The Orioles seemingly always rank near the bottom of the American League in on-base percentage. It's an important stat and this year in the American League the average team OBP was .316. The Orioles ranked 12th among the 15 clubs in the AL at .304.
Since they won the AL East in 2014, the Orioles have ranked 12th or lower in the league in team OBP five times in eight seasons. Their best mark was when they were eighth in 2020.
When it comes to walk rate (the percentage of times a hitter walks...
When it comes to some of the best bullpens in baseball, they seem to be filled with flame-throwing pitchers that can throws fastballs in the high 90s and maybe even touch 100 mph. Of course, velocity is not everything, but it sure has some importance, and teams keep rolling out those throwing some serious heat in the middle to late innings.
As the Orioles decide which players to add to their 40-man roster this week, and thus protect those players from being taken in the December Rule 5 draft,...
As I talked with and interviewed several hitters that were having big seasons on the Orioles farm during the 2021 season, it became clear that those players believed in the organization's hitting program. At times, we saw that program embrace the talent it drafted and acquired and turn their program into results.
It was likely encouraging for Birdland to see this and yesterday it led to Double-A Bowie hitting coach Ryan Fuller getting promoted to the major league staff. Fuller joins Matt...
When it comes to players on the Orioles who could come up in trade talks this winter, outfielder Anthony Santander might be on that list - maybe near the top of it.
The Orioles are building a nice surplus of young outfielders and the latest group, including players like Kyle Stowers and Robert Neustrom, are closing in on the majors. Their day could be coming and a spot might need to be opened for someone to slide into.
Santander has value to other teams. They remember his big 2020 season, one...
Time for you, my very appreciated readers, to take a few minutes today and answer a few more questions I am throwing out and at you today. Not throwing at you like a beanball pitcher, but you get the point.
With my (lack of) velocity, the pitch wouldn't hurt anyway.
The World Series is over and the team with the fewest regular-season wins to make the playoffs won it. So hey, the Orioles' rebuilding could culminate in a playoff spot with just 88 wins? Yes, it is possible, but this year 88 wins...
On the Orioles farm this season, this lefty had a Minor League Pitcher of the Year kind of season. He led the organization in wins and innings. He was among the best in ERA and had a low walk rate. He pitched well at two levels and ended the year on a roll, pitching well in the Double-A playoffs.
But Grayson Rodriguez was better and any O's farm pitcher could have said that after the 2021 season.
So, yes, that was a given, but for lefty Drew Rom, 21, it was a banner season. One that began at...
Numerous Orioles have won Silver Sluggers since the award debuted in 1980. But before Cedric Mullins, not many - maybe any - came as far with their game as he did to go from the depths to such heights.
In his first three seasons in the majors - from 2018 through 2020 - Mullins had a .632 OPS with seven homers in 418 career plate appearances. His OPS+ went from 72 in his career entering this year to 135 during a 2021 season when he became the first Oriole ever with 30 or more homers and steals...
After producing a .878 OPS and the first 30-30 season in Orioles history, center fielder Cedric Mullins tonight has become the team's first Silver Slugger Award winner since 2016.
Mullins began the night among eight finalists for three American League outfield Silver Slugger Awards and Mullins has been named a winner in the AL outfield along with Toronto's Teoscar Hernández and Aaron Judge of New York. The winners were announced in a live broadcast on MLB Network.
Mark Trumbo, as a...
If predictions prove to be mostly accurate, this winter's baseball free agent class will bring in some huge collective dollars in salary. Some big contracts could be signed.
How this all plays out is pending the collective bargaining talks on a new labor contract, but there will come a time when the deals get done, and the contracts could be something.
Last year via free agency, just three players signed total deals of $100 million or more. They were George Springer (six years, $150 million)...
The recent news that young outfielder Heston Kjerstad is a full go at the Orioles' instructional league camp in Florida was encouraging and a nice move forward for the player selected No. 2 overall from the University of Arkansas in the 2020 draft. He was the third-highest player ever taken by the organization.
But dealing with the effects of myocarditis has kept him off the field and created some uncertainty about his future. And while there are no guarantees going forward, the Orioles now...
He may have ranked first among all American League qualifying rookies in homers this year and second in RBIs, but the Orioles' Ryan Mountcastle will not be the club's seventh Rookie of the Year winner in the AL.
