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Tag Archives: Orioles
The MVP of Yesterday (April 5, 2013): Chris Davis
The MVP of Yesterday- and a good leader for MVP of the whole first week of play- is Chris Davis of the Orioles, who’s 8th inning grand slam put the O’s ahead for good against the Minnesota Twins. His 4th HR of the season (one in each game, becoming only the fourth player in history to have a home run in the first four games of the season), it also provided four of five RBIs on the day, bringing his season total to 16- the highest number of RBIs this early in the season since the stat became official in 1920. He is the first player to hit a homer and drive in at least three runs in four straight games – at any point in the season – since Bill Dickey in 1937 (source).
So, while perhaps they may have been players who hit more HRs yesterday, or who pitche extremely d well, it’s hard to to argue with Chris Davis.
Honorable Mentions: Prince Fielder, Todd Frazier, Zach Cozart, Barry Zito, Zack Greinke
Go below the jump for the MVP Standings:
Images of 2012: Oriole Magic
Despite claims to the contrary, the Baltimore Orioles continued to win. And win. And win. Making the playoffs for the first time since 1997, defeating the favored Texas Rangers in the Wild Card Game and then going the distance against the New York Yankees before finally falling in the fifth game.
The Orioles had a habit for the dramatic, with close victories and walk-off wins, like the one below from September 12. That’s Nate McLouth getting lifted in the air.
(Image by Keith Allison, used under a Creative Commons license)
The Joy, Misery and Oddity of the Late-Night Baseball Game
I, like many Americans, live in the Eastern Time Zone of the country. Games in the east start at seven, give or take. Central games start up at eight. The west coast games get started at ten. While I usually fall asleep by the time the West is done, I’m sometimes able to stay up through all of it if I want to see the game.
Last night was not a night where I was able to, even though I was interested in what would happen with the Orioles-Mariners game. I couldn’t do it though, I fell asleep. Sweet, sweet… sleep.
Until about 2:45 this morning, when my dog woke me up. And so, as I let the sleepless canine out to go to the bathroom, I turned on SportsCenter to find out what had happened in the Orioles-Mariners game… only to find out that it was still going on, heading into what I like to call “deep extras.” “Deep extras” is my term for any extra inning game that goes past 12 innings, at which point the bullpens are starting to become completely and utterly depleted and you start half-hoping the game would just end but also oddly wish it never will. It’s sort of the baseball version of Stockholm Syndrome. I decided I’d keep watching… but quickly fell back to sleep.
Thankfully (or not), I was awoken by the dog- again- around 3:30. Maybe 3:45. As I sat downstairs waiting for the dog to finish his business, I turned on the game, expecting that the MLB Extra Innings would declare “HAVE A NICE NIGHT!” to indicate the game was over. But, nope, it was still going, and not only that, but the Orioles had taken the lead. By the time the dog was back in, the Orioles had won, 4-2, to pull even with the Yankees for the AL East title for a time.
It was, for lack of a word, surreal. And that’s the thing about late-night baseball games: there is the joy at the fact that there is baseball on, there is misery due to the fact you are up way too late… and it’s just odd when a game goes 18 innings, no matter when it started.
The Spoilers
The resurrection of the Baltimore Orioles, it could be said, began last September. Buck Showalter had said early on that he would be playing his regulars in games against contenders, while using the September call-ups in the games against also-rans.
By comparison, the Yankees, who had stitched up the division by the final series against the Wild Card contending Tampa Bay Rays, decided to send in the call-ups.
So, it was a study in contrasts. When Boston arrived for the series that would decide their season’s fate, they ran into a team with Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, and a mindset that essentially said “This is our World Series.” The Rays, meanwhile, were basically facing a Yankees team that was playing Spring Training baseball.
And so as we barrel through September with several races still close, the question becomes: will the potential spoilers this year be like the Orioles, or like the Yankees?
(jump)
Random Video of the Undetermined Amount of Time: The Start of the 1983 World Series
On Youtube, you can find almost anything. For example, the start of the 1983 World Series between the Orioles and Phillies, Live (back then) from Memorial Stadium. ABC had the game, and had Al Michaels, Howard Cosell and Earl Weaver in the booth. It’s a little cut up (we only catch the end of a interview with a young Cal Ripken, and they don’t have the National Anthem), but it still is neat.
It’s interesting to me to see how this is different from how the World Series is broadcast these days, partially due to technology, as well as just some general differences and observations:
- The graphics are extremely low tech, popping up very quickly in yellow and white to tell us that we are looking at “Claude Osteen, Pitching Coach”. Oh, but the managers? Their names flash in a strobe of technicolors, which no doubt gave some people seizures back in the day.
