A Team that is "Fun to Watch" ........ It's All About Wins and Losses, Nothing More, Nothing Less

[VeveJones007]

I love the O's but they still frustrate me. That's just intrinsic to a game where it's "good" if you can get a hit 30% of the time.

[OFFNY]

o

 

Thanks, Todd.

For myself the season was exciting, nerve-wracking, frustrating, and enjoyable.

 

 

Todd-O said:

 

What an awesome run. As a long-time fan, I can honestly say it was a blast and I'm super psyched we were able to get to experience the thrill of watching meaningful games into October. Would it have been nice to get that W last night? Of course. But what an awesome ride ... after years of total sucking, I'm glad we were in it.

We were SOOOOOOO close!

Looking forward to another run and another AL EAST dog fight next season.

Go, Birds!

 

 

 

http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php/154845-This-is-NOT-over-by-a-long-shot/page4

 

o

o

[Chavez Ravine]

The offense slumps don't bother me.

Starting pitching incapable or unwilling to challenge hitters is not fun to watch.

Poor defense is not fun to watch.

For me, the style of starting pitching is the only baseball aesthetics that concern me (at least in terms of the players on the field). In general, if you nibble, take eons between pitches, and have great stuff that somehow turns into sucky results, you annoy me. But it is only starting pitching where I get all connoisseur. Mostly...individual exceptional plays (usually involving defense) withstanding ... I don't grade games by aesthetics like a soccer fan might.

[OFFNY]

On 9/21/2016 at 2:46 PM, OFFNY said:

o

 

It has often been said by many that the 2016 Orioles team has "Not been very fun to watch." And this is almost always said after the Orioles lose 2 or 3 games in a row, and particularly when they lose 2 or 3 games in a row to a division rival such as the Yankees, the Red Sox, or the Blue Jays.

 

We all look back at the 2012 Orioles team with loving memories, and remember them a young, spunky team that never quit. That team went 93-69, beat the Texas Rangers in a one-game playoff in their home park, and took the Yankees right down to the wire in the A.L.D.S.

However ........ that same 2012 team had a record of 46-44 after 90 games, which was well past the midway point of the season. After starting the season at 39-27, the Orioles went 7-17 over their next 24 games, and all of us (myself included) were extremely fearful that we might be witnessing a repeat of the 2005 season. We were so desperate that we called up Tommy Hunter from AAA-Norfolk to start the next game against the Twins in Minnesota. What happened ??? The Orioles scored 2 runs in that game and they lost ano ........ NO !!! Tommy Hunter pitched 7 innings of 1-run ball, and the Orioles won the game by a score of 2-1, which started them on a 5-game winning streak. After that win, the lowest number of games that the Orioles ever were over .500 for the rest of the season was 4 (51-47), and they in fact did the complete opposite of what the 2005 team did after their very promising start to that season.

 

So that 2012 season IN HINDSIGHT looks like a team that was "Much more fun to watch" than this current 2016 is. However, looking at it more objectively, I don't think that there were 5 posters that were fondly thinking of that team as "Fun to watch" when they were 46-44, had just lost 17 out of their last 24 games, and were counting on Tommy Hunter to stop the bleeding.

 

And while I'm stating the obvious (teams that win games are more fun to watch than are teams that lose games, REGARDLESS of how they win the games and/or what their Pythagorean record is), I think that it needs to be stated. Currently, the Orioles are 82-69, and are riding a 2-game losing streak to their division rival Red Sox. 4 or 5 years from now, will we all look back on this team as one that was "Fun team to watch" with glowing memories, as we do of that 2012 Orioles team ??? It all depends on several things ........ how the Orioles fare in their final 11 regular season games, how the Orioles fare in the postseason if and when they reach it, and how the Orioles are doing 4 or 5 years from now when we are looking back at this 2016 season.

 

o

o

 

(ALMOST ONE YEAR LATER)

 

The Orioles are not winning as much as the 2016 did. But they are winning at a fairly decent clip as of late, going 10-3 over their last 13 games, and 3-0-1 in series in that span.

And just as I asserted last year, the way that this team is looked upon and remembered (specifically whether or not they are/were "Fun to watch") in 2021 or 2022 will depend on 3 things ........ how the Orioles fare in their final 25 regular season games, how the Orioles fare in the postseason if and when they reach it, and how the Orioles are doing 4 or 5 years from now when we are looking back at this 2017 season.

 

o

[tntoriole]

I agree that wins are the most important part, but I still miss the fact that this team has virtually no small ball skills and none of the teams in this five year run have had any speed at all.   So smart baseball of manufacturing a run when you really need it, stolen bases, hit and run, etc. have been virtually absent from this last five years of the Oruoles.  And I do miss those aspects of baseball played well from my team. 

