All this shouting about how the Rays are in first and the Yankees' injuries have plummeted them to last and nobody's talking about the fact that the Baltimore Orioles, who were 100-game losers a couple years ago, are in 2nd place with a 19-9 record. I thought this division was better than that.
Everyone was waiting for Adley Rutchman, Gunnar Henderson, Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall to bring this team to the top, and now that they have there's crickets solely because the Rays are the more impressive, home-run-hitting team. The O's are more interesting.
Right now, the Orioles have two people with 10+ steals, and it's barely even May. Jorge Mateo and Cedric Mullins have 10 and 11 steals respectively, and it's looking like the pitch clock has only helped their base-stealing prowess, which is always a good thing. You also have great defenders like Adam Frazier and Ramon Urias continuing their strong work, and excellent power hitting from Ryan Mountcastle, Austin Hays and, honestly, Mullins and Mateo, who are both versatile as hell this year.
The single most interesting thing about this team is the pitching. Mostly because, for my money, the best active pitcher in this organization hasn't even played since before the team was good. John Means has been injured the last few years, and is still injured at the current moment, which admittedly does rob this rotation of a sure thing. But at the same time, the slow roll of young pitchers is now allowing Grayson Rodriguez to pitch at MLB level, and after a few misfires he's finally figuring it out, as he hasn't allowed any runs in his last 2 starts. Tyler Wells might be the best-looking starter here, even if he wasn't a sure thing for the rotation going into the season; he's got a 2.79 ERA and a 0.724 WHIP. Even Kyle Gibson has looked sharp, even with his higher ERA--he's still 4-0, which he couldn't exactly do with the Phils. Bradish and Kremer leave a bit to be desired but they're still workhorses.
The bullpen is stranger still. A lot of 2022's biggest Oriole bullpen performers, like Cionel Perez, Dillon Tate and Keegan Akin, are either injured or not doing as well. And yet the bullpen is still one of the majors' best, solely because there's so many relievers, including closer Felix Bautista, Bryan Baker, Mike Baumann, Danny Coulombe [who the Twins handed over right before the beginning of the season] and Yennier Cano, the Cuban defector who has yet to allow an earned run, or even a hit this season after facing 33 batters. Cano is doing something absolutely incredible, and though someone is eventually gonna get a hit off him, I sincerely hope he rides this month towards even more career milestones.
This is a very interesting and fun team, and we should be hearing more about them. I know this is a very tough division, but I hope the Orioles stay this good and this enjoyable to watch.
Coming Tomorrow- The guy who made the cover of MLB The Show this year.
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