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

Orioles Off-Season So Far...

We are right in the middle of football season and basketball season just started, so naturally, nobody is talking about Major League Baseball. There is good reason for people to not talk about baseball too much, but the Hot Stove is still an exciting time in the game. I believe it is interesting to follow player movement, but even I lose track sometimes in the offseason. Therefore, I decided to do the work for you and fill you in on what my team has done to this point.

Let's start with the Orioles and their major league free agents.
2B Alexi Casilla 30
OF Nelson Cruz 34 (Signed 4 year deal with Seattle)
C Nick Hundley 31
2B Kelly Johnson 32
OF Nick Markakis 31 (Signed 4 year deal with Atlanta)
RP Andrew Miller 29 (Signed 4 year deal with New York Y)
SP Johan Santana 35
SP Joe Saunders 33
OF Delmon Young 29

Out of all those players, I believed that Nick Markakis was the most likely to return.

He is a great clubhouse guy and the players on the team love him. Buck loves Markakis too and the Orioles wanted to keep him. The question is what price were the Orioles pay in order to retain Markakis. He is 31 years old, which is still in his prime, and he can still play. I honestly thought he was older because he has been in Baltimore so long. This is a guy that I really wanted the O's to keep because I felt he was underrated for this team. However, he of course didn't stay instead opting to sign with the Braves. Several national outlets seem to be trashing the move, including the one I posted, but I believe Markakis will be a steal for Atlanta.
The Orioles made a qualifying offer to Nelson Cruz and he turned it down.\Cruz is gone after signing a 4 year deal with Seattle. However, the Orioles get a 1st round compensation pick and I didn't really want Cruz last year, but was pleasantly surprised last season with his production. That being said he won't be worth the money he got over the entire term of the contract IMO.
Andrew Miller will be priced out of the Orioles range after an outstanding 2014 campaign. We will miss him, but he is going to make sick closer money elsewhere.
I personally would like to keep Joe Saunders and Delmon Young in the same roles they were in last year, but won't lose any sleep if they move on.
The other players are all expendable and it doesn't really matter if they stay or go. Although I could see one or more returning to Baltimore. Hundley may come back and be needed if Wieters isn't ready to go.
In addition to this list, Buck Britton was signed by the Dodgers.

Who the O's have added to the fold...
11/7 SS Ozzie Martinez (Minor League Deal)
11/18 LHP Frank Gailey (Minor League Deal)
11/18 RHP Oliver Drake
11/18 RHP Tim Gustafson (Minor League Deal)
11/19 3B Michael Almanzar (Minor League Deal)
11/19 RHP Mikey O'Brien (Minor League Deal)
11/19 RHP Kenn Kasparek (Minor League Deal)
11/19 LHP Chris Jones (Minor League Deal)
11/19 2B Derrick Gibson (Minor League Deal)
11/20 SS Paul Jarish (Minor League Deal)
11/20 RHP Terry Doyle (Minor League Deal)
11/20 Promoted RHPs Mike Wright and Tyler Wilson to 40 man roster
11/20 OF Alex Hassan (Waiver Claim via Oakland)
11/22 LHP Ronan Pacheco (Minor League Deal)
11/26 SS Rey Navarro
11/26 LHP Scott Barnes (Trade via Cleveland)
Barnes later claimed off waivers by Texas on 12/8
12/3 RHP Eddie Gamboa

12/8 IF Steve Lombardozzi outrighted to Norfolk
12/8 LHP Pat McCoy outrighted to Norfolk

One very intriguing story from this list is Eddie Gamboa. He became a knuckleballer a few years back while in this Orioles organization. This guy has never pitched in a major league game, but he was in spring training last year and he did become a free agent in the offseason. It seemed that the Orioles really wanted to keep Gamboa.
Other than that, it has been mostly minor league free agent signings that I honestly do not know a tremendous deal about, but these are good depth moves that have worked for Duquette since he has arrived in Baltimore. One of these signings included Michael Almanzar who was last year's rule 5 pick that this organization loves. Getting him on a minor league deal has to be seen as a coup.
Speaking of the Rule 5 draft, Wright and Wilson had to be added to the 40 man to not be selected in that Rule 5 draft. Either one would have been taken by some other team if they were available.

