O's offense still struggling

It's easy to point a finger at the Orioles pitching staff and blame them for much of the team's struggles this season. Jeremy Guthrie has certainly had a down year, but even though the rookie pitchers have taken their lumps at one point or another -- and surely will continue to do so for the rest of the season -- they've kept the O's in many games.

Meanwhile, with more than one-fourth of the season remaining, the O's offense is currently ranked 12th in the American League in runs scored (516), ahead of only Seattle and Kansas City. The offense also ranks fifth in batting average (.268), ninth in on-base percentage (.331), 11th in slugging (.412), 11th in OPS (.743), 10th in total bases (1600), 11th in home runs (109), and sixth in doubles (211). The O's have combined to strike out the second fewest times in the AL (683), but they're also 11th in walks (350). The O's also aren't very good at playing small ball: They have the worst stolen-base percentage (67 percent) in the AL, are last in sacrifice bunts (9), and are generally a bad baserunning team. So, maybe it's not really shocking that a team that doesn't hit for a ton of power, doesn't walk much, and doesn't take the extra base can't seem to string several high-scoring games together.

To compare, last year the O's were a little better on offense. They finished eighth in runs (782), eighth in OBP (.333), fifth in slugging (.429), eighth in OPS (.762), fifth in total bases (2384), seventh in home runs (172), and fourth in doubles (322). They finished fifth in fewest strikeouts (990) and ninth in walks (533). Their stolen-base percentage was slightly better (69 percent), and they sacrificed more, though only 27 times.

So what exactly has changed? Let's take a look (batters placed in order of at bats):

I know that I didn't include every player or at bat from this year's or last year's teams, but it is interesting to see how much better Melvin Mora and Aubrey Huff were last season -- and how bad Jay Payton was. Markakis and Roberts have also regressed a bit, but Adam Jones and Luke Scott have had better seasons so far. Nolan Reimold has been a welcome addition to the lineup, and he may possess the best batting eye on the team. Matt Wieters's numbers also figure to improve in the near future.

With the 2008 versions of Mora and Huff, though, the O's offense this year would have been significantly better. Still, they'll both probably be gone next season, so the Orioles could definitely be looking for some corner infielders in the free agent market.

Tom Coughlin is a nice guy

Earlier today Dan Steinberg of the D.C. Sports Bog discussed some comments from Albert Haynesworth about when Tom Coughlin (coaching in Jacksonville at the time) asked some odd questions before Haynesworth had been drafted:

The Giants, of course, are coached by Tom Coughlin, a man who had once grilled Haynesworth on his ethics before he was drafted, when Coughlin was still in Jacksonville.

"I spent three or four hours on the phone with him the day before the draft," Haynesworth said. "He kept asking me these questions that didn't quite make sense to me. He's like, 'OK, if I ask you to do something and you know it's the wrong thing to do, what are you going to do?' So I'm like, 'Well, I'll do the right thing.' And he said, 'No, do what I say.' We kind of clashed at the time. I said, 'Yeah, I don't need to go to Jacksonville.' "

Classy guy, that Tom Coughlin -- not that Haynesworth is exactly leading the league in class.

Weekly Rundown: Campbell, Vitale, Zaun

Weekly Rundown is a combination of links and brief comments on stories and topics that I couldn't get to during the week. If there's something important that I missed, don't hesitate to send an email or leave a comment.

• The Redskins improved their defense by adding Albert Haynesworth and Brian Orakpo, but the offensive line is a legitimate concern. [Shutdown Corner]


• Jason Campbell is working hard and trying to be a team leader. [Pro Football Talk]


• According to John Feinstein, Tony Kornheiser is a diva when it comes to parking:
  

  
  Last February on a Saturday morning I’d just finished working out when my phone rang. It was my pal Sally Jenkins. She was in town and she and Tony wanted to go to that day’s Maryland game to, “show Gary support.” No doubt the two of them walking in would mean the end of any further controversy involving Coach Gary Williams.
  
  “Why don’t you go with us?” she said.
  
  “I’m going to another game,” I said.
  
  There was a pause. “Can we have your parking pass?”
  
  The real reason for the call. “Sure you can,” I said. “But it isn’t on the loading dock (right next to the back door) where Tony likes to park. You’ll have to walk about 50 yards.” (Since I rarely go to Maryland games these days the only time I’d ask Gary for a spot on the loading dock would be if I HAD to go and it was snowing or freezing cold).
  
