Baltimore Orioles: The Positives, Negatives and Surprises of April

The Baltimore Orioles schedule in April produced one of the worst starts in team history as they try to recover in May.

The Baltimore Orioles froze their way through an 8-20 start to the season, with the offense cold for much of the month, and all other phases of the game either hot or cold, depending on the day.

It was not the start the team wanted to get off to.

Playing all of the playoff teams from 2017, the Baltimore Orioles knew they had to get going early.

It didn’t happen.

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The Orioles have played in five cities so far: Baltimore, Houston, New York, Boston and Detroit.

They have won in two of those cities.

New York, where the Orioles took three of four against the Yankees.

And Baltimore, where the Orioles are 5-10 at home. That’s not good.

Also not good is getting swept in three-game sets in Houston, Boston (originally scheduled as four) and Detroit.

The sweep to Detroit is most egregious, considering that everyone expected Houston and Boston to be very good.

So, here we are. And, many people want to point fingers and place blame on the start.

Some say this is Dan Duquette’s fault, for building a roster made up of hitters who mash, but also can go into slumps.

Others want to blame Buck Showalter or his coaches for their lack of ability to draw everything they can out of the players.

A number of social media heroes think the team isn’t playing their hardest, which is always a ridiculous statement.

This is a team of guys who care about the game and the results. The frustration is evident.

Just watch Chris Davis snap a bat over his knee, or Adam Jones slam his bat down after another out with runners in scoring position.

No, the start isn’t what anyone wanted, but let’s not blame the effort. That is just lazy.

Without further ado, let’s look at the positives, negatives, surprises, and more from an April to forget.

The Orioles April record: 8-20

The record is not good, and could quite possibly be enough to sink the Orioles already.

How did it get this bad?

The offense was in a funk for the majority of the month.

The team is hitting .224/.294/.329, with each of those slashes being second-worst in the American League.

The Orioles have the most strikeouts in baseball at 274, and it isn’t even close.

They are middle of the pack in home runs at eighth, which isn’t good enough for a team that is built on power.

Shockingly, the Orioles are also eighth in stolen bases, for a team that is typically one of the worst in the game. The Orioles are also 12th in runs and hits.

The pitching didn’t seem quite as bad, but the end result still is.

The Orioles have allowed the most hits and the most runs in the American League. They have allowed the third-most home runs and the fourth-most walks.

Their ERA of 4.89 is an improvement over last year, but still fifth-worst in the AL.

Shockingly, the Orioles also have the fifth-most errors in the American League, and the sixth-worst fielding percentage. For a team that said they wanted to get back to the basics and plays sound defense, it hasn’t been there.

And, the blame can be spread around. Two pitches have errors, and so do both catchers. Danny Valencia and Tim Beckham each have three errors, so the defense at third base has not been good.

Luis Sardinas has two errors in just 17 chances.