tillman to pick it up.

[OFFNY]

o

(MAY 20th)

The entire A.L. East has been one big mediocre bunch so far in this still very young season.

The Yankees are tied with the Rays for 1st place, and they have lost 7 out of their last 8 games.

[25 Nuggets]

Games started by Tillman and Norris: 4-9

Games started by everyone else: 13-10

Need Norris and particularly Tillman to pick it up.

Pretty much this. Although we won't have to worry about Norris for a bit.

[ChuckS]

As mediocre as we have been so far it's hard to look around the division and say another team is definitely better than us.

Hanley Ramirez has come back down to earth and the Red Sox lineup is now looking real ordinary. They are -33 in scoring differential right now and their pitching has been bad as a lot of us expected.

Toronto has a juggernaut of an offense and I think they will continue to score well all season. Their pitching has been disastrous.

Tampa seems to be over performing on offense (which still hasn't been very good). They've suffered a lot of injuries to their rotation and don't really have any proven arms after Archer and Odorizzi.

The Yankees are coming back down to earth as well and their best hitter (Ellsbury) just went on the DL. Does anyone think the Arod/Tex show is going to keep them going all season? I don't. Those guys are old and will either get hurt or go back to their declining production.

As many problems as we have, I think the rest of the division is just as bad off and worse in some cases.

[25 Nuggets]

Tampa right now has the best team on paper. I was hesitant to put them last in the division but I did -- I gave too much credit to Joe Maddon. We won't see the full effects of their GM loss for a couple years.

The key to that team is that many of their players, most notably Evan Longoria, underperformed last year. They got rid to two wretched holes in their lineup from last year in Wil Myers and Jose Molina. Now, Rene Rivera is not helping solve the black hole at C at all... but they've got staying power on offense (as in, they'll be below average) and lots of pitching depth despite their injuries.

That said, no team in the AL East strikes me as being significantly better or worse than another.

[ChuckS]

Tampa right now has the best team on paper. I was hesitant to put them last in the division but I did -- I gave too much credit to Joe Maddon. We won't see the full effects of their GM loss for a couple years.

The key to that team is that many of their players, most notably Evan Longoria, underperformed last year. They got rid to two wretched holes in their lineup from last year in Wil Myers and Jose Molina. Now, Rene Rivera is not helping solve the black hole at C at all... but they've got staying power on offense (as in, they'll be below average) and lots of pitching depth despite their injuries.

That said, no team in the AL East strikes me as being significantly better or worse than another.

If you look at the guys carrying the Rays on offense: Logan Forsythe with a .871 OPS (Career .671), David Dejesus with a .821 OPS (Career .770), Brandon Guyer at .784 (Career .705), their offense is about to go from mediocre to woeful. The onl other regular there with an OPS above .735 is Longoria.

I think they are a .500 team at best. I'm more worried about the Red Sox and Yankees hanging around and then making power moves before the trade deadline to really bolster their teams.

[25 Nuggets]

That's a good point. Somebody is going to make moves at the deadline and it probably won't be Tampa. Could be Toronto. Could be us -- DD has shown he'll pull a deadline deal or two.

As for averaging out on offense, we've got Asdrubal Cabrera at .609 (Career .735), James Loney at .711 (Career .754), and Desmond Jennings at .544 and hurt (Career .721), not to mention Kevin Kiermaier (.722) and Steven Souza (.742) with little track record in the majors, but promising bats. Again I expect the offense to be below average, but not woeful. They need a catcher that can hit in the worst way -- maybe that's their deadline deal.

I should also point out that every team in the AL East -- Baltimore, Boston, New York, Tampa and Toronto -- lost today, putting the division under .500 overall.

[Aglets]

Updated through 5/27

Runs Scored per Game

Toronto - 5.20

New York - 4.62

Baltimore - 4.36

Boston - 3.89

Tampa - 3.73

Runs Allowed per Game

Tampa - 3.58

New York - 4.28

Baltimore - 4.30

Toronto - 4.69

Boston - 4.74

Team ERA

Tampa - 3.42

New York - 3.82

Baltimore - 3.98

Boston - 4.55

Toronto - 4.60

[Aglets]

So again we had some improvements with our pitching / defense.....thankfully we finally crossed the 4.00 barrier with ERA, although just barely, heh.

But offense regressed some. And with a bunch of games coming up against Tampa and then Houston again I'm worried we might not see gains there for awhile.