Five O’s stats that stand out

|

The Orioles reset before another week on the road in Boston and Detroit, providing an opportunity to check in on some of the team’s most pressing concerns — Chris Davis, Manny Machado and Tim Beckham, plus the bullpen and offensive approach. Is Davis making good contact when he does? Is Beckham replicating last August or September? Has Machado’s luck turned?

These and more follow in the first edition of five Orioles stats that stand out of 2018. – Davis broke out with a pair of hits Wednesday for his first multihit game of the season. But more alarming than his strikeouts and the concerns about his approach will be the quality of contact when he does connect. Entering Thursday, there were 186 batters with at least 25 batted ball events so far this season. Only four had a lower average exit velocity than Davis’ 81.8 mph, according to Statcast. – The difference between Beckham’s Au32.1gust

and September in an Orioles uniform was defined by two things — his strikeout rate and his groundball rate. In August, he drove pretty much everything while striking out far less often — 18.9 percent, as opposed to a career rate near 30 percent. Those two things regressed from Sept. 1 on, and neither indicator looks too good now. He struck out in 32.1 percent of his at-bats this year entering the Red Sox series. (Source: FanGraphs) – Entering Thursday’s games, the Orioles led the majors in strikeouts by a wide margin with 142 in 13 games. The next closest team, the San Diego Padres, had 127. (Sources: MLB.com, FanGraphs) – The Orioles bullpen has had an unusual workload this year, with three extra-inning games and some short starts, but the team’s relievers also entered Thursday leading the American League with 29 walks. (Sources: MLB.com, FanGraphs) – Machado’s season is already going far better than last season, and any number on any of his statistical pages could be used to illustrate that. The simplest one is his .368 batting average on balls in play (BABIP), . (Source: FanGraphs)