Offense not pitching will doom this team

[Spy Fox]

The Orioles' poor approach to hitting was brought up over 5 years ago and I was criticized for it then too. Guess who's the common link between 2011 and 2016... Adam Jones

The O's hitting approach could certainly be better. But it's an odd thread resurrection. You're lauding yourself for forecasting Orioles Doom literally right before they began a stretch of five seasons as the most consistently winning team in the American League.

Adam Jones is indeed one of the common links between 2011 to 2016, which happens to be a fairly successful run of Orioles baseball. Good job Adam?

[evenparthrough9]

The O's hitting approach could certainly be better. But it's an odd thread resurrection. You're lauding yourself for forecasting Orioles Doom literally right before they began a stretch of five seasons as the most consistently winning team in the American League.

Adam Jones is indeed one of the common links between 2011 to 2016, which happens to be a fairly successful run of Orioles baseball. Good job Adam?

I'm in this thing for World Series titles. 1983 is a long time ago. The Giants have 3 in recent years with probably not as much talent outside of Mad Bum. That's frustrating. The Phillies, Royals...... Where's ours?

[Orioles4Life21]

I'm in this thing for World Series titles. 1983 is a long time ago. The Giants have 3 in recent years with probably not as much talent outside of Mad Bum. That's frustrating. The Phillies, Royals...... Where's ours?

Posey? Lincecum? Cain? Crawford? Panik? Pagan? Belt? Sandoval? Pence? Scutaro had a great year for them in '12 I believe. The Giants have been loaded with talent since 2010.

Our talent level has been somewhat close, but a lot of pitching and a lot of luck has aided the Giants to those 3 titles. Our starting pitching hasn't been nearly as good except in '14 when we ran into a buzzsaw in the ALCS that would've beaten those Giants of not for the aforementioned Bumgarner.

[weams]

Just needed a solo homer. Or a better pitcher in the 11th. That's all. They crushed Texas.

[JR Oriole]

I'm in this thing for World Series titles. 1983 is a long time ago. The Giants have 3 in recent years with probably not as much talent outside of Mad Bum. That's frustrating. The Phillies, Royals...... Where's ours?

THIS x 100. This is exactly how I feel. If either Washington or Chicago wins the NL, they will become the 25th organization to make it to the World Series since the Orioles last appeared in one. That means there will be only 4 that have had a longer pennant drought than we have. But even with that, what I care about most is championships. I am fine if we have 9 under .500 seasons out of the next 10, as long as the 1 winning season nets us a title. Winning the most regular season games in the AL over the last 5 years is nice, but I would trade it in a heartbeat for a title during that run.

What a difference it would have made if we made it to and won the 1997 World Series like we should have. That would have made 1998-2011 much more tolerable. Same thing with 2014. Win it and it changes everything. But we didn't, and so the collective failures of our hitters to perform in October becomes that much more glaring and frustrating.

As for the Giants, I am not buying that they have more talent than we do. Belt, Crawford, Pagan, and Panik are somehow better than who we have? No way. I think they hit better in October for sure, but better....no. Posey is a great player, but Wieters was supposed to be better than him. It just didn't work out. They won the 2010 World Series with Aubrey Huff as their cleanup hitter and they got big hits from Edgar Renteria, who was damn old at the time. Scutaro was big in 2012 but was never big at any other point in his career. Same with Ryan Vogelsong, who was unhittable in that series despite being completely mediocre his entire career. Mad Bum is the game changer because he is unquestionably the clutchest pitcher we have seen in decades.

[Babypowder]

THIS x 100. This is exactly how I feel. If either Washington or Chicago wins the NL, they will become the 25th organization to make it to the World Series since the Orioles last appeared in one. That means there will be only 4 that have had a longer pennant drought than we have. But even with that, what I care about most is championships. I am fine if we have 9 under .500 seasons out of the next 10, as long as the 1 winning season nets us a title. Winning the most regular season games in the AL over the last 5 years is nice, but I would trade it in a heartbeat for a title during that run.

