Notes and Recap

The Orioles won tonight's game, a close match, with the final score being 3-2. Jake Arrieta had an impressive outing, only giving up one run, a homerun in the first inning to Jeff Franceour, his eighth of the season. Arrieta was able to get his game under control and held the Royals scoreless for six innings.

This was a big step for Arrieta, who has struggled some this season with control, not only did he show his full potential tonight, he squashed concerns about the soreness in his hip. One of the most impressive aspects of Arrieta's game was the eight strikeouts he recorded. Arrieta could potentially develop into an impressive #2 or #3 pitcher, and improving his K/9 ratio would only increase his value as a pitcher.

As for the bats, Roberts started off the game hot with a double, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Derek Lee. Nick Markakis finally broke out of a slump with a solo shot to give some cushion to the bullpen, which they needed. Kevin Gregg closed out the game successfully, that being said, I'm still slightly putting Gregg in in the 9th inning when the score is 3-2.

Chris Tillman should go tomorrow, I'm expecting a good game from Tillman, he should have regained his movement and some of his speed, so as long as he is provided some run support, we should see good results. I think the offense is primed for a rebound, especially with Markakis' homerun tonight, hopefully the leadoff spots will be back to packing a 1-2 punch.

Down on the farm, Manny Machado is tearing up the South Atlantic League, he leads the Delmarva Shorebirds in runs (20), homeruns (5), RBI (21), walks (18), OBP (.445), and slugging (.611). Pretty impressive for an eighteen year old kid right? Machado was named the Orioles' minor league player of the month and the SAL's player of the week. If Machado keeps his production at this pace, he should see a promotion to Frederick shortly, this kid obviously has a bright future ahead of him, and he probably won't be rushed through the system. Machado is performing so well, that he is overshadowing the impressive performances of some of his teammates, like Johnathan Schoop, who makes up the other side of the left infield. 

5/03 - Update

Yeah, I know its been a while since I've written anything, but its not like anyone ever reads this site anyway. Nonetheless, I wanted to give an update on how the season was going, in my opinion at least.

The season started off fast and furiously, with the Orioles winning their first four games in a row, including the season opener against Ray's ace David Price. The injury bug hit hard and early, with J.J. Hardy going on the 15 day DL with an oblique strain, joining Brian Matusz who went down with an intercostal strain.

While the season started with much hope, as you know, we hit a lengthy eight game losing streak; which was difficult to watch, but even more difficult to see Itzturis floundering at the plate with the bat.

However dark the night was, eventually the sun rose again, and the Orioles started to win. Since the end of the losing streak, the Orioles have gone 6-4, with the bullpen blowing at least one of those games. My recap is going to touch on some of the good things and bad things (there were lots), that I've seen since my last post.

The Good

1. The bats are swinging- The offense is by no means stellar, or to the point it should be, but they are making definite progress. They played an impressive game tonight against the White Sox in which they had a four run rally late in the game, which showed the ability to at least mount a rally. Roberts has hit quite well as of late and its encouraging to see Wieters develop more offensively, I think he may finally develop into the power threat catcher he was hyped up to be; or at least come close.

2. The Baby Birds- The young Orioles rotation has pitched quite well over this past stretch, the most impressive being Zach Britton. While Tillman certainly had his struggles, especially against the Yankees, he pitched well tonight, only allowing one run and walking two over five innings. There has been some concern over his drop in velocity, but he seems to have worked through the kinks in his mechanics, so hopefully he remains stable for the rest of the season. I could go on and on about Zach Britton, but I'll just say that this kid is one to watch, he's 5-1 so far... and he has yet to pitch in the month of May, not too shabby. Jake Arrieta has thrown pretty well in my opinion, after six starts he's 3-1 with 25 K's, his ERA and WHIP are both inflated, but given the proper run support, Arrieta has been a solid starter and still posessses alot of untapped talent.

3. Robert Andino- I know it seems like a menial point, but Andino has served as a pretty good fill-in for the injured Hardy, I still prefer Hardy, but Andino has come a long way from where he was at the beginning of Spring Training. He seems to be hitting fairly well, with a .343 BA over the past two weeks it will be interesting to see if he keeps that up. He's not much of a power hitter, with only two out of his twelve hits being extra base hits, but he does make solid contact, and with his solid BB/K ratio, he seems to get on base at least once per game. While his defense is nothing to write home about, his bat is far superior than the alternative (the worst hitter in baseball in 2010), and he is continually making improvements under the guidance of Buck Showalter.

The Bad

1. The Bullpen- I shouldn't have to say more here, Kevin Gregg and Michael Gonzalez have a habit of making any relief situation very scary, very fast. Sometimes they come through, Gonzalez had a nice outing Saturday, but he as a long way to go to make his salary worth-while, which isn't likely. Koji Uehara seems to be back to full strength, and it looks like most of his appearances will come in close situations where there isn't room for Kevin Gregg to give up a run.

2. Inconsistency- While the bats have been coming alive recently, and run production is up, it still tends to be inconsistent, which is a definite area of improvement.

3. Plate Discipline- This is an area that has improved since the losing skid, but there is still a fair amount of first pitch swinging, which usually results in an out, again small point, but room for improvement.

Well that was my update, from here on out, I will try to make my postings more frequent, let's hope the Orioles are prepared to face the Royals tonight in the first of a three game series!