Baltimore Orioles: Three Player of the Week awards in one month

The Baltimore Orioles have had three outstanding players earn Player of the Week awards in four short weeks.

Baltimore Orioles Jonathan Schoop got the party started with his AL Player of Week award for the week that ended on July 22.

He was followed by Tim Beckham who won for the first week of August that ended on the 6th. The latest award went to Manny Machado for the week that just ended on August 20.

All three of these men out-hit all other American League players in their award-winning weeks. Unfortunately, the team has not earned enough wins to get a little higher in the standings.

Schoop’s stats

Schoop’s Player of the Week award was his first. He earned it for several reasons. During that week of play, the Orioles battled against the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros. Schoop hit .379/.387/.759/1.146. He hit two doubles, three home runs, and scored a total of six runs. Over the week, he earned 15 RBIs and hit in all but one game.

Beckham’s stats

Little did Tim Beckham know that he would win his first American League Player of Week award shortly after Schoop did, especially with his .259 average with the Tampa Bay Rays. After being traded to the Orioles, Beckham came out of the gate with his bat swinging (and hitting). In his first week, he had at least one hit in every game. In fact, in August, he has only two hitless games. During the first week of August, Beckham was unstoppable. He hit a slash of .536/.552/.1.036/1.587 with three doubles, one triple, and three home runs. He had six RBIs and crossed home plate seven times.

In Beckham’s outstanding week, the Orioles went five and two against the Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, and the Los Angeles Angels.

As August has progressed, Beckham hasn’t slowed much at all. Buck Showalter moved him to the leadoff spot and as of August 20, he is batting .438/.458/.775/1.233. He has hit five home runs, eight doubles, and two triples. He has added 21 runs to the team and has 12 RBIs. Not too bad, Mr. Beckham.

Machado’s stats

The latest AL Player of the Week award was just given to Manny Machado. This is Machado’s third Player of the Week award – his first was for the week of August 12 in 2012; his second was for the week of June 14 in 2015. Machado also has a Player of the Month award for April 2016.

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In the past week, Machado has hit .433/.419/1.033/1.453. He has two Grand Slam home runs, along with three “regular” ones. He earned 13 RBIs and had 13 hits with a double and a triple. This was quite a week for #13. Unfortunately, during his week (that started on August 13) of power-hitting, the Orioles only won two of the seven games against the Oakland A’s, Seattle Mariners, and Angels. All of the games were on the road, except the final one where he hit the walk-off Grand Slam against the Angels.

According to MLB.com, the AL Player of the Week for August 13 was Eddie Rosario of the Minnesota Twins. For the final week of July, Adrian Beltre and James Paxton split the honors. On the NL side, the awards went to Nolen Arenado for July 22, Manuel Margot for July 30, Willson Contreras for August 6, and Giancarlo Stanton for August 13. Anthony Rizzo won for August 20.

Next: Machado's Grand Slams are a team effort

If the Orioles keep up their home-run-hitting ways, it wouldn’t be surprising if another player, like Adam Jones or Trey Mancini received an award before the season is complete. With position players like Schoop, Beckham, and Machado, imagine where this team would be with good starting pitching.