Ryan Romano: Ground balls will help mask woes of O's outfield

Through the ups and downs of recent years in Birdland, one thing seems to have held true about the Orioles: They sure can play defense. In 2013, the club set the record for fewest errors in a full season. Since then, they've ranked sixth, second, and fifth, respectively, in flubbed plays. But such a simplistic stat doesn't reflect the fluctuation of the Baltimore gloves, particularly by position. In 2016, the team's fielding in one area has taken a nosedive, and the pitchers would be wise to adjust their strategy accordingly.

To be clear, the Orioles still have some great defenders. Not only has Manny Machado played like a god at the hot corner, he cruised through his trial at shortstop while J.J. Hardy was hurt. Hardy himself has excelled when he's made it to the field. Jonathan Schoop and Chris Davis, while perhaps not as skilled as their reputations, have nevertheless performed well on the right side. Matt Wieters and Caleb Joseph have distinguished themselves behind the plate. Together, these players (and their numerous backups) have made the Orioles' infield a superb one -- the unit ranks second in the majors in defensive runs saved (DRS) with 25 runs saved and fifth in ultimate zone rating (UZR) with 18.9 runs saved. Here, everything looks fantastic for now and for the future.

In the outfield, on the other hand, things haven't been quite as sunny. Adam Jones has started to show his age in center field, and Mark Trumbo has continued to show his in right. Hyun Soo Kim has paired sluggish range with an essentially nonexistent arm (we're still waiting for his first outfield assist). And the supporting cast -- primarily Joey Rickard and Nolan Reimold -- have largely fallen short as well. Add all of that together, and you get some uninspiring numbers: The Orioles' outfield has cost them 33 runs by DRS and 23.5 runs by UZR, each of which is the second-worst mark in baseball. Whatever skill the infielders have displayed, the outfielders have negated.

Advanced fielding metrics can be tricky, especially in less than a full season's worth of innings. Returning to the simple measures, though, yields the same conclusion. Baseball Prospectus tracks defensive efficiency -- the percentage of balls in play that turn into outs -- for each type of batted ball. On ground balls, the Orioles place eighth in the majors with a .765 clip. By contrast, they've fielded fly balls cleanly 88.0 percent of the time, which ranks 25th. Their production on line drives (.353, 22nd) and popups (.973, 19th) is similarly subpar. If the hitter plops the ball on the ground, the Birds can get it to first with the best of them; if he puts it in the air, things get a little dicey.

The Orioles don't have a strikeout-heavy staff, or one that limits walks. They need to manage contact as well as possible to get by, and with the distribution of fielding talent they've assembled, that gives them a pretty clear path to success. In as much as they can without regressing significantly, O's pitchers should try to keep the ball on the ground. To this point, they've gone against this formula: Their current ground ball rate of 44.4 percent puts them squarely in the bottom half of the majors. Some of their pitchers will always tilt toward fly balls -- I wouldn't expect Darren O'Day, for instance, to suddenly become a ground baller -- but others, such as Yovani Gallardo, Tyler Wilson, and Odrisamer Despaigne have seen their ground ball rates plummet this year. For the squad to improve upon its so-so ERA and heat up down the stretch, it needs to garner grounders whenever possible.

Ideally, it won't matter what the Baltimore defense does, because the offense will bail it out. As we saw in July, though, the hitting on this team tends to ebb and flow; during the periods when runs are scarce, a ground ball-focused approach could help the club eek out some low-scoring victories. As the Orioles chase the pennant with the defense they have, not the defense they might want, they have to ask themselves: Would they prefer this, or this? This, or this? This, or this? The choice, to a sizable degree, is up to their pitchers.

Ryan Romano blogs about the Orioles for Camden Depot. Follow the blog on Twitter: @CamdenDepot. 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.