OBP Tracker

[Aristotelian]

Last year we were 24th in MLB in OBP at .307. Even in 2014, our best season in over a decade, our OBP was #17 in MLB at .311. .313 the year before that good for #19. Along with starting pitching at the top of the rotation, OBP has been this team's perennial weakness, and DD appeared to do nothing to address this weakness in the offseason.

Pitching has been a huge surprise and has been noted in other threads, but how about OBP? Through yesterday's game, the O's OBP stood at .332, #7 in MLB (that number will go up with 16 hits and 2 BBs in today's game).

Our big additions have been Trumbo, known as a free swinger; Alvarez, who has a good walk rate but low average; and Rickard, who is not drawing walks against MLB pitching. What the heck is going on here? Is this a function of facing bad pitching in the early going? New hitting coach? Just a meaningless small sample? Manny is leading the majors with .424 OBP, building on incremental improvements the three previous years. Is that possibly sustainable?

[Aristotelian]

Updating these numbers...

The O's have slipped to #9 in MLB, currently sitting at .328, after facing some tough pitching against SEA. However, we are only .005 points behind Miami in #6.

While Manny was #1 with an OBP of over .500 for a while, he has now slipped to .377, good for #38. Other players in the top 100 are Davis (#62, .361), and Trumbo (#63, .360).

Rickard (.315) is just under the MLB average (.320).

Trumbo looks like a big regression candidate, while I expect more from Wieters. If Kim ever starts to replace Rickard, he might also help.

[Aristotelian]

The offense went cold against the Astros, but got going again vs. the Indians and Red Sox. Still OBP has dropped since the last time I checked, down to .325, good for #11 in MLB.

Notable Orioles OBP stats:

Manny is sitting at .386, #21 in MLB, the only Oriole in the top 50. Trumbo is at .342 (#77), Davis .is down to 338 (dropping to #86).

Wieters has been hot lately, raising his OBP to .321.

While Jones is still well below league average, he has had a good run (.364) since moving to the leadoff spot. His OBP currently sits at .296, an improvement of 14 points since moving to leadoff.

Kim's OBP is currently .449. If he had enough AB's he would easily be the Orioles leader. In fact, he would be ahead of Zobrist, the current MLB leader at .439 (Fowler is #2 at .432). Kim could become a major OBP story for the O's if he can keep this up. So far he has shown no sign that his early success is a fluke.

League average is .319.

[Aristotelian]

Orioles OBP now sits at .324, just a point less than when I last checked. We currently sit at #13, just a tick above league median and MLB average but in a large grouping of teams between .322 and .327.

Kim is in a bit of a slump but his OBP for the season is still sitting above .400. Manny is down slightly to .373 (#30 in MLB), Davis up slightly to .345, and Trumbo down to .322.

AJ still can't quite crack .300. Rickard has taken advantage of his platoon role for a .370 OBP in June. Wieters got hot and put up a .343 in May, but only .283 thus far in June.

Schoop's OBP has steadily risen from an abyssmal .256 in April to .298 currently (.339 in June).

[Aristotelian]

The O's offense has been on fire lately. We know about the home runs but our season OBP has jumped 10 points in the last two weeks to .334, #5 in MLB. After scuffling a bit, we are now back to where we were in May when I first started the thread. MLB average is .322, AL is .323. We are currently #1 in MLB for the month of June with an OBP of .359.

For players >100 ABs, Kim is #3 in MLB (.431), just a tick behind Ortiz (.433) and Goldschmidt (.431).

Manny has climbed a few notches to #26 (.387). Davis is still well above league average at .359.

Schoop's OBP has really taken off. Even he is above league average at .327, along with Wieters (.329) and Trumboi (.331). Alvarez and Jones are both above .300 after spending much of the first half on the wrong side of that line.

In short, my feeling is that OBP is arguably the major story for the O's this year. The team seems to be really focusing on getting better pitches to hit, and that is translating to wearing out pitchers, more homers, and more homers with guys on base. Of course, hitting more homers also helps the OBP with pitchers tending to pitch around Davis and Manny. Last year we were #3 in HR, while we are #1 this year. Either way, with our starting pitching continuing to struggle, and defense and bullpen holding constant, I have to think OBP accounts for much of the difference between last season and this year. (Our ERA is actually a bit worse this year, 4.22 compared to 4.05 in 2015, while OBP has gone from .307 in 2015, 24th in MLB, to .334).

[Frobby]

I agree that OBP is a big, underrated part of the Orioles' success this year. Yeah, the guys can bash, but they are also passing the baton when the pitches aren't there. The O's are on pace for 492 walks, compared to 418 last season. By the way, major kudos to Adam Jones, who already has 21 walks compared to 24 all of last year (and 19 in 2014). He's never going to be a big walk guy, but he's clearly laying off more junk this season and letting the guys behind him drive him in.

[Filmstudy]

The O's offense has been on fire lately. We know about the home runs but our season OBP has jumped 10 points in the last two weeks to .334, #5 in MLB. After scuffling a bit, we are now back to where we were in May when I first started the thread. MLB average is .322, AL is .323. We are currently #1 in MLB for the month of June with an OBP of .359.

