2026 Baltimore Orioles

[drjohnnyfever]

Gunnar first pitch swinging in the bottom of the 9th rally was a brutal out. Killed the momentum. All we needed was a fly ball. He needs to relax in clutch situations. He is not a clutch player right now. Brutal loss. TON's ground rule double was unfortunate. If it stays in, we win.

 

[Tank]

Gunnar first pitch swinging in the bottom of the 9th rally was a brutal out. Killed the momentum. All we needed was a fly ball. He needs to relax in clutch situations. He is not a clutch player right now. Brutal loss. TON's ground rule double was unfortunate. If it stays in, we win.

Yeah, that one was brutal. So many chances to win it late.

 

[ravenslord]

Those are them O's . Win some and then lose a lot. A very frustrating team to watch.

 

[Tank]

Those are them O's . Win some and then lose a lot. A very frustrating team to watch.

I mean they have made some bone headed mistakes at crucial moments, but also have had zero puck luck. Like Johnny said, O’Neil’s GR double stays in the yard and they win the game. Bad calls, etc., just some unfortunate stuff.

Don’t give up the ship! yet

 

[drjohnnyfever]

The problem is tho that the dumb luck things are infrequent while the crippling mishaps and errors are frequent enough to seem normal... I never give up hope, but they need to improve defensively if they hope to get anywhere and then stay consistently better than merely marginal. And TON needs to be off the field.

 

[Tank]

I heard on 98 Rock this AM that Albernaz and Basallo are at odds because of Sammy taking himself out every time he feels a little pain. Not sure how true it is, but this isn't the way to start what is hoped to be a long, successful career.

 

[drjohnnyfever]

I heard that too. I don't think Albi called him out, per se, but when you get tests that come back negative, you have to be ready to be in the line-up. He's a catcher, he should be used to the beating. Plus Adley had done a couple days in a row at that point and all Basallo was doing was DH. But Albi gave the benefit of the doubt too by bringing up Huff. That's a signal too.

 

[drjohnnyfever]

Ya know, I miss Manny. Playing the Padres reminds me of how excited I was with his debut back in the day. He single-handedly solidified an already very good infield into a real force. So different than what we're seeing over the course of this year.

I wondered when we signed Alonso if we might have been better off targeting a top line 3B instead. Everything I ever read or heard since Adley came up was about a potential transition to 1B from C as he got older, especially with Basallo in the wings then. Of course Mounty was already there at 1B, but I guess it was assumed he'd be out after his contract much like Santander when he became a FA opening the potential spot for Adley. They were also focusing on grooming Mayo to 1B after his poor audition at 3B last year. So that would have meant Adley and Mayo at 1B and likely taking turns at DH.

I was surprised with the Alonso deal. I think the bat aspect was on target - and they seem to have been right as he is the only bat we have on the team that is in the top 5 of any of the batting leader categories: RBI= 44. I just kind of wish they had tried to identify a 3B candidate that would have done the same on the left side where we seem to need it most. Mayo has done surprisingly well, however.

Going into 25 I was hoping we'd get Bregman and plug him in at 2B, move Gunnar to 3B and Holliday to SS. Who knows how that would have turned out, but Bregman wound up having a good year with with the BoSox that year.

Anyway, off track there, but in the past 20 games we're 12-8! That's .600 baseball. And if we hadn't given at least 3 away, that would have been 15-5, .750 ball. Instead, with the games we dropped and how we dropped them, I don't think there's a ton of security in the idea that we keep this up. Had we won those games, we'd be the talk of the league, and the potential comeback toward a division fight would feel a lot different than this sort of tenuous waiting for the other shoe to drop. Clearly, I still don't know what to make of this team, but they're showing some signs.

 

[Tank]

Ya know, I miss Manny. Playing the Padres reminds me of how excited I was with his debut back in the day. He single-handedly solidified an already very good infield into a real force. So different than what we're seeing over the course of this year.

I wondered when we signed Alonso if we might have been better off targeting a top line 3B instead. Everything I ever read or heard since Adley came up was about a potential transition to 1B from C as he got older, especially with Basallo in the wings then. Of course Mounty was already there at 1B, but I guess it was assumed he'd be out after his contract much like Santander when he became a FA opening the potential spot for Adley. They were also focusing on grooming Mayo to 1B after his poor audition at 3B last year. So that would have meant Adley and Mayo at 1B and likely taking turns at DH.

