Baltimore Orioles: Don’t judge someone by their worst day

The Baltimore Orioles are better than their record indicates. Sure there are a million cliche’s out there which attest to the contrary, however I’m talking facts here. Facts backed up by numbers. This team flat-out is better than it’s record indicates.

Adam Jones is only hitting .250. Now in saying that he’s also been fairly consistent thus far this year. But he’s a career .277 hitter. It stands to reason that he’ll progress upwards towards the mean. The same is true of Chris Davis, and his current .144 average. He’s a career .244 hitter, who normally hits with a lot of power.

And those are just two examples. And here’s another – Alex Cobb. Granted Cobb’s only been an Oriole for a couple of weeks, however he’s been shelled in two starts. He’s pitching at a 15.43 ERA, compared to his career mark of 3.62. Again, one has to imagine that he’ll progress towards his career means.

Buck Showalter has used a line from time to time about not judging people based on their worst days or moments. Buck’s not only a gifted baseball manager, but he’d make a great life coach as well; that’s good advice all around. Think of the worst moment, day, or even time period you’ve ever had in your life. Would you really want to have judgement on your overall life passed based on that moment?

The obvious answer to that is no – unless you live in the bizarro world, that is. The facts indicate that the Orioles are a better team than what we’ve seen. So all you can really say is that these past few weeks is that the O’s are in the midst of their worst day. Because the numbers indicate that they’re a better team than what we’ve seen.

They just need to ratchet things up – and as Buck would say, keep grinding. It that means guys take batting practice for three hours, so be it. Same with fielding practice. This team has dug itself a hole for sure. But that doesn’t mean that the season isn’t salvagable. Because it is, if the Orioles want it to be.