Any Bullets Left?.....Or Going Down In Flames?

[jimmypowder]

The joke is people think this team misses Nelson Cruz and his 40 HR's

This team has two average starters and 3 bad starters. When Norris was in the rotation we had one average starter and 4 bad starters.

Starting pitching is the difference between the 2014 Orioles and the 2015 Orioles. Last I looked Nelson Cruz doesn't pitch

Look at runs scored stats if you think it's a joke .

[tntoriole]

Except for other teams pitching better and hitting better than we do, what's not to like?

[MdSooner]

Our we out of bullets? Probably, but we are only 3.5 back of the Wild Card and we have Buck on our side.

So Im not ready to throw in the towel yet.

[MDK02]

Our we out of bullets? Probably, but we are only 3.5 back of the Wild Card and we have Buck on our side.

So Im not ready to throw in the towel yet.

I think Buck has run out of ways to make this team better. Sometimes it just comes down to players and we have some bad ones on this team. The defense is still solid but as far as hitting and pitching, this is a bad, bad team.

[fastball]

The shelves are empty, tried to fool us with the AAA guys not this year. Where is

DD the O's GM been pretty quite?

[webbrick2010]

Look at runs scored stats if you think it's a joke .

I did, apparently you didn't. The 2015 team is on pace to score the same amount of runs and hit the same amount of HR's as the 2014 team. The 2015 SP ERA is almost a full run higher than the 2014 SP ERA

[kakesmvp]

The goal shouldn't have been to stay at the same pace as last years offense but rather to outperform it. We missed quite a few games from crush, machado, and Wieters last year so there was definite room for improvement on the offensive side.

The offense is obviously struggling mightily. We don't have anyone in the lineup that is consistently hitting right now, and honestly no one in our lineup that I fully trust in a clutch AB..I had a ton of faith in Nelson in those situations last year and a lot of times he came through and carried us.

The offense struggling can directly affect the pitching in my honest opinion. When you are pitching and you know it's likely the offense may struggle, you feel that you have to be perfect and put too much pressure and overthinking into every pitch instead of relaxing and pitching. That pressure can cause many pitchers to struggle with consistency and results. I'm not saying it's all the offense's fault that our pitchers have struggled by any means...I do feel it has something to do with it however to a degree.

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[kakesmvp]

I'm also a firm believer in confidence being a huge factor. Does anyone think the Orioles had the confidence they really should have going into the year knowing they were without their 2nd best (arguably 1A and 1B) reliever, their absolute best offensive player and most reliable, and an outfielder with the veteran experience that they could at least count on to play every day and give solid ABs as well as get on base at a decent clip?

If I'm playing and I see my championship caliber team take these hits and then watch my GM do NOTHING to replace them..well it's hard to say it wouldn't bring up some doubt into the team and upcoming season.

Just to clarify I was fine with letting miller and Markakis walk. No way we couldn't have resigned Nelson at that contract however...and absolutely no way we should have let all 3 walk and not had any kind of replacement plan other than the highly flawed throw a whole bunch of crap at the wall and hope one or two stick philosophy. This team was too good last year to deserve that kind of plan.

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[olehippi]

I'm also a firm believer in confidence being a huge factor. Does anyone think the Orioles had the confidence they really should have going into the year knowing they were without their 2nd best (arguably 1A and 1B) reliever, their absolute best offensive player and most reliable, and an outfielder with the veteran experience that they could at least count on to play every day and give solid ABs as well as get on base at a decent clip?

If I'm playing and I see my championship caliber team take these hits and then watch my GM do NOTHING to replace them..well it's hard to say it wouldn't bring up some doubt into the team and upcoming season.

Just to clarify I was fine with letting miller and Markakis walk. No way we couldn't have resigned Nelson at that contract however...and absolutely no way we should have let all 3 walk and not had any kind of replacement plan other than the highly flawed throw a whole bunch of crap at the wall and hope one or two stick philosophy. This team was too good last year to deserve that kind of plan.

If you think last year was bad, just wait until you see what happens when this season ends. There is some big time fallout coming! I really don't see the Orioles signing any of Chen, Wieters, Davis or Parra. They might be able to sign O'Day, but it will take a multi-year contract and maybe more money than the Orioles are willing to spend. Steve Pearce likely is the only sure thing, if the Orioles even offer him a contract.