The Kansas City Royals were 48-49 at this point last year

[TINSTAAPP]

The Royals were on a downward spiral with a 5-10 record in July and had lost 17 out of their previous 26 games. They had fallen to seven games back of first place Detroit and four teams were ahead of them for the second wild card spot. The Royals appeared to be collapsing and people from Kansas City were very down on their team. This is an excerpt of the game story from the Kansas City Star last year after they fell to 48-49 for the year.

The reflection does not appear pretty, not for a club projected to snap Kansas City?s 29?year playoff drought. Nipped for one-run losses the previous two nights at Fenway Park, the Royals, 48-49, looked lifeless for Sunday?s coda. Jon Lester bullied them during eight spotless innings. Yordano Ventura combusted for one of the worst performances of his career, yielding a career-high six runs in 4 1/3 innings.

And the Royals continued their slide. Since their 10-game winning streak last month ended, the team has dropped 17 of 26. The sands fall in the season?s hourglass each day, only 65 games remain in the season, and the prospect of October looks bleaker and bleaker.

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article769808.html

And then something funny happened. Their pitching got on a roll, the bats warmed up and the Royals proceeded to win 24 out of their next 31 games to get back in the race. And we all know how the story ended for them last year. Can the Orioles do the same thing? I don't know. But it might not be the worst idea in the world to just stay pat and see how everything plays out. As the Royals found out last year, things can turn around quickly.

[notyourbuddy]

The 3 teams in front of the Os right now for the two Wildcard spots are nothing special.

[Can_of_corn]

But they lost in the WS so their season was a failure.

[weams]

But they lost in the WS so their season was a failure.

Under fire, they wilted.

[Rustbelt]

The Reds were 51-51 on 7/25/2014 and ended up with 76-86. You can look at that on both ways.

[sportsfan8703]

Under fire, they wilted.

Their luck had to run out eventually. This year though, they are for real. Which means that some team will get lucky and flukey and beat them. Hopefully the O's out of the 2nd WC spot.

[isestrex]

The Orioles under Buck Showalter

APR    64  55	0.538MAY    70  73	0.490JUN    74  61	0.548JUL    56  68	0.452AUG    78  59	0.569SEP    82  59	0.582

His best two months by a large margin are August and September. June is only that close to his 3rd best month because of this year's terrific June. It was only .523 coming into the season.

Buck's biggest strength is using that 40 man roster in September and it shows in the numbers.

[Can_of_corn]

The Orioles under Buck Showalter

APR    64  55	0.538MAY    70  73	0.490JUN    74  61	0.548JUL    56  68	0.452AUG    78  59	0.569SEP    82  59	0.582

His best two months by a large margin are August and September. June is only that close to his 3rd best month because of this year's terrific June. It was only .523 coming into the season.

Buck's biggest strength is using that 40 man roster in September and it shows in the numbers.

Which is hilarious considering Buck publicly hates the expanded roster.

[Outlander]

That's why I hate when people say, " I don't want to do this or that just to have a chance at a flukey World Series". Now I know that's not black and white, and there can be added context to that. However, the notion of flukey chance, or a team that doesn't " deserve" it is silly. Once the post season starts it literally is a reset button on the season. Everyone who sits a the table is likely to fail, but they all have a shot to win. All playoff runs are flukey. A million different things happened one way that would never happen the exact same way if the playoffs replayed over again. That's the fun of it.

[Uli2001]

Turnarounds are possible, have happened before. But the O's FA will be dumb not to listen to offers. If some team is desperate enough to throw the house at them for any player (outside of Machado), they must take it.

[Moondoggie]

Entering today's game, the Orioles chances of making the playoffs were 11.7 percent.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/probability.jsp

[HokieOs]

Entering today's game, the Orioles chances of making the playoffs were 11.7 percent.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/probability.jsp

That's over a point better than the day before. I imagine today our chances just went up another point or so. Especially if the Tigers go on to lose tonight (down 6-1 right now). Right now we're 3.5 games behind the Twins for the Wild Card. And only the Jays are ahead of us in the race to catch up (by a half game). The downside is that there are 3 other teams within a game of us and 3 more within 3. There's still noone I would say is completely out of the race (though the Sox and As are approaching that threshold).

But winning two in a row in Tampa and taking the series could be a good start to a turnaround. The four game series with Detroit is going to be huge as far as vying for the WC spot. A sweep could knock the swept team nearly out of the race. Even 3 of 4 could do some real damage to the losing team. That said, we have Atlanta next. Can't fall asleep at the wheel.

[Camden_yardbird]

And they have nothing but improve while the Orioles have gotten worse. WHY?

[Moondoggie]

Oh, you never know. But I think it's a good idea to be realistic about the odds. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

[Nevermore]

I was thinking: What do Cincinnati Reds fans think about the current fire sale? Will this affect their attendance? I remember during the AS game, during the HR Derby, when Todd Frazier was competing and I could hear the fans roaring for him. However, now there are rumors that Frazier is for sale. They've already gotten rid of Cueto.

So if O's management decides to become sellers and they offer Chen, Wieters, Davis, O'Day and other FAs, will this affect the attendance? Will fans be reluctant to support a franchise that has basically thrown in the towel? I know that OH members won't stop supporting the team, but what about the so-called "fan in the stands?" If O's management decides to throw in the towel, if I didn't already have a 29 game plan, I'd be less inclined to want to go to O's games. Especially that football season is upon us and the Ravens are seen to be a good, competitive team this year. Attendance might be a factor in a team's deciding on whether or not to become sellers.