The 2018 season is far from over

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Aristotelian said:

+1. Will be happy if the team proves me wrong, but I'm not seeing it this year. I had us about .500 going in to the season and now we are already 6 games under. We now probably have to be 14-15 games over .500 the rest of the way to have a shot at a wild card. We need to get very hot, very quickly, or else DD will have no option but to trade Manny, and then we are done. I believe the offense will pick up eventually, but we have too many other hurdles to climb...Schoop on DL, Davis, bullpen, outfield defense. We just aren't that good and now we have a 6 game hole to climb out of.

You don't remember the Britton talks last deadline?  They can always set their required return too high and hold onto him.

[Frobby]

55 minutes ago, Diehard_O's_Fan said:

Most of you guys act like the 2018 season is already over. The 2018 MLB season is far from over. I am not the least bit worried. 

Not the least bit?    I agree that there’s plenty of time to right the ship, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t the least bit worried.  

Ironically, I’m not that worried about the starting pitching.   It’s been spotty, but overall better than last year and has a good chance of getting better from here as Cobb rounds into form.   

I’m quite worried about the offense, which ended last season in a month long funk that has now extended 16 games into this season.   This team can’t win if the offense is below average.   

I’m worried about the defense.    Unlike many here, I want to wait at least two months to evaluate the Manny-Beckham flip.   I didn’t expect there would be no bumps in the road.   But it hasn’t gone that well initially, and now the whole thing is disrupted with Beckham moving to 2B with Schoop out.   But other problems include defensive deterioration by Chris Davis and Caleb Joseph and lack of speed in the OF.

And, the bullpen hasn’t been great. Probably still the least of my worries, but it’s been vulnerable.   

So, I’m by no means giving up on 2018, but sure I’m worried.   

[eddie83]

9 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

You don't remember the Britton talks last deadline?  They can always set their required return too high and hold onto him.

Or an advisor, advises.  

[SteveA]

4 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

+1. Will be happy if the team proves me wrong, but I'm not seeing it this year. I had us about .500 going in to the season and now we are already 6 games under. We now probably have to be 14-15 games over .500 the rest of the way to have a shot at a wild card. We need to get very hot, very quickly, or else DD will have no option but to trade Manny, and then we are done. I believe the offense will pick up eventually, but we have too many other hurdles to climb...Schoop on DL, Davis, bullpen, outfield defense. We just aren't that good and now we have a 6 game hole to climb out of.

If you had us at .500 for the entire season, but knew we would have an exceptionally difficult schedule early and that Cobb wouldn't be ready the first few weeks, it would seem that being a few games under .500 would have been your expectation.   So maybe 6-10 or 7-9 would have been a reasonable expectation for us at this point for us to be .500 over the entire season.

So we are just slightly below where a .500-talent team would likely be with the early schedule we've had and the known-in-advance Cobb situation.

The injury to our reigning MVP is of course a concern.   But I think the biggest cause of all the angst now is because we have had to watch the 5-11 start with our own eyes.   5-11 is ugly in and of itself, but watching the sausage being made has been truly disgusting.   It's hard to look at it dispassionately.    But it's still a small sample size.   And the schedule is real.   Here are our opponents' records so far this year in their games NOT vs Baltimore (so you can't say that they all just have winning records because they have played the lowly O's):   Minnesota 5-3, Yankees 6-4, Boston 10-2, Houston 7-5, Toronto 7-3.   That's 35-17.   We have played teams that are .673 vs the rest of the league!     So they are beating up on EVERYBODY.   They are .688 against us, which is essentially the same thing.   Any average .500ish AL team that has played them would be 5-11 or 6-10 right now.

So if you thought we are a .500ish team to start with (which I did -- I voted 83 wins in the poll)... well, we are maybe 1 game worse than a .500 team should be right now given who we have had to play.   Like I said, watching the sausage being made has been disgusting, but I don't think 17 games against the schedule we've played is enough to logically conclude we are doomed to some sort of 60-70 win season.   Emotionally maybe, but not logically.

