Orioles Victory Number 10: 4-3 over the Chicago White Sox
May 11th. That's when I wrote about the Orioles 10th win last year. They're a solid seventeen days ahead of last years pace. And that's with a decidedly worse roster. Not to mention they've already gone through their first round with the AL East. While 10-16 and a last-place position in the standings isn't anything to write home about it is at least a little better than what we were expecting.
They're on pace for about 62 wins which translates to 100 losses. From a financial position I'm happy about the pace (yes I took the over on 59.5 wins before the season started) but not comfortable. There are more four game losing streaks in the future, so it would be nice if they offset them with a couple of three or four game winning streaks. If they can up their winning percentage to around .400, that would be fantastic.
Do they have the horses to get to that mark? Maybe? The offense seems to be coming around and they've had a couple of decent starts. Chris Davis has hits, Trey Mancini has shaken off his knee injury and a sophomore slump, Renato Nunez looks like a diamond in the rough as does Dwight Smith, Jr. Now, a couple of those names could end up being trade bait as the summer rolls around so there could be a little drop off post trade deadline, but in theory some of the holes could be filled by the next wave of Orioles stars.
Pitching has been a wild card. There have been some good moments and a lot of not so good moment. Andrew Cashner has 4 wins while John Means has 3. Cashner could be pitching his way to a contender while Means, an 11th round pick from 2014, could be the surprise of the season. Meanwhile Dylan Bundy doesn't have a win and continues to struggle with watching balls fly over the fence, they have no closer and they've used three position players out of the bullpen already. So again, a mixed bag.
All of this means that the Orioles are right on pace with where everyone thought they would be. They are going to lose about 100 games. There are going to be disappointments, Cedric Mullins and Tanner Scott, to go along with the success stories.
No comments:
Post a Comment