I was surprised with the Alonso deal. I think the bat aspect was on target - and they seem to have been right as he is the only bat we have on the team that is in the top 5 of any of the batting leader categories: RBI= 44. I just kind of wish they had tried to identify a 3B candidate that would have done the same on the left side where we seem to need it most. Mayo has done surprisingly well, however.

Going into 25 I was hoping we'd get Bregman and plug him in at 2B, move Gunnar to 3B and Holliday to SS. Who knows how that would have turned out, but Bregman wound up having a good year with with the BoSox that year.

Anyway, off track there, but in the past 20 games we're 12-8! That's .600 baseball. And if we hadn't given at least 3 away, that would have been 15-5, .750 ball. Instead, with the games we dropped and how we dropped them, I don't think there's a ton of security in the idea that we keep this up. Had we won those games, we'd be the talk of the league, and the potential comeback toward a division fight would feel a lot different than this sort of tenuous waiting for the other shoe to drop. Clearly, I still don't know what to make of this team, but they're showing some signs.

I'm not giving up on Westy. He's had a horrible run of luck, but hopefully he comes back and continues what was looking to be a stellar career.

 

[JO_75]

Should have always paid Manny over Chris Davis. Now we have to pay Chris Davis until like 2031 or 2032 lol. The AL Wild Card battle is going to be crazy the way it looks right now.

 

[drjohnnyfever]

I hate multiple run first innings. Today is going to be interesting with Gunnar getting plunked. I thought that was really misguided, but I would have preferred an Earl-like or Buck-like response about purposeful HBP's. I hope we don't retaliate today. If Gibson's was accidental, and it sure looked like it was, take the high ground and beat them with the gloves and bats today instead of target shooting for Manny or Tatis.

@JO_75 I was so upset when Davis got that deal because I knew then that they would never carry two giant contracts. That was also about the time that Trout and Bryce Harper were being talked about as the first potential $1B contracts. Manny was worth triple Davis' contract. From Baltimore Baseball.com, "The Orioles are still paying on that contract. Davis will receive $3.5 million annually from 2026-2032 and $1.4 million annually from 2033 to 2037."

 

[JO_75]

I hate multiple run first innings. Today is going to be interesting with Gunnar getting plunked. I thought that was really misguided, but I would have preferred an Earl-like or Buck-like response about purposeful HBP's. I hope we don't retaliate today. If Gibson's was accidental, and it sure looked like it was, take the high ground and beat them with the gloves and bats today instead of target shooting for Manny or Tatis.

@JO_75 I was so upset when Davis got that deal because I knew then that they would never carry two giant contracts. That was also about the time that Trout and Bryce Harper were being talked about as the first potential $1B contracts. Manny was worth triple Davis' contract. From Baltimore Baseball.com, "The Orioles are still paying on that contract. Davis will receive $3.5 million annually from 2026-2032 and $1.4 million annually from 2033 to 2037."

2037?!?! Jeez, what a terrible contract.

 

[JO_75]

Alright Orioles, get your act together. The Knicks won a championship after 53 years, the Carolina Hurricanes won The Stanley Cup after 20 years. You can win a World Series for the first time in 43 years damn it.

 

[ravenslord]

Alright Orioles, get your act together. The Knicks won a championship after 53 years, the Carolina Hurricanes won The Stanley Cup after 20 years. You can win a World Series for the first time in 43 years damn it.

This team as currently configured has no shot at winning a World Series . They are close though.

 

[JO_75]

Not going to lie, I kind of want this jersey.

 

[ravenslord]

The most disgusting , ridiculous , downright embarrassing loss to the Angels I’ve seen in years.
This team is going nowhere

 

[drjohnnyfever]

Alonso said the other day that the team has had some runs of bad luck and, "...can't get out of their own way sometimes." Lol. I said that back in April. Since then they have dropped at least six games that should have been W's. With six more games in the Win column we'd be at 44/38 playing .543 ball about 4 games out in the East, but 2nd WC with a couple game cushion.

They are not a good hitting team. In 35 games where they have scored 3 or fewer runs their record is 5-30. Scoring 4 or fewer isn't any better... over 39 games they're 6-33! You are not going anywhere when you can't win 3 and 4 run games. In those 6 losses that they gave away, it was bone-headed DEF errors that snowballed into multi-run innings. So to me it's pretty amazing that they are even in the hunt for the second WC at this point with poor DEF and an inability to win in low scoring games. 31-8 when they score 5+ runs...

