Baltimore Orioles: 5 Reasons the O's Struggles Will Continue in 2012

The Baltimore Orioles were one of the surprise teams at the beginning of this season.

Out of the gate, the O's won six of their first seven games. Their pitching was phenomenal and their hitting came out of nowhere.

However, as quickly as the Orioles came out of the gate, reality set in and they began a free fall down the AL East standings.

Now, with only a little under a month and a half left in the season, Baltimore is on pace to lose 100 games. A disappointment only one other Orioles team (1954) has had.

The Orioles were once again sellers at the trade deadline and had to say goodbye to their best relief pitcher in Koji Uehara.

Not counting Uehara, the Orioles pitching staff has struggled against the AL East and the hitting has not been able to keep up.

Unfortunately, the Orioles have lost another season and here are five reasons that the struggles will continue in 2012.

1. The Orioles Are Still in the AL East

For as long as I can remember, the bottom of the AL East has belonged to the Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays.

Unfortunately for those teams, they have to face two of the best teams in the league in the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees on a regular basis.

This season, the Orioles struggled against both teams, having a combined record of 4-17.

Both teams are consistently adding talent in the offseason and are always contenders in big name free agent signings.

Just this past offseason, the Red Sox upgraded their already stellar team by adding All-Star center fielder Carl Crawford and homerun machine Adrian Gonzalez. 

On opening day, the Red Sox payroll was $163 million, only second to the Yankees who payroll was at $208 million.

The Orioles payroll on opening day payroll was close to half of Boston's at $87 million.

Baltimore has talent, there is no denying that, but they cannot compare to New York and Boston, who have win-now attitudes every single year.

Unfortunately for the O's, the only way they can compete is to spend more money and they don't have that option.

Their only other option is to hope for a miracle realignment that gets them out of the East so they wouldn't have to face the Yankees and Red Sox more than any other teams.

Until then, the best the Orioles can do is third place in a division that is stacked at the top.

2. Lack of Big Name Signings

The other problem being in the same division as New York and Boston is that the Orioles don't have the money to keep up with the two juggernauts.

A few years ago, the team was going after hometown boy Mark Texeira.

Teixeira grew up in Severna Park, Maryland and the Orioles and Washington Nationals had plans of trying to court the first baseman.

Both teams made long term offers for Teixeira, Baltimore's was a seven-year deal worth $150 million.

The Orioles couldn't go much higher and in the end, Teixeira signed with the Yankees because they had the formula for success and offered $30 million more than Baltimore.

The Orioles just don't have the kind of money to spend on free agents like New York and Boston do.

The only thing the Orioles can do to try and keep up in the East is sign aging veterans in hopes there is still some talent left in the tank.

Before the beginning of this season, Baltimore signed 35-year-old Derrick Lee and 36-year-old Vladimir Guerrero.

Lee got off to a slow start, batting .246, with only 12 homers and 41 RBIs and was later traded to Pittsburgh before the trade deadline.

It was the same story for Guerrero as he also struggled this season.

His batting average of .277 is way below his career average, while his home run total (10) was 19 less than what he hit in Texas last year on their way to the World Series.

The Orioles have been on the losing end for quite some time and other than money, big-name free agents want to come to a team with a winning atmosphere.

Baltimore is trying to take the right steps towards a winning atmosphere through their farm system, but they still have a ways to go.

3. Below Average Pitching

In the beginning of June, the Orioles were believed to finally be turning the corner.

They started the month by winning six of their first eight games and had a combined earned run average of 2.50.

The team was finally on the right path and were close to getting back up to a .500 record.

However, after June 10th, the Orioles pitching staff surrendered 92 runs in 17 games and recorded an ERA of 5.38 for the rest of the month.

For the entire month of June, they ranked 26th in the league.

In July, the pitching got even worse. Their ERA shot up to 6.17 and they finished dead last in runs allowed with 157.

