The O's Weakness

[Bahama O's Fan]

When scouting other AL East teams, I see weaknesses. Boston and Toronto's pitching, Yankees' age, Ray's batting. What is our weakness? If you are another team scouting the O's, where do you say is our weak spot. What is the thing that will keep us from winning it all, kinda like Detroit's pen last year.

[Frobby]

I'm waiting to see if starting pitching is going to be a weakness this year. Hopefully, things started to turn around this weekend.

[$Greatness$]

Hitting (I normally say pitching) But when it gets down to the get down, we never can get that run.

*See series sweep in AL Champ game

[Aristotelian]

Lack of an elite #1 starter. Bumgarner/Kershaw/Scherzer/King Felix type.

[Redskins Rick]

No great strength. No glaring weakness. The weakness is that we have no great strength.

Their strength is their clubhouse and the next man up mentality.

[Ohfan67]

Yeah, maybe depth and interchangeable parts is our greatest strength and a manager who's good at using them.

Home run power is a strength.

[wildcard]

No great strength. No glaring weakness. The weakness is that we have no great strength.

I can't agree that the O's have no great strength. They led the majors in homers by 25 last year and are on top again this year. That is a great strength IMO.

So far their weakness has been their lack of consistency especially on pitching and defense. I just have to wait and see if it gets better.

[riprulz8]

Hitting (I normally say pitching) But when it gets down to the get down, we never can get that run.

*See series sweep in AL Champ game

One series, I don't think, constitutes a weakness, and the team that played in last year's ALCS is not the same as the current model. So far this year, if we look at how the O's have fared with runners in scoring position, overall, we see that they have hit to a .299 average, good enough for 7th best in MLB. Additionally, they have OPS'ed at a clip of .855 with RISP, good for 4th in all of MLB.

What would your definition of "...when it gets down to the get down..." be?

PS,

Please don't look at the O's average with RISP and 2 outs!

If I had to pick a weakness, it would be stealing bases.

[ChuckS]

I think the bullpen can be looked at as a weakness at this point.

The good bullpens nowadays have at least three to four flame throwers that really dominate opposing hitters. We have one or two. Adding one or two guys like that would make a big difference I think. It may be time to see what some of our good arms in Norfolk have.

I think guys like Hunter and Brach are perfectly fine in the bullpen, they just should be your fifth and sixth option rather than your third and fourth.

[Oriolesfan4life]

I tend to think our bullpen, specifically our middle inning guys, as our biggest weakness right now.

I'm not a Brian Matusz fan, it seems like whenever he is brought in during a big spot,he can't get the job done.

Tommy Hunter has good stuff but is so susceptible to the HR ball, can you really trust him?

[Scrat1]

Hitting (I normally say pitching) But when it gets down to the get down, we never can get that run.

*See series sweep in AL Champ game

We lead all of baseball in runs scores and are tied for the lead with runs allowed and your answer is hitting?

So far the biggest weakness has been bad pitching coupled with inconsistent defense. I think both will stabilize and we'll have a middle tier pitching staff along with an upper tier offense. It may be enough to get us to the offseason or it may not.

[weams]

Home run power is a strength.

Absolutely

[weams]

Home run power is a strength.

Absolutely

[TouchemAll]

Right now you have to say it's still the starting pitching with the BP a close 2nd. If they come around we'll be fine!

[ShaneDawg85]

The staff as a whole relies on pitching to contact and has average stuff at best. If they're off even a little, they're very hittable. See Norris, Chen when he's not hitting his spots, Gonzalez, most of the guys in the pen.