Orioles Victory Card Number 12: A Good Sports Day

Baltimore Orioles Victory Number 12: 3-0 over the Tampa Bay Rays

2018 Topps Dylan Bundy

That's right, we're going back to back Bundy's.  That's what happens when you shut down the best team in the league over 7 innings. The O's walked away with a 3-0 win thanks to Bundy's 7.1 innings of 3-hit baseball. He struck out 4, walked 1 and only threw 96 pitches to pick up his first win of the year. That's good stuff.

The first Saturday in May is always a fun day. Baseball is in full swing, the NHL and NBA playoffs are well under way, the Kentucky Derby runs and there is usually a big boxing match. Let's run down my sports day:

Liverpool wins. They kept their Premier League title hopes alive with a dramatic 3-2 victory over Newcastle. Late substitute Divock Origi, who replaced all-world star Mohamed Salah, headed in a free kick that glanced off of his marker and past the keeper. Salah was removed from the game after colliding with the Newcastle goalkeeper, setting up the dramatic late goal.

A long shot wins the Kentucky Derby after the favorite is disqualified. On a muddy track in Louisville Maximum Security appeared to win the race with ease, but an objection was raised. After 20 minutes of review it was determined that the betting favorite interfered with two horses and was disqualified. That meant 65-1 shot Country House was the winner. Chaos is always fun.

Boston and San Jose won their playoff games. They looked good from across the lobby of the hotel I was working in.

The Orioles won thanks to Bundy and Dwight Smith, Jr.'s long home run. It's always fun to beat the best team in the league. The win puts them on pace for 57 victories. It's a little behind what I need, but still within range.

Canelo Alvarez capped the night by outpointing Daniel Jacobs in Las Vegas. It was a close fight with the challenger Jacobs landing some big shots.Alvarez wasn't hurt and methodically picked apart his bigger opponent. With the win, Alvarez now holds the IBF and WBC Middleweight titles as well as the WBA Super Middleweight belt.

It was a great sports day for everyone!

Orioles Victory Card 11 : A tale of two prospects

Orioles Victory Number 11: 5-4 over the Chicago White Sox

2019 Topps Dylan Bundy


Baseball is a funny game and projecting success or failure of prospects is more or less a shot in the dark. Of all of the professional sports picking which player will succeed and which will be selling cars three years after they're drafted baseball has to be the toughest. It's also the longest journey for prospects. Kids drafted this summer may not make an impact for three or four years.  And that's for the ones drafted in the top two or three rounds.

Even if those prospects make it to the majors, year-in and year-out success can be tough to maintain. Just because someone was a first round pick doesn't mean he is going to win 20 games. Vice versa, just because a player is drafted in the 46th round doesn't mean he is going to be a career journeyman. Sometimes that 46th round pick can be leading a team in victories while the first round pick is just searching for a start where he doesn't give up a home run.

In 2011, the Baltimore Orioles made Dylan Bundy their first round pick and the fourth person chosen in the major league draft. He was the fourth pitcher taken following Gerrit Cole (Pirates), Danny Hultzen (Mariners), and Trevor Bauer (Diamondbacks). It took them all summer to sign the strapping righthanded high-school pitcher from Oklahoma, but with his skill set (two breaking balls and a bat-breaking 98 MPH fastball) the consensus was that he wouldn't be long in the minors.

That same year, way down in the 46th round - a round where favors are cashed in and family friends are drafted, the Atlanta Braves selected John Means, another high school hurler from fly-over country. According to Means, he was surprised at being drafted and was injured at the time the scout came out to visit him in Kansas City.  The scout actually advised against him signing at the time and so Means went to college. After a year at a nearby community college, Means ended up at West Virginia and then, after his junior season, was drafted in the 11th round by the Orioles in 2014.

By 2014, Bundy had already made his major league debut, a 2-appearance, 2-inning cup of coffee in 2012, been subject to a pitch count controversy, and was recovering from Tommy John surgery. He was also in the middle of a 5-year $6+ million contact. He was also a leading figure in the next wave of great Orioles pitchers that would return the organization to their former glory.

After sailing through the minors in his first year in professional baseball (from Delmarva to the majors in just one summer) the pain in his elbow kept him on the shelf for over a year. Recovery and rehab consumed all of 2013 and the beginning of 2014. He lasted just nine semi-productive appearances in Fredrick and Aberdeen before shoulder pain shut him down for the rest of the summer.

