If you had lapsed into a coma at the end of spring training this year, woke up this morning and looked at the American League standings, you?d see the Orioles hovering around the .500 mark and likely think that the season had gone pretty much as you?d expected it to, before you lost consciousness. The how?s and why?s that had brought the club to that point would be of small consequence, since a .500 finish this year would be a marked improvement over the past nine seasons.
You?d be surprised that there was any talk of firing the manager. Some of the individual player?s statistics might be confusing ? seeing Brian Burres? name in the starting rotation likely would raise an eyebrow, and what the heck happened to Jaret Wright? Whatever, .500 is .500, and an obvious stepping stone out of mediocrity.
Seeing the Orioles in second place in the AL East would be an unexpected gift, just as the waking Yankee fan would be shocked to the point of relapse to see his team battling Tampa Bay for the bottom spot in the division. The Orioles haven?t finished in front of the Yankees since their wire-to-wire first-place playoff run in 1997, and for some in these parts, a struggling New York team brightens up the gloomiest of days.
(Click here for a photo gallery of the O’s winning ways.)
If your team?s final record equals what your expectations were on opening day, should it matter how they got there? The Orioles have had their share of frustrating, if not heartbreaking, defeats through the first third of the season, yet they?ve managed to keep coming back. It?s certainly true that opening a road series against the worst team in baseball can go a long way toward getting well, although having to open a West Coast trip the next day against the team with the second-best record in the league can send that pendulum swinging back the other way. It?s the nature of the game.
Last week, I mentioned that there was no clear-cut organizational successor to Sam Perlozzo, if indeed a change was in the offing. Since then, Davey Johnson?s name has entered the equation, amid some unsubstantiated reports that he has already agreed to a deal to return. Such a scenario might create more problems than it would solve. If Perlozzo goes, it?s logical to expect that pitching coach Leo Mazzone would also be on his way out of town, inasmuch as Perlozzo is the reason Mazzone came here in the first place. Who replaces Mazzone? Ray Miller? Scott McGregor? Does the rest of the staff remain intact? And what would Johnson have to give Kevin Millar to pry No. 15 off his back?
With two-thirds of the season left to play, and a break-even season well within the realm of possibility, wouldn?t it make more sense to let what seems to be progress take its course? If the club is floundering at the All-Star break, take another inventory. Otherwise, exhale.
And try to stay awake this time.
Contact Phil Wood at [email protected].