  Sally called back soon after to say they didn’t need the pass. Tony had called Gary a few hours before tipoff and Gary had gotten him onto the loading dock. [Feinstein on the Brink]
  



• T.O.'s reality show isn't really doing that well. [FanHouse]


• Delonte West almost makes JaVale McGee look normal. [Ball Don't Lie]


• The Nets are expecting Jarvis Hayes to take on a larger role next season. Good luck with that. [Nets Daily]


• Although I do agree with Gene Wojciechowski, the best way to leave Bartman alone is to stop writing about him. [ESPN]


• Maryland fails to make Dick Vitale's preseason top 40, but Duke, of course, is in his top five. [ESPN]


• Chris Mortensen offers this interesting nugget on some Minnesota Vikings players:
  

  
  As for the lovable and crazy Jared Allen, he has formed a Yahtzee league with linebackers Chad Greenway and Heath Farwell, among others. "You gotta kill some time," Allen said. "We thought about all the old games like Clue and Monopoly, but Yahtzee won out."
  

  
  As long as they're not playing on a boat, I think that's just fine. [ESPN]


• The Mottrams take down the Cooleys in a throw-off. [Mr. Irrelevant]


• Melvin Mora, Aubrey Huff, and Danys Baez have all cleared waivers. Still, I'd be surprised if they went anywhere. [Baltimore Sun]


• Jason Whitlock wrote about Jeff George -- again. [Jason Whitlock]


• Finally, Tampa Bay Rays catchers have been so bad that even Gregg Zaun offers a significant improvement at the position. [FanGraphs]

Peter Schmuck defends MacPhail, Orioles

The Orioles are 45-63, and they're 5-15 since the all-star break. As usual, many fans are frustrated. But Peter Schmuck is tired of the whining:

Question: Did anyone in any independent local media outlet that publishes preseason predictions pick the Orioles to finish anywhere but last? Did anyone speculate that the Orioles had any chance to be really competitive against the other four teams in the American League East?

I don't expect anybody to be happy about the way the Orioles are playing right now, but acting like some other manager would have dragged them into contention or some other free agent pitcher (including A.J. Burnett) would have prevented them from finishing in the basement is simply absurd.

This is team at a critical point in a rebuilding plan, bringing up young player after young player to prepare for -- perhaps -- a more competitive situation next year and beyond. And I'm reading posts from people who already think Chris Tillman is a bust after 10 1/3 innings at the major league level.

Nobody is enjoying this, and I wouldn't expect anyone to. I'm certainly not, and I've pointed out on many occasions that I think this Orioles team doesn't know how to win and lacks a killer instinct. I've also spent years dissecting the mismanagement of this team from the law office to the manager's office, but I'm not going to join in the ridiculous call to abandon a highly progressive rebuilding program after two years and two months.

Most rebuilding jobs take four or five years, but the Orioles have a chance to be competitive in the third year of Andy MacPhail's accelerated plan. And there's still a surprising percentage of fans who are ready to throw the whole thing out the window and start over again because the team is going to finish this year right where everybody thought it would.

He's exactly right. When was the last time the Orioles had this much promise? Look at all of the potential impact rookies on the roster: Brian Matusz, Brad Bergesen, Chris Tillman, Matt Wieters, Nolan Reimold, and David Hernandez. Sure, some of them are struggling right now, but who cares? Like Schmuck says, the Orioles were never going to contend this year, or possibly next year, anyway.

Andy MacPhail has helped the Orioles reload the farm system with some fantastic trades. Just recently, he traded George Sherrill, basically a throw-in in the Erik Bedard trade, to the Dodgers for two more solid prospects: third-baseman Josh Bell and pitcher Steve Johnson (ranked as the 3rd and 14th best prospects dealt at the trade deadline, respectively, according to FanGraphs' Marc Hulet).

The possible starting rotation next season could look something like this: Brad Bergesen, Brian Matusz, Jeremy Guthrie, Chris Tillman, and David Hernandez. Koji Uehara could recover nicely in a bullpen role, but he probably won't be in the rotation. And that's not even mentioning some of the other talented pitching prospects still in the O's system. Plus, Jason Berken has struggled, but he could still turn things around at some point, as could Rich Hill.

