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The Baltimore Orioles didn’t make it back to the playoffs last year after their surprise run to the Division Series in 2012. But the Orioles did win 85 games in baseball’s toughest division and established that the turnaround under manager Buck Showalter is on a firm foundation. How far can that foundation go in the new season? That’s the question our Notebook Nine, the nine key talking points about the Orioles will seek to shed light on…

*One thing I don’t understand is why Las Vegas has been so down on the Orioles. Last season their Over/Under on the win futures was 79—this off a 93-win playoff year. Now, even with two straight winning seasons under their belt, the betting number for Oriole wins is 81—essentially it’s an even question on the Strip of whether the Orioles will even win more than they lose.


*Chris Davis and Manny Machado are the juice on this team at opposite corners of the infield, but there are question marks. Davis might not hit 53 home runs or slug .634 again, but he can be expected to do 33 and .501, the 2012 numbers and that’s sufficient. What Davis did last year was lift his on-base percentage to .370. Is the OBP here to stay? The 21-year-old Machado has to come back from a horrible knee injury at the end of the season. He’ll return on Opening Day or close to it, but the good people of Baltimore need only look an hour south to the Redskins and RG3 to know these things don’t always go smoothly.

*Davis’ model of adding consistent on-base percentage to his power game has to be emulated by several other players in the everyday lineup. Nelson Cruz, Adam Jones and J.J. Hardy can all hit the ball out of the park and into the alleys—all three have averaged at least 25 home runs a year each since 2011—but none of three get on base consistently. That can mean some long droughts when the ball isn’t flying.

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*Baltimore needs Matt Wieters and Nick Markakis to have comeback seasons at the plate. Wieters offers great value at catcher regardless of how he hits, but another Oriole who does more with home runs than he does at getting on base, also saw his power dip last season. Markakis, after being steady and consistent in right field from 2007-12, had a bad year. He does have an excuse—an injured wrist that kept him out of the ’12 postseason might not have fully recovered. Markakis needs to establish quickly that it was an injury hangover, not the onset of decline, that caused his 2013 woes.

*Overall, this team just needs another bat in the lineup and it’s underscored by the situation at DH. Nolan Reimold showed some potential in 2011, but injuries have limited him since. He’s slated to be the everyday DH. That just won’t cut in a division where your rivals trot out David Ortiz, Alfonso Soriano or even Matt Joyce in Tampa Bay. You can’t tell me the Orioles can’t at least find someone as good as Joyce to take this spot. If Reimold can’t be that guy, I don’t expect Showalter and GM Dan Duquette to sit around too long waiting.


*I really like the Oriole starting pitching. There’s no clear-cut ace, but Chris Tillman and Miguel Gonzalez have established themselves as consistent starters with ERAs in the high 3s, and with both still in their twenties, each could have a higher upside. Wei-Yin Chen can be up and down, but he’s a nice #3 or #4 starter. Bud Norris was acquired at last year’s trade deadline and he’s another arm who can, at minimum be a stabilizing back-of-the-rotation arm and he’s young enough to have an upside.

*This steady foundation was strengthened by bringing in free agent Ubaldo Jiminez from Cleveland. We know Jiminez is a steady horse and good for 200 innings, and that alone is something Showalter hasn’t had in Baltimore. After bad years in 2011-12, Jiminez regained his form last year and won 13 games with 3.30 ERA. The Orioles also have possibilities at both ends of the age spectrum—Kevin Gausman showed promise as a top prospect last year and at minimum can start the season in the bullpen. The Orioles also took a flyer on Johan Santana, whose career has pretty much been shot by shoulder problems. But the former Cy Young winner might make it back by June and he’s been effective when physically able to pitch. I wouldn’t suggest Oriole fans count on him, but the structure of the rotation makes it clear they don’t need to.

*Jim Johnson is gone after consecutive 50-save seasons and the closer’s gig is open. Tommy Hunter will get first chance at the opportunity. There are also rumors Norris could be shifted into this role depending on how Hunter does and how things shake out in the rotation. There’s no denying this is a big question mark in spring training.

*Those question marks extend through the rest of the bullpen, where only Darren O’Day can be counted on. Options include Brian Matusz and Ryan Webb, who have shown themselves to be competent. Ultimately though, Showalter has demonstrated himself supremely competent in this area, and I would expect him to figure out the bullpen. The big issue is going to be how long it takes for pitchers to find their roles.

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I’ve touched on lot of question marks here, but there’s frankly fewer questions regarding this Oriole team than there was either of the last two seasons. Which is why I’m glad to take the Over 81 on the win futures. My real debate is whether to pick this team to make the playoffs or even win the AL East, given that this is the best Opening Day starting rotation Showalter has had in his tenure in Charm City. I’ll settle on that com March 31 when the season opens. For now, just know that this team is again underrated coming into the year.

1983 Baltimore Orioles: The End Of The Frustration

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The 1983 Baltimore Orioles were a franchise that was as consistently in the hunt as anyone in baseball, but for the past thirteen years had not been able to win a championship. The previous four years had been as frustrating as any.

