I wonder how a baseball team, after the drubbing suffered in two games yesterday, comes out of the locker room facing another game against the same team that obliterated them. I really don't know. I wonder if new Orioles first baseman Chris Davis saw highlights and stats in airports or something and asked himself, "What kind of messed up situation am I getting into?" I wonder if Derrek Lee will suddenly turn into a .300/.400/.500 hitter with the Pirates.
Yesterday was pretty much terrible. It was soul-crushing. It felt like one of the worst days in my lifetime of Orioles fandom. The worst part, though, is there is absolutely nothing to keep it from getting worse than this. Why is the young pitching getting lit up? Why do we mostly get shut down offensively by a parade of scrubs? I have no answers to these questions, and it seems nobody with the team does either.
Freddy Garcia is the Yankees starter today. He had the status of scrub in the offseason and now he's thrown 111.1 IP with a 3.23 ERA. He signed a minor league contract. So did Bartolo Colon. The Orioles - any team, really - probably could have given either of these guys a major league contract and they would have signed here, there or anywhere. But why would you give contracts to these washed up old guys? Well, we even specialize in signing old guys. I guess maybe the Orioles don't want the washed up guys unless they are asking for at least $4 million though. But no. They are Yankees instead. The two of them constitute a little more than 1% of the payroll.
Starting for the Orioles is Jake Arrieta. He is the team leader in wins and also has an ERA over 5. This is a remarkable fluke. Orioles starters have an ERA of 5.14. Arrieta has an ERA of 5.12. It is really an astounding level of failure. I wonder what even an average pitching staff would be like. Not even great, just average - say maybe a staff ERA of 3.91 instead of 4.91. Lopping off a run per game would leave the O's with something like a -24 run differential, so, probably still below .500, but at least more respectable mediocrity, rather than the embarrassing mobius loop of failure on which the team is currently stuck. Maybe that would mean the young pitching was actually developing instead of regressing. Wouldn't that be something? Fun run differential fact: the entire AL Central has a negative run differential.
Welcome to the party, Chris Davis. If you could hit three home runs today that would be pretty awesome.
| Orioles (J. Arrieta - R) @ Yankees (F. Garcia - R) | |||