When the three finalists for the Baseball Writers' Association of America award, to be announced Monday, were announced last night, he was not among them. For me, that was surprising.
So the one Orioles player who we thought had a chance to contend for or even win one of the major...
It was on July 31, 2018 when the Atlanta Braves acquired right-hander Kevin Gausman from the Orioles in a six-player deadline-beating trade that also brought the Orioles international bonus money. The faltering Birds were headed into full-on rebuild mode and their top pick from 2012 (No. 4 overall in that draft) was heading out the door.
Just over a year later - on Aug. 5, 2019 - the Braves waived Gausman after he had gone 3-7 with a 6.19 ERA that year. He was 28 and his career was trending in...
Now that the baseball season is over, the baseball labor talks are on the clock. The sides are pursuing a new collective bargaining agreement. The current CBA expires at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 1. That date is coming fast.
The players and owners have been talking on and off behind the scenes since around the All-Star break, or so they tell us. This is great. Keep it out of the media, out of Twitter, out of social media and headlines altogether.
We simply cannot have a repeat of the back and forth in...
The Orioles have to be encouraged by the early returns on their six-player 2020 draft. They've seen Jordan Westburg, Hudson Haskin, Anthony Servideo and Coby Mayo do some nice things. Now they look to get Heston Kjerstad and Carter Baumler in the mix.
Both Kjerstad, the No. 2 overall pick in that draft, and Baumler, the right-hander the Orioles drafted in round five (No. 133 overall), should be on the field in games when the 2022 season begins.
Baumler has only pitched in one game since the...
His 2021 stats are modest, but it says here his talent is large. He was taken No. 4 overall in the 2015 draft and he has a right arm worthy of such a high pick. But so far at the major league level, Orioles reliever Dillon Tate has not put it all together. Just when it looks like he is getting on a roll and we see a bunch of nasty pitches, something often seems to go wrong.
Will next season be his year?
I say it will and there are stats from 2021 that might provide a clue. First of all, his...
When the Atlanta Braves won the World Series on Tuesday night - as Atlanta beat the Houston Astros in six games - a Braves employee since 1977 could exhale and realize he got to the baseball mountaintop. He was a world champion - one who started with the organization as a minor league player in 1977.
He is a former longtime minor league manager and a man who was promoted to the position of major league coach three times over the years, only to be sent back to the minors each time. He is the...
If you thought the 2021 Orioles hit better at home than on the road, you are right. If you thought the difference was pretty vast, you are also right.
In fact, the Orioles were among the top five hitting clubs in the American League this year in a few home games stats. But they ranked at or near the bottom in road game stats.
For instance, take a look at home runs. The Orioles ranked second in the AL in home homers. They were last in homers on the road. In team OPS, they were fifth-best at...
If you were to pick the Orioles' best reliever during the 2021 season, it will probably come down to a choice between two right-handers: Tyler Wells and Cole Sulser. Both had solid years, but I would give the lean to Sulser.
He went 5-4 with a 2.70 ERA. In ERA+, Sulser was 69 percent above league average at 169. No other Oriole rated higher than John Means at 126. In fact, Sulser's ERA was the lowest by an O's reliever (minimum 60 innings) since Zack Britton's 0.54 in 2016. So, yeah, not...
Since the day the Orioles acquired him from the Los Angeles Angels, right-hander Kyle Bradish has seemingly been trending up with his new club. Acquired by the team with three other right-handers for pitcher Dylan Bundy on Dec. 4, 2019, Bradish was rated No. 21 on the Angels top 30 by MLBPipeline.com at the time of the deal.
Now he is in the Orioles' top 10 and is their third-highest rated pitching prospect following right-hander Grayson Rodriguez and lefty DL Hall. Some in the O's front...
Long before he beat cancer, the Orioles' Trey Mancini had beaten the odds in a more traditional baseball sense. He was the kid that wanted to go a big school in Florida, but they didn't want him, so he crafted a great career at Notre Dame. He was the kid that was a bit overlooked as an eighth-round draft pick. He was the kid that never was ranked in anyone's top 100 prospects list.
But he would become the man that blossomed with a breakout big league season in 2019 and has become the face of...
