We lay into the Orioles in a major way when they're doing things wrong--that woud be most of the time over the past decade, one must concede.  I'm as guilty of that as anyone, I suppose, but it seems only fair to take note of the occasions when the team is doing something well.  Lately, they've been doing something very well, and that something is the performance of the pitching staff.

As I intimated in a recent Calculus, the Orioles' pitching has shown marked improvement since 2006's 13th place finish in the American League.  2007 is only about 1/3 completed, but over the season's first two months--and despite a string of serious injuries to would-be starters and some of their replacements, the progress of the pitching staff from last year to this has been undeniable.  What's more, as ERAs through baseball have, predictably, crept upward as the weather warmed in May, the Orioles have shown an impressive opposite trend.

Let's glance at the raw numbers.  As mentioned in the "In Sam's Favor" piece of 10 days ago, the Orioles' pitching staff has shown substantial improvement in every significant statistical category other than bases on balls.  (This is still true, though even the walk rate has started to improve; in the past 10 days, the Orioles have moved to 13th in the league in BB/9IP and have seen that rate drop from 4.33 to 4.14.)

Here's an updating of the table that appeared in the earlier Calculus:

The 10-day drop in walks is commensurate with a drop in strikeouts, but the hits are down significantly and the home runs have remained almost unchanged.  Meanwhile the ERA has continued to fall closer and closer to four with a plunge of nearly 1/3 of a run in 10 days and an improvement in ranking to fourth in the league.  At present, only Oakland, Boston and Los Angeles have lower staff ERAs than the Orioles.

What's particularly interesting is how well the staff has pitched over the past four weeks, relative to the first four weeks and to the rest of the league.

In the American League, only the A's (3.71) have a better May ERA than the Orioles.  Some of the May improvement may be attributable to scheduling quirks, but honestly, not very much of it.  Personnel changes are likely a factor--though I doubt anyone anticipated they'd be a positive influence.  The Orioles' 1.28 May WHIP was second best in the AL (again, to Oakland).

Let's glance at some of the individual performances.  

Let's get the bad out of the way immediately.  On a staff leading the league in HR/9IP, Danys Baez has surrendered five long balls in 22.2 innings pitched (1.99 HR/9IP); the rest of the club is allowing 0.68 HR/9IP.  Baez is also walking too many batters (about 4.5 per nine innings), but overall has a WHIP identical to the staff as a whole.

Everyone else on the team is pitching at least relatively effectively.  

There are definite warning signs, almost all of them in the form of too many walks (Steve Trachsel, Brian Burres, Daniel Cabrera, John Parrish).  Trachsel's peripherals are scary--he's walking far too many batters and fanning next to no one--but other than him (and Baez, of course), no one on the staff is showing a glaring problem in more than one area.  No one other than Baez is surrendering far too many home runs.  No one other than Trachsel is showing a frightening inability to strike out hitters.  No one--including Baez, in this instance--is allowing hits by the bushel.  There are some peaks and valleys in the month-to-month numbers, but generally speaking the horrific performances are extremely limited.  Erik Bedard, Jeremy Guthrie and Jamie Walker have all allowed less than a baserunner per inning in May while Chris Ray and Chad Bradford have been slightly above the baserunner per inning threshold.  Daniel Cabrera has largely been burned by the longball; he's allowed six in May in 31.2 innings, but has still kept his WHIP for the month below 1.3.  In fact, his WHIP fell to 1.29 in May from 1.45 in April.

The performance has been imperfect, as we all know.  But the improvement from 2006 to 2007 has been dramatic and the improvement from April to May this year has been noteworthy.  Despite a couple of bumps and the overall walk problem, the work by the pitching staff this year has been extremely encouraging.  We'll see whether this holds up through the remainder of this year.

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