Well, it was a bummer of a week, O\u2019s fans. Less than 10 games into the new season, we already have our first major disappointment. They were swept in Pittsburgh after losing two of three to the Rangers to close out the homestand, and very little is going right. There are a ton of flaws with this team right now, made even worse by players making some key mistakes that led to devastating losses like the one on Saturday. We all said that getting off to a hot start would be paramount for this team, yet here they are dragging their feet to a 3-6 record and getting swept out of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
We have a lot of issues to talk about today, but the bigger question is, is this team just destined to fail like in 2025? Are we just Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, living a constant cycle of misery?<\/p>\n
The short answer is no, but this team needs to clean up certain aspects of itself before this gets too bad.<\/p>\n
Bradish\u2019s Slow Start<\/p>\n
This is a major concern for me right now because it severely limits the team\u2019s potential. When we broke camp, we all thought this team had two aces on the staff\u2014the ace of yesteryear, in Kyle Bradish, and the ace of today, in Trevor Rogers. While Rogers has held up his end of the bargain, Bradish has severely disappointed in his two starts. The main thing right now is that his command just isn\u2019t there. He starts in a 1-0 hole in almost every AB.<\/p>\n
Now, not everything was his fault on Friday. Adley Rutschman should have held on to a foul tip that would have gotten a strikeout on Connor Griffin, sure, but that is no excuse for how bad his command has been. The scary thing is that we have seen pitchers take a while to regain command after coming back from TJ. Mainly, Sandy Alcantara really struggled with his after returning from TJ last year.<\/p>\n
So, is this just who Bradish is going to be this year? Or is this just a blip on the radar? I don\u2019t have the answer, but the issue is he needs to start getting ahead.<\/p>\n
Spoiled Milk<\/p>\n
This early in the season, it may not be the time for hot takes on players, but at this point, I think I am just done with the Colton Cowser experience. I get why the team likes him; he makes flashy plays, can hit it 440-plus feet when he squares it up, and is a positive clubhouse guy, but that really is it with Cowser: good vibes and moments of brilliance mixed in with like 80% back breaking failure.<\/p>\n
That at bat he had on Saturday with the bases loaded really was the final nail in the coffin for me. I know I shouldn\u2019t overreact to one at bat, but that sequence showcased Cowser\u2019s main problem: he can\u2019t hit anything but a fastball. The Pirates had a mound visit prior to the AB, and if every O\u2019s fan knew \u201cDON\u2019T THROW A FASTBALL\u201d had to be a theme in that meeting, than we have to assume the team and Cowser himself did too. Yet he still couldn\u2019t do anything about it. They fed him off-speed pitches and breaking balls \u2013 in the zone no less \u2013 and of course, he struck out.<\/p>\n
Cowser isn\u2019t a rookie either; this is just who he is, a guy who can get hot when teams forget he can\u2019t hit anything but fastballs, with barely above league average defense in the outfield. If this continues, I see a scenario where Cowser is sent down when Jackson Holliday returns, and they make Leody Taveras the everyday center fielder until Enrique Bradfield is ready later this summer.<\/p>\n
Cowser\u2019s approach has generally been improved to start the season. He\u2019s seeing more pitches and walking a bunch. But the results just aren\u2019t there, and that one AB in Pittsburgh is the epitome for me.<\/p>\n
No Defense for this Defense<\/p>\n
For a team that wanted to get back to fundamentals and do the little things right, they sure look lost in the field right now. Several defensive mistakes cost them in a one-run loss on Saturday. Two Pirates runs scored because pitchers couldn\u2019t field comebackers cleanly. The walk-off came on a ball that Dylan Beavers totally misplayed in left. Coby Mayo turned a double play ball into one out at first, and the guy he didn\u2019t get eventually scored.<\/p>\n
There is no excuse for this, and it\u2019s going to have to be fixed fast.<\/p>\n
RISPy Business<\/p>\n
Two and a half years of this issue. While it looked better in Baltimore, the O\u2019s left 20+ men on base in the Pirates series alone. If anyone could have stepped up, it should have been at least a series win, if not a sweep the other way.<\/p>\n
They were 1-for-9 with RISP in a 5-4 loss on Friday, then 2-for-10 in a 3-2 loss Saturday. 3-for-19 (.158), and all singles.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how you lose baseball games.<\/p>\n
Deja Vu?<\/p>\n
The big question is: is this all the same? Honestly, I don\u2019t think so. We have a better roster than 2025, and this isn\u2019t the same as last year. This offense is off to a slow start, but that\u2019s mainly because they haven\u2019t been able to get everyone clicking at the same time. Adley and Gunnar Henderson are having nice starts. Pete Alonso is going to hit with RISP eventually, and once they get Holliday back, Taylor Ward could move down the lineup to help Gunnar and Pete when needed. As for the starting pitching, I really don\u2019t think it has been that bad. While their ERA is above 4.00, the expected stats are much better.<\/p>\n
The bullpen is a problem, but we knew this going into the season. We also have to get Andrew Kittredge back, and if Nunez can keep this up, the bullpen will be solid enough.<\/p>\n
My biggest concerns right now are Bradish and the puttering offense. Bradish has got to find himself, and the home runs need to start showing up. So, no, I am not flashing the alarm nine games into a 162-game baseball season. This team is not the 2025 Orioles. They just need to hit better, which they will. They\u2019re going to get Holliday back, and Pete will be better as he settles in with a new team.<\/p>\n
This stretch sucked this week, but I do think we now have the leadership in the clubhouse to right this ship. This isn\u2019t the 2025 Orioles; there is too much talent and a brand new staff. This was a bad week, and we have issues, but we aren\u2019t in over-before-it-started territory again\u2026(fingers crossed)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, it was a bummer of a week, O\u2019s fans. Less than 10 games into the new season,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,2538,5,4,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-666644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimoreorioles","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-orioles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116358667810603457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}