Baltimore Orioles and Strikeouts

The Baltimore Orioles are a team that could strike out more than any other team in history.

First, a note. I was looking for a picture of the Baltimore Orioles and strikeout, and I couldn’t resist a 2014 picture that included Chris Davis and Mark Reynolds. Just had to…

Before the offseason started, Dan Duquette said his team was going to try to improve its starting pitching, corner outfield, and on-base percentage.

Starting pitching swapped Yovani Gallardo for Wei-Yin Chen, which at best would be a slight edge for the O’s, but more likely is neutral at best.  The hope is that the starters who struggled last year improve, and Kevin Gausman blossoms.

Corner outfield acquisitions include Hyun Soo Kim (international signing), Joey Rickard (Rule 5 pick), and Mark Trumbo (traded for). Not exactly a huge pickup there.

As for on-base percentage, nowhere close. In fact, the team probably got worse, so let’s look at just how much this team could strikeout this year.

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Let’s assume that the starting lineup is Manny Machado 3B, Jonathan Schoop 2B, Adam Jones CF, Chris Davis 1B, Mark Trumbo RF, Pedro Alvarez DH, Matt Wieters C, J.J. Hardy SS, Nolan Reimold LF. First off, there is a ton of power in that lineup.

In 2015, this is the number of strikeouts by these players, and a career 162-game average.

Machado – 111 / 119
Schoop – 79 / 144 (remember Schoop only played 86 games last year)
Jones – 102 / 127
Davis – 208 / 200
Trumbo – 132 / 161
Alvarez – 131 / 177
Wieters – 67 / 121 (Wieters only played 75 games last year)
Hardy – 88 / 100
Reimold – 47 / 127 (Reimold has never played more than 104 games a season, and that was in 2009)

Let’s add these numbers together.

Using the numbers of strikeouts from last year, the total is 965. And that includes Reimold only playing 61 games, Wieters 75 and Schoop at 86). And, it doesn’t consider pitchers having to hit, which inflates strikeout totals.

If you add the 162-game averages together, it brings the Orioles to a 162-game player averaged total of 1,276 strikeouts.

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Last year, the Orioles struck out 1331 times, fifth-most in major league baseball. In case you were wondering, Kansas City struck out the least, and it wasn’t even close. They were the only team to strike out less than 1000 times.

In 2014, when the Orioles made their playoff run with Nelson Cruz, the team struck out 1285 times, 11th most in the major leagues.

In this piece on the Alvarez signing, fellow writer Randy Buchman posted the following strike out percentages from the team in 2015, including Alvarez.

"“Here are some strikeout percentages (from 2015) of Orioles players relative to total plate appearances: Davis (31%), Trumbo (26%), Schoop (25%), Hardy (21%), Wieters (24%), Machado (16%), Jones (18%), and Reimold (24%).So Alvarez will have a lot of company on the walk of shame back to the dugout. Pedro struck out in 27% of plate appearances in 2015.”"

This means that the Orioles statistically will strike out 23.5 percent of the time in 2016. I think if the final number is like that, most Oriole fans would be ecstatic.

Next: Should Chris Davis Play First Base?

The Baltimore Orioles are going to strike out an awful lot in 2016. But, they also could find themselves mashing home runs left and right. One thing is for sure, a lot of their games are going to be must-see TV, to see how many HRs they hit, or how many strikeouts they ring up for the opposing pitchers.

About improving the on-base percentage. Just a laugh at this point.