- And we see the entire teams getting announced before pre-game, like it was the All-Star Game. I vaguely remember that this was done at least earlier in my lifetime, but I can’t remember FOX ever doing it.
- All of the guys in the booth have bright gold-yellow jackets, as back then apparently network announcers had to have coordinated uniforms, much like the people on the field.
- Oh, and one of the biggest differences between now and then: Nowadays, that players wouldn’t so clearly and openly be using chewing tobacco (check their cheeks). Oh, they are still using it, but not as many.
- Orioles fans remembered Kiko Garcia.
- I like how the Phillies brought the Phanatic along on the road. I don’t seem to recall them doing that during their more recent World Series appearances.
- Joe Morgan, Pete Rose and Mike Schmidt were the first three in the starting lineup for the Phillies. They’d also make a good first three guy in the lineup for a 1970s National League All-Star Team. Sadly for the Phillies, it was 1983 and the two members of the Big Red Machine were on the downside of their careers. Also, apologies to Sixto Lezcano, but I honestly have to say I had to look that name up on Baseball Reference.
- Trivia factoid: Jim Palmer is the only man to win a World Series game in three different decades.
- Ballplayers in the 1980s had way more awesome hair. Behold the impressive Afro of Eddie Murray when he tips his hat to the crowd.
- Notice how Scott McGregor is said to be in the “ninth position” of the lineup. This is because, from 1976 to 1985, the DH was in effect FOR ALL GAMES REGARDLESS OF VENUE in even years for the World Series, but not odd years. And that, in my opinion, is a weird and often forgotten fact.
Updates on previous posts
Let’s look back at developments from some previous posts….
- Jeff Kent, rumored to be appearing on Survivor, will, indeed, appear on Survivor.
- The Orioles still are not dead.
- The stuff that has never happened still has not happened.
- The Franchise‘s 2012 season will not be going the previously planned eight episodes, since the Marlins are losing so much.
- The Palace Hotel Putsch has been revealed to maybe/possibly been actually put together by Kelly Shoppach, who, it should be noted, is now with the Mets (but he was with the Red Sox at the time). Apparently Shoppach used Adrian Gonzalez’s cell-phone, or something.
- Ben Sheets and the Oakland Athletics continue to do well.
Oh, and the Cubs still stink, so the world isn’t ending.
How long can the Orioles keep this up?
The Orioles won again last night. In 15 innings, they defeated the Royals, rallying in the 9th to tie the game and then taking the lead for good with a Adam Jones homer in the top of the 15th. With the victory, the Orioles kept pace with the Tampa Bay Rays (who they are tied with), and extended their lead over the Yankees, who are now 3.5 games back. So we must ask: how are they doing this, and can they keep this up?
Maybe it’s the return of the classic logo…
One thing that really is standing out with the 2012 Orioles is how well the no-name pitchers are doing. Most of the All-Stars the Orioles have had since the retirement of Cal Ripken have generally been hitters: Miguel Tejada, Melvin Mora, Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, etc. The only exceptions have been B.J. Ryan in 2005 (who flamed out after a few years in Toronto in the late aughts) and George Sherrill in 2008 (he now pitches for the Mariners), although Erik Bedard (who was slyly traded for Jones, Sherrill and others in 2009) could probably have been said to have been snubbed on at least one occasion. That likely will remain true this year: the Orioles will probably see Wieters (who should probably start) and Adam Jones make the All-Star Game this year if they keep it up. But it will be ignoring the no-name pitchers that are keeping them in the race this late in the season.
Take their bullpen. It is spectacular, and I, like most people, can’t name a single one of them without looking it up. Even I, who prides myself on trying to be at least vaguely familiar with everybody in baseball, is just that with the Orioles: vaguely familiar. I recognize the names when I see them, but if I were vacationing down in Maryland and ran into one of them in the Inner Harbor, I wouldn’t be saying “Oh, you’re Jim Johnson!” I would probably instead say: “Look where you’re going!”
And yet, Johnson is having a brilliant year. He has a 0.51 ERA and he leads the league in saves. And the rest of the bullpen has been doing great:
-Pedro Strop, who had been given to the Orioles as a player-to-be-named-later from the Rangers, has a 1.29 ERA in 21 innings.
-Veteran reliever Luis Ayala is the holder of 1.86 ERA and, along with Johnson, Strop and Darren O’Day, is one of four O’s pitchers with WHIPs (Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched) under one.
-Speaking of O’Day, he has the lowest WHIP of anybody in the Baltimore ‘pen: 0.873. Like Strop, he’s a cast-off from the Rangers: the Orioles picked him up off of waivers.
