The O's Pitching Woes

Wanna know what I have hidden in my glove? One of the worst seasons as a pitcher with over 40 IP, ever.

Surprisingly, the Orioles offense has been mediocre in 2011. And amongst Baltimore baseball fans, mediocrity is reason enough to throw a ticker-tape parade down Pratt Street. The O's are 8th out of 14 teams in runs scored and have hit the 5th most home runs in the AL.

With just a mediocre pitching staff the Orioles could have actually had a shot at breaking .500 for the first time in 14 years. But as you know, the Orioles pitching has been downright atrocious this year...historically, epically, universally bad.

Consider this. Last year the Orioles ERA was 4.85, which was good for 13th in the AL. The league average was 4.14. So the Orioles were just a measly -0.71 below mediocre.

Well, this year, the AL average is 4.04, so you'd think that the Orioles ERA in relation to the league average would have lowered along with it, right?

Wrong.

The O's ERA this year sits at 4.92, good for last in the MLB. A difference of -0.88 points from mediocrity. So whereas the league average ERA has gone down, the Orioles ERA has headed in the other direction.

It's nothing earth shattering, of course, but just another snapshot of how bad the Orioles pitching has been this season.

So I'll leave you with this. Remember Brian Matusz, the pitcher we'd pinned a lion's share of our hopes on? The guy who went 7-1 down the stretch last season and we all thought he'd lead the rotation in 2011?

Well his 9.84 ERA puts him right there in the discussion for the "worst season of all time" by a pitcher who has pitched more than 40 innings. That's right. The guy we pegged as our ace going forward has just had one of the worst seasons in baseball history.

Now you know why this blog is called "the Bad Oriole".