Time can help provide perspective. It can also be used as an excuse for not recording an episode in about a month. I’ll let you guess as to which is the reason for the delay in getting you a pod recapping the 2023 Orioles. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Orioles play a baseball game. They were most recently being swept by the now-World Series champion Texas Rangers. Does it make it sting a little less than the Rangers went on to win the whole thing? Maybe, maybe not. We can all admit at this point that the 2023 Orioles were a team with flaws. Those flaws were exposed by the Rangers. But ..read more

Welp, that was (not so) fun while it lasted. Another poor pitching performance sunk the Orioles’ chances in Game 3 of the ALDS, culminating with a sweep-clinching 7-1 loss to the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night. Of course, it’s not all on Dean Kremer’s shoulders. The offense had a bad night too, and you can also look at manager Brandon Hyde for being less aggressive with his pitching moves than he himself said he planned to be coming into the game. It was a nightmarish evening that concluded a brutal series for these Orioles. Despite such a special summer it leaves all of us with a rather bitte ..read more

It’s a tough road from here. The Orioles head to Texas down 2-0 in a best-of-five ALDS in which they have no room for error. Not many teams have faced a similar challenge and succeeded. There were plenty of negatives to take away from the Game 2 loss, most of them on the mound. Grayson Rodriguez struggled, leaning almost entirely on a fastball that wasn’t missing bats. Later, Bryan Baker loaded the bases and then Jacob Webb unloaded them. The Rangers scored a whopping nine runs in the game’s first three innings, and it felt like it was all over. Credit the Baltimore bats for fighting back to t ..read more

The Orioles postseason got off to a rocky start with a 3-2 loss to the Rangers in game one of the ALDS. Kyle Bradish and the pitching staff turned in a solid day, but the offense was largely silent outside of Anthony Santander. It’s tough to complain about the way in which the O’s hurlers held the potent Texas offense to only three runs. Most times out that is going to get the job done. They just didn’t get enough support from the Orioles lineup. Santander scored both of the team’s runs and had two of their five hits. It’s tough to win a baseball game all by yourself, and that was demonstrated ..read more

What a regular season this team played! AL East champions. 101 wins. This was “supposed” to be a fall-back-to-earth kind of year after the impressive campaign they had in 2022. Instead, they flipped the whole storyline on its head. Now, they might just win the whole darn thing! There are still some things to sort out. The Wild Card round needs to play out. The O’s will then to figure out their roster. And then the schedulers have to work around an inconveniently-time Billy Joel concert. All of this equally important, of course. We get into all of it on this week’s podcast. We also look back on ..read more

It has been a long road back for the Baltimore Orioles, their players, and their fan base. They have endured some absolutely brutal stretches of baseball, becoming the butt of every easy joke around baseball in the process. To be fair, some of the was deserved! It was the direct result of decisions made by high-ranking people within the organization to tear everything down to the studs and rebuild. That leads to some ugliness. But right about now it feels worth it because the Orioles are headed back to the postseason for the first time since 2016. As of this writing the O’s are now two games u ..read more

The American League is officially on notice. While the Orioles have been competitive all summer long, they took it to the next level this past weekend. By taking three out of four from the Rays, the O’s vaulted to the top of both the AL East and the junior circuit at large. There is something special brewing in Birdland. Gunnar Henderson had himself an impactful series that included a hustle triple, a massive home run, and defensive highlights all over the diamond. All of the sudden he feels like a favorite for AL Rookie of the Year. Félix Bautista is vying for his own award, potentially bypas ..read more

The unofficial halfway point of the 2023 season is here, and our Orioles are in good shape. An uneven period from late June through early July gave way to a five-game winning streak ahead of the All-Star break. That puts the Orioles just two games back of the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays, their smallest deficit in the division since April 4. They’ve got a chance, folks! Also making headlines in recent weeks are the team’s promotions of Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser in quick succession. Both of them have been immediately placed into the everyday lineup, and the early returns are good. Thi ..read more

Somehow, someway the Orioles continue trucking along. Cedric Mullins remains sidelined, but the Birds have been able to make do. Aaron Hicks has regained his form from many years ago, Gunnar Henderson may be breaking out, and the team’s best form could yet be ahead of it. The Mullins absence has sent Brandon Hyde searching for his replacement atop the daily lineup. For a while, Adam Frazier seemed to be the top choice, but with his numbers slipping other options emerged. Austin Hays was given a shot, and most recently it has been Henderson that’s given it a go. Hyde is yet to settle on one nam ..read more

Injuries are a perennial variable that every team attempts to plan for, but it is ultimately impossible to fully safeguard against. The Orioles are intimately familiar with that right now. As the team continues to exceed expectations, they now have to wrangle with some high profile bumps and bruises. By far the most important injury has happened to centerfielder Cedric Mullins. Arguably the team’s most important player, Mullins exited a game over the weekend with a quad injury. Thankfully, it does not appear to be too serious, but the star outfielder will still be sidelined for several weeks a ..read more