Let’s be honest, We all knew that this season for the Baltimore Orioles would be iffy. The fact of the matter is that this team is in a rebuild.
If you are a Baltimore Orioles fan then you’re going to be faced with frustration, apathy and perhaps the spirit of negativity for this season coming. To that I say, trust the process during the rebuild.
What you’re seeing now is the fruit of an organization building the right way. If there is anything to be gathered here it is the fact that you will have to remain patient for the remainder of this season and beyond.
THE WAITING GAME
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
The hardest part of any rebuild in life is the beginning. Anxiety, uncertainty, and impatience start to set in. The most successful organizations stick to their plan and double down no matter the consequences due to the vision.
The past week has seen the beginning of a new era of Orioles baseball. Mike Elias has started the process of not deviating from the process of the rebuild.
Per Pressbox, Elias said,
"“We’re going to try and win every game, every night with the guys we have out there. But we’ve got to have a broad organizational strategy, and right now, our … strategy is to elevate the level of talent up and down the organization”."
As grueling as this process is right now, this is the time where everything is being thrown up against the wall and seeing what will stick. Most importantly, the waiting game is currently seen with the pitching core, its relievers, and closers.
The most important part about this entire structure is the minors. So these players will move through the system and progress until they’re ready to come up to the show. Keeping talent in the minor league system this time around is for developing players and not make them a rotating door of damaged goods.
ASTRO BALL
The fact of the matter is that during the Buck Showalter era the Baltimore Orioles did not embrace analytics very well. Depending on who you talk to the analytics department was scarce.
With the era of “gut feeling” baseball leaving the game, analytics is taking over the game of baseball. By the turn of the 2010s books like “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” the era of analytics defined the direction that many of the organizations needed to take to win. So you’ll ask what does this have to do with you the fan?
Well…A lot to be honest because Astroball tells the everyday fan that there is a method to the madness. With the hiring of Sig Mejdal, Mike Elias the emphasis of sabermetrics and the analytics will be the forefront in the organization.
So just like the story told of the 2017 Houston Astros in the book, the blueprint tells the story of how cutting edge the new wave of seeing baseball with numbers. This is not just buying big names and seeing who can hit the ball further. This process like the book is sorting from top to bottom new ways to keep the Orioles as well as their farm system on a level playing field with the rest of the ballclubs in the league.
This season is not going to be easy. Growing pains usually are not a walk in the park. However, the process and the blueprint is out there and the analytical era is being laid out right before the eyes of Baltimore Orioles fans. The best thing to do is to relax, and know the light is at the end of the tunnel. Three years from now the fanbase will look back on all of this and be glad they did.