SARASOTA, FLA. — Buck Showalter said Monday that he would "sign up in blood" for the production he got from his starting rotation last season, but he said he thinks the Orioles can go to another level in terms of pitching deep into games.
"It [the rotation] was the biggest difference in our club last year and it was in 2012,'' Showalter said, "and if we do it again this year, we'll have some fun. We've just got to get consistently deep in games."
That's been a point of emphasis every year since Showalter took over the club, and the Orioles have improved in each of the past three seasons after ranking last in the major leagues in both innings pitched by starters (881) and ERA (5.39) in 2011. That was an average of just 16.31 outs per starter per game.
In 2014, Orioles starters pitched 958 2/3 innings and averaged 17.74 outs per start to rank 20th in the majors and 10th in the American League, but ranked fifth in the AL in ERA (3.61). The previous season, the club's starters averaged 17.39 outs to rank 22nd in the majors. And in the 2012 wild-card season, they averaged 17.36 outs and ranked 20th in the majors.
To put this all in perspective, the Cincinnati Reds were the top rotation last year in terms of innings pitched and they averaged 18.96 outs per start, so the difference between the Orioles rotation in 2014 versus 2013 (an average of about a third of an out) is actually fairly significant.
If the Orioles could make a similar improvement this year, they would -- using last year's stats for the purpose of projection -- move from 20th in baseball to 10th.
"I do think there's another level these guys can go to,'' Showalter said. "You're talking about Bud Norris, you're talking about Tilly [Chris Tillman], you're talking about [Wei-Yin] Chen, and I don't think anybody's had a better offseason conditioning program than Miguel Gonzalez.
"…That makes our bullpen better. I've liked what I've seen so far about having a competitive bullpen again, but it will only be a competitive bullpen if our starters, like Bud, are able to do what they did last year."