There is still a lot of work to do and the Rumor Mill is churning. Do not be discouraged by the lack of early mega news. Things happen very quickly.
The Orioles have been tied to Torii Hunter and Matt Kemp among others. As a fan, I would certainly love either one of those guys in black and orange. However, that is impossible on at least one of them. That is because Torii Hunter is headed back to Minnesota.

Honestly the only thing that has me worried about this offseason is the report of Duquette being offered the job as Toronto's president. If he truly wants that position it could be a major issue for the Orioles whether they can prevent him from taking it or not. Eventually if he really wants it he can force his way into the position and it could get ugly. I hope that nothing happens on this front and that he isn't interested in leaving Baltimore. We will see what happens on this front.

If you want more daily information on the Orioles offseason, you should be following Roch Kubatko and Steve Melewski over on MASN. Both can be followed on Twitter as well.
Here's to the O's making some smart moves!

-Noland

A Season To Remember

The Baltimore Orioles just had what I consider the most amazing season I have witnessed in baseball. I say that as an Orioles fan that was born and raised to love this team. This team that I love was the first sports team I ever liked. These guys have let me down more times than I can remember, but recently they have been great. The 2014 Orioles have advanced as far as any Oriole team has advanced in my lifetime. It is important though to think about what really happened this year in Baltimore to truly let it sink in.

During the off-season, everybody was trashing the Orioles lack of "big" moves from the fans to the media. Nobody had nice things to say about little pickups like Delmon Young. Fitting that it was Young who had the biggest hit in the ALDS that helped send Baltimore to the ALCS. Everybody was trashing the birds and not backing them though it seemed at the time. After that, almost every national media outlet picked Baltimore to finish 4th or 5th. Then the actual season came....
The season was filled with injury after injury, starting with Manny Machado beginning the season on the DL. Later in the year after the long road back, Machado would be lost again to season ending surgery. More injuries would occur including the big blow of Matt Wieters. This guy was having his best season as a pro (it was so good he was voted an all-star starter despite playing less than 2 months). Wieters (the team's most irreplaceable player according to pretty much everybody) would be lost for the season. Everyone expected the O's to fold, but they did not. This team kept pushing through. They pushed through despite Chris Davis having a major drop in production. Davis would end up serving a 25 game suspension for testing positive for adderol (he still has one game on the suspension) at the end of the season. This would cause him to miss the entire postseason. While he was having an off year, there is no doubt that the big bat would have been nice to have for the postseason power outage.

No matter what kind of obstacles were thrown at them though, the Orioles pushed through each and every one. If you had told me that Manny Machado would be hurt twice, Wieters would be lost early, and Davis would have that season, I would have thought the season would be a disaster. It was not anything close to a disaster though. These Orioles won the AL East by a landslide while recording 96 wins. That win total with this kind of attrition is incredible. They made it as far as I have ever seen the O's advance, by advancing to the ALCS. They made their fans proud. They preservered. It was an incredible thing to watch.

Thanks and congratulations are in order for this kind of season. It must start with Buck Showalter. He absolutely should be manager of the year and I am glad he is on our side. Twice he has gotten teams close to a World Series only to see them win after he is gone. In Baltimore, we will see him through and he will win it with us. This team and these fans appreciate what he has done for the Oriole faithful. Buck has restored the Oriole Way and given us hope. Dan Duquette for managing late additions so well also deserves some praise. The guy picked up Andrew Miller and Alejandro De Aza very late in the year and each was a fantastic move. Picking up Hundley when he did also helped bridge the gap left by Wieters' absence. We missed Matt Wieters, but not as much as you would think because of Duquette and Showalter. This is a duo that is much appreciated in Baltimore.

