O's need a better offense.

[Aglets]

Also Boston has the 3rd highest OPS in MLB.

The rest of our division ranks NO HIGHER than 21st!   Kind of crazy.

[Aglets]

1 minute ago, Il BuonO said:

Ha ha! The Yankees are last??? Love it.

Technically tied with TX for 29th but i will allow it.

[interloper]

No one wants to talk about how Santander isn't hitting. 

[Beef Supreme]

2 hours ago, wildcard said:

As the team is configured now, Urias is the backup at SS.   Probably very limited use there.  We may see Martin promoted sometime this summer if needed.   I consider Valaika a better backup SS than Urias.

Valaika is incapable of playing SS at then MLB level. I remember a him coming in on a 3-hopper hit straight to him, yet he couldn't throw out the runner on a clean exchange. That's anecdotal, sure, but I can't remember any shortstop being so slow in his normal exchange that a runner could beat out a throw on a routine play. FTR, in 2020 he was -25 Rdrs in a mere 145 innings. I know you are a big fan and supporter of Valaika, but neither stats nor the eye test deem him a competent shortstop. Whoever spells Galvis, it shouldn't be Valaika unless he is the absolute last possible SS on the bench.

[glenn__davis]

15 minutes ago, interloper said:

No one wants to talk about how Santander isn't hitting. 

I'll talk about it.

Santander had a nice year last year in a short season.  That puts him right there with just about all of our younger-ish OF players who have shown flashes of being good MLB players.  I said in a previous post about a week ago, who is going to step up and consistently show themselves to be a MLB quality player year in and year out?  

As Tony said, there's plenty of PT for all of them to go around.  This is the chance for all of them to put up or shut up.

[ORIOLE33]

Definitely need better offense.

[Sports Guy]

1 hour ago, interloper said:

No one wants to talk about how Santander isn't hitting. 

He’ll hit better but it’s not some lock to be some great hitter.  Big reason why I wanted to deal him in the offseason.  I think Elias would have liked to have dealt him too but the offers fell short.

[NCRaven]

16 games.  We need to do better than we have, but I don't think you can draw any conclusions yet.  I'll worry when we hit the quarter pole, if the hitting is still this bad.

[wildcard]

1 hour ago, Beef Supreme said:

Valaika is incapable of playing SS at then MLB level. I remember a him coming in on a 3-hopper hit straight to him, yet he couldn't throw out the runner on a clean exchange. That's anecdotal, sure, but I can't remember any shortstop being so slow in his normal exchange that a runner could beat out a throw on a routine play. FTR, in 2020 he was -25 Rdrs in a mere 145 innings. I know you are a big fan and supporter of Valaika, but neither stats nor the eye test deem him a competent shortstop. Whoever spells Galvis, it shouldn't be Valaika unless he is the absolute last possible SS on the bench.

Valaika is not the greatest SS but Urias is more error prone at SS than Valaika.

[HowAboutThat]

2 hours ago, Aglets said:

I have some good news and some bad news.  See if you can spot it.  Yes we could use a better offense.  Along with every other facet of an MLB team.

Worst 5 MLB team offenses by OPS:

26. Brewers - .650

27. Tigers - .647

28. Orioles - .643

29. Rangers - .642

30. Yankees - .642

 

Also kinda noteworthy that the Rockies are 25th despite playing a bunch of games up in the mountains.

(Raising hand)

”ummm the Yankees suck?”

[HowAboutThat]

You got 6 guys. Stewart has so far shown to be a passable defender in LF. No sense checking stats because there are too few at this moment. But the eye test sure looks good. Mountcastle is dreadful so no Of for him. He platoons 1B/DH with Mancini, which allows each bat to hit with minimal defensive shenanigans. OF Hays, Stewart, Mullins, Santander. Sit the guy who is scuffling the worst, or whatever, and that’s a good defense, with the best five hitters hitting. 

Not rocket science, but it does make things hard for poor Ryan McKenna.

[DrungoHazewood]

47 minutes ago, NCRaven said:

16 games.  We need to do better than we have, but I don't think you can draw any conclusions yet.  I'll worry when we hit the quarter pole, if the hitting is still this bad.

1. It's April 19th.  Never believe April.

2. Hitting is almost always lower in April than yearly averages.

3. Everyone knew with almost absolute certainty that the 2021 Orioles would have a below-average offense.

Almost all of the supportable observations in this thread could have been made four months ago.

[wildcard]

24 minutes ago, Philip said:

You got 6 guys. Stewart has so far shown to be a passable defender in LF. No sense checking stats because there are too few at this moment. But the eye test sure looks good. Mountcastle is dreadful so no Of for him. He platoons 1B/DH with Mancini, which allows each bat to hit with minimal defensive shenanigans. OF Hays, Stewart, Mullins, Santander. Sit the guy who is scuffling the worst, or whatever, and that’s a good defense, with the best five hitters hitting. 

Not rocket science, but it does make things hard for poor Ryan McKenna.

McKenna has never played at AAA and hit poorly at AA.   He has not really earned him way to the majors yet.  He was just promoted to backup the OF because Hays was injured.

[Frobby]

5 minutes ago, wildcard said:

McKenna has never played at AAA and hit poorly at AA.   He has not really earned him way to the majors yet.  He was just promoted to backup the OF because Hays was injured.

I agree with this.   Hyde did manage to use him in 11 of the 13 games he’s been up.   Seems like we had a lot of games where we needed a pinch runner or a defensive substitute, and McKenna filled both roles nicely.    Hopefully he has a strong year in AAA and can earn his way back up.  

[Just Regular]

MLB is hitting .233.   These are just the results of trends we all know have been ongoing, but it is still milestone-ish (plus April as Drungo said) to see Hits less than 8.00, and strikeouts over 9.00.

League Year-By-Year Batting--Averages

Year	Tms	#Bat	BatAge	R/G	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB
2021	30	721	28.6	4.33	456	37.36	33.04	4.33	7.70	1.48	0.14	1.14	4.07	0.45	0.13	3.38	9.18	.233	.312	.390	.701	12.87	0.66	0.52	0.13	0.28	0.13
2020	30	618	28.0	4.65	1796	37.03	32.87	4.65	8.04	1.57	0.13	1.28	4.44	0.49	0.16	3.39	8.68	.245	.322	.418	.740	13.73	0.69	0.46	0.07	0.22	0.11
2019	30	1287	27.9	4.83	4858	38.39	34.30	4.83	8.65	1.76	0.16	1.39	4.63	0.47	0.17	3.27	8.81	.252	.323	.435	.758	14.92	0.71	0.41	0.16	0.24	0.16