Playing Patience or Panic with 5 Troubling Early-Season Baltimore Orioles Starts
The sky is falling, the sky is falling!
With the MLB season now a week-and-a-half old, fans across the country have begun to overanalyze every little thing going on with their specific teams.
It's natural. It comes with being a baseball fan. After all, isn't that why so many statistics are kept?
The Baltimore Orioles have had a solid yet underwhelming start to the season, as their record currently stands at 7-8 going into Thursday's action. Some guys, such as center fielder Adam Jones and catcher Caleb Joseph, have gotten off to a great start this season. And, like any other team, some guys have struggled to find their game in the early going.
Still though, the team led by manager Buck Showalter keeps chuggin' along, even with the struggles of certain players. When it comes to some of these guys, fans shouldn't worry because they'll eventually find themselves, while other players are giving some cause for concern.
Differentiating between a situation where a guy just needs some time to work through things and a worrisome situation is difficult, but let's take a look at some key situations for the O's and take our best educated guess.
Kevin Gausman, Pitcher
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Top pitching prospect Kevin Gausman started the season in the bullpen because the O's had six starting pitchers for five rotation spots and he happened to be the odd man out.
After having experienced success in the bullpen in 2013, Gausman has struggled with his role out of the gate this year.
The hard-throwing righty has appeared in six games this season totaling 10 innings of relief. He's given up seven runs (six earned) while allowing 11 hits. His five walks to nine strikeouts isn't exactly pretty, either, but it's prettier than the 5-6 ratio he had prior to his most recent two-inning scoreless appearance.
Young players almost always experience bumps in the road while they're trying to find their way in the bigs, and with how talented Gausman is, that's probably all that's going on here. Give him some time and he'll straighten things out. Heck, he's likely to be the first man called upon when the team needs another starter, so maybe getting back to a role he's more used to will straighten him out.
Verdict: Patience
Manny Machado, Third Baseman
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It took Manny Machado a little while to get his first hit of the season.
He started the season 0-15 at the plate before he managed a single in the second inning of the sixth game of the season back on April 12. Since then, he's tallied nine more hits, boosting his average to .196 this year.
Like Gausman, Machado is too talented to keep this struggle going. One nice sign from him is that even through he's only had 10 hits this season, two of those were doubles and another was a homer, so the extra-base ability is there.
Manny will come around. Last year, he started slow after his return from knee surgery but ended up going on a good stretch before he injured himself again. Don't be surprised if a similar situation happens this year.
Manny will be all right soon enough.
Verdict: Patience
Chris Davis, First Baseman
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Unfortunately for everyone involved, Chris Davis hasn't had a good start to his walk year.
The big left-handed slugger has struggled to slug so far, belting just two homers in 52 at-bats and managing a .250 batting average (which is up from the .239 he had after Monday's game) and a .339 OBP.
The most concerning thing is his strikeout percentage. While his career mark is 35 percent, he's struck out 22 times this season, equaling 42 percent of his at-bats on the season.
While 14 games is hardly enough to judge any player or team on anything, Davis is going to need to turn things around soon and get himself going if he wants to prove his critics wrong as well as set himself up for a big contract this winter. After his fairly terrible year last season (.196 BA, 26 homers, 72 RBI in 450 at-bats), Davis needs to prove he can be more like the guy who hit 33 homers in 2012 and 53 homers in 2013.
If Davis' slow start this year was an anomaly then it wouldn't be much of a cause for concern, but when one considers his past struggles, it's easy to become worried about his start this year.
Verdict: Slight Panic
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Bud Norris, Starting Pitcher
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To put it simply, Bud Norris has not pitched well at all during the year 2015.
After a strong 2014 campaign where he went 15-8 with a 3.65 ERA in 28 starts, the right-hander struggled in spring training as he went 0-3 with a 9.26 ERA in four starts covering 11.2 innings.
At the time, many fans (including myself) dismissed his rocky spring as an anomaly, but it's hard not to get worried after his first three regular-season starts.
Norris' first start of the season came in the Orioles' home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays, and on that day he gave up eight earned runs in three innings of work. His second start, at home against the New York Yankees, consisted of five innings with three earned runs allowed and seven strikeouts. His most recent start, also against the Jays but in Toronto this time, was even worse than his first: 2.1 innings, nine earned runs and three walks.
Maybe the Jays have figured Norris out and he'll find himself as the season progresses and he faces a larger variety of teams. But for now, it's hard not to be worried about the righty. If he isn't able to bring down that 17.42 ERA and quickly, he may lose his spot in the rotation.
Verdict: Panic
Steve Pearce, First Baseman/Corner Outfielder/DH
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After a breakout campaign in 2014 where he posted a .293 batting average, .373 OBP, 26 doubles and 21 homers, Steve Pearce got off to a solid start this season, belting a home run in each of the first two games in Tampa Bay against the Rays.
Since then, Pearce has struggled to do much of anything, as his average is sitting at .152 and he hasn't homered since April 7.
The O's offense hasn't entirely been there to start the season; it seems the team can never really string hits together, just tally them sporadically throughout the game. It may be that Pearce is pressing as he's attempting to carry the team on his back, or it could be that he's trying too hard to replicate what he did last year.
Regardless, the O's need Pearce to figure it out soon because his bat was incredibly valuable to them last season (his presence arguably saved the team's season), and with the losses of Nick Markakis and Nelson Cruz in free agency last winter, he's even more valuable to the club.
When one considers what he did last season, Pearce deserves a little time to figure it out and get his bat going. Because if and when he's able to do that, he'll give the O's lineup a big boost.
Verdict: Patience
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