Birds Watcher » Amanda Redman

Baltimore Orioles: The best things that happened in the last week

Amanda Redman — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:53:46 +0000

Everyone knows the Orioles are slumping. It is an unavoidable fact that even good teams do go through losing streaks. To this point, the Orioles really have not played their best baseball, and yet they are still very much in the thick of things.

Among other pieces of good news for the struggling Birds, Pedro Strop has been pitching much better recently. Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

Despite the fact that they are just 3-7 in their last 10 games, there are some positive signs that could point to a change in luck for the O’s.

Pedro Strop is pitching much better

Pedro Strop seemed to lose his way towards the end of last season. While he pitched well in the World Baseball Classic for the champion team from the Dominican Republic, he has been unreliable and wild through the first 4-5 weeks of this season. Strop seems to have turned it around a bit, allowing only 1 run in his last 13 appearances. He’s throwing more strikes, keeping the ball down, and his confidence is clearly up.

J.J. Hardy is finally hitting

JJ Hardy’s bat has been asleep for most of the last year. In the last week he’s gone 8 for 23 (.348 BA) with 3 RBI. Instead of letting out a collective sigh when Hardy comes to bat, lately O’s fans have been excited to see this guy step into the batter’s box.

AAA Norfolk call-ups are making an impact

The bats of Chris Dickerson, Yamaico Navarro (as compared to Ryan Flaherty at least) and most recently Danny Valencia are exciting to watch. With the early season injury to Brian Roberts, and the lack of production from Oriole DHs, a bit more pop has really lacked from the bottom of the order. Perhaps one or more of these Norfolk additions will end up making a solid impact.

Miguel Gonzalez returns to the mound on Tuesday

After being sidelined since May 3, Miguel Gonzalez will make his first start in nearly 3 weeks on Tuesday. Gonzalez had much success against the Yankees last season, and he hopes to return to last year’s form tomorrow night. While he has not blamed the blister on his right thumb for his early season inconsistencies, O’s fans are hopeful for a turnaround on Tuesday night. Gonzalez has looked great at points this season, and less than stellar at other times.

Feeling any better O’s fans? This too, will pass.

Like Last Season, Character Defines the Orioles

Amanda Redman — Sun, 05 May 2013 02:13:06 +0000

Friday night’s game against the Angels was ugly. There was poor defense, poor base running, and to top it all off, Chris Davis hobbled off the field in the 4th inning. It was the type of game that can really mess with any team’s rhythm and confidence.

Character leads to Orioles wins. Photo Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

But the Orioles were able to bounce back Saturday afternoon. Behind an extremely strong start by Freddy Garcia, the Orioles carried a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the 7th. Despite an uncharacteristic blown save by Darren O’Day which extended the game to extra innings, unlikely hero Steve Pearce singled in what would be the winning run in the top of the 10th.

Every team is going to encounter some bumps along the way. Twitter was buzzing with negativity after Friday night’s loss. There is no doubt that playing poorly, coupled with the potential loss of Chris Davis could have been a turning point for a team which, to that point, had played quite well. Buck Showalter‘s team does not panic. They do not fall apart. They always maintain their confidence in each other.

As a whole, the team is quite even-keeled. It is only with the leadership of a strong, calm manager that this can happen. Showalter leads by example. When asked about the injury to Davis, and what the team would do, Buck explained that he wouldn’t panic. That he wouldn’t show his players that he is overly concerned. That’s pretty impressive considering that the AL Player of the Month was the injured man. That vote of confidence is what allows this team to continue to win, as they did last year, despite setbacks and injuries.

Every team is going to encounter some bumps along the way. It is how those bumps are handled that determines a team’s success.

Baltimore Orioles: Too Many Walks

Amanda Redman — Wed, 01 May 2013 00:26:01 +0000

MASN’s Roch Kubatko wrote last week about the woes of the Orioles’ starters with regard to walks surrendered. It’s not just the starters though, this trend seems to be afflicting the entire pitching staff.

This is a photo of the good part of Miguel Gonzalez‘s start on Sunday against Oakland. Things got worse. Mandatory Credit: Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports

Last year, the Orioles’ bullpen was among the best in the league. While certainly the group has allowed the team to pull out more than one win in the young season, they look to be tiring already. So why do these walks seem to be so contagious? Just as the strong performances last season of Jason Hammel, Wei-Yin Chen and Miguel Gonzalez seemed to rub off on one another, this season a need to overcompensate for each other’s less than stellar performances seems to be passing between them this year.

We all know that it’s a domino effect on any pitching staff — your ace has a bad outing, the manager is forced to use up the bullpen, so the number two starter feels more pressure to come up with a perfect performance. They nibble the corners, overthrow the ball, and it turns into multiple walks. Four days later, you’re back around to the ace, the bullpen is already wiped out and the pressure is even greater the second time around.

Time and again we see Oriole pitchers get ahead of hitters, only to get to a full count and walk the batter. It’s a disturbing trend, and it needs to stop if the starters want to get their pitch counts down and save the bullpen some innings. We have seen flashes of improvement from Hammel, and especially Chen in his last start against Oakland. Though Miguel Gonzalez did ultimately surrender 4 runs in the sixth inning of his start on Sunday, up to that point he looked great. One can safely assume that whatever broke down in that sixth inning is being addressed by Rick Adair.

It may take another week or so to right the ship so that we can avoid another situation like last Wednesday in Baltimore when Jim Johnson walked in the winning run against Toronto. Or when Troy Patton walked a batter ahead of Seth Smith‘s game tying home run on Sunday. The bullpen is overworked right now, and it’s not quite May yet. On the flip side, that leaves plenty of time for improvement!