Baltimore Orioles mid season review

We have already discussed the fact that the Baltimore Orioles fired Manger Dave Trembley, and that is never a good indication that things are not on the right path. From the four other teams in the American League East there is a tremendous drop off, the fourth place Toronto Blue Jays are six games back of the division lead, the Orioles in fifth sit 22 games back. Under Trembley they were 15-39, under interim manger Juan Samuel they are 8-13. All together they are 23-52. Not what their fans were expecting this year.

They are struggles all over the field, and as a team they are hitting .256 and that is the ninth best mark among the 14 AL clubs. They have collected 655 hits, 114 of those were doubles and that is the second lowest total among the AL clubs. They have hit 59 home runs and knocked in 248 runs, and they have stolen just 38 bases. Of their regular nine starters only RF Nick Markakis is hitting over .300.

Their pitching staff has given up 400 runs as of July 28, 2010. None of their starting rotation is anywhere near a winning record. Collectively they are 10-29 and the staff ERA is 5.03 easily the highest among AL pitching staffs. They have struck out 442 batters and issued 254 walks. Their closer, Alfredo Simon, has converted just nine saves, but I don’t think he is getting much of a chance.

The plan for this club was for Kevin Millwood, a 14 year veteran, to come to this staff to show their young pitchers how to compete in a 162 game grind. So far he is 2-8 with a 5.22 ERA. So that seems to not be working. The major question about this team before the season started was how much better was their starting rotation, and it seems the answer to that is not very much. This is a flawed team, which needs a lot of work.

Related Links:

•Baltimore Orioles news and notes
•The Business of Major League Baseball
•MTR Baseball.com