Alex Van Rees over at Pro Sports Blogging went into just how bad the Orioles actually were in the month of July,

"The Orioles’ staff ranked last in the majors in pitching throughout July and 12 of the 30 MLB teams surrendered less than 100 earned runs."

"The Birds’ staff gave up more than double the amount of runs that the Chicago White Sox’s staff allowed in the month (77), which was the lowest in the majors."

As the trade deadline came around, the Orioles traded away their best relief pitcher in Koji Uehara.

Without Uehara, the staff only had three pitchers with an ERA under four.

The staff has struggled after such a hot start in April. Since June 10th, they have not been able to win two games in a row.

They have allowed seven or more runs 20 times since that time and the opposing batters have accumulated double digit runs on seven different occasions.

The numbers for the O's pitchers are so bad because they are being thrown into the fire early and often against the Red Sox and Yankees.

Having to face top talent like Adrian Gonzalez, David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira several times over the course of a season can be bad news for any major league pitcher.

One of the more talented pitchers on the roster Jeremy Guthrie, has been involved several times in trade talks during his time in Baltimore.

If the Orioles cannot improve, Guthrie may be the next pitcher that is sent elsewhere.

4. Inconsistent Hitting

While the pitching struggled, the offense could only keep up for so long.

During the month of June, the O's hitting was on fire.

The team put together a .286 batting average as a team, which was third in the league behind the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox.

The team had 252 hits, tallied 108 runs, and hit 35 homeruns. J.J. Hardy, Nick Markakis and Mark Reynolds all had solid months as the Orioles were close to reaching the .500 mark.

However, towards the end of the month, Baltimore's pitching struggled and the team's bats could not keep up.

As June ended, it didn't get any better for the O's as they only won seven of the 27 games played in the month of July.

The pitching continued to struggle, and the batting was not far behind, recording a batting average of .238, good for 24th in the league.

Hardy, who had a career month in June, may have struggled the most, as he only hit .195 and played in all 27 of the games in July.

Only two hitters, Adam Jones and Vladimir Guerrero, hit above .300 during the month of July.

The Orioles averaged around four runs a game in July, while the pitching staff averaged around six a game.

Baltimore have struggled even more in the month of August. In only 11 games, they are batting a combined batting average of .237 and rank 28th in the league, 13th in the American League.

Other than Hardy, no Baltimore hitter is hitting over .263 and three hitters are hitting below .200 (Nolan Reimold, Guerrero, and Mark Reynolds).

If the Orioles can't improve their pitching, then their hitting is going to have to become more consistent and raise their run average. If they can't then their struggles will continue.

5. Continually Sell Top Talent

When any team is out of the playoff running before the trade deadline, the first thing they look to do is look for buyers.

Team's that are in the hunt for the playoffs are looking for that player that is going to push them over the hump and take them to October baseball.

Unfortunately for the O's, they have been sellers for the past few seasons.

Every player that comes into the MLB wants to be on a winning team and reach the World Series.

If a player is on a team that continually struggles, then sooner or later they are going to get fed up and ask for a trade.

In return, the Orioles get prospects in return to build their team for the future.

However, that causes the Orioles to start from scratch season after season. While the Yankees and Red Sox continue to add talent, the O's are filling up their farm system.

This leads to the Orioles retaking their spot at the bottom of the division and this season was no different.

Fans saw the Orioles deal away both Derrick Lee as well as Koji Uehara, who was the team's best relief pitcher.

When Lee was traded, he stated that when he signed with the O's in the offseason, he knew there was a "pretty good chance" he was not going to finish the season in Baltimore.

Uehara was having an impressive season this year. He was the only pitcher that had an ERA under two at an astounding 1.72.

Now Uehara is in Texas as the Rangers battle to return to the Fall Classic.

As Baltimore's prospects begin to show promise in the big leagues, the team is forced to trade them away to the team with the best offer.

The Orioles have not been able to have that one defining franchise player that the team can build around.

Matt Wieters is slowly becoming that guy, but if the team doesn't begin to win consistently, he may suffer the same fate.