Underrated: 2016

[Frobby]

Seems like whenever I see nostalgic posts about the 2012-16 era, there’s all this good feeling about 2012 and 2014, but with 2016 all anybody ever brings up is Buck not using Zach Britton in the playoff game.    But to me, 2016 was a really fun year that’s now very underrated.   

- We were coming off an 81-81 campaign in which we had to win our final six games just to reach .500, and those wins came against teams that had clinched playoff spots and didn’t really care.   

- We had lost Wei-Yin Chen in the offseason, and replaced him with Yovanni Gallardo, a move that was questioned by many.

- We seemingly had signed Dexter Fowler to a very favorable deal, only to have the Cubs woo him away at the last minute.  

So, the mood that spring was pretty mixed.    I wouldn’t say expectations were very high, despite having extended Davis and O’Day, traded for Trumbo and brought over the mysterious Hyun Soo Kim from Korea.     But here’s what happened:

- The team started off red hot, winning its first 7 games.    Every time the team would sink towards .500 in the first half, the Birds would rip off another winning streak.    In the first 77 games, the O’s had three 7-game win streaks and another stretch where they won 8 of 9.

- The team was bipolar in July, suffering losing streaks of 5, 4 and 5 games sandwiching winning streaks of 4 and 5.   

- It looked like the team was fading away in August.    It fell from a season high 18 games over .500 on July 25 to only 11 over by August 31.

- But the team pulled it together in September, going 17-12 and finishing 7-2 and closing the year with series wins against Toronto and New York.    It took until the final day to guarantee our spot in the Wild Card game and to learn whether we would play at home or on the road.    

Some of the individual highlights:

- Zach Britton was unhittable, and went 47 for 47 in save opportunities.   We needed every one to secure our playoff spot.  

- Mark Trumbo led the league with 47 dingers.

- Matt Wieters, who ticked off a lot of fans by accepting his QO, had a bunch of very crucial, high leverage hits, including a game winning single on Opening Day, two homers in the regular season finale, and several other key hits in between.  

JJ Hardy got hurt on May 1, and Manny filled in very ably at SS for 43 games.    Hardy returned and played very well the rest of the year, his last productive season as an Oriole.   Manny was a stud all year no matter where he played, and had a great year at the plate.

- Hyun Soo Kim was an on-base machine all year, and had a really critical pinch-homer in the 9th inning of Game 158 that turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead that Britton held onto in the bottom of the 9th.   That homer arguably saved our season.  

- Dylan Bundy was forced into the roster and pitched very credibly despite his minimal MiL experience.    He had a jaw dropping relief appearance where he struck out 7 in 2.1 innings and topped out at 98.5.    He was inserted into the rotation eventually and highlights included a 7 inning one hit shutout.

- Trey Mancini got a late  September call-up and hit a homer in his debut with his mom watching, and two more in the next three games with his family in the stands.  

- Chris Tillman had an outstanding year but got hurt down the stretch. Improbably, Ubaldo Jimenez, who had been banished to the bullpen, was reinserted into the rotation and   the team went 5-2 in his 7 starts, posting a 2.45 ERA and finishing with a masterful 6.2 inning one-hit shutout in critical game 159 against the Blue Jays.

- Kevin Gausman was masterful over the last two months, posting a 2.83 ERA in his final 12 starts.   He won the playoff-clinching season finale, allowing only 2 runs in 7.2 IP.   

For me, it was a thrilling, roller coaster season with many team and individual highlights I’ll always remember.   

[Cumberbundy]

 

 

[now]

9 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Seems like whenever I see nostalgic posts about the 2012-16 era, there’s all this good feeling about 2012 and 2014, but with 2016 all anybody ever brings up is Buck not using Zach Britton in the playoff game.    But to me, 2016 was a really fun year that’s now very underrated.   

- We were coming off an 81-81 campaign in which we had to win our final six games just to reach .500, and those wins came against teams that had clinched playoff spots and didn’t really care.   

- We had lost Wei-Yin Chen in the offseason, and replaced him with Yovanni Gallardo, a move that was questioned by many.

- We seemingly had signed Dexter Fowler to a very favorable deal, only to have the Cubs woo him away at the last minute.  

So, the mood that spring was pretty mixed.    I wouldn’t say expectations were very high, despite having extended Davis and O’Day, traded for Trumbo and brought over the mysterious Hyun Soo Kim from Japan.     But here’s what happened:

- The team started off red hot, winning its first 7 games.    Every time the team would sink towards .500 in the first half, the Birds would rip off another winning streak.    In the first 77 games, the O’s had three 7-game win streaks and another stretch where they won 8 of 9.

- The team was bipolar in July, suffering losing streaks of 5, 4 and 5 games sandwiching winning streaks of 4 and 5.   

- It looked like the team was fading away in August.    It fell from a season high 18 games over .500 on July 25 to only 11 over by August 31.

- But the team pulled it together in September, going 17-12 and finishing 7-2 and closing the year with series wins against Toronto and New York.    It took until the final day to guarantee our spot in the Wild Card game and to learn whether we would play at home or on the road.    

Some of the individual highlights:

- Zach Britton was unhittable, and went 47 for 47 in save opportunities.   We needed every one to secure our playoff spot.  

- Mark Trumbo led the league with 47 dingers.

- Matt Wieters, who ticked off a lot of fans by accepting his QO, had a bunch of very crucial, high leverage hits, including a game winning single on Opening Day, two homers in the regular season finale, and several other key hits in between.  

JJ Hardy got hurt on May 1, and Manny filled in very ably at SS for 43 games.    Hardy returned and played very well the rest of the year, his last productive season as an Oriole.   Manny was a stud all year no matter where he played, and had a great year at the plate.

