The first week after the All Star break is always exciting as the non-waiver trade deadline approaches and teams determine if they are going to by buyers or sellers. With the addition of the wildcard, there are often several teams on the bubble as the second half starts and their performance in the next week helps with that decision.
In the American League, there are eight teams within five and a half games of a wild card spot. So this first week of games is going to be critical in determining the buyers and sellers.
The Orioles open the second half on the road, a place they’ll become familiar with in the second half as 41 of their final 75 games are away from Oriole Park at Camden Yard. The Birds need to play a bit better away from the Yard, they are currently 18-22 away from home, if they hope to stay in the hunt for a postseason berth.
They have a chance to get off to a good start as they open with a three-game series in Tampa and then four games in New York against the Yankees -- for some reason their first trip to Yankee Stadium this year. The Rays are 20 games below .500 and are likely on the verge of trading players as they look toward the future. And the Yankees are trying to figure out where they stand, a dangerous position for opposing teams, but they aren’t likely to be real contenders in the division race and have five teams ahead of them in the wildcard race.
The Orioles are adding a left hander to the bullpen with the promotion of Donnie Hart from Double-A Bowie. Hart will be the left-handed specialist out of the pen, something they’ve been searching for since the release of Brian Matusz.
But the starting rotation needs to improve if the Orioles are going to be able to maintain their hold on first place. That means Kevin Gausman and Yovani Gallardo need to perform much better than they did in the first half. And Tyler Wilson and Mike Wright need to provide the depth every team needs.
But will the Orioles add another arm to the rotation from outside the organization? I’ll take a look at that in a future post.
