So... I'm just going to screencap the relevant part of the team screen instead of printing all that other stuff out by hand. Probably works better for the reader and it's definitely less time consuming for me!
Recap: A big comeback year for Baltimore. They just missed finishing .500 but it was pretty nice after losing 98 the year before nonetheless.
History: Baltimore's lone World Series berth came in an amazing 103-59 season in 1963. Otherwise, they've always been also-rans. They carried their 1963 success through 1968 but they fell way off in '69 and the 1970 team has little in common with the old guys.
Outlook: The Orioles look to me like the nightmare version of those classic Earl Weaver teams from the 70s and 80s. The pitching is all finesse-based, but completely lacking in power pitching. The fielding is fine, perhaps not as full-on committed to avoiding mistakes like the Weaver teams but they do prop up the hitting pretty well. Offensively, they're all walks and homeruns, but kind of badly: the team strikes out a *lot* and that hurts their average, and they don't really get on base or hit for enough power to make up for it.
All in all, they're not super young either so I'm not sure where their future lies to be honest.
Rotation
Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9
Ziegler, T.J. 23 RR 10 13 .435 3.09 28 28 0 4 2 0 192.1 141 79 66 6 110 4 120 1.305 6.6 0.3 5.1 5.6
Giron, Hector 29 SR 13 6 .684 2.89 26 26 0 10 1 0 190.0 186 72 61 17 43 4 98 1.205 8.8 0.8 2.0 4.6
Wei, Yen-ti 36 RR 7 10 .412 3.68 23 22 0 5 0 0 149.0 156 68 61 16 55 4 62 1.416 9.4 1.0 3.3 3.7
Lopez, Alfredo 36 RR 6 8 .429 3.38 21 20 0 3 1 0 130.1 126 56 49 10 58 0 61 1.412 8.7 0.7 4.0 4.2
Villalpando, Carlos 35 RR 5 8 .385 5.74 24 17 1 1 0 0 122.1 138 85 78 16 59 2 42 1.610 10.2 1.2 4.3 3.1
Overmann, Mike 32 RR 7 8 .467 4.32 31 16 6 1 0 0 116.2 116 65 56 12 31 1 49 1.260 8.9 0.9 2.4 3.8
Torres, David 28 RR 6 6 .500 4.59 15 15 0 2 1 0 86.1 92 46 44 2 38 3 23 1.506 9.6 0.2 4.0 2.4
Colon, John 26 RR 4 4 .500 4.33 11 8 0 0 0 0 60.1 59 31 29 5 40 1 32 1.641 8.8 0.7 6.0 4.8
Contreras, Alfredo 27 LL 1 2 .333 5.55 5 5 0 0 0 0 24.1 29 19 15 4 12 2 11 1.685 10.7 1.5 4.4 4.1
Bazzano, Mark 23 RR 1 2 .333 3.00 3 3 0 1 1 0 21.0 16 9 7 1 15 0 12 1.476 6.9 0.4 6.4 5.1
Hector Giron missed almost 2 months with bone spurs in his elbow. When healthy he was definitely the best starter on the staff. He's pretty well epitomal of the Orioles' pitching: his best pitch is a fastball that tops out in the mid-80s but has good movement and mostly he wins by not giving up easy runs.
TJ Ziegler broke into the majors last year after just 4 starts in AAA. He looked a little overwhelmed at first - 0-2, 9.72 in 2 April starts - but picked up as the season went along. He finished with a string of good pitching with bad luck: 2-3, 1.83 in September. He got into trouble when he couldn't get his plus-plus sinker and changeup over for strikes. That said, even when he was off, he was missing low, and led the league in groundout percentage (61%).
Yen-Ti Wei was a rock in the rotation until he tore his rotator cuff in late September. He'll miss most if not all of 1971 and that will put his entire career in jeopardy. His co-veteran
Alfredo Lopez also missed a lot of time with injuries but unlike Wei he should be good to go to compete for a back of the rotation spot in spring training with guys like 26 year old
John Colon, who hopes to rein in his control next year,
Mark Bazzano, who struck out 152 batters in 130 innings at AAA Rochester, and
David Torres, the 1966 All-Star with the Kansas City A's who seemed to lose the ability to miss bats last season.
