Hot start or superior team?

[TradeAngelos]

Bundy and Gausman will help out the rotation problem.

No Bundy starting, no Gausman starting, total patchwork 4-5 starters...and no Adam Jones in lineup last few games. 7-0.

These early wins are SO huge, because this team should only be getting better as the season moves along, not worse. Especially on the starting pitching staff.

[weams]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">My brother-in-law Brian, the emperor of Baltimore, has thanked me for picking <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orioles?src=hash">#Orioles</a> last and graciously offered me lodging in October.</p>— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href="

">April 13, 2016</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[El Gordo]

I think the offense is better than expected and it was expected to be good. The are getting a lot of walks and seeing a lot of pitches. It looks like something that will continue because with 8 guys in the line up that can go yard, pitchers are going to be nibbling more. With that kind of offense mediocre SP can suffice.

[survivedc]

Practically every team goes 6-0 at one point or another during the season. Our point just happened to come before anyone else's.

.

I tried looking up numbers for this, in a brief search couldn't find anything. Change that number to 7-0, I would be surprised if more than 10-12 teams have 7 game winning streaks in a season. Don't think we had any last year.

[survivedc]

Also if you look at team success after starting so well especially post expansion and wild card expansion, we are in pretty good company

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[allquixotic]

Yeah I agree that 6 - 0 is probably just a hot start. But at what point do you change your mind? 10 - 0? 16 - 0? I would presume that for anyone there's a point where a hot start turns into something else.

For Keith Law, Ken Singleton, and probably a few Hangouters, they'd start to get an idea that the team might be good after 161-0 and might predict that they'll win the 162nd game.

For me I would think 10-0 or 10-1 would be a fantastic start and indicative of a team that has the pieces to finish above .500 unless we lose a lot of people to injury.

7-0 is nothing to shake a stick at though.

What we really need to see, though, is the 10 games played AFTER the Orioles suffer their first loss of the season.

If they bounce back and win the next game, that'd be fantastic. If they fall into a long losing slide, that is far less optimistic for the rest of the season.

[foxfield]

Baseball season is a grind. 7 games won't make or break a season in and of themselves. Every game however is important. Beating teams in your division is important. Winning on the road is important. But 7 games in means nothing. And yet it means everything. Take em one game at a time, everyone contributes when it's their turn and when it's not their day someone picks you up. We have seen it before, it's the Oriole Way.

There was a lot to love about this team the day that Spring Training games started. There was a lot to be concerned about too. Those things have not changed. The only thing that has changed is the calendar and what we have seen so far is a team that pretty well understands what it is and what it needs to do. THAT may be what is important about the first 7 games.

You can't win every game...but we only need to worry about the one in front of us. Over and over again.

I like our guys.

Jeep it up!

[Spy Fox]

We've been winning on the backs of

1) Multiple hitters red-hot at the same time.

2) Bullpen shutting it down.

3) Starting pitching solid (not great, but keeping us in games)

#1 will be true a lot of the time. #2 will be true most of the time. #3...we'll have to see. A 7-0 start is less important for reevaluating everything we thought about the team and more important for the simple fact that we're getting a head start in what figures to be a close race.

[Il BuonO]

Hot start, but oh, how I'd love for them to jell and become a superior team.

[isestrex]

Personally I'm just glad this team doesn't look like a >.500 team. I never really thought that, but the national outlook was so crazy negative that I began to seriously second guess whether or not 81 was even possible. This hot start doesn't guarantee a winning season, but it proves that the crazy strengths of the team (power, bullpen and defense) can definitely compete. That's a big relief after months of winter seeing nearly every writer and prediction machine pick O's for 5th and a win total starting with the number 7.

[ChuckS]

Yeah I agree that 6 - 0 is probably just a hot start. But at what point do you change your mind? 10 - 0? 16 - 0? I would presume that for anyone there's a point where a hot start turns into something else.

It's a hot start. But the way the offense has looked so far definitely means something. Looks like Machado and Davis are each in for another huge year. Schoop really looks like he is going to be break out player. Trumbo is going to do a lot of damage hitting in the middle of the lineup. Hardy looks primed for a bounce back year. There are lots of signs that we are going to score a lot of runs this year.

[SilentJames]

Of course it is a hot start.

But this team is going to be better than a lot of people have considered. Can't we just not worry about it for a bit and just enjoy it?

[JayThomas]

It's a hot start. But the way the offense has looked so far definitely means something. Looks like Machado and Davis are each in for another huge year. Schoop really looks like he is going to be break out player. Trumbo is going to do a lot of damage hitting in the middle of the lineup. Hardy looks primed for a bounce back year. There are lots of signs that we are going to score a lot of runs this year.

Lots of runs.

[CaptainRedbeard]

Whatever it is, if we go .500 the rest of the way, that's 84.5 wins. We basically need to play .500 ball from here on out to take the second wild card. I think everybody on this board, except the most negative, thinks the team is capable of that.

[oriole]

I think the pen is set up to really compliment the rotation. You have some real solid multi innings guys in Bundy, Wilson, and TJ with a shut down backend with Brach to spare (who could also do multiple innings if needed). Couple that with a passable rotation who can at least go five innings and not totally implode then you have a winning staff.

Obviously this is a hot start and unlikely to be a 100 win team but it's given me more confidence. Because while I liked the offense I thought the pitching would be too bad to overcome. I'm glad to see it can work with the right pieces.