Anyway, the future looks bright for the Orioles. If you don't think so, just take a look at the O's outfield, at catcher, or at the young pitching talent that will be developing over the next year or two. It's frustrating now, but the goal is to eventually compete for a long time -- not just finish .500 one season so everyone feels a little bit better.

The real AI?

Here's a video of Allen Iverson giving a thoughtful speech in July to promote his scholarship program. It's only about three minutes long, and it's definitely worth watching.



(HT: Bill Simmons)

Matusz solid in debut as O's win

Orioles' rookie left-hander Brian Matusz pitched five innings and gave up one run in his major league debut tonight as the O's beat the Detroit Tigers 8-2. In those five innings, Matusz walked three but struck out five as he kept the Tigers off balance. He wasn't particularly efficient -- he threw 99 pitches -- but 65 of them were for strikes, and he was still good enough to get his first win in his first game in an Orioles uniform.

Matusz received plenty of support from the O's offense, which knocked around Jarrod Washburn (5.1 IP, 6 ER) in his Tigers' debut. Nick Markakis and, surprisingly, Cesar Izturis, each had three hits, including a home run, and three runs batted in. Markakis's bomb to right-center, by the way, was estimated at 442 feet.

Chris Ray also had a strong performance, pitching two and two-thirds scoreless innings in relief of Matusz. Ray, who struck out two and walked one, lowered his ERA from 8.74 to 7.82 -- so at least that's something positive for Ray to build on.

Noteworthy batting numbers:

Since the all-star break ended, Nick Markakis is hitting .329/.372/.571 -- and that's not including tonight's three-hit performance. Brian Roberts is also on a post-all-star break tear, hitting .351/.407/.500 over that stretch. It's not surprising that the O's offense has started to heat up a bit with those two finding their offensive grooves.

Weekly Rundown: Zorn, Marbury, Corso

Weekly Rundown is a combination of links and brief comments on stories and topics that I couldn't get to during the week. If there's something important that I missed, don't hesitate to send an email or leave a comment.

(Quick note: This post is a day late, so I'm going to include some links from today. Anyway, I should have mentioned this before, but I've been pretty busy lately, and I probably won't be able to post as often in the next few weeks. But I'll still try to get as many posts up as I can. To those of you who do so, thanks for reading.)

• It's pretty funny to mention this now, especially after what happened yesterday, but Melvin Mora, last week, said that he wanted "to be an Oriole forever." [Baltimore Sun]


• Tony Kornheiser is planning a return to radio. [D.C. Sports Bog]


• Apparently the Redskins offensive line is one of the worst in the league. [FanHouse]


• Howard Bryant wrote a long, interesting piece about Billy Beane and Moneyball, but I'm still not sure exactly what point he was trying to make. Is Beane a bad GM? Is he too concerned with things outside of baseball? I don't think either of those things is true. [ESPN]


• Jim Zorn being Jim Zorn at Redskins training camp:
  

  
  "Here's what I did, I wanted to kind of cut down on all of the colors. We had an excellent color scheme last year, ok? I wanted to become more boring, and use our burgundy as the featured color. Because we had light gray, dark gray, black, smokey gray. We had dark burgundy, we had red. We had all kinds of colors. And then we had bellbottom sweats, where guys were taping around [their ankles]. You guys remember that? White tape around everybody's ankles? We looked like bike riders trying to keep their pants from getting greasy.
  
  So what I did is I got together with Brad Berlin, our equipment manager, and we kind of created just a cutdown on colors and styles of what we wanted the team to look like."
  

  
  Don't ever change, Zorn. [D.C. Sports Bog]


• J.A. Adande weighs in on the confusing and odd Stephon Marbury situation. [ESPN]


• Posnanski on advanced fielding statistics: "They’re not as good as they could be or will be ... I think everyone would agree about that. But they try (and often succeed) and taking an objective look at how effective a player performs defensively. Those numbers say [Yuniesky Betancourt] is a disaster at shortstop. Flawed numbers or not, I would tend to believe those over my lyin’ eyes." [Joe Posnanski]


• Brendan Haywood is better than you think he is. [Truth About It]


• Check out this crazy catch by the Pirates' Delwyn Young last week that the umpires (understandably) missed. [FanHouse]


• Rob Neyer is a fan of the George Sherrill trade:
  

  
  I'm not going to criticize the Dodgers for trading Josh Bell. Who knows? Maybe Casey Blake will live forever.
  What I will do is send up a big hip-hip-hooray for the Orioles, because the single best thing any rebuilding manager can do, ever, is trade a relief pitcher in late July for a couple of solid prospects.
  
