It’s a 6 game losing streak and the O’s aren’t doing anything right.
The Orioles aren’t going to win 100 games, but losing games 5-4 or 4-3 is simply not acceptable with such a strong lineup. Five of the Orioles losses during the streak have been by 2 or less runs.
Image Courtesy of the Associated Press
When the rotation isn’t losing games for the O’s, they need to win. So if the current lineup isn’t cutting it then it’s time to shake things up.
The top third of the lineup is tearing up pitchers. Roberts, Jones, and Markakis are all hitting over .300. However, the Orioles have the worst lower third in all of baseball including national league teams where the pitcher bats.
Dave Trembley has tried to shake things up and light a fire under his players by getting thrown out of two games in the past week. But it hasn’t been enough.
Robert Andino is hitting .375, why not start him in the place of Cesar Izturis. Sure he doesn’t have nearly the amount of at bats Izturis has, but put him in there to change that lineup.
What about Zaun? He was brought in to fill the position before Matt Wieters arrives and was suppose to help manage a poor rotation. While Zaun is stopping a lot of balls he isn’t throwing many people out and his offense hasn’t been great either. Let’s put Chad Moeller in there, he’s hitting .259 and had a few big hits on Wednesday against the Angels.
Ty Wigginton has been another disappointment. I don’t want to give up on him. But there’s a guy named Nolan Reimold who is tearing Norfolk down. Wiggy is hitting .202 and Reimold is hitting .390 with 8 homeruns in AAA.
6 games is just too much, it’s time to shake things up in Baltimore.
Change for the sake of change is not the right move, in fact its possibly the worst thing you can do for all the people involved. It puts pressure on everyone that is not necessary. The players will earn their promotions and demotions on thier own. they brought up Montanez and Reimond is not far behind. But tough decisions needs to be made on Freel and Pie before both can be here at the same time. Pie is overmatched and out of options (gone by june 1). He has had over 500 MLB atbats… plenty of time to make an impact and cant hit a curve ball… Freel, for whatever reason, never found his groove but I think can be VERY useful for a team (probably released when he returns from DL). Be patient and realize what it means when you concede winning this year. We are building and its promising. losing by a run or two is actually a great sign for a building team. Just shows that at any moment, this can all turn around. But you can not force it..
Zahn’s bat has looked especially slow to me. I agree Chad Moeller may be our better option as the everyday catcher until Wieters becomes available.
Izturis might be acceptable if he were the exceptional defensive talent we thought he might be, while he is a solid mitt at short currently fielding at .969, his numbers would be far worse with his spaghetti arm without Huff making some solid digs at first. Is Andio a better option? Only one way to find out.
Wigginton probably would have seen far less action without Mora’s injury. I’m still figuring out where he fits on the O’s, if at all. Reimold is coming, no doubt about it, just when. Question one might ask, does he or Mora have the range to move to short so you can play them both each night?
Your 100% correct though, something has to be done about the final three slots in the lineup, just a question of what, and how soon they can get it all done.
I didn’t quite think we’d see the usual late summer swoon just one month into the season.
It’s hard to tell what to think after one month. The club is gearing up for 2010, but certainly we’d like to see them win more games. This weekend certainly the O’s had their share of winnable games. They could have won at least two of the games in Toronto with either pitching that can hold teams down or someone in the lineup other than the first three hitters to make a timely hit.
Going into the season, I fully expected to see the starting pitching struggle, but the bullpen was supposed to be a strength. When the starters hold teams to four runs or less the O’s should be able to win their share of those games. Lately , it just hasn’t happened. Hence the prolonged losing streak.
I agree with Mindpinball, the O’s should be winning games with their bullpen and lineup. So when they lose that way it’s that much more painful.
It’s understandable that this team is building for 2010, but let’s not pack it in for 2009. No, they aren’t a wild card team but if something isn’t working I say shake it up.
This is not the Red Sox lineup, so it won’t hurt to bench guys that are underperforming.