Same O Story

When the Orioles were in the midst of their eight-game winning streak in mid-August, a giddy feeling struck the club. Some even believed the Orioles had a chance to compete for the American League Wild Card spot, although they trailed by seven games and had half a dozen teams to pass.

Second baseman Brian Roberts said, at the time, that after six consecutive losing fourth place finishes it would be nice, for a change, to have something else to look forward to in September other than burnishing individual statistics.

Alas, it was not to be.

Shortly after their eight-game winning streak, the Orioles fell into an even lengthier, 12-game tailspin. That meant that for the seventh consecutive season they have suffered through a losing streak of at least nine consecutive games. Worse, it virtually assured that the Orioles once again would finish with a losing record and that the high expectations of April would be dashed upon the rocks of sickening reality: The Orioles still are a poor baseball club.

Neither a rookie manager nor an influx of new hitting stars could reverse a trend that has turned the once proud Orioles into one of baseball’s most disappointing losers over the past seven summers.

Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan, the team’s co-general managers, had hoped 2004 would be different.

They spent last offseason collecting sluggers Miguel Tejada, Javy Lopez, and Rafael Palmeiro. The theory was that the Orioles still were one season away from competing for the American League East championship, and that the club would be able to evaluate its alleged wealth of outstanding young pitching this year. Well, the evaluation is complete, and the diagnosis is grave: The young pitchers flopped. Badly.

Tejada and Lopez have given the Orioles’ offense a great lift, and the team ranked third in the league in hitting in late August with a strong .280 batting average. At the same time, however, the pitching staff had the next-to-the-worst ERA in the league, 5.03. And if anyone ever needed proof of the baseball adage that good pitching beats good hitting, the Orioles of 2004 are Exhibit A.

The five starters that opened the season in the Baltimore rotation all had years that ranged from disappointing to disastrous.

Everyone knew that the Orioles were taking a huge risk going into the season with Sidney Ponson as the staff ace and four inexperienced arms filling out the remaining slots in the rotation. No one could know, however, that all five of those pitchers would struggle. If Flanagan and Beattie were hoping to find a few diamonds and get rid of the rhinestones from that starting rotation, they will have to spend all of next winter in the jewelry store looking for new gems.

Ponson had a horrible first half of the season. He allowed the big bulge in his pocket from a newly signed, $22.5 million, three-year contract, to bloat his already ample stomach. And before you could say No More Big Macs, the ace of the Oriole staff was 3-12 with an ERA that was larger than his girth.

If he was to set an example for the young hurlers behind him, he did—but in the wrong way. Among the four rookie pitchers, only lefty Eric Bedard lasted the full season. But even he fell short of the great promise he showed in spring training. Like almost all Oriole starters this year, Bedard too often has struggled with his command. The staff disappointingly leads the American League in walks issued—and by a huge margin.

Eric Dubose, Matt Riley, and Kurt Ainsworth pitched like they belonged in the minor leagues, which is where they all ended up. It was difficult to tell whether they were just awful or whether their seasons were affected by injuries, which they all claimed to have.

Riley, 25, was perhaps the biggest disappointment of that triumvirate of failure. He has long been the diamond in the rough of Oriole prospects, a southpaw pitcher with an extraordinary arm but a head that’s never been screwed on quite properly. He’s undergone all sorts of mental and emotional permutations since first arriving in Baltimore five years ago. Oriole management thought that Riley, finally, was ready to put it all together this season. He wasn’t. Riley looked sterling in one game in mid-April but then reverted to his former, enigmatic and maddening self. He was banished to the minors with a sore shoulder and a sorer ego, along with his 1-3, 8.39, record. His days as an Oriole—or an Oriole prospect—are likely over.

Neither Ainsworth nor Dubose distinguished themselves, the former being banished from Baltimore with an unseemly 0-1, 9.38, mark, the latter with a slightly less unsightly 4-6, 6.39 mark.

The savior of the rotation, at least until he tired (or the league figured him out) in August was gangly rookie Daniel Cabrera. Unlike his slightly senior rookie colleagues, Cabrera was not afraid to attack batters aggressively. On July 24, the 23-year-old was 8-3, 3.02. By the end of August, he was 9-7, 4.94, afflicted by the bug that seemed to bite all Oriole starters this year.

With a day left in August, Oriole starters were 37-51 with an ugly 5.49 ERA. Relievers were 20-20, 4.29, not much to write home about either. Baltimore relievers have the second highest number of appearances in the league, yet another indictment of the rotation’s inability to get the job done. Oriole starters had a total of five complete games through August, three coming from Ponson. When he was pitching in his prime for the Orioles three decades ago, Jim Palmer averaged more than 20 complete games a season himself.

Rodrigo Lopez, the Orioles’ top pitcher two years ago, was the only starter besides Cabrera to have even a decent season. Pitching from the bullpen as well as from the rotation, he was 10-8, 3.83.

The Orioles’ best pitcher in 2004 clearly was lefty reliever B.J. Ryan, who was almost unhittable when facing left-handed hitters. But even Ryan swooned a bit during the Orioles’ 12-game losing streak at the end of August. His ERA rose from a pristine 1.69 to a still-sparkling 2.18, even as he lost two games in the collapse.