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In 1979, Baltimore led the Pittsburgh Pirates three games to one in the World Series, before losing three straight, the last two at home. One year later the Orioles won 100 games…but the Yankees won 103. In 1982, the final season for legendary manager Earl Weaver they’d nearly staged one of the great late-season rallies in baseball history before losing a winner-take-all regular season finale to the Milwaukee Brewers.

With a new manager on hand for 1983 in Joe Altobelli, Baltimore’s players felt like it was win now or else. The city might have experienced a championship in 1970, but the current cast of players had not.

Baltimore was led by two future Hall of Famers in the everyday lineup. Shortstop Cal Ripken was in his second year, while first baseman Eddie Murray had developed into a perennial All-Star at age 27. Murray posted an on-base percentage of .393, hit 33 home runs and finished with 111 RBI. It was good for second in the American League MVP voting. Ripken wound up with a .371 OBP, 27 home runs, 102 RBI and won the MVP award.

Ken Singleton, playing some rightfield and also DH’ing, was another productive player, with a .393 OBP/.436 slugging percentage. Beyond that, it was depth that characterized the 1983 Baltimore Orioles, with solid veteran players who knew their roles.

Catcher Rick Dempsey was a terrific field leader. Leftfielder Gary Roenicke was a productive bat and shared time with John Lowenstein, who had a knack for the key hit. Second baseman Rich Dauer was a very steady gloveman. Al Bumbry was reliable in centerfield and competent, if not spectacular at the top of the order. Jim Dwyer and Joe Nolan were good bats off the bench.

And the starting pitching, an Oriole staple going back to their first World Series title in 1966, had Scott McGregor, Mike Flanagan and young Mike Boddicker to anchor the rotation, with Storm Davis a reliable fourth. McGregor won 18 games with 3.18 ERA, while Boddicker won 16 with an ERA of 2.77. Davis logged 200 innings and was consistent, and Altobelli pieced together the rest of the rotation with Dennis Martinez, 26-year-old Allan Ramirez, and the aging 37-year-old Jim Palmer.

In the bullpen, Altobelli could turn to workhorses Sammy Stewart and Tippy Martinez, a good righty-lefty combo and each relievers in the old school tradition, who could throw 3-4 innings at a crack. Martinez saved 21 games, won nine more and finished with a 2.35 ERA. Stewart worked 144 innings and finished with a 3.62 ERA.

Baltimore started the season 23-13, mostly against AL West teams in the early portion of the schedule, but they lost seven in a row in a schedule stretch against the Toronto Blue Jays, Minnesota Twins, and the opener of a series with the Kanas City Royals. Fortunately, no one in the AL East really had traction and the Orioles’ 25-21 record put them squarely in the mix of a race where six of the division’s seven teams (everyone but the Cleveland Indians) were packed on top of each other.

The Orioles played two series with the Brewers in early June and won five of the six games. Baltimore spurted into first place and to a lead as big as four games. But they went 4-7 in the ensuing stretch of games with the Yankees and Detroit Tigers. When the early All-Star arrived on July 3, Baltimore was 42-34, and there were still six teams—the Orioles, Yankees, Tigers, Brewers, Red Sox and Blue Jays—within a five games of each other.

Baltimore won 10 of 13 out of the break and were tied for first. They moved ahead by two games, but again couldn’t stand prosperity. A seven-game losing streak followed, but still, no one was able to take control of the race. The Orioles only slipped a game back of Detroit and Milwaukee.

August 24 started a decisive stretch. Perhaps it’s appropriate that the final push began with the Blue Jays, Twins and Royals, the same teams the Orioles slumped against in the spring. This time, Baltimore won 11 of 12 against these teams and got some separation in the AL East. They were 4 ½ games up by Labor Day, and the lead was still five games on September 9, with only the Yankees, Tigers and Brewers left to give chase.

Baltimore went to New York a four-game weekend series. They lost the opener 5-3 when McGregor gave up a two-run shot to Yankee third baseman Graig Nettles in the eighth inning. The first game of a Saturday doubleheader was tied 2-2 in the ninth, when the Orioles broke it open with six runs, punctuated by a Lowenstein grand slam. Then they took the nightcap 3-1 behind seven strong innings from Boddicker. Baltimore finished the job on Sunday by scoring five times in the second inning and winning 5-3.

A series victory in Boston followed, and up next was four games at home with Milwaukee. Boddicker delivered another dominating start in the Friday opener to win 8-1. On Saturday, Bumbry got three hits and scored three runs in a 5-4 win. On Sunday, Palmer was hit hard and gave up seven runs in the second inning. But the Orioles came all the way back and it was tied 9-9 in the ninth inning.

Enter an unlikely hero. John Stefero was a backup catcher who had only 14 plate appearances in 1983 and just 210 for his career. He delivered a walkoff single to complete the 10-9 comeback win. What makes that especially noteworthy is that Stefero did it again on Sunday, with the walkoff hit in an 8-7 win.

