How to Manage the Baltimore Orioles to the AL East Title

Jul 2, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter (26) argues a interference call with umpire Jeff Nelson (45) and umpire Toby Basner (99) during the third inning of the game against the Texas Rangers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Before series between the Red Sox and Orioles, my colleague Pete Sonski at our FanSided site for the Red Sox – BoSox Injection – asks me to write up a little something as a preview. For a different touch than our previous Q&A thing, my creative friend suggested the following prompt for me: “You’ve just received a phone call from Dan Duquette naming you interim manager for the 2nd half of the 2014 season. What are you going to do to lead the O’s to the AL East Division Championship?”

hey–with my last name, it’s not like I’ve never been called “Buck” before

So here is my answer that I sent to him that he has included on that site today:

A first impulse is to just answer simply by saying “more of the same.” It is difficult to be too terribly critical of Buck Showalter. Unlike the revolving door of his predecessors, I think Buck is indeed a great baseball guy who is very sharp and difficult to criticize much. Where the Orioles have not played well enough to gain more victories, it is not because Showalter did not pull the right levers. It is because players you would expect to be performing at a higher level were simply not getting it done (like Chris Davis batting .210 and $50 million-Ubaldo Jimenez with a 3-8 record).

So there are only a few somewhat different moves I will be making now that I am in charge.

Young Kevin Gausman will become a regular part of the rotation until such time as he proves he is not at all ready and capable … but I don’t think that is going to happen. The Orioles have had him up and down and up and down all season between AAA Norfolk and Baltimore. He has pitched several very fine games, and he is by talent the best arm on the team – throwing into the upper 90s deep into a game. So it is time to fully unwrap the present, take it out of its box, plug it in and see what we’ve got. We will start this on Sunday in Boston.

Starting pitching has been up and down for the Baltimore Orioles. It was presumed to be the Achilles Heel (or should I say the “Achilles Arm?”) for the O’s this season, while the hitting was expected to be awesome. Honestly, though far from a group of aces, the pitching has done reasonably well on most occasions, while the offense has been the cause of more losses. Even so, the bats have come alive of late, as the Orioles led all of baseball with 46 home runs in the month of June.

All of this is to say that, if I am going to promote Gausman to a regular turn in the rotation, someone has to be pulled out. That someone is going to be Miguel Gonzalez, who has really struggled since coming off the DL a few weeks ago from a groin injury (the ailment of the year for Orioles players). Over the past two years, Gonzalez has performed well and been a sweet deal for the amount of dollars being paid. But he does not have overpowering stuff, and he therefore needs to pitch on the edge all of the time. He has little margin for error; and when he tires in the fifth or sixth inning, he can go over the cliff quickly. I see him as a long reliever, though I will still have to start him one last time in Boston.

That will leave my Orioles with a rotation of Chris Tillman, Ubaldo Jimenez, Wei-Yin Chen, Bud Norris (coming back from, what else? … yes, a groin injury), and Kevin Gausman.

It is going to be pretty much impossible to replace Buck in the clubhouse and in the hearts of the players, but, if they want to call me “Buck” it will be fine. With a last name pronounced “Buck-man,” it is not as if that has never happened before. However, I may prove to be a little bit less loyal than the former Buck.

Showalter’s loyalty on some occasions is a bit over the top, as he will stick with a player in a designated role or position in the batting order longer than is maybe deserved. His belief is that historic performance will, given some patience, generally return to a similar level. While this may be true more often than not, until it happens, Chris Davis may be batting lower in the lineup than fourth or fifth. For example, he just broke an 0-for-21 streak and is batting about .150 over the past month. And Manny Machado will have to come back from this five-game suspension and continue to prove that he has earned the #2 position in the batting order once again. His first game will be Saturday, but he was hitting the ball hard before this inconvenience came along.