Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 31, 2005
Hand-icapping the Orioles

David Steele in the Baltimore Sun criticizes the Orioles for not getting more pitching early on:

Stop us if you've heard that before. If the Orioles do as expected and stand pat today, most of the criticism will be aimed at Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan for not doing anything now, for not getting A.J. Burnett or whoever might stop the bleeding. That criticism will be multiplied if the Red Sox or Yankees get Burnett or some other pitcher who makes the difference.

The anger will all be misguided. Be smart and train your fury at the fact that nothing was done before the season, that the group that made it out of spring training was sold as being good enough, that everybody was tricked by two months of glory.

That was fool's gold. To have thought that the pitching was going to hold up, and be good enough to keep them in the mix with the Red Sox and Yankees, was to have believed in Santa and the Easter Bunny.

I don't know if I agree with that. The Orioles offense should be good enough to win with a mediocre pitcher staff. When the offense went south, the pitching couldn't win. In general, it's a lot easier to fix offense than it is to fix a pitching staff. Even if they got Burnett, that only helps 1 out of five games.



Posted by David Pinto at 09:07 AM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

"The Orioles offense should be good enough to win with a mediocre pitcher staff."

Err... not really. They don't have anyone who can compare to the likes of A-Rod, Giambi (assuming he's back to "normal"), and Sheffield. Tejada and Lopez are probably their best hitters, yet you're lucky to get .900+ OPS out of them.

Posted by: Jason at August 1, 2005 09:56 AM
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