Another Baltimore DISASTER As The Orioles Quietly Collapse Again

When the Baltimore Orioles lost three in a row last October to go one and done to the wildcard winning Texas Rangers, it wasn't exactly ideal, but hey, this is the beginning of a new era in Baltimore. The Orioles organization was running like the cloning facility in Star Wars, pumping out plenty of good talent with more on the way, and considering the Rangers went on to win the whole damn thing in the end, you can give this unexperienced but talented group a pass, mostly because of the promise that was showed throughout the entire season. And then things got better, from an ownership standpoint to a team standpoint, everything was looking up Baltimore, this was going to end differently, right? This wasn't going to end in Deja Vu, right? Really quick, if you're alive, like the video and subscribe if you haven't yet, or as always, you can just wait to see if you enjoy the video and then make a decision if that works too. The 2023 Orioles season was, in theory, the perfect prologue and teaser for great things to come, in some ways even better. After a promising finish to 2022, the Orioles never once stumbled in 2023, at least through the regular season. The young core was finally here and showing that this Orioles team had maybe the most promising future in all of baseball. They'd win 101 games, fail to get swept a single time through the whole season, I mean it was pretty incredible. It was like the first Rocky movie, they weren't necessarily supposed to win the whole thing in the end, but that's okay because, well they didn't go the distance like Rocky did, getting immediately swept out of the playoffs, so it'd be like if Rocky got knocked out by the third round against Apollo in their first fight. So, okay, maybe Rocky isn't a good comparison to how the 2023 Orioles season ended, but you get the point. They were young and experienced but talented, with even more talent on the way, so the playoff loss wasn't the end of the world. And soon after, the Orioles got rid of maybe the biggest issue of all, ownership, going through their Steve Cohen era and getting the team sold to David Rubenstein, a Baltimore-based businessman who seemed much more invested in spending and winning, rather than pinching pennies and threatening rising ticket prices on the fans, with Rubenstein even including Orioles and baseball legend and fan favorite Cal Ripken Jr. with his ownership group. And ironically, right as the sale went down, the Orioles made a big trade for Corbin Burns from Milwaukee. This actually never had anything to do with Rubenstein, it just so happened to happen right around when the new ownership became official, but things were already looking much different in a good way for a franchise already trending in a good way, and to begin the year, hell yeah, things were great. Camden Yards was the place to be, this team was a lot of fun, I mean when your guys are hitting bombs and your owner is getting in on fan celebrations, you know it's a good time. And the Orioles really started out the year looking like a continuation of last year, the only difference now was the Yankees, they were actually good now, and it was pretty clear earlier on that they were probably going to be the ones to challenge them for the division, and it was fun, it was spicy, we got Juan Soto staring down Dean Kramer after taking him deep, we got players on both teams getting plunked including Aaron Judge who was not happy, I mean when you get judged to voice his anger, you know tensions are high. So the Orioles are just as good as the year before, and finished the first half 20 games over .500 and in first place, heading into the all-star break with three all-stars of their own and Gunnar Henderson having an MVP level year after winning rookie of the year in 23, Adley Rutschman, and the second half. Once the all-star break ended, something changed, the team completely lost their mojo, did not look really at all like the dominant force we saw in the first half in beginning of 2023, and played to a .500 record for the second half. So from a 20 game over .500 first half to a bleak second half, and this is for a number of annoying reasons, for one the pitching. First off, thank the heavens for Corbin Burns, because things could have really looked ugly if he wasn't there this year. Now Burns is about to get a nice fat contract in free agency, and do I think he should get a monster contract? I mean if I was a team, I probably wouldn't do it. Now yeah, I'm just some stupid fan sitting at home, but judging by some of his stuff like the decline in strikeouts, which is something that's been going down for three years now, among other stuff, I don't think he's someone to commit that many years to, but that doesn't take away the fact that he's still a good pitcher and by far the MVP of the Oriole pitching staff this one that's been full of disappointment and injuries. So Burns was great, but after him, Albert Suarez, a 34 year old journeyman who hadn't pitched in the majors since 2017, was really good in the first half, but really bad in the second half. Which is where you'll start to see a trend with a lot of the guys on this team. The starting rotation as a whole just wasn't very good. Burns led the team in innings by throwing 194 of them. The next highest? Suarez with 133 innings and then Dean Kramer with 129. So there was a massive difference between Burns and then everyone else. From talent, to innings, to health, all the above. Grayson Rodriguez was good but had his season end before August because of an injury. They had already lost Kyle Bradish to Tommy John surgery earlier in the year. Cade Povich just flat out stunk all year. So did Cole Irvin who isn't even on the team anymore, he was that bad. They just threw him to the curb to be picked up by the twins. So the rotation, other than Burns, was a total mess. And then you had a bullpen that was missing arguably the best reliever in all of baseball on Felix Bautista due to him getting Tommy John a year ago. And it showed. This definitely felt like a bullpen that missed their guy badly. It's not like it was an awful bullpen, but it definitely wasn't very good or scary, especially compared to the season before. They attempted to have Craig Kimbrell as the placeholder for 2024 and that couldn't have turned out any worse. He tricked us all into thinking he was good again before proceeding to be the worst reliever in baseball in the second half. The man that's supposed to be your closer. Probably not the one you want to have an ERA over 10 and a half, which is what Kimbrell's ERA was in the second half before getting released. A complete shitshow, which then leads us to the more surprising struggles that came in the second half of this Oriole team. They stopped hitting. Well, at least more so than they did in the first half. Even Gunnar Henderson fell off a little bit in the second half, but overall he was the least of Baltimore's worries. You can also never put it past people now to deem anyone noteworthy racist. Not sure