The Orioles Fielding And Base Running Remain Awful. We Quantify Just How Bad It Is

July is here and it’s still an anomaly and headline-worthy when the Orioles manage not to disgrace themselves in the field or on the base paths. For the third season in a run.

They are terrible across the board, and while debate rages within some corridors of the industry about which defensive metrics most accurately capture and reflect a team’s issues, there is anonymity that the Orioles stink at pretty much everything involved in saving runs with their gloves and creating additional runs and scoring opportunities with their spikes.

Rookie skipper Craig Albernaz is almost begging this team to stop embarrassing him and his staff, but there is no end in sight and the White Sox series was another blight. They are nearly 90 games in, mind you, and, have led the league in unearned runs; again, these are Mike Elias mega-problem that permeate the entire org and every level of the minors so it goes beyond this particular overmatched manager.

Still, listening to tropes like these gems from the Chicago series get old fast. “We’ve got to go out there and compete,” Albernaz pleaded the other night. “We need to string together some good innings of baseball … We have to go out there and do it consistently.”

Here’s where things stand for the Orioles defensively overall:

Outs Above Average: - 18 (26th) Runs Prevented: -15 (27th)

Runs Prevented: -15 (27th) Success Rate: 78% (25th)

Success Rate: 78% (25th) Fangraphs Def Rating: -8.5 (22nd

Fangraphs Def Rating: -8.5 (22nd) +/- Runs Saved Above Avg: -19 (26th)

Outfield (Fielding Run Value -8, 25th)

Centerfield -6 (30th): We’ll find out if Colton Cowser can handle centerfield. This baseball operations staff clearly didn’t think so, but Leody Taveras ran out of gas and pixie dust in June, and now can’t catch the ball in right let alone center. Cowser has been awesome lately; sample size will tell the story. Running Blaze Alexander out there was ridiculous

Rightfield -1 (13th): This is surprising considering how immobile Tyler O’Neill has looked out there at times, but then again most teams has suspect right fielders and this is all relative. Hopefully Dylan Beavers gets a chance to play here regularly until Taylor Ward is dealt at the deadline and then maybe Beavers can attempt that challenge (might not go well).

Leftfield (-3, 19th): Elias treats Camden Yards like his personal Lego set and keeps jacking around the dimensions. This is a tricky park now for left fielders and Ward is basically serviceable. Ideally the LF would have a big arm with how deep he has to play.

Infield (Fielding Run Value -7, 23rd)

Catcher (+8, 3rd): Would be higher if Adley Rutschman was in the top 20 in innings caught in MLB, because he is better back there in every aspect of since his 2023 form. It’s crazy how much they have asked of Samuel Basallo, 21, back there considering how little he played in the minors by catcher standards, and he continues to take mistakes to heart and improve. He is going to stick back there, which is massive given that Adley should be gone by Aug. 1.

First Base (+1, 11th): Pete Alondo was known as an expert scooper, but he’s been better than anyone could have hoped for. The range is what it is, but his pliability doing the splits and fielding line drives has been a plus.

Second Base (-3, 26th): Jeremiah Jackson tried to hold it down with Jackson Holliday out. Big ask. Holliday has yet to show he has the instincts, range and, gulp, arm to be an above average at this lesser defensive position. Big second half ahead for him but I have real reservations about his defensive upside.

Shortstop (-7, 30th): Gunnar Henderson’s collapse goes way beyond the at bats. He has been a mess at short and I said all along he would be much better at third (imagine if Elias didn’t total screw up his first ever pick and took Bobby Witt, Jr instead of Rutschman, with Witt at SS and Gunnar at 3B?). I’m more concerned about his defense; the bat has to come around some.

Base Running (Base Running Runs -1, 19th)

Henderson getting picked off twice in the same game pretty much says it all. Him having just six steals when the offense needs a lot of help and Holliday stealing just 68% of his attempts in his career (78% is average) show the depths of the problem.

They haven’t been good going first to third. They aren’t aggressive with the run game taking bases and they are a Little League team with the contact play trying to score runners from third with the ball hit in the grass. Way too many outs made at third and home plate.

Here’s where they rank:

Runs via Stolen Base: -2 (19th) SB Value (2B): -1 (27th)

Extra Base Taken RV: -4 (20th) Extra Base Advance Attempts: 224 (19th)

Stolen Bases: 44 (22nd) Stolen Base Attempts/G: .70 (22nd)

SB %: 70.5% (25th)

They must get Henderson going on the base paths and Alexander has good speed and agility but continues to show poor instincts in making outs at third base and not reading balls off the bat well. We are going on 90 games into the season and Taveras leads the team with just 10 stolen bases and he should be more on a bench piece now. Holliday should be a 25 steal guy, minimum, on athleticism alone.

This is absolutely part of why their run production tends to stagnate and become homer dependent. It makes for boring baseball, but aesthetics are the least of the franchise’s problems right now. The results stink.

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