Inability to turn double plays

[25 Nuggets]

Is it me or are the Orioles struggling to turn double plays this year? They've made 33 of them, 13/15 in the AL. Only the Angels and Rays have turned less. Houston is tops in the league with 50.

Are they not getting the opportunities or are they deficient from injuries and bad play?

[Can_of_corn]

Schoop

Schoop was the best 2B in the AL at turning the DP last season.

[Reboulet'sStache]

Loss of Schoop and not having Hardy/Hardy not being as crisp as usual has hurt us.

[canonfaz]

Schoop. Plain and simple. Dude is a line backer out there at 2B and just plants and throws rockets over to first.

[25 Nuggets]

...so the Orioles fail to turn the double play in the 9th, and Chicago goes up 3-0. Lo, the Orioles score 2 runs on a Davis HR in the 9th that would have tied the game.

[Ori-Al]

Hardy personally has botched two DPs in the past two days. Didn't take it himself yesterday when he should have, and made a low feed to Cabrera today to turn a pair of inning-ending double plays into fielder's choices.

[isestrex]

I really hope this team is at full capacity post All Star Break.

Wieters, Schoop, healthy Hardy, Gausman, Wright maybe with some pen work.

Just gotta be patient.

[25 Nuggets]

I really hope this team is at full capacity post All Star Break.

Wieters, Schoop, healthy Hardy, Gausman, Wright maybe with some pen work.

Just gotta be patient.

I hope so too... but I think it's a fallacy to expect the team will ever be at full capacity. Every team has injuries, all the time. State of baseball.

Regarding Hardy, I do not believe he is 100% and he may never be this season. Chronic back issues.

[Il BuonO]

Loss of Schoop and not having Hardy/Hardy not being as crisp as usual has hurt us.

That feed to Cabrera in the 9th was bad. He had plenty of time, too.

[Camden_yardbird]

I'll point to the same problem with the LF/RF offensive production. Too many different players, too little consistent reps. I bet if you look you will find the Orioles have had more SS/2B combinations than any team in baseball.

Hardy, Flaherty, Schoop, Cabrera, Navarro, Pearce, Paredes

This team has had so many injury problems and has started so many different players all over the field I am amazed they are doing as well as they are.

[webbrick2010]

I hope so too... but I think it's a fallacy to expect the team will ever be at full capacity. Every team has injuries, all the time. State of baseball.

Regarding Hardy, I do not believe he is 100% and he may never be this season. Chronic back issues.

And yet we gave him a 4 year extension

A four year extension after his HR's dropped from 21 to 9

and so far this year his defense has not been good which is no big surprise for a 32 yo SS.

[Frobby]

Schoop

Schoop was the best 2B in the AL at turning the DP last season.

No Hardy in April. No Schoop in May. No Flaherty for most of May. General lack of continuity on who mans the keystone combo from one night to the next.

[Aristotelian]

Overall, yes, loss of Schoop has hurt. Hard to go from two plus defenders leading the league in DPs to subs, including Pearce who has never played the position. That's said I can't recall too many obvious double play balls that weren't made. I remember Navarro booting one.

Not sure about either of the two recent plays. The first one vs Astros, Flaherty was out of position in the shift. Debatable whether JJ would have had enough time to get to the bag himself and then make the throw with a very fast runner. To me positioning was more of a factor. The one today looked like it was not hit very hard. JJ's toss was not that far off, Cabrera got rid of it smoothly and the runner had it beat. Maybe a perfect toss to Schoop with the cannon gets him.

[Frobby]

And yet we gave him a 4 year extension

A four year extension after his HR's dropped from 21 to 9

and so far this year his defense has not been good which is no big surprise for a 32 yo SS.

Hardy's defense has been very good if you ask me, notwithstanding the two DP's that weren't turned. He's made one error. I've seen several excellent plays from him, including a fantastic relay throw to the plate on Tuesday from well into the outfield and two times he cut runners down at home plate on infield grounders.

[rudyrooster]

We very quickly became "spoiled" by Schoop. That is simply the answer to the question.