They need to tighten up the DEF considerably. They need to start working counts instead of swinging freely in search of the 3-run homer. In searching for the 3-run homer they strike out at an alarming rate. Working the count and going with pitches for a hit and manufacturing some small ball runs gets them over the 4 runs/ game average. Right now they are at 4.66 runs/ game.

When they score under 5, they lose. Runs allowed/ game = 4.96 lol. Starting pitching is not going to improve much, but the bullpen can do better and the closer needs to close. Don't get me started on pitching. Throwing way too many down Broadway when they've pitched themselves into bad counts and suddenly we're down 2 with a HR and then 4 or 5 with another HR.

Can we make corrections? Haven't seen that they can. They still can't get a win streak of greater than 3 games. All of the above adjustments seem simple enough, yet we still look like the consistently below average team that our record indicates. In fact, I think we look worse than the record. That ain't good.

 

[ravenslord]

Alonso said the other day that the team has had some runs of bad luck and, "...can't get out of their own way sometimes." Lol. I said that back in April. Since then they have dropped at least six games that should have been W's. With six more games in the Win column we'd be at 44/38 playing .543 ball about 4 games out in the East, but 2nd WC with a couple game cushion.

They are not a good hitting team. In 35 games where they have scored 3 or fewer runs their record is 5-30. Scoring 4 or fewer isn't any better... over 39 games they're 6-33! You are not going anywhere when you can't win 3 and 4 run games. In those 6 losses that they gave away, it was bone-headed DEF errors that snowballed into multi-run innings. So to me it's pretty amazing that they are even in the hunt for the second WC at this point with poor DEF and an inability to win in low scoring games. 31-8 when they score 5+ runs...

They need to tighten up the DEF considerably. They need to start working counts instead of swinging freely in search of the 3-run homer. In searching for the 3-run homer they strike out at an alarming rate. Working the count and going with pitches for a hit and manufacturing some small ball runs gets them over the 4 runs/ game average. Right now they are at 4.66 runs/ game.

When they score under 5, they lose. Runs allowed/ game = 4.96 lol. Starting pitching is not going to improve much, but the bullpen can do better and the closer needs to close. Don't get me started on pitching. Throwing way too many down Broadway when they've pitched themselves into bad counts and suddenly we're down 2 with a HR and then 4 or 5 with another HR.

Can we make corrections? Haven't seen that they can. They still can't get a win streak of greater than 3 games. All of the above adjustments seem simple enough, yet we still look like the consistently below average team that our record indicates. In fact, I think we look worse than the record. That ain't good.

Yeah the defense is not very good but the bullpen pitching is what worries me the most.

 

[drjohnnyfever]

The high run games we've had, where it's been a blowout win, have really skewed the stats where is seems like we should be winning more game because of runs scored.

But @ravenslord , you're right. The DEF makes an error, often with two outs, giving teams bonus time and they capitalize on it. Also, the damn ball/strike challenge, when it goes against us where the error had us in a positive count reverses into a negative or neutral count and then our guys respond with a softball in the center of the plate... Brutal. I get, "Let the fielders earn their pay." philosophy of pitchers but you can't throw a ball in the middle of the plate when you need a strike. That's true for all levels our staff because they all do it, even the closer.

edit - btw, you can't wait until June/July to make adjustments on things you knew were problematic in April and May.

 

[JO_75]

The high run games we've had, where it's been a blowout win, have really skewed the stats where is seems like we should be winning more game because of runs scored.

But @ravenslord , you're right. The DEF makes an error, often with two outs, giving teams bonus time and they capitalize on it. Also, the damn ball/strike challenge, when it goes against us where the error had us in a positive count reverses into a negative or neutral count and then our guys respond with a softball in the center of the plate... Brutal. I get, "Let the fielders earn their pay." philosophy of pitchers but you can't throw a ball in the middle of the plate when you need a strike. That's true for all levels our staff because they all do it, even the closer.

edit - btw, you can't wait until June/July to make adjustments on things you knew were problematic in April and May.

Fine... just put Kyle Hamilton in center field, that will fix the Orioles issues.