Matt Kremnitzer: Some valid concerns about Orioles pitching

Some things are more important than baseball. Actually, lots of things are more important than baseball. But baseball is what we're here to discuss, though it's worth noting the O's situation at home this week is up in the air. So while hoping for the best in Baltimore, let's get to it.

At 9-10, the Orioles are treading water in a division full of teams that are treading water. So far, every American League East team has at least nine wins and is within a few games of either first or last place. Despite losing Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis in free agency, and playing all of the season without J.J. Hardy and Matt Wieters, and some of it without Jonathan Schoop and now Ryan Flaherty, the Orioles have been excellent offensively. As of Monday night, the O's offense is first in the major leagues in runs per game, first in home runs, fourth in on-base percentage, second in slugging percentage and second in weighted runs created plus (wRC+).

The O's 18-7 win over the Red Sox on Sunday certainly gave the team's offensive numbers a boost. Adam Jones has been the team's main offensive force so far, but the Orioles have also been aided by the surprising early season success of Jimmy Paredes and a quick start by Caleb Joseph. Now with Manny Machado seemingly heating up, the only real offensive disappointment to this point has been Steve Pearce. There will be plenty of opportunities for him to turn things around, though anything close to his fantastic 2014 season is probably a pipe dream (if it wasn't already).

And yet, despite the team's run scoring prowess in April, the pitching situation is at least worrisome. There isn't necessarily reason to completely panic, but the team's pitchers rank last in both ERA and FIP (both a bit over 5). Part of that is because the O's defense has been good but not superb, like it has been the last few seasons. But a bigger part is that O's pitchers are allowing more walks and home runs per nine innings than any other team. Every O's starting pitcher has walked at least four batters per nine innings, and only Zach Britton and Wesley Wright (only 1 2/3 innings pitched and currently on the disabled list) have yet to allow a home run

A pitcher's velocity clearly isn't the only thing that matters, but after seeing an increase the past couple seasons, Wei-Yin Chen and Bud Norris have both seen their fastball velocities dip early in the season. Both pitchers have been underwhelming so far, but they also looked better in their last starts. As for the bullpen, Britton has been very good, and Brad Brach has been better than his ERA indicates, but there have been plenty of home runs allowed. Kevin Gausman has looked far from dominating, and Jason Garcia isn't pitching like a Rule 5 pick who will be able to stick with the club for the entire season.

The Orioles are not a fast team; they are built to hit for power. Pitching-wise, they're not overpowering and they aren't going to rack up a ton of strikeouts. The pitching staff strives to minimize damage, take advantage of the team's solid defense, and try to control opposing teams' running games. But they haven't done enough to minimize damage and have been allowing too many free passes. And for the most part, the solutions to these issues will have to come from within. The O's have capable relief arms in Triple-A Norfolk - guys like T.J. McFarland, Mike Wright, Zach Davies, Steve Johnson and Eddie Gamboa, to name a few - if they need to rework the current bullpen structure. Some of them may even start games in Baltimore in the future. But Dylan Bundy is still working his way back from Tommy John surgery, and Hunter Harvey is likely a couple of years away.

To have a repeat of last season, when the O's won 96 games and ran away with the AL East, they're going to need better performances from both the rotation and bullpen. There's lots of time for that turnaround to happen, but it'll have to come with plenty of familiar names.

Matt Kremnitzer blogs about the Orioles at Camden Depot. Follow him on Twitter: @mattkremnitzer. 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.