One third through the season the O's are on an amazing 93 win pace.

[wildcard]

Amazing considering how bad the starting pitching as been.

In the AL:

Offense

5th in runs with 255, on pace for 765

2nd in homers with 80, on pace for 240

6th in average with .261

4th in OBP with .324 (Major improvement of 2015 at .307)

2nd in slugging pct with .450

3rd in OPS with .774

Fielding pct

12th with .984 (Very poor, 2015 at .987)

Pitching

8th in ERA with 4.15

13th in Starter ERA with 4.99 (Major draw back for the team)

2nd in Reliever ERA with 2.81

[Bahama O's Fan]

This cannot be true. We are an awful team; we suck. We would be better selling the players off and doing a total rebuild. We have no chance, etc, etc, etc...

[Rene88]

This cannot be true. We are an awful team; we suck. We would be better selling the players off and doing a total rebuild. We have no chance' date=' etc, etc, etc...[/quote']

Nobody is saying that.

But the starting pitching IS a huge reason to be concerned that this team will not repeat the same level of performance.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bahama O's Fan]

The Baltimore Orioles-Smoke and Mirrors since 2012, they can't really be this good, can they?

[thezeroes]

21 Wins - 3 Losses in games that Pitchers allowed 3 runs or less.

3 Wins - 5 Losses in games that Pitchers allowed 4 runs.

7 Wins - 15 Losses in games that Pitchers allowed 5 runs or more.

[maybenxtyr]

They're not a bad team but they have also played some weak opponents in the first half. It will be interesting to see how they fair over the course of June. If Toronto starts hitting, things could get good in the AL Easy.

[joeyc]

We started 7-0 and have played .500 ball since. We are a mediocre team that has no chance of being too successful with this horrible pitching. I don't think we are winning near 93 games. We will be lucky to break .500. But when you give away a Cy Young winner like Arrietta and an up and coming stud in Edwardo Rodriguez.That's bound to happen. Orginizations are dying to get talent like that. It don't come often. We gave our chance of great starting pitching away, now we are stuck with scrubs.

[riprulz8]

We started 7-0 and have played .500 ball since. We are a mediocre team that has no chance of being too successful with this horrible pitching. I don't think we are winning near 93 games. We will be lucky to break .500. But when you give away a Cy Young winner like Arrietta and an up and coming stud in Edwardo Rodriguez.That's bound to happen. Orginizations are dying to get talent like that. It don't come often. We gave our chance of great starting pitching away, now we are stuck with scrubs.

Seriously, people need to let this Arietta stuff die. Stuff happens.

[El Gordo]

Amazing considering how bad the starting pitching as been.

In the AL:

Offense

5th in runs with 255, on pace for 765

2nd in homers with 80, on pace for 240

6th in average with .261

4th in OBP with .324 (Major improvement of 2015 at .307)

2nd in slugging pct with .450

3rd in OPS with .774

Fielding pct

12th with .984 (Very poor, 2015 at .987)

Pitching

8th in ERA with 4.15

13th in Starter ERA with 4.99 (Major draw back for the team)

2nd in Reliever ERA with 2.81

Not bad for a mediocre team.

[LookitsPuck]

Seriously, people need to let this Arietta stuff die. Stuff happens.

It was preventable, though.

[LookitsPuck]

Not bad for a mediocre team.

Isn't that the definition of a mediocre team, though? Plus offense (not elite) with bottom of the barrel starting pitching?

[Frobby]

I'm very happy with 31-23 one-third of the way through the season. We can all see the team's shortcomings, but we are in about as good a position as we possibly could have hoped one-third of the way through, especially considering how much time Hardy has missed and the state of the starting pitching. Who knows what comes next, but it should be a fun summer.

[El Gordo]

Isn't that the definition of a mediocre team, though? Plus offense (not elite) with bottom of the barrel starting pitching?

Plus offense, plus plus bullpen, good defense, mediocre SP = mediocre team. Check.

[Frobby]

Plus offense, plus plus bullpen, good defense, mediocre SP = mediocre team. Check.

The problem with this equation is that the starting pitching isn't mediocre, it's bad. Let's not mince words. Also, I can't say the defense has been good. The stats don't bear it out.

[Frobby]

Regarding our defense, the main reason our fielding percentage is so low is that our pitchers have already made 9 errors, which equals their total for all of last year. Also, Manny is a good defensive SS but much more error-prone than Hardy. And not surprisingly, Alvarez has been brutal at 3B when he plays there (amazingly, he has a .625 fielding percentage, 3 errors in 8 chances, and frankly that's charitable considering some other plays he couldn't make). The infield defense will improve when Hardy returns, and I think the high number of errors by the pitchers is just a fluky thing that should self-correct.

The other issue is that our corner outfielders aren't that good -- not too many errors out there, but it's just a very mediocre group defensively. That probably won't change as the season goes forward.