Ghiroli: 2017, the team that gave up.

[eddie83]

On 7/11/2020 at 8:36 PM, Mr. Chewbacca Jr. said:

I agree. No reason that 2018 team should have been that bad. They quit.

2018 was worse no doubt. Much, much worse.

I think what happened down the stretch in 17 though still is accurate. They had a great August to get back into the race. I think once it started downhill they threw in the towel. That last week Buck played some younger guys like Santander and Trumbo sat. 

Nothing is worse than veteran teams out of the race in September. 

[Orioles0615]

It didn't help from Mid May on that they would go on these 5+ game losing streaks every couple of weeks, and rarely would go on winning streaks it seemed like. 

[eddie83]

2 minutes ago, andrewochs615 said:

It didn't help from Mid May on that they would go on these 5+ game losing streaks every couple of weeks, and rarely would go on winning streaks it seemed like. 

Hard to do that with brutal starting pitching. They started out hot and played over their heads early on. Except for like you said through mid May and late August it was a blah season. I’ve seen worse but that team wasn’t very entertaining.

Side note. I still to this day don’t understand why they let Britton talk his way on the team so early after he got hurt. The team was playing well. It was a fluke but ride it out. They let him rush himself back and then he gets hurt again.  

[GuidoSarducci]

Here's some stats.   From start of the 2017 season up until the 7-6 walk off win against the Yanks Sep. 5, the Orioles were scoring 4.87 runs per game, and allowing 5.06.   After that game till the end of the season, during the 4-17 finish run production dropped to 2.96 runs per game ( almost a 2 run difference) , and runs allowed increased to 5.96 (roughly a one run differnce).  So it was a combination of lackluster offense and dreadful pitching, although the drop off in offense appeared to have more to do with it.

In 22 games, the offense was shutout 5 times,  and scored 1 or 2 runs 7 times.    Another 6 times they managed 3 runs.  So in 18 of the 22 games the offense was scoring 3 or less runs.  Difficult to win alot of games doing that. 

[JR Oriole]

The 4-32 finish of 2002 is still the most impressive thing I have seen in my lifetime as a baseball fan other than the 35-5 start by the 84 Tigers.  4-32 is just incredible, especially because it happened to a team that was at .500 through 126 games!  What is also amazing about 4-32 is they actually won a series in there (at Boston). 

I feel like the 2010 Orioles should get some recognition as well for playing their first 105 games and winning only 4 series in the process. 

[GuidoSarducci]

Here's the BA and OPS of a few of the O's big names during that stretch

Jones   339/805 , 16 GP,.  Did not play last week or so of the season.  Can't remember if it was due to injury

Davis 176/611 -in 21 GP.  Foreshadowing dismal 2018-2019

Machado 170/446 in 22 GP.  Clearly not Johnny Hustle I guess.

Schoop 211/511 in 23 GP

Trumbo 120/350 in 17 GP

Mancini 297/740 in 23 GP

 

 

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by GuidoSarducci

[SteveA]

19 minutes ago, JR Oriole said:

The 4-32 finish of 2002 is still the most impressive thing I have seen in my lifetime as a baseball fan other than the 35-5 start by the 84 Tigers.  4-32 is just incredible, especially because it happened to a team that was at .500 through 126 games!  What is also amazing about 4-32 is they actually won a series in there (at Boston). 

I feel like the 2010 Orioles should get some recognition as well for playing their first 105 games and winning only 4 series in the process. 

Yeah that 2002 team had fought and scratched and clawed to get up to .500 by late August and then immediately went into the tailspin.   Happened at the exact same time that Gary Matthews Jr got hurt but obviously losing one player doesn't make THAT big a difference.

[JR Oriole]

9 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Yeah that 2002 team had fought and scratched and clawed to get up to .500 by late August and then immediately went into the tailspin.   Happened at the exact same time that Gary Matthews Jr got hurt but obviously losing one player doesn't make THAT big a difference.

If it did, then he should have been MVP.  .500 team with said player to .111 team without him.  That is some kind of spread!!

[eddie83]

1 hour ago, GuidoSarducci said:

Here's the BA and OPS of a few of the O's big names during that stretch

Jones   339/805 , 16 GP,.  Did not play last week or so of the season.  Can't remember if it was due to injury

Davis 176/611 -in 21 GP.  Foreshadowing dismal 2018-2019

Machado 170/446 in 22 GP.  Clearly not Johnny Hustle I guess.

Schoop 211/511 in 23 GP

Trumbo 120/350 in 17 GP

Mancini 297/740 in 23 GP

 

 

 

I heard Manny packed up his locker before the last road trip they took. 

They went to Cleveland and got swept and then things just went downhill. 

5 game road trip to end the season. Scored 7 runs total. 

[interloper]

On 7/11/2020 at 3:31 PM, Can_of_corn said:

She wasn't here for 2005.

This is the year that really cemented a lot of the current ... thing that has embedded itself into the Oriole ethos to this day. At least for me. It started earlier than that, but this was the year man.  

[GuidoSarducci]

On 7/11/2020 at 5:36 PM, Mr. Chewbacca Jr. said:

I agree. No reason that 2018 team should have been that bad. They quit.

If they quit, they must have quit early.   They were consistently bad all year.  8-20 by the end of April.

But I agree, on paper, they didn't look so bad.   It looke like our rotation should have been decent, with Bundy, Gaussman, and the signings of Cashner and Cobb.   We still had Brach, O'Day, and Givens in the bullpen.   Britton was hurt but came back in June.  

There were some holes in the lineup, granted, particularly at catcher - we had no obvious replacement after Castillo left, and 3B after Machado was moved to short, and COF was also questionable.  But nothing really that should have lead to 115 losses.   But it was the perfect storm of our starting pitching, then bullpen completely falling apart.  

[DrungoHazewood]

19 hours ago, SteveA said:

Yeah that 2002 team had fought and scratched and clawed to get up to .500 by late August and then immediately went into the tailspin.   Happened at the exact same time that Gary Matthews Jr got hurt but obviously losing one player doesn't make THAT big a difference.

You'd have thought an offense headlined by Matthews and Jay Gibbons was bound for glory.  In September the usual lineup had Conine/Batista/Gibbons batting 3/4/5 and Geronimo Gil catching every day.  If there's a causal factor it just might be Gil, who had a .270 OBP and led the league in PB.

The highest strikeout rate among all starting pitchers that year was John Stephens, who had an 82 mph fastball and didn't throw a knuckler.