Ubaldo Jimenez Orioles Blue Jays Rotation

3 Things To Watch For Against The Orioles

Written by Rachael McDaniel, Nick Dika, and Elie Waitzer

The Orioles Rotation Is Terrible, But Don’t Get Your Hopes Up 

Going into this season, everyone knew that the Orioles rotation was bad. It was just the truth, and we all knew that no matter how much they outperformed their Baseruns record in April via two-out home runs and bullpen wizardry, that eventually the truth would catch up to the Orioles. And, in historic fashion, the Orioles’ terrible rotation has indeed caught up with them this past month. The Orioles starting pitchers, no matter what metric you use to evaluate them, are among the very worst in baseball. Great news for the Jays, right?

Here’s the thing, though: when facing the Blue Jays this year, the Orioles starters have put up numbers that, in isolation, would make them seem to be a rotation stacked with aces. In nine games against the Blue Jays so far this year, only once has an Orioles starter failed to pitch fewer than six complete innings. Only twice has an Orioles starter given up more than two earned runs. And only once has an Orioles starter walked more than two batters. That’s good for a 2.12 ERA and 1.96 walks per nine innings, as well as 7.9 strikeouts per nine – which, while still below league average, is a significant improvement on their overall rate of 6.8. Given their overall tragic performance, these numbers the Orioles starters have put up against the Blue Jays are nonsensical. And because of their apparent inability to get on base or do any damage at all against the walk-prone, homer-prone, so very, very bad Orioles rotation, the Jays are 2-7 so far this season against the Orioles.

The Jays are scheduled to face Kevin Gausman, Wade Miley, and Ubaldo Jimenez in this three-game series. On paper, this seems like the series should be a non-contest: those three pitchers have a collective 6.41 ERA and are averaging almost five walks per nine innings. But in 30.1 innings against Gausman and Miley so far this season, the Jays have mustered a rather sad eight runs.

Of course, the Jays have been hitting better recently despite the mediocrity of their win-loss record, and perhaps their new-look lineup will punish the Orioles rotation. But the precedent set by their performance thus far is not one of overwhelming success. Hopefully they’ll be able to buck the trend this time and get a important series win here. (Or, dare I say it, a sweep – .500 would be nice.)

How to Respond to Someone Who Doesn’t Understand Roberto Osuna’s Struggles

On Friday night, the Blue Jays imploded during the final inning of their game against the Kansas City Royals. Roberto Osuna, the reliever the Blue Jays typically turn to when protecting a lead in the ninth inning was nowhere to be found. It was made known on Saturday morning that his unavailability was due to recent struggles with feeling anxious and lost.

The aftermath of Osuna’s revelation led to many people offering their support to Osuna online – a positive signal that culture is hopefully moving in the direction of accepting and understanding that mental struggles are every bit as serious and challenging as physical problems. Unfortunately, but as expected, not everyone demonstrated understanding and compassion towards Osuna. A look through the user comments under the articles or tweets that broke the news shows that while the majority of voices are supportive, some still hold backwards views about mental health issues.  

These uncompassionate views are not ok. Not only are they insensitive, they demonstrate a lack of understanding of what it means to struggle with anxiety (or any other mental health issue).

Understandably, the natural response is often to stand up for Osuna (and all others dealing with similar issues) by attacking the people making outlandish and insensitive statements. Hearing someone like Osuna criticized for being open and honest about anxiety is unfair and unjustified. But as hard as it may be to do, I suggest that we don’t respond to these voices with anger and instead attempt to change their minds through a positive dialogue:

If someone says he should just get over it, ask how they know it’s that easy. If someone says he has it too good to be anxious, challenge them on this too.

In order to change people’s minds we need to bring them in and treat them with respect, even when they aren’t being respectful themselves. This doesn’t mean accepting their views, it means challenging them in a constructive way. The more positive the engagement the more willing someone will be to changing his or her mind. It won’t be easy (and it will definitely be frustrating), but if the goal is to remove the stigma around mental health issues in sports, the best way to make positive changes in societal perceptions is often to remain positive ourselves.

Hey Mancini

In case you haven’t been following, Orioles rookie Trey Mancini has not stopped destroying baseballs since he torched the Jays for a multi-homer game back in April. Mancini owns an absurd .400/.478/.750 line against Toronto in just 20 ABs. His slugging percentage for the season is also the same as Justin Smoak’s (.589), which means he’s been crushing other teams as well if that makes you feel better.

So will he cool off? The .387 BABIP certainly suggests some regression. As does the 26% HR/FB ratio. His plate discipline, however, is legitimate. Mancini has cut his chase rate by nearly half, and is making much more contact both in and out of the zone compared his cup of coffee last season. Put the negative and positive together and we’re left with a solid power bat that’s slightly overachieving. Statcast confirms this suspicion as his xwOBA (.365) is nearly 40 points above his wOBA (.404).

With Chris Davis on the DL, Mancini has started almost every game in June at either 1B or DH. It’ll be interesting to see how Showalter manages to get Mancini’s bat in the lineup with Davis back around the All-Star Break.

Lead Photo © Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

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