...As I write this post, the Baltimore Orioles are in second place.
...what the flying hell?
I think that...it has to be that the other three AL East teams are just so bad right now that a simply okay one, like the O's, are in second. And let me be clear- it's not like in 2014, where I said the Orioles were leading the AL East by default even when they had the better team (fun fact: that post singlehandedly prevented my 100-subscriber milestone for another year). This is a team with...practically no stars. It's just Trey Mancini and Chris Davis that a casual baseball fan might have heard of. The rest of the roster is made up of either B-listers or...late additions like Rio Ruiz or Dwight Smith, that weren't good enough for better rosters.
...and now they're in second.
Look, one of the impressive things about this Orioles team is that...a lot of the pieces were in place last year. We just weren't looking. David Hess had some nice starts last season before the team completely went to hell, so his rise to semi-prominence sort of makes sense in retrospect. Renato Nunez and Jonathan Villar had good second halves last year, so of course they're doing well now. Andrew Cashner and Alex Cobb are doing modest jobs now, and they kind of were last season as well.
Now granted, nobody is completely owning the league, and while Trey Mancini is definitely the standout, compare his numbers to Trout's or Bellinger's and they're not much. But...for a second place team fighting to stay relevant, they're surprisingly inspiring. I don't think they're gonna be this high all season, but it's nice that it's happening.
Coming Tonight: Speaking of teams missing their stars, a Washington outfielder looks to ease the pain from the loss of...another Washington outfielder.
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