We Means It, Maaaaaan: The Baltimore Orioles of 2021

A truly anonymous bunch of who-are-theys while we wait for Adley -- but also a lot of young players whose future certainly isn't set in stone. They didn't finish last in 2020. Can they finish not-last again?

Starting the season with a commanding 3-game sweep of the Red Sox, who did finish last in 2020, is a good way to start.

up to 0.2% now

at a loss as to why fangraphs thinks the red sox are 15 games better

So you're saying there's a chance

well they've got Bogaerts, Devers, a real catcher, a couple potentially great pitchers returning from injury, and some high upside guys

we just have guys

weird to see all this outfield depth...not even accounting for positional tweeners.

If you're gonna get outhit 13-4 it's good to get those hits at the right times

If they blow this

phew

Satisfying win last night, though I can't say it feels like you're watching an almost-.500 team.

What if John Means is actually good though?

^-- Seriously, what if he is?

that's...good. definitely on a hell of a run.

matt harvey!

There are a lot of ways I love to win a ballgame but hilariously bad baserunning by the New York Yankees is right up there among the very best

mullins is 15 for 35 against LHP this year after giving up switch hitting

he was 14 for 111 against LHP trying to bat righty from 2018-2020

mullins is such a great story. like, even he were just to be just average offensively the rest of the season, that's still a really valuable guy to have w/ his defensive skills. him, hays and mckenna would be so fun to watch out there.

Another Mullins GWRBI

i've seen maybe three orioles games this year, which have led me to believe that mullins has a 1.500 OPS

John Means getting a W to kick off May Day is pic.twitter.com/sT6ZkWOwTW

— Lindsay Ballant (@lindsayballant) May 1, 2021

That so felt like the kind of game we would have given up on and lost 1-0 in recent years. God it would be great if Kremer could pitch this way all the time instead of briefly flashing his ability to do it and then losing track of it for weeks on end.

too busy arguing with people at work to even know there was a no-hitter going on, would've been the first O's one i'd ever seen

still think we should trade him at the deadline :)

What if John Means is actually good though?

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, April 18, 2021 3:29 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

^-- Seriously, what if he is?

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, April 25, 2021 5:42 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sort of sucks that the Orioles are probably going to finish last again while playing authentically kind of respectable baseball, but that's this division, four pretty good teams in here with us.

Cedric Mullins is arguably the best runner in the bigs pic.twitter.com/dFUhFa9LsQ

— Clinton Yates (@clintonyates) May 11, 2021

amazing hustle, but I’m not sure how this isn’t a three-base error

that is awesome; he rules

I am ready for the Means - Mullins - Hunter Harvey - Rutschman era

The bullpen has been pretty good but they are sure trying to waste another great Means start right now

What a brutal week. At least we get to play some other bad teams for a couple of series. And at least we had that comeback win against New York.

at a loss as to why fangraphs thinks the red sox are 15 games better

― mookieproof, Monday, April 5, 2021 12:05 AM (one month ago)

red sox have been 15 games better just since i wrote this

oops

Awesome, so we'll pace them the rest of the season

What the hell happened

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2009/12/04/sports/04orioles_CA0/popup.jpg

getting there...

if we get to 0-21 that can only mean good things for next year

Smart of SI to crop that picture so you can't see the bottom of the bat handle

on the plus side: adley went 5/6 with HRs from both sides of the plate in bowie's DH

AND the dbacks might actually win a game today. TANK BABY TANK

I get that baseball card reference.

Thank you I was hoping someone would

I actually have the very much less valuable but still worth a few bucks hasty replacement card, before the properly revised, more common one came out.

VICTORY

Orioles June is gonna be lit

3 in a row lol

break 'em up.

Loving the aggressive baserunning here.

Satisfying

mountcastle and santander getting hot make the team a little more tolerable to watch...cedric mullins is a joy, though.

Nice of the O’s to return the favor tonight. Satisfying.

congrats on beating matt harvey

Try being a Keys fan for pain.

I like when this team of nobodys and never-weres unloads its frustration on a reliever having a bad night

fuck you, have a ramon urias dinger

hahaha...do you SEEEE what happens?!

the truth is, urias has been hitting decently and pretty consistently in minors/majors since 2018, not a total no-hoper like some of the filler the orioles have been putting in the lineup

but anyway, never mind, we're good now

ho hum, sweeping away the trash.

Why are they doing this to me

colton cowser is not a real person.

