Ah, summer. I’ve spent most of my time off watching baseball (it is kind of my job), and there’s plenty to say about the season so far. The Orioles and Nationals are both in the basement of their division and I doubt either team is about to pull out of there.
The Orioles have been better than I first expected, however. Despite the fact that they’re a shoo-in for fifth place, they still manage to compete with the rest of the American League East; it’s pretty impressive, given that the other four teams have winning records (as of now). Baltimore’s only a few games under .500, and if I was being optimistic I’d say they’d finish around .500. However, the team’s history suggests they’ll struggle from August through the end of the season and end at the bottom of the major league standings.
Matt Wieters got his major league debut and is slowly settling into his everyday role. He obviously had the jitters when he was first brought up (or, as some Baltimore fans with those “Matt Wieters Facts” shirts on may tell you, he was just taking it easy on the other team). He’s shown he belongs in the majors, but don’t call him a Hall-of-Famer quite yet.
And speaking of settling down, Koji Uehara still seems to be adjusting to American baseball. He’s on the disabled list right now, which may possibly be a result of him being unable to adjust to the more grueling MLB schedule in comparison with Nippon Professional Baseball’s. When I spoke with him, he had the iron lung of icepacks around his arm and said that he wasn’t feeling so great.
“It’s more intense [playing with Baltimore,]” Uehara said though his translator. “The road trips are tough.”
Uehara won seven awards in Nippon Baseball’s Central League 10 years ago, including Rookie of the Year, the Gold Glove and ERA, strikeouts and wins champion. I don’t think he’s going to repeat any of those in Baltimore a decade later. (On a similar note, I don’t think any broadcasters in the area are going to be able to pronounce his name correctly this year, either.)
Of course, you can’t talk about struggles in baseball without talking about the Washington Nationals. With by far the worst record in either league, it’s becoming almost inexplicable why they’ve lost so much.
It’s easy to chalk it up to just pitching and defense, but the starting pitching is quite good (and will only get better) and the defense has gotten better… which leaves us with the bullpen.
But can more than 50 losses less than halfway through the season be chalked up to just the bullpen? I tend to doubt that’s the only reason.
The Nats have won very few games this season, but they’ve won even less when they trail going into the late innings. Their offense rarely picks up late in the game – if they don’t score a good amount early, don’t count on them scoring much at all.
The team’s already made several changes with the bullpen and seems to be constantly sending people up and down from the Triple-A club. Manager Manny Acta said that despite all of the changes, the clubhouse atmosphere still jives; however, that’s not the problem.
“The problem is our pitching and defense,” Acta said.
At least he’s forward with it.
Tyler Clippard was recently brought up from Triple-A to help stabilize the bullpen a little bit.
Despite only being with the club for a week or so, he’s optimistic that the team’s about to turn a corner.
“I really think we could, right now,” Clippard said. “This team could easily string together six or seven wins.”
I hope so, Tyler. Not just for the Nationals, but for the Orioles too. It would make my job a lot less aggravating.
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