This is What a Fringe Contender Looks Like

[OFFNY]

o

THE GOOD

15-7 in their last 22 games (.682)

THE PRETTY GOOD

17-12 since the All-Star Break (.586)

THE LUKEWARM

61-56 overall (.521)

[Frobby]

We've done a great job at home. Hope we can keep it up against the Mets.

[slakattack]

If they can beat de Grom, I'm officially going back on the kool-aid diet. :scratchchinhmm:

[oriole]

August is a good time to get hot

[brooks1083]

August is a good time to get hot

If you live where I do, it's pretty easy.

[LA2]

If they can beat de Grom, I'm officially going back on the kool-aid diet. :scratchchinhmm:

Well, they beat Gray today. But the Mets' defense won't be nearly as bad.

[24fps]

Well, they beat Gray today. But the Mets' defense won't be nearly as bad.

I watched part or all of each Oakland game. Their defense was epically bad. I don't think I've ever seen a series so badly played in the field by a team. At least since Little League.

[sportsfan8703]

Great defense and bullpen. Good offense. Below average SP. If we can just get better SP we could go on a run. Tonight was huge for Tillman even though it was against a pretty weak lineup. 6 left on the homestand. 4-2 would be huge.

[Nevermore]

If they can beat de Grom, I'm officially going back on the kool-aid diet. :scratchchinhmm:

Hey, if they can beat Sonny Gray, then De Grom should be a piece of cake!

[TonySoprano]

I've said repeatedly that the thing about numbers is you can spin them to tell whatever story you may want.

Last year, KC was 64-53, just 3 games better than where we are now, and had losing months of May and July. They went 25-20 the rest of the way to squeak into the playoffs and then they took off on a big run from there.

Here is how the Orioles have done the past 3 seasons and this year:

2012 64-53, final record 93-69, 29-16 down the stretch

2013 65-52, final record 85-77, 20-25 down the stretch

2014 67-50, final record 96-66, 29-16 down the stretch

2015 61-56, final record ???

Will the O's go 29-16 (.644) down the stretch or similar for the 3rd time in 4 years or will it be more like 2013? If we did manage 29-16 again, our record would be 90-72. I hear the cynics, "no way Soprano, we'd be lucky to go 20-25 again." "We have the same record now that we had in 1998, and you know how that turned out? An 18-27 finish."

Buck is the manager, not Ray "the Rabbit" Miller, who publicly threw his players under the bus in the press. We're in the midst of a 15-7 run (.682). Looking back again at 2012, the Orioles went 26-27 in June and July before going on a 37-18 tear to end the season. We were 29-24 in those months this year, despite the 5-15 part.

I still hold hope that we can have a season that ends more like 2012 than 2013.

Will it happen? We can play numbers games all day. Pick the scenario that best fits your argument. Like KC in 2014, if we can make the playoffs, then all bets are off.

[olehippi]

The way this is playing out, I think the Orioles will have to come close to duplicating that 29-16 (.644) run from last year and 2012 just to guarantee a Wild Card slot.

If the Yanks and Blue Jays keep up their current pace, for a shot at winning the division, I think the Orioles will need 93 - 94 wins, meaning closing with a .700+ winning percentage. Almost impossible.

[MDtransplant757]

I've said repeatedly that the thing about numbers is you can spin them to tell whatever story you may want.

Last year, KC was 64-53, just 3 games better than where we are now, and had losing months of May and July. They went 25-20 the rest of the way to squeak into the playoffs and then they took off on a big run from there.

Here is how the Orioles have done the past 3 seasons and this year:

2012 64-53, final record 93-69, 29-16 down the stretch

2013 65-52, final record 85-77, 20-25 down the stretch

2014 67-50, final record 96-66, 29-16 down the stretch

2015 61-56, final record ???

Will the O's go 29-16 (.644) down the stretch or similar for the 3rd time in 4 years or will it be more like 2013? If we did manage 29-16 again, our record would be 90-72. I hear the cynics, "no way Soprano, we'd be lucky to go 20-25 again." "We have the same record now that we had in 1998, and you know how that turned out? An 18-27 finish."

Buck is the manager, not Ray "the Rabbit" Miller, who publicly threw his players under the bus in the press. We're in the midst of a 15-7 run (.682). Looking back again at 2012, the Orioles went 26-27 in June and July before going on a 37-18 tear to end the season. We were 29-24 in those months this year, despite the 5-15 part.

I still hold hope that we can have a season that ends more like 2012 than 2013.

