The O's lost clubhouse leader Trey Mancini plus one of MLB's best closers in Jorge Lopez. They lost their innings lead Jordan Lyles (4.42 ERA.)
How did replacing these guys with Kyle Gibson, Adam Frazier, Cole Irvin and M Givens an improvement?
If you are counting on young guys getting better or returning vets from injury, we have plenty of those, too.
I'm not so sure how much better the other teams got, either.
jacko will tell you we lost our ace (Nate,) well, if that is true, the Yanks lost the closer (Chapman) and others, too.
You don't often find that goose at $10M/1.
Even $10M x 3 or 4+ won't get you an solid #2.
It's past time we started treating the SP'er role like it was important and worthy of investment.
The short answer: No.
The longer one:
Martin IL
Joely IL
Kelly & Mills 60 Day IL
Paxton needs more time, and even then... ???
Politi has sucked in AAA. (.961 OPS Against)
Mosqueda (.909), Sherriff (.810) or Broadway (.938)? LOL.
Our best hope may be a few weeks away:
.736 Mata
.678 Walter
We need Martin back.
WOO is playing their 17th game, and Hamilton stole his 9th base, tonight. He's 1-2 with a 1.017 OPS.
Abreu & Alfaro are 1-2
RHern homered
Murphy has pitched 2 scoreless, so far.
We are 1.5 games behind a WC slot and have a better run differential (+3) than the two teams between us and that slot:
CLE (-3) 10-9
TOR (-12) 11-8
We are still ahead of HOU, SEA, LAD and SDP.
Most of the pitchers are present, but we did miss a start from Whitlock and Martin is out, now. I'm not sure Paxton being out hurts us, but we'll see. Joely was not supposed to be a major addition, but I expected he'd beat out Ort, Kelly (who is on the 60 with Mills) and Brasier.
If Houck and Whitlock stick as starters, it takes the heat off needing 2 from Sale, Kluber and Paxton to do well. We can likely get by with just one old vet coming through. That is assuming Bello and Pivetta fill their roles.
Wong has started 3 out of 10 games with a RH'd SP'er.
He has started 7 out of 8 with a LH'd SP'er.
He is the only catcher to catch Houck and Whitlock.
The 3 games he started vs RHPs?
1 with Crawford vs PIT
1 with Kluber vs PIT
1 with Sale vs MN
I totally agree, but with this nearly brand new staff and two brand new catchers, a learning curve has to be taking place, as these guys feel each other out.
Maybe some early bad results can set a lasting "tone" than can never be overcome.
More than 1/4th of Wongs PAs with Sox pitchers have been with Houck and Whitlock. McGuire has zero PAs with those two.
It's apples vs watermelons, here, folks.