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A quarter of the way into the season, where do the Orioles stand?

A quarter of the way into the season, a look at how the 2015 Orioles rank in different stat categories and how they compare to last year's club.

By cebacon
Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

Note: This article was written after the Marlins series with 41 games played. All stats are as of Monday the 25th before any games were played.

It's easy to get hung up on wins and losses, and even easier when the Orioles aren't playing well. And while wins are the most important measure, they are just one measure of a team's performance. Currently, their record is 19-22, good for fourth place in the AL East but only three games back of the division leading Rays. That probably says more about the divison than anything else though: The Orioles have the second fewest number of wins in the AL (ahead of Oakland with 16 and in a tie with the White Sox).

They'd be ahead of a few more teams if they were in the NL. It's true though the Orioles have played fewer games (41) than other teams due to the postponed White Sox games, so that will be corrected later this week. Last season after 41 games they were 22-19, but they would fall back a bit after that and finished up May at an even 27-27.

Here's how the Orioles are doing in some other categories:

Orioles 2015 as of May 25th

Offensive Stats

AL rank

Runs

182

10

Hits

355

11

Home Runs

46

5

Walks

108

12

Batting Average

.258

3

OPS

.730

4

Total Bases

568

11

Runs/Game

4.44

6

Pitching Stats

ERA

4.00

8

Hits Allowed

329

3

Home Runs Allowed

44

9

Strikeouts

307

11

Walks Allowed

133

10

Runs Allowed/Game

4.34

8

Some of my thoughts on this table:

- In the offensive rate stats of BA and OBP, the Orioles rank well. This matters because as I mentioned before, they've played fewer games than other teams so you can't really compare raw totals. But they also rank well in home runs, which is why it's surprising (even having played a couple fewer games than others) their total bases stat is so low. You'd think with so many hits and home runs they'd have accumulated better in that category.

- I thought there runs per game rank was a little low, but actually it's about right. They rank in the top five in BA, OPS, and HR and sixth in R/G. I bet though that number would be better with more walks.

- The number of hits allowed (again, even in fewer games played) is very good and seems to be making up for the bad ranks in strikeouts and walks allowed. The number of home runs allowed then seems to indicate that when opposing hitters are making contact, they're hitting it out more often. For example, two other AL teams have allowed 44 home runs this season, the Angels and Yankees. The percentage of total hits that have been home runs are O's: 13.4%, Angels: 12.6%, 11.5%.

I also wanted to compare this year's team to last year. Despite lacking Nelson Cruz's home runs in April and May, the 2015 Orioles are actually scoring more runs per game (4.44) through 41 games than the 2014 Orioles did (3.92). That's a good thing though because they're also allowing more runs per game (4.34) than in 2014 (4.07).

In a post earlier this year I showed this chart:
You can't tell from looking at the chart, but the R/G line started to even out around game 45, close to where this team is now. That does not mean the Orioles will continue to hold a runs per game rate of 4.44, but they could. Four teams in the AL finished with a better rate last season.

The other cool thing to see in this chart is how the RA/G stat steadily decreased in the final two-thirds of the season and the same thing may be happening now. I'm not going to post a chart of 2015 data yet because it would be so noisy, but since the RA/G for 2015 peaked at 5.36 after 19 games, it's been very steadily decreasing. The Orioles pitching seems to have gotten better and the numbers back that up. Unfortunately the RA/G seems to have taken a hit too - it was at 5.47 after 19 games.

* * *
I keep going back and forth on whether I think this team can turn it around and start winning more games. Every time I look at the numbers they seem to indicate that can happen, but then watch the games and find it's just isn't. But I think this shows the Orioles probably aren't the second to worst team in the AL as their win total might indicate...it'll be interesting to see how this plays out over the rest of the season.

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