Dillon Atkinson: O's moves weren't flashy, but team has improved

Dylan Bundy's masterful seven innings last night may have helped you forget that the Orioles acquired two players via trade prior to this past Monday's non-waiver trade deadline. In case you missed it, the Birds added left-handed starter Wade Miley and utility man Steve Pearce. While you may be disappointed because you wanted someone like Jeremy Hellickson instead, I think we can all agree that the Orioles' current roster is better than the roster from last week. These moves aren't flashy and they may not move the needle much, but Buck Showalter and the O's should be able to make good use of their two new acquisitions.

Miley, 29, has posted a 4.98 ERA over 19 starts this season with the Mariners. One thing I noticed is that he has the highest home runs per nine innings of his career at 1.45. On top of that, he also has the highest home runs per fly ball rate in his career at 15.8 percent. What's odd is that this was his first and only season in Seattle, which has a pitcher-friendly park. He has higher home run rates this year than his other years pitching for hitter-friendly park teams, the Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks. If he keeps this 2016 homer trend up, he may not last long at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Yesterday, Miley made it clear in his Orioles introductory press conference that he will trust the great infield defense behind him and try to induce a lot of ground balls. If you're having a home run problem and you're heading to Camden Yards, I'd also suggest trying to get batters to beat the ball in the ground. One thing that could help Miley is if he used his sinker more. According to Brooks Baseball, Miley is throwing his sinker significantly less in 2016 than he has in any other season. However, my colleague Ryan Romano pointed out yesterday that Miley has done better keeping the ball on the ground as of late, with a 52.5 groundball percentage - along with throwing 64.1 percent of his pitches in the bottom two-fifths of the zone over his past eight starts. If he can keep this going, perfect. But if he can't, it'll be interesting to see if pitching coach Dave Wallace tries to push the sinker more with the veteran southpaw. Regardless of whether or not he can keep the ball on the ground, Miley should - at the very least - be able to eat up some innings and save the bullpen a bit.

Pearce, 33, has been hot for the Rays this season, slashing .309/.388/.520 with 10 home runs over 232 plate appearances. What is highly influencing this great line is that 72.4 percent of his plate appearances have been against left-handed pitchers. Pearce is dominating southpaws this season, slashing .389/.484/.741.

Some are assuming he will platoon in left field with Hyun Soo Kim, with Nolan Reimold keeping his platoon role with Pedro Alvarez. However, Reimold has not only been hitting lefties worse than he has righties this season - slashing .211/.282/.384 versus lefties and .265/.326/.470 against righties - but has also been slumping at the plate overall as of late. So a proposal that I suggest for the time being: throw Pearce into a platoon with Alvarez and let Kim get at-bats full-time. Kim has been mainly a platoon versus right-handers player, getting only 15 plate appearances against southpaws, but it's time to at least give him a shot to prove whether or not he can play every day. And for the time being, Reimold can be used off the bench as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner or defensive replacement.

Pearce will be getting the start for his Orioles season debut tonight against Rangers' Cole Hamels, and Miley will make his first start as an Oriole tomorrow night. Pearce will be, at the very least, a great option to bat against left-handers. At the most, maybe he becomes more than just a platoon player, similar to his 2014 role with the club. With Miley, he'll eat some innings to help the bullpen a bit, even if his starts aren't pretty. But if he can continue pounding the bottom half of the zone and generate more groundballs, like he has in his past eight starts, he could be more than just an "unexciting, generic innings sponge," as referred to by FanGraphs' Jeff Sullivan.

The Orioles' deadline acquisitions may not be exciting, but Showalter should be able to find good use out of them. On top of that, don't forget there's just under a month left to make trades through the waiver process - remember that Alejandro De Aza was an example of one of these types of trades in 2014. In this time period, the O's may still add to the rotation or bullpen.

Dillon Atkinson blogs about the Orioles for Orioles Uncensored. Follow him on Twitter: @DAtkinsonOU. His thoughts on the O's appear here as part of MASNsports.com's continuing commitment to welcome guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.