Baltimore Orioles found their shortstop of future with Tim Beckham

Tim Beckham‘s first seven games in a Baltimore Orioles uniform have been MVP-worthy. Or, at least, worthy of an American League Player of the Week award.

Luis Aparicio, Mark Belanger, Cal Ripken, Miguel Tejada, and now newly-acquired Baltimore Orioles shortstop Tim Beckham.

Since the trade deadline on July 31, Beckham has been a Baltimore Oriole for 7 games. His first week under Buck’s tutelage was phenomenal. His .536/.552/1.036 slash line (with a .600 BABIP) paved the way to the AL Player of the week award.

In fact, his stellar week may have solidified himself as the next in the glorious line of Baltimore shortstops.

Baltimore Orioles standings

This is an easy metric, be it a potentially misleading one. The Orioles were 4.5 games out the wild card before trading for young Tim, with a record of 51-54. In Beckham’s seven games, the Orioles finished a sweep of the Royals, who occupy the second wild card spot.

They finished going 5-2 to raise their record to 56-56, finally back at .500. Now, the once-lowly O’s sit just 1.5 games back, and this west coast road trip could change some serious fortune. Small sample size be damned, this last week of Orioles baseball has been drastically different from the previous dozen.

Looking at a team winning percentage doesn’t satisfy the insatiable appetites of the sabermetrically inclined. Let’s move our attention to the analytics, to prove Tim Beckham’s place in Baltimore lore.