Soccer Dad

Getting defensive

The Orioles are a surprising 6 - 1 after one week of play. According this breakdown at their ESPN page, the team is doing well around.

With the second best run scored total and the fourth best ERA, the Orioles are scoring runs at a good clip and preventing them at good rates. Last year the Orioles had the fourth worst run total in the AL, 756, nearly 40 runs below the AL average and the next to worst ERA.

Peter Schmuck looking for a reason for the Orioles' early success argues that the Orioles are motivated by being dissed.

When the Orioles shock the world and reach the World Series this October, we'll look back on April 7 as a watershed day in club history.

We will all remember it as the day the O's - in unison - let us know they were mad as hell and not going to accept the ridiculously low expectations that have been ascribed to them by the supposed experts in the media.

It makes for a nice story, but if you don't have the requisite talent, you're not going to win, no matter how motivated you are. The Orioles performed poorly last year and since then jettisoned one of their top hitters and their top pitcher. There's no reason to assume that this year's team will be improved in the long term.

Bill Ordine though, noted something that might explain the improved pitching.

Having said that, it is not all pixie dust and luck. Coming from behind or winning the close ones at the end as the O's were able to do a few times against Seattle means not allowing games to get out of hand early. And a key to that is simply playing sound defensive baseball. During their five-game winning streak, the Orioles have committed just one error.

The Orioles have since made a second error, but errors only describe balls that were missed that the fielder got his hands on. Deffensive efficiency measure the percentage of balls in play that the fielders have turned into outs and the Orioles lead the AL in that, by a significant margin. The Orioles lead the AL with a .772 mark, second place belongs to Boston at .740. Obviously that's not likely to continue. (Last year Toronto was the most defensively efficient team with a .712 mark. Even if the Orioles remain at the top of this year's rankings, it won't be .772, so the pitching will necessarily suffer.)

I can't complain that the team is exceeding expectations so far. In 2005, with a seemingly more talented team the Orioles were second only to the White Sox in the AL for three months until the team collapsed. Maybe this is a team that will build a solid foundation for the future and maybe they'll manage a .500 season if enough things go right.

For now I'll just enjoy the ride.

baltimore orioles