Oh No!

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Beleaguered Orioles fans have a tradition.

Hey, when your team last won a World Series in 1983, you have to have something going for you, so when the first word of seventh line of the The Star-Spangled Banner is sung before the game, Orioles fans bellow “Oh!!!’’

“Oh no!!!’’ is more like it.

This year’s “Oh no!!!” of a season may have caught a lot of Orioles fans by surprise, but not those who read BallNine, because I have said all along the Orioles did not do enough in the offseason to improve the team and relied too heavily on the continued development of young players, taking that aspect of the game for granted.

All that youngness while relying on aging arms is a recipe for disaster – and it cost Orioles manager Brandon Hyde his job on Saturday. Hyde was AL manager of the year in 2023, but his team did not respond to him this season, and when you are expected to contend for a playoff spot and the division, a 15-30 record gets you fired.

Already this season three managers have been fired, and they all deserved it. The pitiful Pirates had Derek Shelton walk the plank. The rock-head Rockies dumped Bud Black -and now Hyde is history with the Orioles.

It goes without saying that each of those terrible teams’ front offices deserve a big part of the blame too, but GM’s don’t fire themselves last I looked.

Being a GM is a great gig if you can get it. What I’m seeing throughout the game is that many teams are not developing their talent the way they should be developed and in these three cases the managers, who really are in charge of that development at the major league level, paid the price. There clearly is not enough teaching going on at the major league level and that hurts – because there is not a lot of teaching going on at the minor league level, either.

There’s a lot of data in both places, but not enough teaching of the basics of the game.

“You can’t stop teaching at the big-league level,’’ one top talent evaluator told BallNine on Sunday. “The days of the big-league manager that sits in the dugout during BP and talks to the media and drinks coffee and tells stories are over. There is a lot more to your job that you have to address every day.’’

Ain’t that the truth.

“When you have a good club, a veteran club, they know what they have to do every day, you facilitate that,’’ the wise baseball man added. “When you have a bunch of kids that need the work, you get your ass out there with your coaches and players and work.’’

Work on something as simple as cutoffs and relays or moving a runner along or base running or PFP.

The Phillies beat Paul Skenes and the Pirates 1-0 Sunday. They scored the run in the fifth inning because Nick Castellanos was able to go first to third on a single to center, he busted it, knowing Skenes was on his game once again.

A major league manager must be a teacher now in this era where the front office makes out the lineup and orders up bullpen matchups. There are always baseball lessons to be learned but not every team is doing that, and players need to be held accountable on a daily basis to improve their baseball skills not just improve their “process’’ and ability to interpret data.

I heard a good comment from young Phillies pitcher Mick Abel, who was called up and beat Pirates and Skenes, striking out nine along the way, tying lefty Curt Simmons’ mark for the most strikeouts in an MLB debut by a Phillies pitcher. Simmons did it way back in 1947.

Here is what Abel said, “Each day I try to get one percent better.’’

That would be a good approach for any ballplayer at any level.

MLB can put together a blooper reel on a regular basis if it was not so busy putting out betting info. So many mindless mistakes are made. One quick example from the Orioles game on Sunday, a 10-4 loss to the Nationals: while down six in the ninth inning the Orioles pitcher tried to pick off the runner at first base, except the first baseman was playing behind the runner and the throw went off the wall behind first. Oops.

Welcome to another episode of JV Baseball.

The Orioles have much bigger problems than a Pickoff to Nowhere, though.

Baseball boss Mike Elias spent about $75 million this offseason on contracts for 2025 and got little bang for his buck. The Orioles were just swept away this Rivalry Weekend by the Nationals, a team that is doing a pretty good job developing their young talent. And this was in front of the Orioles fans at Camden Yards: “Oh…no!!!”

The Orioles are dead last in the American League East, which used to be the best division in baseball – but once you get past the Yankees is now filled with overpriced tomato cans.

In the last two games of the series the Orioles pitching staff allowed 20 runs. The Orioles are dead last in the American League East, which used to be the best division in baseball – but once you get past the Yankees is now filled with overpriced tomato cans.