Crisp game today, Matt Harvey had a good start, advantage was taken of defensive lapses

The "5th inning is here time for Jorge Lopez to give up some runs" thing is just getting silly now

Urias hitting .349 for July

Urias with the GWRBI today to complete the sweep of the cross-town Nats, McKenna, porous of bat but fleet of foot, comes scampering home from third on Ramon's groundout to notch the game-winner and the Orioles win after being down in the 9th for, I think, the very first time in 2021?

i like your patter, chief, but porous of bat? and cross-town is a stretch

cross-metropolitan-statistical-area work for you, hoss?

needs references to the parkway and its bricks, critter

Gotta love the walkoff walk courtesy of Ryan "porous bat" McKenna

This team can't win without almost losing

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, June 29, 2021 9:30 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Entered the bottom of the ninth, promptly let the Tigers load the bases with nobody out, still won

Oh yeah:

The bullpen has been pretty good but they are sure trying to waste another great Means start right now

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, May 11, 2021 9:15 PM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

asdhklhfajkshlgwjhi

this just in: adley rutshcman is good. colton cowser is real and cannot be contained by the florida coast league. grayson rodriguez is the truth.

Chris Davis has announced his retirement. pic.twitter.com/3QKvErwTzn

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) August 12, 2021

it is a crime that rutschman was in double-a until five days ago (and that grayson rodriguez is still there)

presumably with september rosters only expanding to 28, there'll somehow be no room for rutschman then, either

joke organization/league

the best reason i've heard for keeping him down is that anyone on a 40-man will be locked out for at least part of 2022 (probably), and it makes more sense to have your big prospects getting reps in AAA than sitting at home.

also if he was brought up it would make the team better when we're only 1.5 back of the dbacks and i WANT THAT PICK IT'S ALL I HAVE TO LIVE FOR

What, so you can once again have the thrill of hearing analysis say "weird, I thought that guy would go at 10-12, must have something to do with underslot issues"

As Matt Harvey turns back into Matt Harvey.

What, so you can once again have the thrill of hearing analysis say "weird, I thought that guy would go at 10-12, must have something to do with underslot issues"

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, August 16, 2021 7:59 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

they took adley at 1, i have faith they'd do it again if there's an undeniable player there, and by all accounts there will be

adley is a college guy and now 23 years old; when they drafted him in 2019 *lots* of ppl were all like 'he could play for the big league team right now'. he didn't really hit like it that summer, okay.

so now he's spent 2020 at the alternate site. and he's put up a .400 OPB in the minors this year. and admittedly pedro severino is eminently serviceable and practically a star in this lineup.

but the team is terrible and adley -- tHe ToP pRoSpEcT iN bAsEbAlL -- is learning *nothing* in the minors while the o's stall his clock. maybe he'll get there next april 16th when he's 24 i guess.

with a different, less shitty team he'd have been in the majors a year ago, and there's no reason we shouldn't all want that.

rodriguez is only 21 but he's fanning like 15 per nine innings now in double-a. can he possibly be worse than the shit they regularly roll out? do we not want to see the best available players playing in the majors?

also sucks for cedric that he's not even eligible for arbitration until after *next* year -- he'll probably get a $10K raise to $600K after putting up 5 WAR this season. (and if he were eligible for arbitration *this* winter you know goddamn well he'd have been traded at the deadline)

anyway sorry -- the o's are just the most egregious current example of how fucked up the entire system is. the pirates/marlins/etc are little better if perhaps less blatant.

i really hope it all burns down this winter!

Seriously, fuck this

Why Not? '22

two homers off ohtani in the first!!!1!

won a game

what a moment

break em up

love this team again now

as cedric mullins goes, so go the orioles...but keegan akin w/ the out of the blue gem. what? 71 gamescore!

lol wasn’t he like 0-9 with an 8 ERA or something

Keegan Akin's last three starts: 17 IP, 5ER, 10H, 8BB, 14K, lift your head and breathe the fresh replacement-level air

aww

with two w's for Keegans two wins (so far!)

...and a happy john means to all who celebrate

big series win in da bronx

Keegan Akin Can't Lose

akin to be

you gotta hand it to hanser alberto

but then hanser is compelled to hand it back to cedric mullins

"zac lowther with a great outing lowers his season ERA to 6.91" is a thing Orioles fans say

Manny Barreda gets his moment

what a day

what a day

"zac lowther with a rough outing sees his season ERA tick back up to 9.92" is a thing Orioles fans say