Looking Again At The Orioles Historic June

During the month of June, the Baltimore Orioles hit quite a lot of home runs. Hyun Soo Kim blasted the Orioles 56th home run of June on the last day of June to break the MLB record for most home runs in that month. Important side note: the Orioles have hit a home run on June 30th for 23 straight seasons (if you want to see the long ball, June 30th is a good bet). The previous record for a month was held by the 1996 Oakland As with 55 homers in June. This accomplishment is a validation of the amount of consistent power that is contained in the Baltimore lineup. A lineup that has the potential to break many records as the season progresses.

The team hit 5 homers of more than 450 feet in June
Jonathan Schoop 461
Pedro Alvarez 458
Mark Trumbo 456
Mark Trumbo 451
Adam Jones 450

Adam Jones' 11 June Home Runs were tied for the league lead. Jones also hit .314 in June!
During the last 15 games in June, Jonathan Schoop obliterated MLB pitching. He had a slash line of .419/.446/.742 during the stretch.
Those are just two of the Orioles and how they destroyed pitching last month. This type of stuff has been happening for the entire season. These guys are setting the world on fire and have the Orioles in 1st place despite terrible starting pitching.

This type of power supply was easy to see coming. Even when it comes to records, many fans were able to predict this. It seemed as if this offense had the potential to be historic, but we weren't sure how historic or how good the actual team would be.

Now, halfway through the year (I will use the 1st 81 games as a barometer for success since we just hit the midpoint on 7/3) the Orioles are on pace for even bigger and better things. The Orioles have hit 128 home runs through their 1st 81 games. Simply by multiplying by 2 you get that the Orioles are on pace for 256 for the season. The major league record was set by the Seattle Mariners at  264 in 1997. That number is still well within reach.

The Orioles aren't going to get to that 264 easily....MLB records are never easy to accomplish. However, they could certainly get there and I actually am expecting it to happen, but how?

This offense is special and I do not expect it to break up. Should JJ Hardy continue to get healthier, there is one outlet. Reimold getting more playing time against lefties is another. Pedro Alvarez usually finishes better than he starts. Caleb Joseph has more power than Pena and just returned from the disabled list. There are many ways to get there. The team was way behind pace as Machado and Trumbo carried the offense early on (with a hot at the time Joey Rickard). It is a doable thing for this team. They have several 30 home run candidates up and down this roster and it would not come as a huge shock. Look at the numbers halfway through the year on homers....

Mark Trumbo 24
Chris Davis 21
Manny Machado 18
Adam Jones 16
Jonathan Schoop 13
Pedro Alvarez 9
Matt Wieters 9
Joey Rickard 5
Nolan Reimold 4
Ryan Flaherty 3
Hyun So Kim 3
JJ Hardy 2
Francisco Pena 1
Caleb Joseph 0

Trumbo has turned into the deal of the offseason. Dan Duquette really took the Mariners to the cleaners on that trade. I liked Clevenger, but Trumbo is having an all-star season and as I said earlier helped carry the offense early on. His power is clear and with the protection in this lineup, those numbers could easily continue to sore. He is on pace for 48 home runs and it would be easy to see how he could eclipse even that number. While the club record of 53 seems far-fetched at this point, it still cannot be ruled out as a possibility.

Chris Davis got the big contract for this reason. He hits lots of homers consistently. It is likely Davis will be over the 40 HR mark again this season.

Manny Machado and Adam Jones have just shown consistent and awesome power. Each is a perennial 30 HR guy and will accomplish that again this year. Jones has really come on after a slow start once Buck moved him to the leadoff spot. I tweeted the Orioles Twitter account, after Jones made an awesome catch that was deemed #AllStarWorthy, that Jones didn't deserve the all-star game this year. I was referencing his poor start, but he has been fantastic since being thrust into the leadoff spot. Jones now has 16 homers as I mentioned and an incredible 51 RBIs. He is on pace to drive in 102 runs this season despite that awful start. Since switching to the leadoff spot, Jones has an OPS of .952! When you factor in Jones' leadership and his defense, then he actually is definitely #AllStarWorthy. Too bad this guy blew it and Jones had some fun with me on Twitter (you can follow me @norob87). I normally am much better than that, I promise! I just have a problem with voting for anybody because they are on your team and chose the wrong target!

Finally, the guys who can pick it up. Nolan Reimold will finish with double digit homers, so I expect him to more than double his output. This is especially true if he starts getting more ABs. Caleb Joseph will have a couple home runs, JJ Hardy will vastly improve his output and finish with double digits as well. This team is capable of the record!

Of course all of these numbers are far less important than the most critical detail....The Orioles are in 1st place. That is the most important stat that this team needs to continue.

-Noland