Orioles broadcaster gets candid following disheartening roadtrip

A little over a week ago, the Baltimore Orioles beat the New York Yankees in a series, and it seemed like they were about to start to turn things around. They followed up that series victory with a 1-5 road trip. During their series with the Rays, the Orioles hit the trifecta of disappointing losses. In game one, they got blown out, in game two, their offense disappeared, and in game three, their bullpen choked away the lead.

One of the few people not allowed to turn the game off was Orioles broadcaster Ben McDonald, and after the Rays had officially swept the Orioles, he drew postgame duty and did not hold back his disgust. He called out the team for their over-reliance on analytics and their inability to play complete games. The quote that rang out the loudest was "You either do, or you don't, and right now the Orioles don't."

Ben McDonald just wants the Orioles to play real baseball

The main takeaway from everything that McDonald said is not that the Orioles need to stop using analytics. Analytics is a part of baseball, the way gloves and bats are a part of baseball; if a team were to decide not to use analytics, they might as well relegate themselves to Triple-A or join Banana Ball. But similar to how you can swing a bat wrong or put a glove on the wrong hand, you can use analytics wrong.

If the only thing your players practice is the perfect optimized swing designed to hit the ball at the perfect angle to do damage, then when a situation arises where what is needed is a shorter swing to produce a ground ball behind the runner or a bunt or sac fly, then your players are not going to be ready to provide that when you need to create a run. If your response to a player dropping a ball in the outfield is "don't worry, the catch probability was low to begin with," that's not creating an environment of accountability where the players know they need to make plays if they want to stay on the field.

Analytics are a powerful tool. It's information teams can use to find players with untapped potential and change their careers. A front office can use analytics to stress test its roster and make sure they're building a competitive team compared to its competitors. Every fan should be rooting for their team to win the analytics arms race and find an edge that sets them apart.

However, in a world where every front office now uses a lot of the same metrics and data to build their teams, what sets teams apart is their ability to execute on the field. Can your players make contact with one out and a runner on third? Do they throw the ball to the right base and hit the right cutoff man? Can your battery control the running game? If the answer to these kinds of questions is no, then you're going to bleed runs, and runs are everything.

The big picture takeaway is that Ben McDonald is right. The Orioles aren't going anywhere if they don't start playing more consistent baseball, and they're not going to play consistent baseball until they start caring about the little things they've been ignoring for years.

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