O’s look done

[sportsfan8703]

It ain’t good. We’re 4.5 games up on Detroit.  They come into town for three games. Who would’ve thought that would have playoff implications?

[gtman55]

Unfortunately the way we're playing not a single game we have left looks easy. Right now, we're White Sox bad.

[Tony-OH]

Since July 1st, the Orioles are 31-37 and since the Trading deadline when Elias was supposed to make the team better they've gone 19-24 (.441). Now grant it the team lost Westburg and Grayson as well as Eflin for a little bit, but what can't be swept under the rug is that Elias traded a decent part of his minor league league prospects and the team has done worse.

The acquisitions of Rogers, Jimenez and Soto have not improved the team. Eflin has kept them from being even worse and we have him for next year, and the same goes for Dominguez. Hopefully Soto will figure it out or Elias wasted two pitching prospects (Chace being probably being the one with the most upside of any pitcher traded).

 

[gtman55]

We traded far too much for what we got in return IMO. You can't totally judge trades this early but as it stands now, Elias gets a well deserved D for his trade deadline performance.

I've said this before. He's done a fantastic job bringing this club back to relevancy. I just question some of his roster construction and trade decisions.

[Just Regular]

10 hours ago, Fiver6565 said:

What has changed since last weekend to make you think we can take 2 of 3 from the Tigers?

Game 1 Corbin Burnes, and Sunday Jordan Westburg and a bullpen game before an off day?

We'll see in 10 days, but I think the Tigers run of good play at the end will have helped protect OPACY home field for the ALWC round.

Very happy flight for the Tigers, and I'd guess they are asleep at their Baltimore hotel by now, waiting for tomorrow night.    Tigers home next week with two Skubal starts if necessary and a White Sox series, so the Royals and Twins are probably cheering pretty hard for us.

If we finish this week 0-4, the Yankees might have that hangover lineup the day after division clinching one of our games there.    It looks pretty likely while we are in New York, the guys will have a front row seat handing over the AL East champion honor.

[Fiver6565]

1 minute ago, Just Regular said:

Game 1 Corbin Burnes, and Sunday Jordan Westburg and a bullpen game before an off day?

We'll see in 10 days, but I think the Tigers run of good play at the end will have helped protect OPACY home field for the ALWC round.

Very happy flight for the Tigers, and I'd guess they are asleep at their Baltimore hotel by now, waiting for tomorrow night.    Tigers home next week with two Skubal starts if necessary and a White Sox series, so the Royals and Twins are probably cheering pretty hard for us.

If we finish this week 0-4, the Yankees might have that hangover lineup the day after division clinching one of our games there.    It looks pretty likely while we are in New York, the guys will have a front row seat handing over the AL East champion honor.

Burnes starting won’t help anyone hit. And I have minimal expectations for Westburg in his very first game back. 
 

We just gave up 15 runs to a pretty damn pedestrian SF lineup last two games. I don’t think a ‘hangover lineup’ is going to help as much as you think. Plus again, if we can’t score it doesn’t matter much what the opposing lineup looks like. 
 

I did just realize we have 10 games left, not 11. 3-7 seems even less likely than 3-8, ha. 
 

[gtman55]

Yep. Pitching may be shaky but it's the comatose hitting right now that's killing us. I've never seen so many good hitters on one team totally unravel like this.

[Moshagge3]

When I'm tempted to blame the injuries, I remember the hideous stretch of baseball just before the All-Star break where the team scored four runs in five games and went 0-5 against the Cubs and Yankees with a healthy Westburg, Mountcastle, Urias, and Mateo. If not for Alex Verdugo falling down it would have been 0-6 with seven runs in six games. Hell, they even had midseason Austin Hays to match up with instead of Slater. Maybe this is what they always were. 

[Aristotelian]

20 minutes ago, Moshagge3 said:

When I'm tempted to blame the injuries, I remember the hideous stretch of baseball just before the All-Star break where the team scored four runs in five games and went 0-5 against the Cubs and Yankees with a healthy Westburg, Mountcastle, Urias, and Mateo. If not for Alex Verdugo falling down it would have been 0-6 with seven runs in six games. Hell, they even had midseason Austin Hays to match up with instead of Slater. Maybe this is what they always were. 

Injuries are part of it. Underperformance by key hitters is another big part. Adley has been under .600 for three straight months. O'Hearn slipped in August and has completely collapsed in Sept. Cowser and Santander are down. Mullins has had a great September and Gunnar has been Gunnar, but that isn't nearly enough to offset all the injuries and slumps. 

[sportsfan8703]

2 hours ago, gtman55 said:

We traded far too much for what we got in return IMO. You can't totally judge trades this early but as it stands now, Elias gets a well deserved D for his trade deadline performance.

I've said this before. He's done a fantastic job bringing this club back to relevancy. I just question some of his roster construction and trade decisions.

Had we not made the trades we would not only had missed out on the playoffs for sure, but wouldn't have finished over .500.  So all things considered, even cost, the Adley/Gunnar years can't be just given away.  Hope we cling on and just get in.  Then anything can happen.  

[gtman55]

24 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Had we not made the trades we would not only had missed out on the playoffs for sure, but wouldn't have finished over .500.  

Huh?

I was talking about this years Elias deadline moves.

[sportsfan8703]

Just now, gtman55 said:

Huh?

I was talking about this years Elias deadline moves.

Yes I know.  I think had we not made any trades, we'd be under 84 wins right now.  Eflin has been huge.  Slater has had some big games.  Dominguez has contributed too.  

[JR Oriole]

1 hour ago, Moshagge3 said:

When I'm tempted to blame the injuries, I remember the hideous stretch of baseball just before the All-Star break where the team scored four runs in five games and went 0-5 against the Cubs and Yankees with a healthy Westburg, Mountcastle, Urias, and Mateo. If not for Alex Verdugo falling down it would have been 0-6 with seven runs in six games. Hell, they even had midseason Austin Hays to match up with instead of Slater. Maybe this is what they always were. 

Yeah, there were some not so good signs even early on, although I have to think they weren't unique to just the Orioles.  We were extremely fortunate to win 2 of 3 in April against KC, as we needed two walk-offs.  Milwaukee came in and just destroyed our pitching (think they averaged 14 hits a game). Oakland took the series with Kimbrel giving up 2 ninth inning homers.  Our regular season sweep less streak came to an end with a lifeless series in St. Louis.  Again, I think all teams go through lackluster series like that.  But that was all within the 49-25 start so it was kind of forgotten.

I remember Oakland hung 19 on us in early July.  The Cubs outscored us 21-2 in our own stadium and Volpe and Verdugo were the only reason we didn't go into the break 0-6. We struggled to score in Miami and nearly got swept. The Padres pushed us around quite a bit at home.  And as I noted elsewhere, we have only come back to win two times since Memorial Day weekend when trailing after 6 innings. Even with a healthy offense, we have been pretty much cooked if we weren't tied or ahead after 6.