For All the Cows

 

It's important to point out that the Orioles are currently above .500 during the Tony Mansolino era. I'm not sure if Mansolino himself was the factor that sparked this improvement, or if it was just the activation of a bunch of nice players at once, or even just me sitting in on a game at the beginning of June, but regardless, the Orioles are closer to a good baseball team now. Not completely one, but closer to resembling one.

The bad news is that Adley Rutschman is out til after the break, and there's still a rotation's worth of pitchers on the IL. The good news is that the people the O's have recently gotten back have been extremely helpful in turning the team around. Colton Cowser, who was very good in his rookie year, has been excellent recently, with a .257 average since coming off the IL, 5 homers and 13 RBIs. If I could do last year over again, I'd have traded Cowser instead of Kyle Stowers, but the truth was that Stowers wasn't a proven success in the majors yet and Cowser was killing it. Having Cowser surging is a big reason why the O's have gone 17-11 since May 28th.

Another big factor is the arrival of an actual good starting pitcher, and by that I don't mean Charlie Morton clinging to the last throes of life this month. Surprisingly I mean Trevor Rogers, whose acquisition last year felt like one of the dumbest things the Orioles had done in some time. A guy who immediately got hurt was worth Norby and Stowers? BS. Well, now Rogers is healthy and actually putting something decent together this year, lowering his ERA to 2.05 and showing true dominance in all four of his starts so far. This is what Rogers can do when he is healthy. The only strange part is that it happens so infrequently, and that it's happened while basically everyone else is hurt. I hope his good fortune persists, and I hope some of the other guys can join in on that.

I think the best case scenario for this Orioles team is that they build a little through the second half, maybe lose one or two pieces [Mullins is getting mentioned by GMs, maybe Laureano gets dealt too to make way for another young guy], and still be generally seen as a player to compete. I think seeing a better year from Jackson Holliday, getting consistent production from Henderson and Cowser, and at least some signs of life from the pitching [Bautista, Kremer, Sugano and Baker have been great] is still promising even as the team circles last, and I think that Rays comeback and some other big wins this year have made it a lot more likely that the O's could stay out of last this year. 

Coming Tonight: He was very good at fulfilling the 'team hero' spot while Bryce Harper was gone.