Guest Post by Matt Sroka of Section336.com.
Yet again the Baltimore Orioles fail to pick up the sweep and yet again Pedro Strop struggles to locate his pitches (not to mention his throws to second). Well on the bright side, Strop gives fans something to talk about. Fans are inherently and irrevocably pessimistic. Just turn on a local sports talk radio show and you willhear caller after caller criticize their team. It doesn’t matter if their team is last in their division or if they just won the Super Bowl, fans will always find something to criticize. Fortunately, the Baltimore Orioles are making it very difficult for their fans to do what their best at.
Listed below are some of the major criticisms that Oriole fans have had and how the Orioles have responded to these criticisms.
Before The Season Started
Criticism: Chris Davis can’t play first.
Answer: Chris Davis has a respectable fielding percentage of .995 (the exact percentage that Mark Reynolds had at first base last year and a better fielding percentage than Reynolds has this year.)
Criticism: The Orioles don’t have a legit homerun/RBI machine in the middle of their lineup.
Answer: Chris “The Hulk” Davis leads the league in homeruns, slugging percentage and RBI. Yeah, I’d call that a legit middle of the lineup power hitter.
Early In The Season
Criticism: Some fans questioned whether or not the Orioles bullpen could repeat what they did last year, and after Tommy “Big Fly” Hunter gave up a couple home runs in the early part of season, even more people embraced these bullpen concerns.
Answer: Oriole relievers are pitching to a stellar ERA of 2.34, best in the AL. Not to mention Tommy “Big Game” Hunter has a respectable 2.53 ERA.
Criticism: The Orioles have terrible DHs.
Answer: After a rough start, Steve Pearce has hit the ball well recently batting .357 in his last four games. Reimold, meanwhile,has shown flashes of his power, but we are still waiting for him to get into one of his hot streaks.
More Recently
Criticism: Our pitchers can’t go deep in games.
Reality: Not that this is a major concern when you have a dominant bullpen, but just to answer these criticisms, on Saturday, Wei-Yin Chen went 8 innings.
Okay, so the Baltimore Orioles have had an answer for almost every criticism thrown at them so far, but don’t worry O’s fans, the Orioles can’t win every game and when they lose the fans will be there to give a reason.
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