Means shared roster time with Bundy on that 2014 Aberdeen IronBirds. Following a brief stay in rookie ball, the left-hander made nine starts in Aberdeen and pitched fairly well, striking out 33 and walking only 2. He would spend the next four years working his way up through the system, never once making a top-prospects list for the Orioles, but also never getting to the point where he was in danger of being released. He gave up hits, but walked few and kept the ball in the park.

In 119 minor league starts from 2014-2018 Means had a pedestrian Win/Loss record (35 and 41) and an uninspiring 1.323 WHIP. There were some positives, he only walked 2 per game and gave up .8 home runs per game - a dreadfully important stat for pitching in the bandbox that is Camden Yards. With the Orioles in complete burn down mode, he earned a late-season call-up to the majors. He appeared in the first game of a double header against the Red Sox and gave up five runs on six hits in a 19-3 blowout. He didn't walk anyone but did give up a 3-run homer to J.D. Martinez.

Bundy had pitched in the game prior to Means' debut and lasted about as long (3 innings) and also surrendered a home run, a 2-run shot by Mookie Betts. He was saddled with the loss, his 16th of the season. The home run was the 39th out of 41 that he would give up during a trying season.

He was no longer the upper-90s power pitcher that had debuted with such promise six years earlier. That electric fastball, when left in the middle of the plate, was knocked around by hitters in ballparks all across the American League.  Bundy is still the de facto ace on the Orioles, now more by attrition than by sheer talent.

There are moments when he can look untouchable. He spots the fastball and then mixes in a sharp breaking slider that has hitters looking foolish. It's still there, that spark of a dominating pitcher, but all too often he labors around the strike zone. He fails to hit the corners and falls behind in counts. Then he is forced to come over the heart of the plate, and there it is extremely vulnerable. Despite several years in the majors he is still learning to pitch within his current talents. He now has to be more Greg Maddux than Roger Clemens.

Meanwhile, John Means has succeeded by being John Means. Mix speeds and pitches (according to FanGraphs he uses his change-up about 33% of the time and his fastball about 54% of the time with an 11 MPH difference between the two). He works fast and doesn't give up home runs. Well, at least until his last start when the White Sox tagged him for two bombs and jumped his hard hit percentage from 16% to 20%.

All of Means stats come with the usual small sample size warning. As he pitches more, the hitters will develop a "book" on him. His tendencies will become known and it's on him to figure out the next step, how to get major league hitters out when they know what you're throwing.

The summer is long, especially if you have any investment in the Orioles, and John Means may never win another game in the majors. Bundy could figure it out and become a dominant, soft-tossing ace.

For the record, John Means currently has zero officially licensed baseball cards. There are some minor league cards floating around, but he has yet to have one issued by Topps or even by Panini. On the other hand, according to the Trading Card Database, Bundy has 1,064. That will most likely change over the summer as Means will pop up Topps Update series and a handful of other releases.

Orioles Victory Card # 2: Well...this was unexpected

Orioles Victory Number 2: 7-5 over the New York Yankees

2002 Fleer Ultra Brook Fordyce

If you had the Orioles taking two out of three from the Yankees on opening weekend, well you're better at this than I am. I was thinking one of three would be good and if they were at least competitive for all three, but lost, that would be ok as well.

Instead, timely offense, Yankee mistakes and a cavalcade of relievers all led to the O's finishing up the weekend in second place, mere percentage points out of first. This could be the high point of the season (if you're a glass half empty person) or the beginning of a super fun summer (if you like the glass being half full).

One of the fun surprises was the animated actions of Pedro Severino. It was a delight seeing him pump his fist after strikes and emphatically position his glove to remind the pitcher where he wanted the pitch to be.  As a former catcher (through high school, at least) I remember there were certain pitchers that needed a little extra support or encouragement. Either they didn't pay attention that much or were quick to get down on themselves if something went wrong.

Watching him pump up Dylan Bundy throughout the first four innings was great. Hopefully, that's something that can continue throughout the season. As for Bundy, there were some positives to take from his start. He only made it through 3.2 innings, but he did strike out 7 and more importantly did not allow a home run. That's something that only happened in 9 of his 31 starts last season and only once in his last 15 appearances. 

