Schedule takes a dramatic turn

[SteveA]

Well, the opening 23 (24 scheduled) game stretch that we knew would be brutal, is over.   And even those of us who might have been happy with 11-13 or 10-14 when it started, iknowing how tough it was, can't deny that the Orioles failed the test miserably.

Now the Orioles begin a 31 game stretch that has only 9 games vs teams with winning records:

   -- 4 at Boston

   -- 2 vs Philly

   -- 3 at the Angels

There are 6 games vs .500ish teams:

    -- 3 vs Detroit

    -- 3 at Oakland

And the other 16 out of 31, more than half, are vs teams with terrible records:

    - 9 vs 8-13 Rays

   -- 3 vs 5-15 Royals

   -- 4 vs 4-14 White Sox

Can't ask for an easier month.   If we had even managed to go 10-13 in the first 23, I'd say we would be set up to wake up on Memorial Day with a winning record and the Nats in town.   Now, however, we would have to go 21-10 in this stretch to get to .500.   And that seems extremely unlikely.

I know, we went 1-5 against the weaker teams in the opening stretch.   I am fully aware of how awful we look at the plate, in the field, in the bullpen, and in the bottom two spots in the starting rotation.   But I'm still looking forward to seeing how we do against a non-murderer's row schedule that includes some teams that are struggling nearly as badly as we are (and adjusting for who everyone has played, may even be worse than us).

And of course the end of this stretch, Memorial Day, also coincides with the date that MLB teams traditionally have enough games under their belt to assess where they are.   If we can't even play over .500 during these next 31 games, I think there would be no doubt that this team has no possibility of contending.   I"m looking forward to getting Schoop, Mancini, Trumbo back, to getting a replacement from the minors for Santander on May 12, and seeing what this team can do.   Or can't do.

[By the way, there have been 3 goals scored in the Capitals game in the 5 minutes I have been composing this post].

[atomic]

Those other teams are probably looking forward to playing us as well.  If the Rays sweep us in the next 3 games they will be 11-13.

[Going Underground]

3 minutes ago, atomic said:

Those other teams are probably looking forward to playing us as well.  If the Rays sweep us in the next 3 games they will be 11-13.

Rays have won 5 of 6.Bullpen has blown many of their ganes.Hitting has been pretty good.

[ChuckS]

Really need Beckham and Davis to get going.  Carrying three sub-600 OPS's (Santander included) really crushes this offense.  

I've mostly given up on Davis.  Just hope his playing time is reduced sooner rather than later.  Especially with Trumbo back, who I have just a little more faith in. 

[tntoriole]

Thanks for the information.  But I think this is a much worse group actually playing the game than they appeared on paper.    Chris Davis is not only not better, he has regressed even further than his abysmal work last year.  Obliques are very tricky and Schoop was not doing well even before the injury.  Tim Beckham has a seeming pout going on every time I see him and has no resemblence at all to last year’s arrival here.  Santander is a minor leaguer.  Joseph is again in one of these catastrophic offensive funks....etc, etc. 

We shall see, but I would not be surprised to see them go 10-20 over the next 30. Not one bit.  This team is as bad as any team we have seen since 2010-2011.  

[ORIOLE33]

Are some us still that arrogant to suggest that any stretch would be easy? SMH

[Uli2001]

You can dream 21-10, but reality is much closer to 10-21.

[allquixotic]

I think they'll go 5-25 over their next 30, and play reversal of fortune with the expected W/L judging by how good teams are.

In other words, I think they'll beat the Angels once and take a 4-game sweep in Boston, and that'll be all they win. They'll get swept or win at most 1 game against Detroit, Oakland, the Rays, Royals, and White Sox. If they take one game per series that's 10-20, which is on par w ith tntoriole, but I think they'll do worse.

[Spy Fox]

The schedule will help, but most of our players need to take dramatic turns of their own.

[maybenxtyr]

We have become the team that other teams look forward to getting healthy on.

[ORIOLE33]

I don’t care who we’re playing. We have just 2 pitchers that are good. Two hitters that are good. And a bullpen that is trash.

Exactly who are we beating routinely?

[sportsfan8703]

As much as this team disgusts me, I really think they will benefit from a break in the schedule. We will never win consistently with this offensive approach though. 

[SteveA]

On 4/23/2018 at 9:49 PM, tntoriole said:

We shall see, but I would not be surprised to see them go 10-20 over the next 30. Not one bit.  This team is as bad as any team we have seen since 2010-2011.  

 

On 4/23/2018 at 9:51 PM, Uli2001 said:

You can dream 21-10, but reality is much closer to 10-21.

 

On 4/23/2018 at 9:54 PM, allquixotic said:

I think they'll go 5-25 over their next 30, and play reversal of fortune with the expected W/L judging by how good teams are.

In other words, I think they'll beat the Angels once and take a 4-game sweep in Boston, and that'll be all they win. They'll get swept or win at most 1 game against Detroit, Oakland, the Rays, Royals, and White Sox. If they take one game per series that's 10-20, which is on par w ith tntoriole, but I think they'll do worse.

Well, we did better than all 3 of you predicted, but still not very well.   After going 6-17 vs the very difficult beginning schedule, against the next stretch of 30 games (one was rained out) that my original post noted would be a lot easier, we went 

11-19.

And we are now at Memorial Day, which is the traditional decision point where the sample size is big enough to know who you are.   Against what is probably the easiest stretch of games we face this season, we couldn't even go .500.

Now the schedule gets hard again.

 

[tntoriole]

16 minutes ago, SteveA said:

 

 

Well, we did better than all 3 of you predicted, but still not very well.   After going 6-17 vs the very difficult beginning schedule, against the next stretch of 30 games (one was rained out) that my original post noted would be a lot easier, we went 

11-19.

And we are now at Memorial Day, which is the traditional decision point where the sample size is big enough to know who you are.   Against what is probably the easiest stretch of games we face this season, we couldn't even go .500.

Now the schedule gets hard again.

 

I am sorry...I underestimated Buck and the boys....I said 10-20, they went 11-19.  

[Uli2001]

On 5/27/2018 at 3:20 PM, SteveA said:

 

 

Well, we did better than all 3 of you predicted, but still not very well.   After going 6-17 vs the very difficult beginning schedule, against the next stretch of 30 games (one was rained out) that my original post noted would be a lot easier, we went 

11-19.

And we are now at Memorial Day, which is the traditional decision point where the sample size is big enough to know who you are.   Against what is probably the easiest stretch of games we face this season, we couldn't even go .500.

Now the schedule gets hard again.

 

Thanks for keeping track. I didn't say 10-21, I said closer to 10-21. 

This team is bad, like in really bad. If no moves are made, this team may not win 50 games.