With Dave Trembley’s status questioned seemingly almost every day, the Baltimore Orioles haven’t played well. Part of it could be the cloud hanging over Trembley’s head when his job status is mentioned every day, the other part could be some of the veteran hitters haven’t produced. Since the veterans aren’t producing, the younger hitters may be putting a lot of pressure on themselves to carry the team and that is a responsibility they aren’t ready to hold just yet.
In addition to a season-long offensive slump, the pitching has now started to slightly deteriorate. The bullpen is very clearly overworked which is partially due to, as of late, average starting pitching and Trembley trying to match up opposing hitters with a pitcher that throws from the same side. Match ups don’t work some of the time and see to recently backfire constantly on Baltimore. A light-hitting offense and average starting pitching is, as we’ve seen, a recipe for a disastrous deal.
So what can be done? The easy answer is to fire Trembley, although that could help, it won’t turn the team around immediately so I’m not going to consider that. One solution: rearrange the lineup. Nothing against Ty Wigginton, I like the guy, but he isn’t a second place hitter. He has very little speed, isn’t great handling a bat and, like much of the team, is free-swinging. Nick Markakis is a better option, at least for now, to hit in the two hole because he shows patience, can handle a bat and has a willingness to go the other way with the ball.
The defense needs to be shored up as well. It has been better, but hasn’t been great all season long. Miguel Tejada is still adjusting to third base, Wigginton is in the right position at first base, but they’ve had trouble filling second base with Brian Roberts injured. There’s no real solution as of now to fill that void, but that could get better if Roberts is able to come back.
An argument to get this team better quickly could be made by suggesting trading the valuable parts now to get some position players in the farm system.
The O’s are clearly not very good this season, so why not just blow it up and start over? It’s definitely more complicated than that, but they’ve got to start somewhere.
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