The five walks were a bit of a bummer and the biggest reason he couldn't make it out of the fourth inning, but it's still a positive start for him. There were five flyballs hit against him, but nothing that came close to leaving the yard. That's quite an accomplishment against the Yankees. He'll get to face them in his next start in Camden Yards this weekend, hopefully the results are the same.

John Means bailed the pitching staff out with a solid 3+ innings of work. He racked up 5 strikeouts of his own by mostly featuring his change-up. It was working so well that he basically broke Giancarlo Stanton  with a change-up to end the jam the Orioles were in in the fourth inning. I'm all for him rolling through the AL East throwing his change-up 45.6% of the time. Just keep throwing it until they hit it.

On to the Blue Jays!

The First Card of 2019

I got a bit of an early start on the 2019 set this year. Why? Because I actually finished off the 2018 set in a reasonable time. Yup, three whole days before the 2019 set was released.  I happened to be in Target the other day so I picked up a fat pack and ripped it open. Here is the first card that greeted me:

Ahh Pedro Strop. The only player still standing from the infamous Jake Arrieta deal. Yup, five years after Strop and Jake Arrieta were shipped to Chicago for Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger, only Strop remains with the team he was traded to. Arrieta had a few decent years in Chicago before absconding to Philadelphia as a free agent. Feldman made all of 15 appearances as an Oriole before going to Houston. Clevenger hung around a little longer, playing in parts of three seasons with Baltimore before being traded to Seattle in the Mark Trumbo deal.

Strop and his lopsided cap have been a fixture in the Cubs bullpen for six seasons now. He's been a set-up guy and a closer.  He's been a workhorse for Chicago, appearing in 361 games during his tenure there.

What does this mean for the Cubs? Probably nothing. The last two years a Phillie has been my first card of the season and it didn't mean anything for them. What does it mean for me? Well, that's simple. The release of 2019 Series One means that baseball is almost here! In just a few weeks pitchers and catchers will report for Spring Training and then the fun is under way.

Speaking of fun, here is the first Orioles card of the year.

Hey Dylan Bundy. It's one of the three starters that the Orioles have on their roster. That's cool. After some speculation he may be moved in the off-season, Bundy looks like he'll be the anchor of the rotation that is still in the process of being decided. After him, the only locks are Andrew Cashner and Alex Cobb. Spring Training will be an open audition for the remaining two spots. That's going to be fun, right? {Insert Krusty the Clown groan here}

It might be bad baseball in Baltimore this year, but it's still baseball! 

As for the design of this year's set. I like it. It's not one of my favorites of recent releases, but I'm glad they toned down the white on the front of the card. The border along the right and bottom of the card do give it a bit of a reverse-1982 look. The back of the card isn't bad, but the border and use of a gray background kind of makes the card look like it was cut off or off center.

Not a bad look for a base set. As for the inserts...yeah, ok. They're fine. My usual complaint of their being way too many stands. The 1984 set is a fine set to update with current players, but doesn't hold the same nostalgia as the 1983 set.

Orioles Victory Card Number 16

Orioles victory number 16: 9-3 over the Chicago White Sox

2018 Topps Opening Day Jeremy Hellickson


Why hello there dominant Dylan Bundy.  That's what Orioles fans have been waiting to see for such a long, long time. A complete game victory with 14 strikeouts (a career high) on 121 pitches (86 for strikes).  The three runs he allowed came off of one swing of the bat - a home run by Jose Rondon in the fourth inning with two runners on. It's Dylan Bundy - of course the runs are going to come via the long ball.

During the outing, Bundy picked up his 300th strikeout as a starter. He arrived at that nice round number in his 53rd career start and apparently no Orioles starter has racked up that many strikeouts in so few starts. For the record he has 333 career K's in the books with 32 of them coming during relief appearances early in his career. It's an oddly specific record to achieve, but good on him for doing it!

It is the second career complete game for the former first round pick. His first was last year, a one-hit, twelve-strikeout gem against the Seattle Mariners last season. For the record no other Baltimore pitcher has a complete game over the last two seasons.  The last player not named Bundy to go the distance was Ubaldo Jimenez of all players. He retired the final 17 batters he faced in a September start against the Rays in 2016. You would have to go all the way back to 2011 to find a pitcher with multiple complete games in a season. That hurler - Jeremy Guthrie. He worked two games start to finish.