Bullpen
Code:
Luiso, Montay 32 LL 9 6 .600 1.81 73 0 62 0 0 27 114.2 84 25 23 4 26 3 98 0.959 6.6 0.3 2.0 7.7
Schoner, Dan 30 LR 2 2 .500 3.06 40 1 18 0 0 1 61.2 57 23 21 6 20 1 13 1.249 8.3 0.9 2.9 1.9
Munoz, Billy 29 RR 2 2 .500 2.64 37 1 23 0 0 3 58.0 47 19 17 1 20 2 52 1.155 7.3 0.2 3.1 8.1
Bowman, Phil 23 RR 3 2 .600 3.00 36 0 6 0 0 1 63.0 45 22 21 2 19 1 34 1.016 6.4 0.3 2.7 4.9
Lee, Sung-jin 33 RR 0 0 .000 1.47 33 0 0 0 0 0 30.2 26 5 5 1 11 1 19 1.207 7.6 0.3 3.2 5.6
Albertson, Dermott 23 LL 2 0 1.000 1.06 10 0 2 0 0 0 17.0 7 3 2 1 8 0 18 0.882 3.7 0.5 4.2 9.5
Christie, Blaine 26 RR 0 0 .000 4.91 2 0 0 0 0 0 3.2 4 2 2 2 0 0 4 1.091 9.8 4.9 0.0 9.8
Scott, Joe 25 RR 0 1 .000 3.86 3 0 1 0 0 0 2.1 2 1 1 0 2 0 3 1.714 7.7 0.0 7.7 11.6
Deras, Jeremy 24 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Montay Luiso is the premier relief pitcher in the American League. He's a 7 time All-Star and 2-time Rolaids Relief winner and at the age of 32 showed no signs of slowing down. The only real question for the Orioles is whether or not they really need a guy like him on a middling roster, and if they can fetch enough for him via trade. The O's picked up
Billy Munoz to fill in on the rare occasions when Luiso wasn't available; he's a former stopper for Cleveland (in 1968: 13-9, 2.42 ERA, 13 Sv) and he was pretty fantastic himself in high-leverage roles last year (combined 3-4, 2.45, 10 Sv).
Dan Schoner has been completely unable to strike people out the past two years (1.8 and 1.9 K/9) with a changeup as his "out" pitch that's best described as "fringe". My head says I should cut him but my heart says he's still kind of effective.
Dermott Albertson was a late-season callup but I like him moving forward as a lefty specialist (that's a role I personally did not use enough last year for any team).
Phil Bowman is your standard Orioles pitcher: lots of groundballs, not the best stuff in the world (although a sinker that induces groundouts is a sinker that's doing its job, I guess), decent control. He's also 24 and so still has some room to improve.
Sun-Jin Lee was waived in mid-August and claimed by Atlanta. I'm scratching my head over that one too.
Catcher
Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
Keith, Robert 32 RR 79 254 20 47 12 0 4 22 24 74 0 0 7 .185 .262 .280 2
DiGirolamo, Ted 23 LR 61 158 16 45 8 0 1 13 18 24 0 0 6 .285 .354 .354 2
Masella, Brent 36 RR 23 64 4 13 4 0 0 5 5 18 0 0 3 .203 .261 .266 2
This is definitely a bit of a problem point heading into 1971.
Ted DiGirolamo likely played his way into at least a platoon starting role. He introduced a new wrinkle to his game - hitting for average - after looking like a minus offensively most years after he was drafted as a high schooler in 1966. The right-handed half of that,
Robert Keith, is a guy who was liked on defense enough that he won a Gold Glove with the Dodgers in his one season he got to start. Offensively, that .185 average is not far off from his career totals. He did hit .205 against lefties (against .165 vs RHP) so there's some hope that the platoon role will fit him the best. Their top minor league prospects are 2 guys in the low minors and a guy (Dave Flores) who his .139 last year in Rochester. Needless to say, youth is a few years away.
Infield
Code:
Hernandez, Jon 27 LR 147 532 69 123 32 2 16 78 83 137 1 1 15 .231 .334 .389 3*2
Cutter, Devin 29 LL 29 87 9 11 2 0 3 10 7 32 0 0 0 .126 .204 .253 3
Fleischaker, John 27 RR 30 71 5 14 3 1 2 2 9 22 0 0 1 .197 .288 .352 3
Cutler, Andrew 33 SL 17 24 3 4 1 0 2 6 6 6 0 0 0 .167 .333 .458 /39
Fager, Danny 29 RR 120 492 64 131 13 5 10 47 34 39 12 12 7 .266 .315 .374 4*
Padilla, Jorge 28 RR 84 214 20 57 13 0 6 28 13 39 1 0 4 .266 .307 .411 4/63
Perez, Marco 26 RR 154 597 73 201 24 7 17 91 71 41 36 13 15 .337 .406 .486 5*
King, Dave 27 RR 28 63 5 17 4 0 1 7 9 13 0 0 0 .270 .361 .381 /563
Blevins, Jon 29 RR 151 575 54 133 14 5 7 39 43 94 5 7 17 .231 .282 .310 6*
Clark, Dustin 26 RR 8 20 1 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 .150 .261 .150 /6
Saunders, Steve 29 RR 5 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 /65
Jon Hernandez was moved out from behind home plate midway through last season partly to try and get him in the lineup every day but mostly because his catching skills had degraded too badly to count on him back there. He nevertheless was named to the All-Star Game as a backstop. As a first baseman, he was clearly trying too hard out there at first, hitting .177 and .161 in July and August before recovering somewhat with a .268/.355/.402 September. As bad as he got sometimes, though, he was still better than the incredibly bad options the Orioles tried out during the first half. Probably the next "prospect" to emerge as a first baseman will be someone who can't hang with the glove at another position, but here too I don't see a lot that's close.