where this accusation came from, and neither do I really care where it did, but I will admit a random edit of Gunnar highlights of him in a clan outfit is funny. It's just so ridiculous it made me laugh, and I'm sure it's something Gunnar himself would laugh at too. But anyway, he was still good in the second half, just not the MVP type player we saw in the first half, which okay, fine, whatever. If you have a good lineup from top to bottom, little things like that shouldn't matter. But they did matter, because some guys had really bad drop-offs after the break. Ryan Mountcastle, a really solid hitter with 12 home runs in the first half. In the second half, just one home run with all of his production down. Westbrook, who had a good first half, would break his hand and not be the same once returning to end the year. The most glaring issue of anyone in the lineup though was Adley Rutschman. Now, for someone who's a catcher, to put up the year he ended up putting up is perfectly fine. You can't really ever expect catchers to be monster hitters. Any hitting is a plus after their defense. So in a general sense, he was pretty good. But in the case of Adley specifically, his year was really disappointing. I mean, this dude was ranked by many, the best catcher in baseball before the year. He was coming off a really good first two seasons. MLB Network ranked him the best catcher in the game heading into the year, etc. Now, I never looked at Adley as a catcher who would be quite as good as some of the other best hitting catchers in the league hitting wise. That might be a hot take, at least it was maybe at the time. But I just felt like he wasn't going to be as powerful as those other guys. I think there at least are a few others around the league I've always felt would be better. But either way, I still looked at Adley as a good batting overall player behind the plate. But this year, after a first half that landed him an all-star appearance, his second in a row, he couldn't have been much worse to end the year. Everything went down by almost or more than 100 points from his batting average on base percentages, power numbers, everything. He had only three homers in the second half compared to 16 in the first. He just wasn't the same guy. Overall, in the second half, this wasn't a bad offense. It was still pretty good, even if not what it was in the first half. But you could tell the mojo was lost. Things just didn't feel very right or as cohesive as they did earlier on. And they only went on to lose the AL East division in New York by three games. So if they were just a tad bit better, they would have pretty clearly won the division. The bullpen didn't help things. The hitting started slacking a little more. And by season's end, the only true reliable starter was Corbin Burns. And he continued to show why that was the case in the postseason. Burns absolutely dominated the Royals in Game 1, almost going the distance, pitching into the 9th inning and allowing just one run the entire game. And like I mentioned before with his strikeout stuff declining every year, that couldn't have been more obvious in this game as he only struck out three Royals the entire time. But it didn't matter because he still only allowed five hits and just one run through those eight plus innings, putting the Orioles in the perfect spot to take the first game of the series in front of their home crowd. So what did the offense do? Oh God, wow. Oh, I was asleep. What? No way. Those glasses are super dark. And that ended up being the Orioles offense for the entire series. One that only lasts two games, with the team scoring just a single run in both games combined, losing the first game one to nothing and the second game two to one. And they showed absolutely no fight, really. There was one inning in Game 2, the fifth inning, where the Orioles had a chance to finally break through. Cedric Mullins let off with a home run to tie the game and the next three guys would get on base to load them up with nobody out. I mean, this is the time to put up a crooked number, get your fans going and force a Game 3. But no, they get three straight unproductive outs afterward, keeping the game tied and get just two more base runners the rest of the whole game. Like, you know in baseball how in the 9th inning, you just know things won't end quickly. You know they're going to end in dramatic fashion, whether the team trailing comes back or not. There was none of that feeling in this game, at least for me. And that final inning, bottom of the 9th, Orioles down just a single run. I felt no threat of a rally coming up against the Royals. And it ended up being one of the easiest, quickest, anticlimactic ways to go out. A quick 1-2-3 inning with Gunnar Henderson punching out to end things. And this one hurts if you're Baltimore. Again, last year sucked. Losing in the postseason always does. But at least it was the first time this franchise had been to October in such a long time and the first time really anybody on that team was in the postseason. It was an inexperienced bunch and a step forward for the franchise. But this year? I mean, looking back, I don't think it's wrong to say that 2024 was a failure for Baltimore. They didn't make any progress and if anything, they only look a little bleaker heading into this offseason. One of their best hitters this year, Anthony Santander, someone who had the best year of his career and put up 44 home runs, is heading into free agency. And so is the ace they traded for before the season, Corbin Burrs. Those are arguably your two most important pieces of the team this year about to probably leave. Burrs looks as good as gone. Nobody seems confident the Orioles will bring him back, at least for what he wants. Which, like I said earlier, I wouldn't give Burrs a massive long-term deal. I think there's too many worrisome trending signs with him that he'll regress moving forward. But even if true, he's still by far the best arm in the Oriole pitching staff this year. So with him gone, I mean you're taking away the ace from a pitching staff that even with him wasn't great. And the way the offense ended this year was concerning. Adley's gotta be better and so do others. I don't think this team looks bad moving forward. They should be good next year, but they don't look as promising as they did at the end of last year. This year, there are more questions to be asked. And it sucks knowing, again, there was really no progress this year. You could argue only regression. To lose the division and then go down into the night as they did after what was supposed to be a year they go deeper into the postseason has to be a failure. No doubt about it. So the Orioles still have something good going. They've turned a recently laughable franchise around with this young core and that shouldn't be ignored. But there are too many questions up in the air now after yet another anticlimactic end to the season to be comfortable. And it'll be an interesting offseason ahead for this team. Let me know your thoughts and thank you for watching.