By comparison, the Baltimore rotation hasn’t been as good, especially at the top. Tommy Hunter (another Texas cast-off, arriving to Baltimore along with the immortal Chris Davis last season in exchange for Koji Uehara) is 2-2 with a 4.78 ERA. Jake Arrieta, arguably the best homegrown starter in the rotation, has also struggled, with a 5.21 ERA and a 2-4 W-L record. It leads one to wonder why Buck Showalter hasn’t promoted the two success stories in the rotation up a bit. Taiwanese import (via Japan) Wei-Yin Chen has yet to lose a game, and has a 2.45 ERA. Jason Hammel, a serviceable-but-unremarkable starter the last few years, is 4-1 with a 2.68 ERA.
In my eyes, the only chance the Orioles have of staying in the race in the long run is having the pitching hold up. This seems obvious, but it is true. No matter how well the Orioles hit, they cannot survive the apocalyptic struggle that is the AL East without pitching that can silence the Rays, Yankees, Blue Jays and Red Sox.
Whether they can is up for debate. Chen, for example, is still new to the majors, so it’s possible that the hitters just might not be used to facing him yet. Eventually, they will figure him out, and then, like every other pitcher, Chen will have to make more adjustments.
But if the Orioles keep this up- unlike so many of the previous years where they have teased the world with hot starts- the people who may need to adjust are the rest of the AL East, which somehow now finds itself even stronger.
Texas + Baltimore= Wackiness
On May 10, 1972, the Texas Rangers (formerly the Washington Senators) faced the Baltimore Orioles for the first time. The game was a tight pitching duel between Dave McNally and Pete Broberg, who both went the distance. In a strange circumstance, the Orioles would win when, in the bottom of the ninth, Merv Rettenmund would score on a error by Rangers’ catcher Ken Suarez. In other words, not a single earned run was scored in the 1-0 Orioles victory.
This set the tone for the future of the two most bizarrely matched teams in baseball. When the Red Sox and Yankees face off, the games go forever. When the Orioles and Rangers face each other, games go to the Twilight Zone. So after that first game, where no earned runs were scored, here are some notable occurrences since then:
- Later that season, on June 9, Toby Harrah of the Rangers got Paul Blair out by using the hidden ball trick.
- On June 10, 1979, Billy Sample of the Rangers lined into a 5-4-3 triple play in Baltimore.
- May 6, 1984: Cal Ripken Jr. hit for the cycle in Arlington.
- On August 22, 1993, Rangers CF Butch Davis hit the first inside-the-park HR in Camden Yards history.
- On April 19, 1996, the Rangers beat down the Orioles 26-7. This is not the most lopsided score in the history of the matchup, as you will see.
- July 19, 2001: The second game of a doubleheader between the Orioles and Rangers is postponed due to a chemical spill in Baltimore.
- July 7, 2007. Erik Bedard ties Orioles’ record for strikeouts (15) against, you guessed it, the Texas Rangers.
- 2007. This game. Seriously, just look at the box score, I don’t have anything else to say.
- On April 15, 2009, Ian Kinsler had six hits in a game against Baltimore.
- And the grand series we just had, which had Josh Hamilton’s big night, the Orioles going back-to-back-to-back to start a game, Colby Lewis becoming the first player ever to have 10 or more strikeouts and give up five homers… and so on…
Interestingly enough, the weirdness magnet that is Texas-Baltimore did not start when the Rangers moved their from DC. On Sept. 12, 1962, Senators pitcher Tom Cheney went 16 innings and had a record 21 strikeouts.
Know of any other weird Texas-Baltimore games? Let me know.
Great Predictions in History: Kiko Garcia will be the Orioles’ shortstop of the future (in 1980)
Google Books has lots of old Baseball Digest issues available. It is interesting to see how previous generations thought. And, so often, it is fun to see how wrong they were. Take this headline from March, 1980.
Kiko Garcia had an okay career and was able to stick around baseball for parts of 10 seasons, but ultimately he ended his career with a middling .239 BA, .286 OBP and .323 SLG. He had a total of 12 career home runs.
Funnily enough, at the time this was published in Baseball Digest, there was a third baseman in Orioles camp who, just the year before had hit a respectable .286 between Miami and Charlotte. He was headed towards a breakout 1980 season, where he’d hit .276/.367/.492 and hit 25 home runs. The year after that, he was in Rochester. And the year after that, he was Rookie of the Year in Baltimore… as a shortstop. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. He was Cal Ripken Jr.
Kiko Garcia, by the way, was sent to Houston in 1981 and never played in more than 100 games again.
The Baseball Continuum 