 

[mdbdotcom]

Just because I realize that the team is not very good doesn't mean I shouldn't or won't root for the O's. They are my team, win, lose or draw. They just happen to be a bad team this year. C'est la vie.

Go O's!

[Tx Oriole]

2 hours ago, Diehard_O's_Fan said:

Most of you guys act like the 2018 season is already over. The 2018 MLB season is far from over. I am not the least bit worried. The Orioles just need to beat up on the Tigers when they play them. If you cannot support the Orioles during this difficult time then please feel free to jump on the Astros or Redsox band wagon.

Here is a list of some of the obstacles the Orioles have already faced this year:

1. One of the toughest schedules in baseball if not the toughest.

2. Chris Tillman and Mike Wright were both in the rotation as a result of Cobb not being ready.

3. The bullpen has had to pitch alot of innings. I would think they would be in the top five as far as innings pitched.

4. Manny Machado playing shortstop has weakened the whole infield.

5. Chris Davis. Enough said.

6. Schoop is now on the DL.

I am not saying the season is over. But they are piss poor. They can't pitch nor can the hit. They'd better start playing better ball. 

[sportsfan8703]

We’re done. Too many holes.

5th SP

Davis is done

Joseph is done

Schoop hurt

Beckham was a fluke. It’s looking like a 200+ K season with 30 errors. 

[TouchemAll]

No bridge jumper I watch really no matter what happens (Sucker for punishment LOL)

BUT 8.5 out is NOT a good place to be on April 15th.

12-30 since Sept 1st of last year.

Anybody see a pattern here?

We all better hope the Tigers don't beat up the O's if were going to climb back they better beat somebody and SOON splitting series won't do it.

[Tx Oriole]

Just now, Tx Oriole said:

I am not saying the season is over. But they are piss poor. They can't pitch nor can the hit. They'd better start playing better ball. 

Manny shouldn't be at SS. That experiment is crazy. 

[islebreeze]

They finished in last place in 2017 and did nothing to improve their team in the offseason.

[atomic]

The line up is very weak.  The only guys who can hit are Mancini,  Jones,  Machado and Sisco.  Need to bring up some guys from minors and trade for someone to play second while Schoop is out.   

Buck is very stubborn.   Joseph will get tons of starts. Davis will hit against left handers and Valencia will play 3rd base.    Tillman will get more starts.   And people will continue to support him.  

[atomic]

21 minutes ago, Tx Oriole said:

Manny shouldn't be at SS. That experiment is crazy. 

People disagree with everything that Buck does but think he is a great manager 

[Tbone83]

Davis and Tillman/Wright are major problems I see no fix to. Beckham looks really bad at the plate too, I'm hoping last year was not a fluke. Joseph looks like...a backup catcher. Hopefully Sisco continues to improve.

The starting pitching is a bit better. The bullpen is a bit worse. The hack-away, homer-or-strikeout offense is getting really old. 

[maybenxtyr]

1 hour ago, islebreeze said:

They finished in last place in 2017 and did nothing to improve their team in the offseason.

They are a bad team, but that is not true. Did they do enough? Probably not. Saying they didn't do anything to improve is just saying something to say something.

[OFFNY]

2 hours ago, islebreeze said:

 

They finished in last place in 2017, and did nothing to improve their team in the offseason.

 

 

16 minutes ago, maybenxtyr said:

 

They are a bad team, but that is not true. Did they do enough? Probably not. Saying that they didn't do anything to improve is just saying something to say something.

 

o

 

Correct.

Last year the starting rotation was Bundy, Gausman, and 3 big holes.

This season the starting rotation is Bundy, Gausman, Cashner, Cobb, and one big hole.

A 5-11 start after 16 games against teams such as the Red Sox, the Astros, the Yankees, and the Twins (especially with Cashner and Cobb having signed as late as they did, and neither was subsequently ready at the start of the season due to having reduced and/or no Spring Training experience) does not discount that major upgrade in what is arguably the most important part of a baseball team.

 

o