  Let me repeat for anyone not paying attention: a relief pitcher.
  
  Relief pitchers are, well, I would say that they're "fungible" except that word always makes me think of a massively fun and rigid airship. Instead I'll say that a relief pitcher, purely in terms of value, is not worth two solid prospects.
  
  Bell and Johnson are solid. Bell opened the season as the Dodgers' eighth-best prospect, and has done nothing this season to damage his credentials -- he's got mid-range power and a .364 career on-base percentage. Johnson is 21, almost 22, certainly throws hard enough (90-93) and has struck out nearly a batter per inning in his five minor-league seasons.
  
  If I were an Orioles fan, I would be organizing a party right now.
  

  
  Oh, and I'm also a fan of the trade. [SweetSpot]


• Mike Williams has lost more than 100 pounds in eight months. Next step: Play better in training camp. [Redskins Insider]


• Speaking of losing weight, Ralph Friedgen has lost 95 pounds. [FanHouse]


• Could a quarterback controversy be coming for the Redskins? [Hogs Haven]


• Is PFT's Mike Florio at it again? [Mr. Irrelevant]


• Lee Corso is on the comeback trail, and I wish him the best of luck. [Awful Announcing]

Mora wants to play, lashes out at Trembley

Unhappy with his recent lack of playing time, Melvin Mora felt that it was reasonable to share his feelings on the subject today with the media:

"I don't appreciate the disrespect, because I've been playing hurt for a guy who won't respect you. I don't deserve it. I need to have my respect. This is not a guy who just came to the Orioles. This is a guy who's been here for nine years.

. . . I need to sit down in my house, see what team [is] thinking to win. I know here they're rebuilding and they bring a lot of young guys here, good players. I know it's time for me to move on."

. . . Mora insisted the benching wasn't as maddening as the reason he was given for the move.

"Don't give me the excuse that I cannot beat John Smoltz, that I cannot beat Josh Beckett or I cannot beat [Jon] Lester or I cannot beat Pedro Martinez or I cannot beat nobody here, because I've been here for nine years. I've been here for nine years and all those guys in the East, they know me. You don't make the All-Star team for nothing. You deserve respect."

So basically, Mora is saying that because he was a good player in previous years, he should be playing everyday now no matter what -- or something like that. Here's Dave Trembley's response:

"If I give a guy a day off -- guys who are up there in age, they've played a long time, guys who are struggling -- I'm trying to help them. I'm not trying to hurt them. It's easy to look at things from the negative. You've got to be a team guy here."

Trembley is, more or less, saying that Mora shouldn't be getting regular at bats because he isn't the same player -- which is true because he's not.

This season, Mora is hitting .256/.321/.330 with three home runs and 27 runs batted in. In 285 at bats, Mora has collected exactly 15 extra base hits. Fifteen. His fielding at third has been about average -- 0.4 UZR, 0.6 UZR/150 -- so it's not like he's been making up for his woeful hitting with extraordinary defense.

I can't comment on whether or not Trembley respects Mora, but I do know that lots of other players around the league are hurt and are playing through pain just like Mora. First of all, if Mora really is hurt, then he shouldn't be playing (especially not as an everyday player). Second, hurt or not, his hitting numbers are very bad. At this point in his career, he's just a singles hitter, and it's difficult to believe that he was actually hitting fifth earlier in the season.

For comparison's sake, Wigginton is hitting .257/.304/.392 with seven homers and 27 runs batted in. He also has 19 extra base hits in 245 at bats, which really isn't that much better than Mora, but it's still four more in 40 fewer at bats. His defense at third has been pretty bad, but he has been better than average at first. He hasn't played many games at either consistently this season, so take that for what it's worth.

As far as playing time goes, neither Mora nor Ty Wigginton deserve regular at bats in the lineup. And after his outburst, Mora pretty much sealed his fate of looking for another team to play for next season.