- Hyun Soo Kim was an on-base machine all year, and had a really critical pinch-homer in the 9th inning of Game 158 that turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead that Britton held onto in the bottom of the 9th.   That homer arguably saved our season.  

- Dylan Bundy was forced into the roster and pitched very credibly despite his minimal MiL experience.    He had a jaw dropping relief appearance where he struck out 7 in 2.1 innings and topped out at 98.5.    He was inserted into the rotation eventually and highlights included a 7 inning one hit shutout.

- Trey Mancini got a late  September call-up and hit a homer in his debut with his mom watching, and two more in the next three games with his family in the stands.  

- Chris Tillman had an outstanding year but got hurt down the stretch. Improbably, Ubaldo Jimenez, who had been banished to the bullpen, was reinserted into the rotation and   the team went 5-2 in his 7 starts, posting a 2.45 ERA and finishing with a masterful 6.2 inning one-hit shutout in critical game 159 against the Blue Jays.

- Kevin Gausman was masterful over the last two months, posting a 2.83 ERA in his final 12 starts.   He won the playoff-clinching season finale, allowing only 2 runs in 7.2 IP.   

For me, it was a thrilling, roller coaster season with many team and individual highlights I’ll always remember.   

Thanks for that summary of highlights. I know the Britton/Buck thing is a rotten dead horse, but in light of this reminiscence, it should be pointed out that 1) we could well have lost that playoff game even with Zach in it; and 2) we could well have won that playoff game with a timely hit or two (and even gone on to win it all), with or without ZB. That's the way the ball bounces. It's remarkable how much we judge a season by final outcome, when that outcome could be so different with a ball or strike here or there. We sometimes forget "it's a game of inches."

[Can_of_corn]

Kim was from the KBO not the NPB.

[DrungoHazewood]

17 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Kim was from the KBO not the NPB.

Right.  And there were about 44,338 posts here dedicated to him having a poor spring which showed the O's were stupid to sign him and that his contract didn't allow him to go to the minors but Buck wanted to send him to AAA anyway and he refused and wasn't a team player and he was terrible and he basically didn't play for six weeks (he was 11-for-27 on May 15th, while Joey Rickard had 150 PAs and a .700 OPS in that same period) and we should have just signed Nick to whatever he wanted and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Kim had on off year in '17, got traded to the Phils.  Returned to Korea in 2018 with the LG Twins and won the batting title hitting .362 with 39 doubles, 20 homers, 47 walks, and 101 RBI in 117 games.  Probably was a lot happier, too.

[Frobby]

21 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Kim was from the KBO not the NPB.

Thanks for the reminder.   I’ve fixed it.   

[DrungoHazewood]

36 minutes ago, Frobby said:

For me, it was a thrilling, roller coaster season with many team and individual highlights I’ll always remember.   

I enjoyed the season.  But there were a lot of people here telling us that we shouldn't be enjoying it because the organization wasn't doing things "right" and they should have torn things down after 2014 and completely rebuilt.  Those folks are dancing in the streets now, presumably.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I enjoyed the season.  But there were a lot of people here telling us that we shouldn't be enjoying it because the organization wasn't doing things "right" and they should have torn things down after 2014 and completely rebuilt.  Those folks are dancing in the streets now, presumably.

Too busy patting myself on the back to dance. 

[Palmoripken]

It was still a fun year. Not as excited as 2012 and 2014 but I enjoyed it. Hated how it ended of course. I finally understood why those of you who came of fandom in the 80's and early 90's hated the Jays more than the Sox and Yanks because those Blue Jays were so easy to hate. Glad they didn't win any pennants.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I enjoyed the season.  But there were a lot of people here telling us that we shouldn't be enjoying it because the organization wasn't doing things "right" and they should have torn things down after 2014 and completely rebuilt.  Those folks are dancing in the streets now, presumably.

For the record I never said anyone shouldn't enjoy the Orioles winning.

I don't recall anyone else saying it.

Some of us just saw what was coming and it impacted our enjoyment.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Palmoripken said:

It was still a fun year. Not as excited as 2012 and 2014 but I enjoyed it. Hated how it ended of course. I finally understood why those of you who came of fandom in the 80's and early 90's hated the Jays more than the Sox and Yanks because those Blue Jays were so easy to hate. Glad they didn't win any pennants.

Where were you in 1992 and 1993?

[Palmoripken]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

Where were you in 1992 and 1993?

I was 5 and 6. 

[Frobby]

5 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I enjoyed the season.  But there were a lot of people here telling us that we shouldn't be enjoying it because the organization wasn't doing things "right" and they should have torn things down after 2014 and completely rebuilt.  Those folks are dancing in the streets now, presumably.

I don’t remember too much of that in 2016.    In any event, I had a great time following the team that summer.    

[Palmoripken]

Oh Corn, sorry. I was talking about the recent Jays not winning about pennants. I know that the 1992/93 Jays went back to back. Sorry if I confused there. I was talking about how I was glad the Bautista-Gibbons Jays never went all the way. I do remember feeling queasy for sure though in 2015 when the Jays and Royals played each other in the ALCS.

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Palmoripken said:

Oh Corn, sorry. I was talking about the recent Jays not winning about pennants. I know that the 1992/93 Jays went back to back. Sorry if I confused there. I was talking about how I was glad the Bautista-Gibbons Jays never went all the way. I do remember feeling queasy for sure though in 2015 when the Jays and Royals played each other in the ALCS.

OK, gotcha, I admit I was a bit confused.

The most important take away from those 90's Blue Jays teams is that Cito sucks.