Got Milk?

 

Colton Cowser's been having a really nice week. Not only is he now among the top 5 WAR leaders on the Orioles, and not only are the Orioles closer to the pack in the wild card race than they ever have been this year...but, I'm not sure if you saw...he had this rather nice catch. Leaping catch at the wall at Coors. Saved the game in the bottom of the ninth. Even Andrew Kittredge couldn't believe it. 99% of other cases, that's not a catch, that blows the game, Rox win. Cowser made a very rare leaping catch that kept the Orioles' hopes alive. Now, granted, they lost the other two games. And now they have to play the Red Sox. But the eyes are finally on the O's, as they should be.

I got to see these guys in Baltimore a couple weeks ago. To be honest, the offense wasn't really the takeaway. As I was leaving, Samuel Basallo hit a moonshot to tie it and after I left, Dylan Beavers walked it off with some great contact work off of Bryan Baker, but while I was there these guys sort of chugged along. There were some great defensive plays, some good contact work, and enough of an effort against Shane McClanahan, but I wasn't wowed. After that, the fun really began, and they're now 69-71, a couple games back from the AL West contingency and with a decent enough shot at a surprise playoff experience. They just need to keep moving.

At this present moment, I think they've got enough to stay on this pace. The rotation is very solid, and consists of five guys that are trustworthy, can go deep into games and are taking care of themselves. Chris Bassitt's been improving since he got back. Brandon Young's having an excellent year, he's 9-3. Shane Baz and Kyle Bradish, despite 4 ERAs, are very dominant choices and are doing a lot of strong work. Trevor Rogers had a season high 11 Ks yesterday, bringing his total to 132. In addition, this team has Rico Garcia and Yennier Cano doing great setup work, Andrew Kittredge in the ninth, Alex Hoppe being lights-out as a return for Taylor Ward, and the very intriguing Luis De Leon. Pitching wise they haven't had this much security in a while, which is rare in a year without Felix Bautista.

As for the lineup, well...this team has three very cool choices at third base. The everyday guy is Christian Encarnacion Strand, and he's got 28 RBIs in 37 games. The fans already love him. The lefty platoon guy is Coby Mayo, and he has 19 homers and 55 RBIs, even if it isn't always pretty. And the recently-returning Blaze Alexander, now playing outfield more I think, is still an excellent contact bat, hitting .300 with 4 homers and 29 RBIs. This team has turned into a cavalcade of really cool options, ranging from Dylan Beavers and his clutch ability, Jackson Holliday and his slowly-forming all-purpose assets, Samuel Basallo and his walk-offs, Gunnar Henderson and his literally everything, and the already-beloved Pete Alonso. Alonso has 32 homers, 91 RBIs, and already is an Orioles hero. Plus, I hear this outfielder guy just showed up, this Luis Robert Jr. character. He's sure to be an added explosive element if this team can squeak into a playoff spot.

I don't know if this can happen. It takes both the Orioles withstanding the competition and being able to lap both AL West teams ahead of them, and right now I'm not sure how possible that is. But if it does happen, it'd be the coolest damn thing. I'd be all for it. They just need to keep this pace, and avoid losses like yesterday's. This Sox series will be a pretty important turning point for them. 

Coming Tonight: Another fun centerfielder from nearby actually.

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.

Farm Aid

 

The Orioles could have called the Jackson Holliday experiment a failure. Calling up a guy absolutely smoking the minors only for the major league pitching to do him in, all while the spotlight's firmly upon him, it's been seen before, but it's been a while since a call-up has underwhelmed like this. And with Holliday's callup feeling like a logical next step, it'd be understandable if the Orioles took a hit following the demotion.

But right as Holliday was struggling, a completely different Orioles rookie was commanding the attention, and keeping the Orioles competitive. And so that took the sting out of it.

That's what separates this Orioles team from one you may have seen in 2021, upon Adley Rutschman's debut. Back then, the whole team was hinging on a top prospect to do well so the winning iteration of the team could be built around them. Now, because this is already a competitive team with so many working homegrown parts, successful prospects are just ways of strengthening the already-strong core. So Colton Cowser coming up and going on a tear was just another great element of this team's development system.

Cowser's numbers have gone down a bit, but his 6 homers and 20 RBIs have still contributed mightily to the power numbers this team is capable of. Also a wise contribution? Kyle Stowers, who's now a major league piece after hitting a ton of homers in Norfolk. The trouble with this is that at the moment, it's been hard for Stowers to land substantial playing time now that Austin Hays is back, and now he's kinda warring with Stowers for time. And yes, while this isn't the situation for the next 10 years like Atlanta, considering that Anthony Santander's a free agent after the season, it's making this a rocky development period for both of them.

Then you think about Heston Kjerstad, who's lower on the totem pole than either of those two and really has no place to break into the major league outfield picture. So far for Norfolk, Kjerstad's played beautifully, hitting .337 with 33 RBIs and 11 homers. Not only has Kjerstad not succeeded in the majors in general, but he's been sent back to Norfolk, like Holliday, because of the lack of immediate success. There's so many young players on this team that it's impossible to get all of them in the lineup at once, and I'm guessing it's gonna lead some of them to be traded fairly soon. Kjerstad for sure, but possibly even someone like Cowser or Stowers if they don't heat up long-term. 

The rotation doesn't really have that much of a youth overflow issue, as Grayson Rodriguez and Tyler Wells happened to go down around the time that both Kyle Bradish and John Means came off the IL. Bradish has been strong so far, though he's yet to register a decision in 3 games. Means is looking very sturdy in 2 games back, and has 1 win under his belt. Burnes, Irvin and Kremer are still working pretty consistently as well. Last year there was somebody like D.L. Hall scratching to get in, but he's over in Milwaukee...hurt again, I think [I mean, his name IS 'D.L.'...]

The Orioles have enough working now that they'll be great for a while, it seems. I just hope that this competitive environment for the young players doesn't stunt the growth of any of their finest prospects.

Coming Tomorrow- I dunno what I'm happier about; the team doing well, or this guy finally becoming a multi-tool guy.