Tagged: Tommy Hunter

Sounds Crazy, But ……

….. but, actually the starting pitching for the Orioles has done more to win the 47 games the Orioles have garnered than have the relievers or the offense. More on that later, but first …

There is no doubt that the starting pitching tonight – in the form of Tommy Hunter – made the difference in the game. The only two runs the Orioles were able to score were on the massive first-inning homer by Adam Jones. It is a horrible situation for pitchers that they so often have to attempt to make slim leads stand for up to nine innings, but that is the horrible situation that is faced by this team. Hunter gave up but a solo home run to the Twins (who’ve looked like the Yankees the past two nights), keeping the ball in the park and scattering the remaining base hits.

Everyone knows that the offense for the Orioles is simply absent more nights than not. Along with the shoddy defense, it is actually the bigger problem than the pitching. Conventional wisdom also says that the Orioles bullpen in now struggling, having been overworked throughout the season. The bullpen statistics, up to recent days, have been among the best in the game.

Yet, when tracking what part of the team – offense, starting pitching, relief pitching, defense – contributed most significantly night to night toward either the wins or losses, the starting pitching has done the most toward team success. It has now passed the relief; the offense remains a big problem, followed closely by the defense.

For those who have followed my system of points allocation know that there are 3 points given either positively or negatively for each game – distributed among the starters, relievers, offense, and only occasionally the defense (when either critically contributing to a win or loss). For example, this last 2-1 win over the Twins credited the starters with 3 points for Hunter’s 7.1 excellent innings. I gave no credit to an offense that scored only 2 runs and relievers who allowed 4 runners in 1.2 innings.

Anyhow… here is a summary of my tracking of these numbers for the season:

 

Point Summary – after 91  games = 47-44

 

                        Credit             Blame             Differential

Starters            +60.0               -48.5                = (+11.5)

Relievers         +33.0               -27.0                = (+6.0)

Offense           +45.0               -49.5                = (-4.5)

Defense             +3.0                 -7.0                = (-4.0)

Total              +141                -132

Random Perspectives and Thoughts (and Fears?)

As I write this before the beginning of the Rangers doubleheader, I’m already grieving not being able to likely see much of the action apart from the latter portions of the 2nd game – too many other things going on today. Of course, if we get another long, extra innings game in the first one, I’ll be able to see more!

I’m struck by how long pain lasts!  With a Rangers doubleheader upon us today, I’m amazed at how many people recall an August 2007 twin-bill where the O’s were blasted 30-3 by the Texans. Yes, I remember the game; and I remember listening to it on the radio as I went from errand to errand that day, but I don’t remember it as part of a doubleheader.

Yes, pain lasts a long time. And we have had more than our fair share of it – in baseball terms. And that also leads to another observation – the pending sense of when the other shoe is going to drop and the season come crashing down. It only takes a couple of losses in a row for hurtful flashbacks to blaze across the psyche. Lighten up! We’re 19-11 when we were 14-16 last year.

Need a pick-me-up?  Here’s one — J.J. Hardy hit his first of 30 homers on this date one year ago today … and we feel like he has had a slow start! He has 7 homers at this moment.

So we definitely see some musical chairs going on with the pitching staff this week, not to mention the rest of the roster. I’m hoping that great win in Boston on Sunday was not one of those “win the battle, but lose the war” situations.

Yet there is some reason to be concerned. First, for tonight: The Birds are playing the Rangers and Chen is a fly ball pitcher and Hunter is the most HR-rocked pitcher around! And beyond tonight: Hammel’s knee is hurting, Matusz is not looking sufficiently reformed, and Arrieta got rocked on a full handful of pitches Tuesday evening.

Hopefully the Orioles can get through a number of weeks fairly intact and perhaps Britton can return along with Joel Pineiro. The latter of these is not extremely familiar to me, but if you look HERE you can see his stats. Check out 2009 – if only that could come back, we’d have something.

Here’s hoping for a good day!