The Orioles have wasted no time establishing themselves as one of the best teams in baseball for the second straight year.
While their 3.07 team ERA is a huge contributor to their 47-24 start, Baltimore’s biggest strength to this point has been their offense, particularly the long ball.
Gunnar Henderson’s 22 home runs have been the catalyst to Baltimore’s league-leading 108 bombs. While having a talent like Gunnar certainly helps, Baltimore has had contributions all across the lineup, with five players having 10 or more homers and eight players with five or more.
Despite winning 101 games in 2023, stylistically, the Orioles were wired completely differently, hitting just 183 total home runs, good for 22nd in all of the bigs.
The club’s leaders in homers last season were the aforementioned Henderson and Anthony Santander, who both hit 28 of them. So far, in just 70 and 67 games, respectively, Henderson has, as mentioned, has hit 22 and Santander 17.
There’s not a whole lot Orioles fans can complain about, as offensively, the Birds are third in OPS (.761), 10th in batting average (.249), first in homers with 114 and second in runs scored (364).
Despite these impressive marks, there are some red flags. Baltimore is just 16th in OBP, in large part of their lack of walks. In fact, the O’s 191 walks rank 28th in Major League Baseball.
We’re not here to say Baltimore has a flawed offense, as it’s comfortably one of the league’s best. However, being so long-ball-reliant comes with a wide array of risks, and we’ve seen plenty of teams fall short in October because of it.
Every team is throwing their best guys in October, and the colder weather alone will make home runs harder to come by.
But as the summer months roll on, so will the O’s and their latest version of The Birdland Power Company.
What do you think of this Orioles offense? Let us know in the comments below! Make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook, Twitter (X) and TikTok, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
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