What a difference it would have made if we made it to and won the 1997 World Series like we should have. That would have made 1998-2011 much more tolerable. Same thing with 2014. Win it and it changes everything. But we didn't, and so the collective failures of our hitters to perform in October becomes that much more glaring and frustrating.

As for the Giants, I am not buying that they have more talent than we do. Belt, Crawford, Pagan, and Panik are somehow better than who we have? No way. I think they hit better in October for sure, but better....no. Posey is a great player, but Wieters was supposed to be better than him. It just didn't work out. They won the 2010 World Series with Aubrey Huff as their cleanup hitter and they got big hits from Edgar Renteria, who was damn old at the time. Scutaro was big in 2012 but was never big at any other point in his career. Same with Ryan Vogelsong, who was unhittable in that series despite being completely mediocre his entire career. Mad Bum is the game changer because he is unquestionably the clutchest pitcher we have seen in decades.

Brandon Crawford is easily better than J.J. Hardy. Brandon Belt is also right on par with Davis. He's been a 4+ win player 3 of the last 4 years. Joe Panik has also been worth over 6 wins the last 2 years to Jon Schoop's ~3.

[evenparthrough9]

Same song diffferent year.  Does this thing need to be totally broken down or can we restock and retool with a variety of players, not just the Gorman Thomas type? 

[Ripken]

Dan does not value OBP.  He says he does but he's lying.  

[ChuckS]

17 minutes ago, Ripken said:

Dan does not value OBP.  He says he does but he's lying.  

Drafted DJ Stewart.  Traded for Seth Smith last year. 

Buck was the one behind bringing back Trumbo. 

I'm not sure whose idea it was to sign Rasmus over Dyson and Jay.  Maybe you can put that one on Duquette but I think it is unclear whether it is Buck or Duquette that holds more power with ownership at this point.  

[OriolesMagic83]

The batting averages of the O's 5-9 hitters today:

Davis .164

Beckham .175

Sandtander .161

Joseph .100

Sardinas .118

When over half the lineup can't hit the Mendoza line, its time to give up on the season.  Valencia is hitting .138 and he was a pinch hitter in the game.   I know its early, but its questionable if any of these hitters other than Beckham will hit .200 this year.  It's not like their making up for it with their defense either.  At least Santander has the excuse he's a rookie, and I'm sure he'll be sent down the day he meets his Rule 5 requirement.  The truth is the 2018 O's, other than Machado, Bundy, and Schoop and probably Mancini aren't very good at baseball.

[allquixotic]

The Reds would do anything to be in our shoes with 6 wins. They are 3-18. If we’re going to qualify for the #1 draft pick, we need to get serious about losing some games. I think a good 2-38 stretch might be enough to seal the deal and beat out the Reds, who will probably have to win at least 4 or 5 games in that time to keep from having to bring a random fan from the stands into the game as their manager.

The ‘03 Tigers won 43 games. This is the worst record since 2000. The Reds are on pace to shatter that record this year. At the current Orioles pace we would actually beat the 03 Tigers by one win. So we need to lose about 5-6 more games than the 03 Tigers to beat the Reds for the #1 pick.

[Frobby]

9 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

The batting averages of the O's 5-9 hitters today:

Davis .164

Beckham .175

Sandtander .161

Joseph .100

Sardinas .118

When over half the lineup can't hit the Mendoza line, its time to give up on the season.  Valencia is hitting .138 and he was a pinch hitter in the game.   I know its early, but its questionable if any of these hitters other than Beckham will hit .200 this year.  

I can’t argue with this statement, but I think Sardinas and Santander won’t be on the roster long if they don’t hit better.    I’m sure Valencia will hit better over time.   I’m certainly worried about Davis and Joseph, each of whom has hit under .200 in a full season previously.