Bundy has a ways to go if he wants to capture the the career franchise record. Jim Palmer, who else, holds the record with 211 which included four seasons that he had at least 20 complete games. Bundy has started more than 20 games just once in his career - 28 last season.  Pretty sure that Mr. Palmer will be holding on to his record for well...forever.

Since 2000 only once has a pitcher completed 10 or more games in a season. Big Game James Shields had 11 for the 2011 Tampa Bay Rays. My how times have changed for that organization as they are at the forefront of the "bullpenning" movement. They plan on starting relief pitchers in all three games against the Orioles this weekend with Sergio Romo starting both Friday and Sunday night and fellow reliever Ryan Stanek starting on Saturday. The theory behind their process is that the relievers will work through the top of the order once and set up the "primary" pitchers to only have to deal with the opponent's best hitters twice through the rest of the game.

It's an interesting concept and will be fun to see if the Rays continue it through the rest of the season and if any other teams adopt a similar philosophy. I don't expect the Orioles, tradition bound as they are, to be one of the teams to copy Tampa's experiment.

For Bundy the complete game start was another solid effort in his wildly inconsistent season. He's mixed dominating starts in with absolute tire-fire outings en route to a 3-6 record. After starting the season off with four starts where he allowed 2 or fewer earned runs, he followed up with three starts allowing five or more including the infamous May 8th start against Kansas City where he allowed 7 runs without recording an out. Since then he's had three starts, 7 shut out innings against the Rays, four runs in six innings against the Red Sox and the complete game against the White Sox.

Home runs have been his biggest issue, allowing a total of 14 through almost 63 innings pitched this season. No longer possessing a blazing fastball (his four-seamer averages about 91.63) he gets hurt when he leaves the ball up in the zone. If he can pitch ahead in the count, as he did on Thursday, he can force his opponents to chase the slider out of the zone because it is quite a deceptive pitch.

Hopefully, for the sanity of Orioles fans, he has more starts like this throughout the rest of the season.

Orioles Victory Card Number 6

Orioles Victory Number 6: 3-1 over the Cleveland Indians

2001 Topps Opening Day Mike Mussina

Finally, the O's are back in the win column and, despite being one of the best pitchers in the AL, Dylan Bundy finally picks up his first win of the season. So far in 2018 Bundy has made 5 starts, thrown 31.2 innings, struck out 40 while only walking 9, WHIP of 1.105, ERA+ of 286 and a FIP of 1.98.  And his record: 1-2.

I'm not sure I'm ready to go full Brian Kelly yet and call for the abolishment of the win as a statistic, but it's obvious that it's value is quickly diminishing. Richard Bleier has two wins on the season and has thrown a total of 14.1 innings. He's been good, but he hasn't been as good as Bundy. Hopefully, baseball writers (especially those that vote on awards) are starting to come around to the fact that wins aren't the be all, end all stat for pitchers, especially starters.


Would I like to see Bundy or any other Orioles pitcher win 20 games in a season? Hell, at this point I'm hoping the Orioles get to 20 wins as a team.  Seeing how no Baltimore pitcher has done it since Mike Boddicker in 1984 it would be nice to celebrate that arbitrary stat. Mainly because it means the team is successful.

The last Oriole to come close was the man pictured above. Mike Mussina got to 19 wins in 1996. He also won 19 in 1995. Mussina also had three seasons with the Orioles that he won 18 games. He never got to the magic mark in black and orange, waiting until his final season in New York to hit the 20 win plateau. No one in their right mind would argue that the 2008 version of Mike Mussina was better than the 1996 version. He just happened to play for a better team that scored him more runs.

This was the last season Mussina was featured in an Orioles uniform on a Topps card. He didn't sign early enough in the off season for Topps to airbrush him into a Yankees uniform so Baltimore fans had to suffer seeing him in the home whites one more time when they were opening packs that year. His debut in Yankee threads would come in Series Two Topps.

Since then the O's have been looking for a dominant right-hander that can take the mound once a week and shut down their opponents. It wasn't Erik Bedard or Chris Tillman. Zach Britton looked like he may take the honor, but couldn't transition to starting in the majors. Now it's hopefully Bundy.. At some point the Orioles are going to start scoring runs for him. Hopefully at some point the Orioles are going to start scoring runs for anyone. Once that happens his wins will start piling up.