Finally, there is the players that deserve the credit. Here I go mostly with 2110, although everyone contributed to the Oriole Magic.

Those two outfielders though are incredible. I will start with Nick Markakis. I am glad this guy got to experience the postseason as an Oriole as I fear his time with the team could well have reached its end. He was on some bad Orioles teams and deserved to be on a good one healthy. This guy was just what he always was, he was consistent. Markakis was the consistent force on the team that you could ALWAYS count on. He was the rock. This guy is one the team and fans looked too and knew they could count on. He has done so much for the Orioles and for Baltimore and this season was no different. Much appreciation to Nicky!

Then comes Adam Jones. He is not officially the captain of the Orioles, but he may as well be. This guy is the vocal leader and the best player on the team. He is consistently good and just awesome at what he does. Jones throws well, hits well, hits for power, and has a terrific glove in centerfield. The torch has been passed from Markakis to Jones. Adam Jones is the heart and soul of the Baltimore Orioles and he proved it this year. With all due respect to Nelson Cruz and the season he had, the Baltimore Media was flat wrong about Most Valuable Oriole. There is absolutely no doubt that the honor belongs to Adam Jones. Everybody should know that he is the best player Baltimore has after this season, and they should notice that he is one of the most likable in all of baseball. What I like the most is that he will be an Oriole at least through 2018 and it seems that Buck will be too.
#IBackTheBirds
#StayHungry

-Noland

My Thoughts on the Nelson Cruz Signing

As a Christian man, I want everyone to move on from their mistakes and do the best they can with their current situations. As a Baltimore Oriole fan, I want what is best for the baseball team. As a father and a coach, I want those that cheat to be treated as such to set an example for the youth. As an American, I want anyone who cheats to be dealt with appropriately, but I also think people should get a new chance. So how do I possibly treat the signing of a drug user by one of my favorite teams?

There is no simple answer because it is not a simple question. I am not happy with the signing of Nelson Cruz by the Baltimore Orioles. The way I see it, Cruz is a known cheater and there is no way to verify when and for how long he cheated. My hope is that it was a one-time deal and he regrets his mistakes. My fear is that he reached that level of performance solely by performance enhancing drugs and he just robbed my favorite professional sports team. My belief is that the Nelson Cruz lies somewhere in between those two levels and that can be ok.

Cruz has been a really good baseball player for his career. Every year he puts up all-star type numbers at the plate. However, he took steroids and nobody really knows for how long and what affect they had. In my opinion, you don't give that kind of money to a 30+ yr old former drug user, who doesn't field well. Unfortunately though I do not run the Orioles. Good thing for me is that they are in capable hands. Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter are great baseball minds. While I personally disagree with this use of funds, it likely will end well because of the track record recently. These guys have brought in quality players and changed the outlook for this organization.

The Cruz signing is not something I am happy with. However, it was 8 million and is a bargain if he can keep his production. While I do not have to agree with everything they do (and don't in this circumstance) I do believe in the Orioles brain trust. Things are looking promising in 2014 in birdland. Even if this goes south with Cruz though, we got Ubaldo! Go O's!

-Noland

One Oriole I Will Always Love

Following a sports team for so long as I have with the Baltimore Orioles you realize players change teams frequently. You also realize that you have to be careful which players you root for. Players come and go, and some do things that make you embarrassed to admit you rooted for them (I'm looking at you Raffy). However, there is one Oriole, well now former Oriole that I will always hold in high regard. That man is Robert Andino.

Look at that smile. How could you not love the guy? He is just so infectious. He is a happy and inviting athlete in an era of self-centered egomaniacs. He is excited to play the game and doesn't act like a victim. He gave you everything he had night in and night out. He was a team guy and we as Orioles fans loved the guy for it. Most of all he was happy to be a Baltimore Oriole and made others happy to be Orioles too.