[schittenden]

20 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

I agree that wins are the most important part, but I still miss the fact that this team has virtually no small ball skills and none of the teams in this five year run have had any speed at all.   So smart baseball of manufacturing a run when you really need it, stolen bases, hit and run, etc. have been virtually absent from this last five years of the Oruoles.  And I do miss those aspects of baseball played well from my team. 

I think this year's team has some speed. 

[Frobby]

52 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

I agree that wins are the most important part, but I still miss the fact that this team has virtually no small ball skills and none of the teams in this five year run have had any speed at all.   So smart baseball of manufacturing a run when you really need it, stolen bases, hit and run, etc. have been virtually absent from this last five years of the Oruoles.  And I do miss those aspects of baseball played well from my team. 

I just want my team to win.    They'd win more if they executed certain things better, but lots of teams could say that.  

[tntoriole]

16 minutes ago, schittenden said:

I think this year's team has some speed. 

According to MLB Statcast, of the starters Gentry was the only guy with any real speed at 28.5 feet per second, recent addition, Tim Beckham is above average in footspeed at 27.5 feet per second as is Joey Rickard at 27.5.... Adam Jones is at league average at 27 ft/sec and every other position starter is below league average...some are just below like Manny, Schoop and Mancini and some are slow, Smith, Flaherty, and some are slow as mud..i.e Trumbo, Davis, both catchers, Hardy..in the 25 ft/sec or lower range. 

Operationally we have by far the lowest stolen base total in the majors with 29 when the league average is 73.   Although I will admit that this total is better than last year's team which had a total of 19.  But not much better.   

[tntoriole]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I just want my team to win.    They'd win more if they executed certain things better, but lots of teams could say that.  

I want to win too and I believe they would win at least a few more if any of them could execute basic baseball acts like bunting, hit and run, moving runners up, learn how to foul off more pitches when behind in the count, etc. But then they wouldn't be the guys who hit homers so it is what it is.   

[weams]

10 hours ago, Frobby said:

I just want my team to win.    They'd win more if they executed certain things better, but lots of teams could say that.  

I really do not care how. Even if they have to do dumb things like bunt to make it happen. Heck, even a stolen base here and there. I don't care.  Next week it will be mid-September. And it looks like we might still be in a pennant chase. Fun. 

[UpstateNYfan]

Well, it's September and we are still talking about 2017 and not 2018, and I always just ask for a team to at least be competitive. It was only a month ago many were talking sell, sell, sell. Now, win, win, win. This team seems to have the ability to be very frustrating for extended periods of time and also the reverse. Nothing would surprise me in the next month. If they can get a few good (or lucky) starts from their 4, 5, and 6th starters it could be a very exciting last week of the season and beyond.

[eddie83]

Schoop and Manny is much watch TV right now. Beckham has brought some much needed speed. Some of the young players on the way will add to the speed/athleticism that we lack. 

I am not worried about small ball but I admit I would like to see more runners that can go 1st to 3rd and cover more ground in the OF. 

[tntoriole]

It has become a different game since the steroid era and with the conventional analytic wisdom of 75 percent success rate for SBs being the minimum acceptable for many teams and the focus on time to the plate etc, speed is now a novelty.  And the number of stolen bases and attempts has markedly decrased over the last 30 years

 

The days of a Maury Wills, a Lou Brock, Rickey Henderson or Vince Coleman are gone probably for good.   It makes  the game that much less appealing a sport overall to me.  The intense pressure that a guy like those above put on another team's pitcher and the excitement they brought were amazing to watch. 

[Babypowder]

I haven't latched on to any of these teams because I don't enjoy the playing style. Even the years they've been good I haven't really thought of them as being particularly fun to watch. 

I enjoy pitchers who strike people out and hitters who work counts and get on base. These teams have lacked both.

[Frobby]

16 hours ago, tntoriole said:

According to MLB Statcast, of the starters Gentry was the only guy with any real speed at 28.5 feet per second, recent addition, Tim Beckham is above average in footspeed at 27.5 feet per second as is Joey Rickard at 27.5.... Adam Jones is at league average at 27 ft/sec and every other position starter is below league average...some are just below like Manny, Schoop and Mancini and some are slow, Smith, Flaherty, and some are slow as mud..i.e Trumbo, Davis, both catchers, Hardy..in the 25 ft/sec or lower range. 

Operationally we have by far the lowest stolen base total in the majors with 29 when the league average is 73.   Although I will admit that this total is better than last year's team which had a total of 19.  But not much better.   

Per BP, the O's are -3 in Baserunning Runs.   The best team in baseball is +13 and the worst is -11.     It's a pretty overrated part of the game if you ask me.    Aesthetically pleasing but operationally not very important.