For players >100 ABs, Kim is #3 in MLB (.431), just a tick behind Ortiz (.433) and Goldschmidt (.431).

Manny has climbed a few notches to #26 (.387). Davis is still well above league average at .359.

Schoop's OBP has really taken off. Even he is above league average at .327, along with Wieters (.329) and Trumboi (.331). Alvarez and Jones are both above .300 after spending much of the first half on the wrong side of that line.

In short, my feeling is that OBP is arguably the major story for the O's this year. The team seems to be really focusing on getting better pitches to hit, and that is translating to wearing out pitchers, more homers, and more homers with guys on base. Of course, hitting more homers also helps the OBP with pitchers tending to pitch around Davis and Manny. Last year we were #3 in HR, while we are #1 this year. Either way, with our starting pitching continuing to struggle, and defense and bullpen holding constant, I have to think OBP accounts for much of the difference between last season and this year. (Our ERA is actually a bit worse this year, 4.22 compared to 4.05 in 2015, while OBP has gone from .307 in 2015, 24th in MLB, to .334).

Good post and I agree that the improved OPS/approach/weardown have been huge factors for the offense. I enjoy watching this team hit every day, but it is a concern that the Orioles have such an unimpressive relationship between OPS and runs than the other good AL teams. Boston, Texas, Toronto, Seattle, and Cleveland, all are scoring more runs relative to OPS. Texas is the only one that has fewer walks.

I don't know if OPS or SLG has been the bigger story so far this season, but I do think the Orioles ability to maintain offense at this level is dependent on improved strike zone judgment and more walks.

[weams]

Good post and I agree that the improved OPS/approach/weardown have been huge factors for the offense. I enjoy watching this team hit every day, but it is a concern that the Orioles have such an unimpressive relationship between OPS and runs than the other good AL teams. Boston, Texas, Toronto, Seattle, and Cleveland, all are scoring more runs relative to OPS. Texas is the only one that has fewer walks.

I don't know if OPS or SLG has been the bigger story so far this season, but I do think the Orioles ability to maintain offense at this level is dependent on improved strike zone judgment and more walks.

Hitting the ball out of the playing field has been their big advantage.

[Frobby]

Hitting the ball out of the playing field has been their big advantage.

The evidence supports you. Last year, the O's scored 47.8% of their runs on homers. This year, it's 49.5%. Last year, the O's scored 340 runs via their 217 homers. This year, they are on pace to score 409 runs via 262 homers.

However, the O's also are on pace to score 418 runs other than via the home run, compared to 370 last year. So, we're on pace to score 69 more runs on homers, and 48 more runs without homering. So, it's all good!

[weams]

The evidence supports you. Last year, the O's scored 47.8% of their runs on homers. This year, it's 49.5%. Last year, the O's scored 340 runs via their 217 homers. This year, they are on pace to score 409 runs via 262 homers.

However, the O's also are on pace to score 418 runs other than via the home run, compared to 370 last year. So, we're on pace to score 69 more runs on homers, and 48 more runs without homering. So, it's all good!

I am happy when they score runs in any way. But the long ball is our banner.

[Aristotelian]

Hitting the ball out of the playing field has been their big advantage.

We did that pretty well last year too and we were only a .500 team. If you make those solo shots into three run homers, it becomes an even bigger advantage. Both/and.

[Frobby]

We did that pretty well last year too and we were only a .500 team. If you make those solo shots into three run homers, it becomes an even bigger advantage. Both/and.

See my post above regarding how we are doing better on both fronts (scoring on homers and non-homers). But for what it's worth, last year we scored 1.57 runs on the average homer, this year it's 1.56. So we are not hitting a higher percentage of them with more runners on base. We're just hitting more of them, regardless of whether there are runners on base.

[weams]

See my post above regarding how we are doing better on both fronts (scoring on homers and non-homers). But for what it's worth, last year we scored 1.57 runs on the average homer, this year it's 1.56. So we are not hitting a higher percentage of them with more runners on base. We're just hitting more of them, regardless of whether there are runners on base.

I know. But it would be nice if it were because of more on base. It is just not the case. Glad we are scoring runs.

[weams]

In honor of the late great Buddy Ryan. "All he does is catch touchdowns."

[Aristotelian]

See my post above regarding how we are doing better on both fronts (scoring on homers and non-homers). But for what it's worth, last year we scored 1.57 runs on the average homer, this year it's 1.56. So we are not hitting a higher percentage of them with more runners on base. We're just hitting more of them, regardless of whether there are runners on base.

Interesting. There are still more ways the two can be mutually reinforcing. At the very least, higher OBP = more ABs, and more ABs = more HRs. Back of the napkin, we are scoring both more HR runs and more non-HR runs by a pretty close amount. This is all good. No doubt, the HR's have been a big boost too. Ideally, we have what it takes to find multiple ways to score, so we aren't just dependent on the long ball when we need a big run, but we can also get back in the game in a hurry with one swing of the bat.