Danny Fager is a real "dirt dog", highly regarded by other players throughout the league. If he could only get, say, 10-15 more doubles a year he'd be a perennial All-Star. As it stands, he does have 2 of them (in 1967 and 1968). On the defensive side of the ledger, he's never won a Gold Glove but he's got to be close; this year he committed just 9 errors in 718 total chances, a .987 fielding average.
Jorge Padilla filled in when Fager was hurt and also served as the team's primary pinch-hitter vs. left-handers; he was actually handcuffed by lefties (.181 BA) so that might not be the best way to use him in the future.
Marco Perez, as the Brooks Robinson of this team, okay, is not Brooks Robinson. He's got a gun for an arm and he's won the last 3 Gold Gloves but he's not that generational, 80/80 type guy at the position. He's a way better hitter than Robinson, though; he finished 3rd in the AL in batting average an his 91 RBIs were a team high.
Jon "Lucky Number" Blevins is a classic good field no-hit shortstop, basically the Mark Belanger of this team except that the AL has a complete stud in Boston's Oniji Handa, so Blevins has just one Gold Glove to his name. He's not a great hitter but he's better than the Jon Timonems of the world at least.
Outfield
Code:
Jenkins, Jamal 26 RL 79 274 39 64 10 1 19 42 32 68 6 6 5 .234 .314 .485 7/9
Hiatt, Dave 30 LL 78 183 17 36 7 5 6 28 13 46 0 1 0 .197 .251 .388 7/9
Colon, Edgar 34 RR 78 145 10 30 5 0 0 15 13 29 2 0 6 .207 .265 .241 7/89
Ibarra, Hector 33 LR 5 11 1 3 3 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 .273 .273 .545 /7
Tarala, Bryant 28 LR 106 376 71 82 12 3 15 31 86 101 26 11 2 .218 .369 .386 8/3
Kemm, Rich 37 RR 41 105 19 23 6 1 1 12 21 24 2 0 2 .219 .346 .324 8/9
Nugent, Matt 24 LL 132 445 54 92 14 3 13 45 62 99 23 8 4 .207 .303 .339 9*8
Baca, Mario 32 RR 76 241 35 70 6 3 13 45 23 38 2 1 7 .290 .356 .502 987
Riessen, Justin 26 RR 20 65 6 15 4 0 2 7 6 12 2 1 1 .231 .288 .385 9/37
Seidenberger, Jason 32 RR 30 50 5 6 1 0 1 3 13 14 0 0 0 .120 .292 .200 9/37
Duarte, Jose 33 RR 4 9 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 .222 .300 .222 /9
And this is where you can really see the Orioleness of this team.
Jamal Jenkins led the team in homeruns in a mostly platoon role. He did hit a lot better vs lefties (.257, 7 of his 19 HRs) than righties (.220 and a SLG 160 points lower) so that's surely his chosen role, but who bats from the left-handed side?
Dave Hiatt was so bad that he got himself released. He could maybe pair well with
Matt Nugent except that Jenkins is a bad fielder even for a LF and certainly can't handle right.
Bryant Tarala has some real issues hitting that don't really matter quite as much when he plays center field. The issue the Orioles have here is not he can't handle centerfield. It's kid of the opposite, in fact: he plays every game as if it was his last, which is a nice thing to say but it means that he's constantly crashing into walls and getting himself hurt. He missed 46 games last year and 99 the last two seasons combined. The Orioles don't really have anyone good to replace him with, which is kind of a double problem.
Matt Nugent, even though I mentioned him as a platoon guy, actually didn't hit lefties that much worse than righties last year (.200 vs .210). That may have been a little bit lucky, as 30 of his Ks came in his 130 at-bats vs LHP and his on-base percentage was 82 points higher against opposite-handed pitchers (.325 to .243). On the other other hand, dude's still 24 years of age.
Mario Baca had an excellent season as a 4th outfielder. I'm reticent to push Nugent and him into a platoon because I think Baca's true form is as a league average corner outfielder, but now that I talk this through, "league average" would be a significant upgrade over what the Nuge did against lefties.