Friday, October 27, 2017
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World Champions 1983, 1970, 1966 American League Champions 1983, 1979, 1971, 1970, 1969, 1966 American League East Division Champions 2014, 1997, 1983, 1979, 1974, 1973, 1971, 1970, 1969 American League Wild Card 2016, 2012, 1996 Friday, October 27, 2017 Columns: Managerial changes in AL East leave Orioles, Buck Showalter in awkward spot going forward The Sun 10/27 Third baseman Manny Machado the Orioles' sole finalist for Gold Glove award The Sun 10/26 Never fleet of foot, Orioles base running lagged behind league yet again in 2017 The Sun 10/26 Machado is named finalist for Gold Glove MLB.com 10/26 Orioles' Arizona Fall League overview MLB.com 10/26 Showalter moves up active list, Miller moves on to next career MASNsports.com 10/27 Manny Machado is lone Orioles finalist for Gold Glove Award MASNsports.com 10/26 Talking Joe Girardi’s ouster, game times and more MASNsports.com 10/27 Will Mark Trumbo Be Back With The Orioles In 2018? PressBoxOnline.com 10/26 Myriad Orioles Thoughts: Machado’s Gold Glove chances; Davis snubbed; Buck moving on up BaltimoreBaseball.com 10/26 Machado is Orioles’ lone Gold Glove finalist BaltimoreBaseball.com 10/26 http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bs-sp-orioles-managerial-future-20171027- story.html Managerial changes in AL East leave Orioles, Buck Showalter in awkward spot going forward By Jon Meoli / The Baltimore Sun October 27, 2017 For all of his feuds with them and the competition that builds with 19 divisional games each season, Orioles manager Buck Showalter must be feeling a difficult mix of relief and remorse for the firing of the two AL East managers that earned playoff berths this year — Boston's John Farrell and now New York's Joe Girardi. On the one hand, managing against those two for as long as he did made Showalter particularly sensitive to the idiosyncrasies of each man and his team, which made them easy targets as he fostered the Orioles' "Us against the world" mentality. He'll undoubtedly find the same with new Red Sox manager Alex Cora and whomever replaces Girardi, but it will take a while to reach the levels of their predecessors. However, as someone who has been fired three times and seen success come after, Showalter has a good idea of what the future could hold for those two titans in his division. They made managerial switches because their clubhouses are full of young, dynamic talent that should contend for championships for the next five years at least, and managers better suited for this generation of both players and the game itself. Cora will be in lock step with the front office on personnel decisions and has been praised for his knack of translating analytics into relatable information to the players. Girardi was numbers- obsessed from the start, as his infamous binder showed, but even he found himself out of step with how his players and management want things run. So that each team, both with vastly superior young talent than the Orioles have and a longer window to continue contending, has made a move to improve that will give everyone at Camden Yards pause as to what happens going forward. The Yankees announced themselves as contenders this month, while Boston's back-to-back division titles and the core of players that got them there aren't going anywhere. Showalter had the perfect team early in his tenure to foster resentment for the two division powers, and rode that to great effect. The Orioles still seem to take pleasure in beating Boston, which they did 10 times this year, and a quarter of their schedule being made up of these two teams will allow some kind of simmering ill will to continue. But as he enters the last year of his contract — and so do stars Manny Machado, Adam Jones, and Zach Britton, not to mention executive vice president Dan Duquette — the elder statesman among managers in the American League East and second-longest tenured manager in the AL probably doesn't know what to make of the changes among his peers. There's likely no transition to take advantage of — only the hope that a better starting rotation in 2018 allows the Orioles to keep up before such decisions have to be made on their end. http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bs-sp-orioles-manny-machado-gold-glove- 20171026-story.html Third baseman Manny Machado the Orioles' sole finalist for Gold Glove award By Jon Meoli / The Baltimore Sun October 26, 2017 Orioles third baseman Manny Machado is the club's lone finalist for a Rawlings Gold Glove Award, putting him in contention for his third award since 2013. Machado, who is an American League finalist alongside Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays and José Ramírez of the Cleveland Indians, continued to make his signature highlight-worthy plays at the hot corner this past season, even if his defense wasn't as highly rated by analytics as previous seasons. According to FanGraphs, among AL third basemen who played at least 700 innings he ranked fourth with six defensive runs saved and sixth with a 4.9 UZR/150, which credits or debits fielders for the value of a batted ball in their area based on whether they make a play on it. Oakland Athletics rookie Matt Chapman and Todd Frazier, who split the season between the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees, both rated in the top three in both categories but were not nominated. Machado won his first Gold Glove in 2013, and followed that up with another in 2015, when he was also voted the Platinum Glove winner for the game's best fielder. Last year, first baseman Chris Davis was a finalist along with Machado, though neither won. This year, Davis' defense took a step backward. The only other likely candidate this year seemed to be second baseman Jonathan Schoop, who had his best defensive season since 2014 by most measurements but was left outside the top three. The AL finalists at second base are Ian Kinsler of the Detroit Tigers, Brian Dozier of the Minnesota Twins and Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox. The winners will be announced on Nov. 7 at 9 p.m. on ESPN. http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bs-sp-orioles-base-running-struggles- 20171025-story.html Never fleet of foot, Orioles base running lagged behind league yet again in 2017 By Jon Meoli / The Baltimore Sun October 26, 2017 Of all the obvious ways the Orioles can improve in 2017 — the pitching staff and overall defense chief among them — there's another simple facet of the game they can improve that might make things a bit better in 2018. Stealing bases has never been something the Orioles utilized in their recent big-ball era, but the amount of outs they've run into over the past few years has taken runs — and likely wins — off the board. That their league-low 32 stolen bases were 21 fewer than the next-nearest team is only part of the picture. The Orioles rated in the bottom half of the league in several base-running categories, both traditional and more advanced, and not all of it has to do with their lack of speed. According to baseball-reference.com, the Orioles took extra bases on singles 37 percent of the time, which tied for 22nd in the majors. That includes taking an extra base 24.8 percent of the time on singles with a batter on first, and scoring from first on a double 43.5 percent of the time. As a station-to-station team, it's only natural that these aren't higher. However, when the offense is as inconsistent as it was in 2017, staying conservative on the bases and waiting for the big blast could leave some opportunities for runs on the table. FanGraphs boils base running down to three facets — extra bases taken, stolen bases and double plays. By Ultimate Base Running (UBR), which credits or debits base runners with the run expectancy from whether they take an extra base or not, the Orioles had a -6.9 rating this year, their worst since 2010. In the overall running metric, the Orioles were at -15, their worst since 2012 and third worst in the game. There's a difference between not stealing bases — which is more understandable — and the Orioles' problems in other facets on the bases. It's unreasonable to send a player without the speed to avoid an out, but not everyone fits that mold. Manny Machado went from 20 steals to zero to nine in the past three seasons, and was criticized for running into outs on the bases early in 2017 with Chris Davis at the plate, though in hindsight maybe Machado's aggression was warranted in those circumstances. The likes of Joey Rickard and Craig Gentry had the speed to make an impact, but rarely had the opportunity. Perhaps the recent arrival of Austin Hays, the pending arrival of Cedric Mullins and maybe the addition of a speedy bench infielder if Ryan Flaherty leaves in free agency could expand that facet of the game for the Orioles. But there's nothing they can do about the caliber of athletes on the roster, many of whom don't have footspeed as their greatest physical gift. If they're homering at the prodigious rate of 2016, maybe they can afford to be conservative and keep as many men on base as possible next year.