A look at how opponents pitched the Orioles in the 2024 season

There is publicly available data from outlets like FanGraphs.com and BaseballSavant.com that can provide us some, shall we say, just beyond the basic stats information.

My curiosity yesterday led me to this question: How did opponents pitch the Orioles this season? Did they get more fastballs than other teams saw or less? Which pitches did they see more than others?

Here is what the O's batters were thrown this year and how that ranked in MLB and the ranking is from first (as in they saw the most fastballs to 30th, they saw the least) to least.

* Fastballs - 47.6 percent, 16th in MLB.

* Sliders - 20.1 percent, 30th in MLB.

* Changeups - 11.8 percent, 2nd in MLB.

* Cutters - 8.8 percent, 5th in MLB.

* Curveballs - 8.3 percent, 13th in MLB.

* Split-finger fastballs - 3.4 percent, 10th in MLB.

So, the Orioles saw a lot of changeups - the second-most of any team in the majors behind Cleveland at 12.8 percent. But no team saw fewer sliders than the Orioles. They saw a mid-range amount of fastballs. Just four teams saw 50.0 percent or more of them. The average fastball velocity thrown to an O's batter was 93.9 mph, the 10th fastest average of any club.

And in one metric anyway, the O's fared pretty well versus all these pitches. In the metric "weighted runs above average" the Orioles ranked eighth-best versus fastballs. They were first against cutters and curveballs, seventh versus sliders and splitters and 10th against changeups.

What does this tell us? Who knows exactly, no great revelations here. But for me, speaking for one, it is interesting to look at.

While I was jumping around on a few stat pages, I noted that in the new metric from last season that measured bat speed, the Orioles were the best. Baltimore's average bat speed last season of 72.5 mph was topped by no team. The O's, Atlanta and Pittsburgh tied for first in the majors in that metric.

In 2024 and this may surprise some, the Orioles did not strikeout very much. They were below league average with a strikeout percentage of 22.0 to rank 18th in MLB during a year when the average was 22.6. But they also walked less than average with a 7.9 walk percentage to rank 19th in MLB after a year when average was 8.3.

I know it frustrates fans to no end when O's batters swing at pitches outside of the strike zone. How could he chase that pitch! In outside of the zone swing percentage in 2024, the O's did that 12th most in the majors at 32.5 percent. The Yankees were the team that chased the fewest pitches at 27.9 percent.

I wondered how often the O's used the opposite field? They scored well here at 24.6 percent to rank 12th in the majors. MLB average for balls hit to the opposite field was 18.2.

For most of the year the O's hit the ball quite hard, among the best in the sport and that held through the season. They ranked third in MLB in average exit velocity at 89.7 mph, trailing only the Yankees (90.1) and Atlanta (89.8).

Baltimore batters ranked third in the majors in wRC+ with the Dodgers at 118, the Yankees 117 and the Orioles and Diamondbacks at 115.

In FanGraphs.com's team offensive Wins Above Replacement (WAR), Arizona and the Los Angeles Dodgers were first at 33.8 with the Yankees next at 33.7 and the Orioles fourth at 28.8.

The MVP winners: The Yankees Aaron Judge was a unanimous winner of the American League MVP award, getting all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He is now a two-time MVP winner, also winning in 2022.

The O's Gunnar Henderson got six third-place votes and finished fourth in the balloting. That is the highest MVP finish by an Oriole since Manny Machado was fourth in 2015. Anthony Santander got one eighth place and one tenth place vote to finish 14th.

Los Angeles’ Dodgers DH Shohei Ohtani was the unanimous selection for the National League MVP award, adding a third MVP to the two he won in the American League. He won in the AL in 2021 and 2023 with the Los Angeles Angels.

And now Ohtani is the second player in MLB history to win the award in both leagues. The first was Frank Robinson, the NL MVP in 1961 with the Cincinnati Reds and the AL MVP in 1966 with the Orioles.

Robinson was a Triple Crown winner and the World Series MVP winner as the O's swept the Dodgers four straight in '66. Robinson had stood alone for 57 years as the only player to win MVP in both leagues.