Domenic Vadala: Would a small change benefit Birds?

First off, greetings from the Delmarva shore, which is where I am this week! I'm taking my annual summer hiatus from the big city, if you will - so far so good, I suppose! Much like Ocean City, coastal Delaware is a place that's chock full of orange and black this time of year, and as I've walked along the boardwalks of the "Small Wonder State," I've seen lots of TVs showing Orioles games in bars and restaurants.

Speaking of small wonders, we all know that small ball is a part of the Orioles' game that can be lacking at times. I wouldn't say that's always the case, but we don't see too many bunts and so forth - at least not as often as we do with other teams. And the fact is that sometimes hurts the Orioles, although it can also benefit them as well. There are plenty of situations in baseball where it's worth asking why one should play for one run when two or more could be scored.

Having said that, we've also seen the Orioles struggle against American League Central teams over the course of the past year or so. Keep in mind that while the O's swept Detroit in the American League Division Series last season, they only finished 1-5 against the Tigers in the regular season. We also saw them struggle to score runs this past weekend in Chicago (save for Sunday) and in Minnesota.

And think back to last year a bit more - did the O's not struggle against those teams, as well as against Kansas City (both in the regular season and in the playoffs)? Mind you, saying that they struggled doesn't necessarily mean that they lost games. They did in some cases, but I mean that they struggled to score runs at times. So where am I headed with this?

Detroit, Kansas City, Minnesota and the White Sox all play in ballparks that favor pitchers. Much like the Orioles, these teams have to build themselves year in and year out to play to the dimensions of their home yards. That's seemingly why Kansas City was able to get on base due to so many broken-bat singles and bloops in the American League Championship Series last year; they were built to be a station-to-station team that plays small ball.

And while that's not necessarily true of all of those teams, it's something that they have to learn if they're going to win games at home. So here come the Orioles into a park like U.S. Cellular Field, with the likes of Adam Jones, Chris Davis, et al, all of whom are swinging for the fences. And to use Saturday's game as an example, all it took was a baserunner on a walk to come back to bite the Orioles. Chris Davis made a bid to re-tie the game in the ninth, and even that was foiled by a Gold Glove-caliber play. (This was repeated on Sunday, but it made no difference.)

This isn't an exact science, of course, Sunday's 9-1 win being a prime example. But I do find it interesting that these AL Central teams are all but forced to play small ball due to the dimensions of their. Statistics tell us that the same isn't true in reverse, as many of these teams struggle on occasion when they come to Camden Yards.

So while this comes across as beating a dead horse, it might behoove the Birds to play some small ball here and there - maybe even within the division. Any advantage that they can find in a division that's as knotted as the AL East is a huge one. This is not to say that small ball is where it's at in baseball, but it needs to play a role.

So with that said I'm heading out to stick my toes in the water here once. Incidentally, the state line between Delaware and Maryland really becomes blurred out here on the coast. And a big reason for that is Orioles baseball.

There was a time when you'd see just the occasional O's cap or shirt, but as bad as things were for the Birds for so long, many people came here wanting to leave them behind as much as they did work! That's not the case anymore, as all of the bars play the games. Winning will do that!

Domenic Vadala blogs about the Orioles at Birds Watcher, and his opinions appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. Follow him on Twitter: @DomenicVadala. 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.