Will it happen? We can play numbers games all day. Pick the scenario that best fits your argument. Like KC in 2014, if we can make the playoffs, then all bets are off.

I was going to use the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals as an example, but good points all around bro.

[Frobby]

I've said repeatedly that the thing about numbers is you can spin them to tell whatever story you may want.

Last year, KC was 64-53, just 3 games better than where we are now, and had losing months of May and July. They went 25-20 the rest of the way to squeak into the playoffs and then they took off on a big run from there.

Here is how the Orioles have done the past 3 seasons and this year:

2012 64-53, final record 93-69, 29-16 down the stretch

2013 65-52, final record 85-77, 20-25 down the stretch

2014 67-50, final record 96-66, 29-16 down the stretch

2015 61-56, final record ???

Will the O's go 29-16 (.644) down the stretch or similar for the 3rd time in 4 years or will it be more like 2013? If we did manage 29-16 again, our record would be 90-72. I hear the cynics, "no way Soprano, we'd be lucky to go 20-25 again." "We have the same record now that we had in 1998, and you know how that turned out? An 18-27 finish."

Buck is the manager, not Ray "the Rabbit" Miller, who publicly threw his players under the bus in the press. We're in the midst of a 15-7 run (.682). Looking back again at 2012, the Orioles went 26-27 in June and July before going on a 37-18 tear to end the season. We were 29-24 in those months this year, despite the 5-15 part.

I still hold hope that we can have a season that ends more like 2012 than 2013.

Will it happen? We can play numbers games all day. Pick the scenario that best fits your argument. Like KC in 2014, if we can make the playoffs, then all bets are off.

I'm not going to make an argument, just sit back and watch. However, we have a pretty tough schedule going forward and I think 29-16 is a very tall order. Based on the current standings, I'm not sure it will take 90 wins to make the 2nd wild card. I'd put the over/under at 87.5. The O's would have to go 27-18 (.600) to hit the over, and team teams chasing them would have to play better than ,600 to get there. Considering that none of them ate better than .521 to this point, that seems like the likely limit of what can be expected.

[1968_bills_fan]

Fringee contender? BS

I am optimistic about the postseason chances for several reasons.:la:laughlol:

ghlol:

We have gone through our fringe major league tryouts at the corner outfield positions and have at least one of them filled (Parra) with some new canidates in process at the other position. This is better than running out two different .200 hitters out there each night.

The ?give him another chance? pitcher is gone, Gausman has more innings under his belt, and some useful arms and innings are coming from the minors now that we can make roster moves. More freedom to mix and match. Some teams have good pitchers who are now shut down because of a season inning limit after surgery.

Everybody is reasonably healthy. (Wieters is back tonight)

Davis is on a tear, Jones is hitting more home runs, Manny is growing into his body and is poking balls out, Parra adds an on-base presence that Markaksis used to provide. Other than one outfield position, we have certain hitters in the entire lineup.

Buck has been there and done that. He has properly rested players and sat them down with minor injuries to heal rather than slowly building up aches and pains. He is limiting the amount of time in batting and fielding practice to not wear out the players in the tail end of the season. Some managers don?t do that.

The Yankees and Jays have been on good winning streaks lately. I expect things to average out over the rest of the season.

We have more home games the rest of the year. 45 home games and only 35 away games (if I count it right). Every bit helps improve the record.

We play games against our competition for the division title and wild card, so we can influence our destiny. REmemebr that thye have to play us as well. :hearts: We have the Yankees: 5 at home, 3 away??Toronto: 6 away and 4 at home. We also have 10 games against the struggling red sox, two against the Phillies, which are very winnable games.

Don?t be surprised!

[Going Underground]

I'm not going to make an argument, just sit back and watch. However, we have a pretty tough schedule going forward and I think 29-16 is a very tall order. Based on the current standings, I'm not sure it will take 90 wins to make the 2nd wild card. I'd put the over/under at 87.5. The O's would have to go 27-18 (.600) to hit the over, and team teams chasing them would have to play better than ,600 to get there. Considering that none of them ate better than .521 to this point, that seems like the likely limit of what can be expected.

Most of the better baseball teams seem to be fringe contenders. How many really good teams are in baseball this year? The 2nd WC looks like Rangers,Orioles,Angels and the Rays sort of hanging around. They are all sort of fringe contenders. The Astros have not been lighting it up over the past few weeks either.

The Mets and Twins both had the same really bad road record going into yesterdays game. We shall see what happens. The Orioles also need to play much better on the road.