Orioles hitters are performing far worse than league averages in a number of particular problematic ways.
All that’s needed to see that things are not going well for the Orioles so far this year is to look at the standings. With more than a third of the season now in the books, the team is on pace for 56 wins. For those of us who are watching this team regularly, it’s no surprise that their record is bad. They play badly in a variety of ways almost on a daily basis.
In today’s episode of the podcast, I’m focused on the way that the offense has been struggling. The Orioles were always going to be worse than we’d hoped as long as the pitching staff performed the way that it’s done, yet it’s the offense that bothers me because these guys should be better than this, and they’re going to need to be better than this for the team to return to success as soon as next season.
I went in on a lengthy yet still incomplete laundry list of problems that the Orioles have had with the offense so far this season:
There are a whole lot of problem points involving the offense. Some of these problems overlap. The Orioles are really bad vs. left-handed pitchers. They are really bad when they have a runner in scoring position. They are really bad when they trail in a game. They’re really bad when batting with two strikes. They’re really bad in the ninth inning. … Other than Ryan O’Hearn, almost nobody on the team deserves any generous assumptions about how they’re doing. What’s going on with all of that?
More cheerfully, later on I discuss some prospects who entered the season not being highly ranked within the system who are getting some intriguing results so far this season. This group includes complex league infielder Nate George, Delmarva catcher/first baseman Yasmil Bucce, and Chesapeake pitcher Braxton Bragg.
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Any topic or question you’d like me to tackle in the next episode? Let me know what’s on your mind in the comments below.