The Rays, of course, are not overpriced because their owner is too cheap to pay anyone, but they are still tomato cans.

Both the Orioles and Red Sox lost 10-4 on Sunday with the Red Sox falling to the Braves. The Yankees are cruising along in first place. Every other team in the division is under .500.

Two years ago, the Orioles’ young talent came together for 101 wins. Last year they won 91 games. In both instances the young Orioles could not win a postseason game, so they were one and done in postseason series. That should have been a sign there was plenty of work to do, but for Elias, whose greatest strength is finishing in last place and then picking a top draft pick – and it is hard to mess those up – the work was not done.

Elias also benefitted greatly from some of the key talent left to him by previous Orioles GM Dan Duquette, but that was hardly ever mentioned by the media. Because Elias went to Yale though, he was immediately designated a baseball genius. He came to the Orioles via the Astros from their scandalous Bang the Garbage Can Slowly days and he drafted good players with those top of the class picks.

Adley Rutschman was the No. 1 pick of the 2019 draft. Jackson Holliday was the No. 1 pick of the 2022 draft. Heston Kjerstad was the second overall pick of the 2020 draft. Gunnar Henderson was the first pick of the second round of the 2019 draft. Colton Cowser was the fifth overall pick of the 2021 draft. That’s a lot of talent and a lot of top picks. Also, none of them are pitchers, all position players.

Uh-oh!

The Orioles are 29th in ERA with a 5.52 mark. Only the Rockies (Shocker!) are worse at 5.88. The Mets lead the way with a 2.87 ERA.

As for batting average, I know the Ivy Leaguers like Elias do not think it means much but the Orioles pitching staff has allowed the second highest batting average in baseball with opponents hitting .276 against the Orioles, a team who in their heyday once had four 20-game winners. Wins don’t mean much either these days to starting pitchers, according to the Ivy Leaguers. What’s worse for the Orioles is that the Yankees, the team that sits atop the AL East, their pitching staff has kept opposing hitters to a .208 batting average, so that is a 68-point advantage the Yankees have over the Orioles on the mound.

I don’t even have to bring up Aaron Judge’s right field advantage over Kjerstad. Judge is hitting .401 with 15 home runs. Kjerstad is batting .211 with four home runs. Kjerstad is not the only young Oriole struggling. Rutschman is batting .209. The point is that young players have ups and downs and that must be figured into the equation when building a team.

On the pitching front, the Orioles designated for assignment veteran starter Kyle Gibson on Sunday, a pitcher Elias gave $5.25 million late in the spring when it was obvious the Orioles had serious mound problems. Not money well spent because Gibson compiled an astounding 16.78 ERA and 0-3 record. It gets worse. Elias also gave $15 million to dinosaur right-hander Charlie Morton, who is 0-7 with a 7.68 ERA.

To recap, wins are not important for starting pitchers according to the Nerds, but 0-10 still is a bit shaky.

Tony Mansolino replaced Hyde. Mansolino, the son of a major league coach, is a solid baseball man.

It’s always interesting to get Orioles Hall of Famer and broadcaster Jim Palmer’s take on any baseball situation and he noted on his X account: “The O’s are playing disheartening baseball. So they make a change. Tony Mansolino is a really good baseball man. But so was Brandon Hyde. I will not forget the joy of how the O’s played during the 101, 91 wins the last two years. This year is about change, injuries, different team chemistry and the roster not performing to their capabilities. Elias didn’t get Hyde fired, his players did.’’

My guess is this will now become another tank season for the Orioles so Elias can have another top draft pick. With Phillies reliever Jose Alvarado suspended for PED use, Elias should put a for-sale sign on his bullpen and closer Felix Bautista, who has seven saves, a player that was signed to the Orioles in 2016 by the previous administration of Duquette and Buck Showalter.

There is much work for the “Oh no!!!’’ Orioles to do, on the field and in the front office.