It's far too early to draw any sweeping conclusions about the way the Orioles' lineup seems to have evolved over the past offseason, but it's an intriguing proposition.
The O's ended last season with an offensive whimper and the talk all winter was about improving their on-base percentage to take better advantage of their terrific power potential.
Of course, that became a bigger challenge when two of the club's top on-base threats — major league home run king Nelson Cruz and steady outfielder Nick Markakis — became free agents and signed elsewhere. But the Orioles appear to have developed a more cohesive offensive chemistry anyway.
Heading into Tuesday night's game against CC Sabathia and the Yankees, they were averaging five runs per game and ranked seventh in the majors with a .332 OBP through the first seven games in spite of a 16-inning scoreless streak during the season-opening series against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field.
"It's been good,'' said center fielder Adam Jones. "There have been a lot of opportunities. We've scored a lot of runs. We've had a lot of guys in scoring position and, just in general, a lot of guys on base in the first seven games of the year."
It has been particularly good for Jones, who entered the second game of the three-game series against the Yankees leading the club in just about every significant offensive category, including OBP (.500). He has been on an absolute tear since the Orioles came home from Florida.
"Now, obviously, you're going to go through spells where you don't, and that's just part of the game,'' he said, "but I like the fact that if you look at the at-bats the first seven games — and obviously, that's a small sample size — we're having good at-bats and just trying to get a good pitch to hit and make the pitcher work a little bit more than they had to in the past."
It certainly helps that brand-new right fielder Travis Snider and new leadoff man Alejandro De Aza got off to great starts. Snider came into Tuesday ranked right behind Jones with a .333 average and had reached base in almost half of his plate appearances (.481). De Aza has had some contact issues, striking out 10 times in his first 28 plate appearances, but he still has been reaching base at a strong (.357) rate.
Those clearly are early April stats. Nobody is going to reach base half the time all year. But the way that kind of on-base performance glues a batting order together is on display and everyone on the roster can see what a difference it can make.
"I hope so,'' manager Buck Showalter said. "You know you've got something when they're struggling statistically and they're still walking. They're staying in an approach. I hear [hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh] talk a lot to them about it. 'Win that pitch. Not the at-bat. Win that pitch and then win the next pitch.' That's grinding out at-bats. It's hard to do, because everybody's bringing these guys out of the bullpen throwing 97 or 98 [mph], but up here these guys can turn around a bullet."
Jones has benefited from the increased opportunities, but he said Tuesday that he's also working to reduce the number of times he gets fooled by that outside breaking pitch that falls well off the plate. So far, so good.
"I'm just trying to home in,'' he said. "Life is a game of adjustments and I'm just trying to make myself comfortable in that box and, right now, I feel good in there and I'm trying to stick with the plan. Attack the heater and if they hang [a breaking pitch] swing at it. If they don't hang it, try not to swing at it. That's really what I'm trying to do."
Clearly, there has been improvement throughout the lineup, which should help the Orioles buy some time while they get a couple more key players healthy and get the pitching staff back on track after a surprisingly rocky start.
Read more from columnist Peter Schmuck on his blog, "The Schmuck Stops Here," at baltimoresun.com/schmuckblog.
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