Baltimore went to Detroit and split four games, but by this point, a split was as good as a sweep. There were just ten days left in the season after that series and the lead was 7 ½ games. The final nine games of the season—against Milwaukee, Detroit and New York—had promised drama, but would instead be a coronation ride for the Orioles, as they cruised into an AL East title with a record of 98-64.

Only one team in baseball won more games than Baltimore and it was the 99-win Chicago White Sox, the opponent in the American League Championship Series. McGregor lost a pitcher’s duel to start the series, but Boddicker answered with a Game 2 win and the Orioles ultimately clinched in a 10-inning thriller won by a home run from Tito Landrum.

The World Series was an I-95 affair against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Series followed a similar path to the ALCS—McGregor lost a hard-luck pitchers’ duel, Boddicker answered and the Orioles took over, winning the World Series in five games.

Baltimore was finally back on top of the baseball world. The feeling that many veteran players had, that this was their last real shot, proved to be accurate. The Orioles never seriously contended in the AL East again until 1989, and didn’t get back to the playoffs until after the realignment of 1994 created a three-division format and wild-card. The city still awaits a return to the World Series.

MLB Coverage: The Lurking Orioles Face Crucial Stretch

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The Baltimore Orioles have been lurking in the American League playoff race for several weeks now, sitting just outside either first place in the AL East, or the final wild-card spot. The schedule stretch the Birds have coming up likely means that one way or another, the lurking won’t continue much longer, and TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage looks to break down the team’s recent form.

Baltimore is 67-56, 4 ½ games back of Boston in the AL East, and three games back of Oakland for the last wild-card. Tampa Bay is prominent in both races, wedged in between the Orioles and Red Sox in the division, and holding down the first wild-card berth. Baltimore’s big schedule stretch starts with a three-game home series against Tampa Bay tonight. Oakland comes to town on the weekend. Then it’s a nine-game road trip with stops at Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium and concluding with fellow wild-card chaser Cleveland.

Offense has carried Baltimore through much of the year, although the runs have slowed since the All-Star break. The Orioles are still sixth in the American League in runs scored in that timeframe, but considering they’re third for the season as a whole, this is a bit of a bump in the road.


In that regard, first baseman Chris Davis is a microcosm of the team—with a stat line of .353 on-base percentage/.588 slugging percentage he’s swinging what is a good bat by any reasonable standard…except the standard Davis himself set in the first half when he hit 37 home runs by the break.

Expecting Davis to continue at that surreal pace was never reasonable, and what has to disturb Baltimore manager Buck Showalter is that other players are slumping. Manny Machado’s numbers since the break are a poor .279/.385, and Nick Markakis similarly struggling. Nate McLouth and J.J. Hardy aren’t getting on base consistently.

Finally, Matt Wieters is still not hitting, continuing what’s been a tough year for the catcher offensively, and it was the anticipation of better production from Wieters that could offset the return of Davis to the realm of humanity.

If you were pessimistic about the Orioles in June or July, this would be the result you were waiting for—the team’s on-base percentage has never been its strength and teams that rely heavily on power go through stretches where there’s a power outage. Although after last year’s Super Bowl maybe one shouldn’t mention power outages anywhere near the city of Baltimore.

But there’s a flip side to every coin, and this one is the reason the reason the Orioles have continued to lurk, rather than fall off the radar. That’s some improved pitching.

Baltimore’s team ERA got as low as 12th in the American League well into the first half, a completely unsustainable showing for a contender, regardless of the offense. But the combination of improved performance, returns to health and new acquisitions have moved the O’s into the middle of the league if we again use the post-All Star break as our measuring stick.

Chris Tillman is locked in and pitching like a true #2 starter, posting a 2.88 ERA in five starts. Wei-Yin Chen got back from the disabled list, and has posted a respectable 3.79 ERA in his six times to the mound. And the front office went out and acquired Bud Norris at the trade deadline, and Norris has given a manageable 3.91 ERA in his own four starts.

That’s starting pitching good enough to either make the playoffs, or if you miss, to at least do so with 90-92 wins, which falls into the “just tip your cap to the other team” territory. What’s hurt the Birds is that Jim Johnson is still coughing up saves. The closer has blown three since the break, including one in the finale last week at Arizona that resulted in a series sweep.


The easy thing to say is that this will turn around—and maybe that’s true. But it’s also been a season-long problem, so the “everything will work itself out” line that makes sense in May, isn’t as easy to fall back in the latter half of August.

Baltimore remains one of the most interesting teams in the American League, in the sense that it’s very easy to devise scenarios that have them winning the AL East and ultimately the World Series, or slumping and ending up with an 84-win non-playoff year. This can go either way.

We’ll know by the conclusion of September 4, when that aforementioned schedule stretch comes to an end. The timing works well for fans in Charm City—it’s the next night that the Ravens open the NFL regular season, so fans in Birdland will know whether baseball is going to be a hot topic in September.