All of this made me love him. I am not the only one either. Robert Andino, his smile and the way he played the game made him my wife's favorite player. She thought he was just such a friendly guy and she loved the way he approached the game. Both of us thought Andino was a breath of fresh air on this team. My son even smiled when Andino and Davis came to bat in the playoffs. I mean people notice how he carried himself. Everyone noticed even the youngest amoung us. Andino was a gamer and a true Oriole.

I will continue to root for Robert Andino as he moves on to Seattle. I hope that he is incredibly successful with the Mariners for the impact that he had on my team. He is the ultimate Oriole and we will always appreciate him. We will never forget how he knocked the Red Sox out of the playoff picture in 2011. That single and the fire he brought to that game sparked the Oriole turnaround. That moment set the tone to the entire 2012 playoff run. It is absolutely about how you finish and Robert Andino helped us finish 2011 on an incredibly high note. He helped end 14 years of intimidation in the AL East. 14 years of backing down and giving up ended there. Ended because of Robert Andino. Thank you to him for that. I for one will never forget.

It is not all doom and gloom with this move. With the addition of Alexi Casilla and with Brian Roberts working his way back it means there was less room for Andino. Add to that the fact that the 2nd baseman of the future (Shoop) might be ready next year, we knew that Andino might be leaving, but it doesn't make it less sad. That being said, we needed a backup outfielder, we needed defense, and we needed speed. Trayvon Robinson can be our 4th outfielder, he has speed, and he can play solid defense. The guy we got could be good. Dan Duquette has not failed us yet with any moves and I am excited to have Trayvon aboard. I will miss that Andino guy though as excited as I am for some speed.

The stuck out tongue has got a long way to go before it measure up to the smile though. Robinson has some big shoes to fill. He is a guy that we hope can fill the void. If the only games Robinson misses are to see the birth of his son and be present for his kids like Andino, I will be incredibly happy. However, I get the feeling that Robert Andino is a rare baseball player. He is a rare athlete and a rare person.
All the best to you Mr. Andino. Thanks for the memories and thanks for changing the losing culture. We will always have that game against Boston.

-Noland

Orioles Beat Down the Red Sox

The Orioles made the Red Sox look like a bunch of chumps last night. Well, the Red Sox are a bunch of chumps, so it had to happen, but it was nice to see anyways. There is no team I love to see my Orioles destroy more than the Boston Red Sox. That Red Sox nation is the most annoying nonsense in sports. Time for that to be nipped right about now. The final score was 7-1. That is a beatdown. Good pitching, good hitting, good everything.

The offensive charge was led by.....Mark Reynolds. Wait, is that right? I am still in disbelief. Reynolds seemed to have found his power stroke last night. If he can start doing this kind of thing about once a week, we are going to be tough to beat. I really hope he found his stroke. Reynolds hit 2 home runs last night. The two bombs brought Reynolds total up to 11 for the season. He is over 30 most seasons, so to get to that number he has to get incredibly hot. This certainly is a good start with two homers in one night though. The Orioles needed those homers as they helped the O's stay atop the wild card standings. In fact, Baltimore is tied with Tampa Bay atop the wild card standings now. No more being the second wild card. They are 6 games behind the Yankees, who they hope to catch by the end of the season.

Another big bat came from the unexpected source a couple weeks ago, but expected now. That's right, Omar Quintanilla hit another massive homer onto Eutaw Street. On the bounce, it actually hit the warehouse. This guy is a playmaker! It was Quintanilla's 3rd Oriole home run already. This guy is a keeper. DD picked him up for scraps. Great pickup DD!

Chris Davis was also 2-3 with an RBI and Matt Wieters had an RBI. These guys provided the rest of the offense, past Reynolds and Quintanilla.

