O's Weekly Wrap: August 6th - August 12th

Standings

The O's are in third place, five games behind Boston and two games out of the AL Wild Card race.

Results

The O's had a great week, going 4-2 overall. They swept San Diego 2-0, won the series with the Giants 2-1, and lost the first game of the Arizona series.

Run Differential

The team blasted out 37 runs (more than six per game) and allowed just 18 for a differential of +19.

Best Hitter / Worst Hitter

Adam Jones must love the West Coast. He turned it on this past week, hitting an incredible .480/.481/.760 (233 wRC+). I'm tickled by the fact that his OBP is .001 higher than his AVG.

Nick Markakis continued to punch well below his weight, hitting just .259/.276/.259 (42 wRC+). Yeah, when your SLG is the same as your AVG … that's not good.

Best Pitcher / Worst Pitcher

Chris Tillman pitched a gem in his game but let's give it up for Bud Norris. He faced the most batters out of anyone (47) and although his K% and BB% weren't spectacular, he gave up just 11 hits and three runs on no homers. I'm so happy he's making starts now instead of Jason Hammel.

When doing these best pitcher/worst pitcher awards I often struggle between relievers and starters. My belief is that while relievers can be bad, starting pitchers impact the team more since they pitch more often and are paid more, so starters are more deserving of "Worst Pitcher" awards. Hm.

That said, Brian Matusz gave up an earned run in the inning he worked this week, so that's pretty bad. But it was only one inning. Tommy Hunter pitched 3.2 innings and gave up two earned runs (and blew a save) which is also pretty bad.

Best Batting Eye / Worst Batting Eye

Chris Davis swung and missed 16.4% of the time this past week, which was the worst on the club. The best was Markakis, who repeated last week's performance, missing just 0.8% of the time. Like last week, he made contact on every single pitch in the strike zone that he swung at.

Davis's Dingers Update

Davis had a monster week overall (210 wRC+). That came on the strength of three dingers to raise his season's total to 43, still best in the majors. He did strike out a lot (32% of PA) but his OBP was a stellar .393 thanks to four walks (three unintentional).

Manny's Doubles Update

Machado doubled twice this past week to move to 42 for the season. And he hit those two in the same game, against the Giants on August 9th.

Adam Jones "The Power and the Patience" Update

As mentioned above, Jones led the team offensively this week. He jacked two homers and did walk, but it was intentional, so it doesn't count. For the season he has 24 homers and 13 unintentional walks. As you might guess, this 1.85 HR/UIBB ratio leads all qualified hitters in the major leagues. Chris Davis and J.J. Hardy also appear at #4 and #14, respectively. Does it mean anything? … not really, I don't think. It's just fun to think about.