Amazingly, three have been no major changes to the coaching staff. Given the line-up of hitters the team possesses, one would expect the hitting coach to be out the door soon.
The Orioles are 17-39 .304 and have no where to go but up. They are potentially on track to set a franchise record for losses at and might finish as bad as 51-111.
The team has the third worst batting average in the American League at .233, which is 15 points lower than the league average. But what really hurts is they'll have the worst on base percentage at .295 which is 23 points below the league average. One of the few brighter spots is that the team sits at the league average for home runs at 64.
Base running situation awareness is also a problem. For instance, last evening, with the team losing 2-0 in the bottom of the ninth, the Orioles got two men on with no outs and Manny Machado coming to the plate. During Machado's at bat, one of the base runners decided, for some obtuse reason, to attempt to steal third and was caught stealing in a run down. Suddenly, the opportunity to win the game with one swing of the bat was gone. After the base running mistake, both Machado and Scoop, the next batter, failed to get a hit and the O's lost 2-0.
The fan base is unhappy and eroding and we hear nothing but crickets from the Orioles front office. I have tickets for tonight's game against the Yankees and I will likely not bother to go. Who wants to see a complete baseball team deliver another crushing blow to my favorite team in our home park. I do expect lots of homers tonight.
-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD
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