The pitching staff was again terriffic. Last night's starter was the great Wei Yin Chen. Chen made a quality start and looked impressive in the process. 6 innings with only one run given up. Very impressive from Chen. This guy certainly looks to be our #1 starter in the postseason if we finish this thing and make it.

Darren O'Day was especially impressive today and continues to show how valuable he is. Not only did he extend his scoreless innings streak and look impressive, but he was absolutely dominant. O'Day struck out 3 in his innings. 3 outs all strikeouts. That is quite impressive out of the pen. O'Day now has an ERA of 2.45. This guy may be the most underrated player on the team. He has just been lights out lately. As a fan personally, I love the sidearm action. Chad Bradford was my favorite bullpen arm when he is here and O'Day is my favorite outside the big 2.

The big 2 didn't pitch yesterday, but another Duquette acquistion did. Matt Lindstrom pitched a scoreless 9th and lowered his ERA to 2.43. That Guthrie trade is looking better everyday.

JC Romero made his Oriole debut last night as well. He gave up one hit and no runs in 1 innings to finish with an ERA of 0.00. I wonder how long it will stay there. Very solid debut for Romero. Romero was brought in because Troy Patton had to go to the DL. Steve Johnson was also recalled in place of Miguel Socolovich. No word yet on when Johnson's next start will be.

-Noland

Hammel Throws 1 Hitter Against Braves

Can the Orioles move to the National League? After destroying the Pirates in a sweep and running the NL starter with the best ERA out of the game yesterday I think it may be the way to go. Oh ya and Jason Hammel went through the Braves lineup like it was nothing.

Jason Hammel threw a complete game 1 hit shutout. Amazing. Before I go on, I need to give Dan Duquette mad props on the trade that brought in Hammel. I was not a believer in this trade at first, because I loved Guthrie, but man was it brilliant. We got two stud pitchers for a pitcher that is struggling currently. Great job Duquette. During the spectacular performance, Hammel had 8 strikeouts and lowered his ERA to 2.87. He is now 7-2 and that performance may have earned him an all-star spot. It sure will be exciting to see the Orioles with multiple all-stars this season.

While Hammel was the big star he wasn't the only star. The bats were working too as the Orioles won 5-0. It was a bit of an overreach to say the Orioles ran Beachy out of the game, because he was hurt. However, they did get a run off of him and raise his ERA to 2.00. Following Beachy's removal, the O's made the Braves bullpen look horrible. The offense was lead by somebody you might not expect either. The new and improved Brian Roberts went 2-4 with 3 RBIs. An awesome effort from Brian who raised his batting average to .318. If BROB is hitting like that, this team is going to be difficult to stop. Steve Pearce was also 2-4 in the win.

Feel free to check out my new superhero blog I am starting in a couple minutes. The site should be up and running within the hour. It can be found at superheroscoop.blogspot.com.

-Noland

Orioles Shut Out Blue Jays

Nolan Reimold was out of the game again, but it did not matter as the Orioles beat the Blue Jays to move to 11-7 on the year. Jason Hammel was again impressive and I think I have come around. It appears that Duquette knew what he was doing. The guy has pitched well. Hammel went seven strong and lowered his ERA to 1.73 in his impressive outing. Lindstrom (the other guy in the Guthrie deal) was next and continued the shutout. The power throwing righty reliever has 0 earned runs this season.

It was all closed down by Pedro Strop yet again. The other power throwing righty looked impressive in Johnson's spot once again. Whether Johnson gets back soon will be an interesting answer. At least we got Strop as backup though. Strop is lights out. Always remember we got him for Mike Gonzalez.

How about the hitters? Adam Jones continued his solid season by hitting a double and he is currently batting .306. Mark Reynolds got 2 hits and hopefully is breaking out of his slump. More importantly though, Chris Davis hit a bomb and is now hitting .286. Wilson Betemit was at 3B tonight and also hit a home run. Each home run was that player's second on the season. The Orioles continue to mash the ball.

-Noland