The Orioles have been far more impressive with their bats this year, thanks primarily to Tejada and the remarkable Melvin Mora. Javy Lopez, newcomer David Newhan, the ill-fated, oft-injured Jerry Hairston, and Brian Roberts also have contributed significantly with their bats.

Mora is competing for the AL batting crown, Tejada leads the league in RBIs and without Newhan and his .345 average, the Orioles would be buried in last place.

Yet the hitting, as exciting as it’s been at times, has been flakey.

The Orioles have not been good clutch hitters this year. The team average is about 20 points lower than normal when runners are in scoring position.

Javy Lopez symbolizes the team’s inconsistency when it comes time to hit in key situations. Through August, he is batting .318 with 19 home runs and 65 RBIs, very strong numbers for a catcher. But when no one is on base, he is batting .368. When there is at least one base runner, his average drops to .268. And where there are runners in scoring position, Lopez is hitting a meager .236.

Also, Baltimore has been almost hapless against left-handed pitchers. The team is 16-25 versus left-handed pitchers and is batting only .249 against southpaws, versus .292 against right-handers.

And just as good as Tejada, Mora, and Newhan have been, lefty swingers Jay Gibbons, Larry Bigbie and Palmeiro (along with right-handed hitting Luis Matos) have been major disappointments.

Palmeiro, who is likely headed for the Hall of Fame, turns 40 this month and apparently is experiencing the rigors of age. For the first time since the strike-shortened season of 1994, he will fall short of both 38 home runs and 100 RBIs. He had only 14 homers and 65 RBIs, along with a sub-par .247 average, as August ended.

More disappointing, though, have been the three young Oriole outfielders—Bigbie, Gibbons and Matos. All looked as though they werre on the gateway to stardom after their 2003 seasons. All struggled mightily at the plate this season and were felled by season-shortening injuries. Combined, they hit .239 with 25 home runs and 112 RBIs through August. All performed much worse than they had in 2003, and Beattie and Flanagan may have to rethink whether this outfield threesome really has the skills to help carry the club to respectability in coming years. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see at least one of them shipped elsewhere in a winter trade.

Bigbie had the least worrisome season of the three, batting .268 with 13 home runs and 52 RBIs before going on the DL with a groin pull on August 16. But he did not show an aptitude against left-handed pitchers, batting just .211 off of them and striking out almost once in every four at-bats against southpaws.

The Orioles’ big question as the year began was whether Hairston or Roberts would be the club’s second baseman. The question was put on hold after Hairston broke a finger sliding into third base in the first inning of the team’s first exhibition game in Ft. Lauderdale in March. The question resurfaced when Hairston was activated on May 11. Manager Lee Mazzilli chose to keep Roberts at second for the most part, because Roberts was then hitting well and playing strong defense. Hairston was placed in the outfield, despite his desire to play second. He hit well, batting over .300, and was slowly making the adjustment in the outfield when he broke his ankle attempting a catch in the middle of August.

The Orioles can no longer keep both Hairston and Roberts. One of them will have to be traded before the 2005 season begins.

In a sense, with the second base issue still unresolved, with the rotation in shambles, and with the three young outfielders all underperforming this year, Beattie and Flanagan will have more issues to resolve this winter than they did last.

This was supposed to be the year the Orioles started to turn things around, to perhaps reach .500 and give notice that they were almost ready to compete seriously with the big boys of the AL East, the Yankees and the Red Sox. Instead, despite a more exciting lineup, they have faltered once again.

That brings up the issue of rookie manager Lee Mazzilli.

Flanagan and Beattie had hoped that Mazzilli’s experience with the Yankees as New York’s first base coach the last several years would translate to a winning attitude and spirit in Baltimore. It hasn’t.

Mazzilli has been dealt a difficult hand. He was given what amounts to a minor league rotation to begin the season. He was not allowed to pick his coaches before the year began, inheriting those left behind when former manager Mike Hargrove was fired. Even when Beattie and Flanagan switched pitching coaches in mid-season, they did not allow Mazzilli to pick his own successor to Mark Wiley; instead, they hired Ray Miller for him.

Mazzilli’s had to deal with a slew of injuries, but that’s what every major league manager has to address in this era of bulked-up bodies, overly sensitive egos, and padded checking accounts among players. The catching behind Lopez has been very weak, and the bench has provided little support to the lineup.

But Mazzilli has shown vulnerabilities as a manager, even for someone in his first year in a big league dugout. His handling of the pitching has at times been infirm. He either hasn’t seen the necessity or hasn’t had the manpower to rest certain pitchers and players when they’ve needed time off. The winning spirit has eluded this team, even with the effervescent Tejada offering potent leadership on the field and in the clubhouse.

When big league teams win, their managers are seen as gurus or geniuses. When teams lose, their managers inevitably get the blame.

Mazzilli has virtually no relationship with the team’s impatient owner, Peter Angelos. It would be a sign of yet another brutal mistake by the organization if Mazzilli is let go after just one year. But the possibility exists that he is not the man Angelos will want to pilot his well-paid athletes through another year.

The excitement in Baltimore that greeted this team when it took the field on April 4 has dissipated. It’s been replaced by a dark cynicism that the Orioles are stuck in a quagmire they cannot escape.

The hearts and minds of the Baltimore baseball faithful are facing a long and potentially tumultuous winter.