Yankees vs. Orioles: Looking Ahead To the Remainder of the ALDS

(Patrick Semansky/AP)

By Bernadette Pasley | @LadyBatting

It should not surprise anyone that the ALDS series between the Orioles and Yankees is tied at a game apiece. These two teams know quite a bit about ties. After all, they sat tied atop the AL East for what seemed like the entire month of September. They split their last regular season series of the year. They split their 18-game season series. Even Game 1 of the ALDS was tied at 2 for four long innings on Sunday night.

Things will remain tied today, a travel day before the series resumes tomorrow night in the Bronx. All the remaining games will be at Yankee Stadium, which leads one to believe that the Yankees now have home field advantage. But, do they really? I don’t think so.

Jose Altuve’s Short Story

(AP Photo)

By Bernadette Pasley | @LadyBatting

There were many interesting storylines in the 2012 regular season. Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown, seven no-hitters, and the amazing runs of the Baltimore Orioles and the Oakland A’s all grabbed the headlines this year. But there was also another story, one that went on in Houston, Texas, that I enjoyed following. I am not sure why. Perhaps it was because it demonstrated determination to succeed in the face of obstacles. Or, maybe it was because it was just a cute and, at times, funny story. That story was Jose Altuve.

At 5’5”, Jose Altuve was the shortest player in Major League Baseball in 2012. An All Star and the Houston Astros’ most valuable player, he batted .290 with seven home runs, 37 RBI and 33 stolen bases. But his height was more a topic of conversation than his stats were. The media and fans alike enjoyed watching the pint-sized second baseman from Venezuela put together a fine first full season in the Majors. One fan even devised a unit of measurement called Official Standard Listed Altuves (OSLA). If you go to his blog How Many Altuves? you can type in any height or distance in feet, and the number of Altuves (height or distance times 5’5”) will be calculated for you.

Analyzing the AL Wild Card Race

(Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

By Devin Pangaro | @devinpangaro

The race for the American League Wild Card positions is not for the faint of heart. With four teams in the mix for two spots, the seasons waning days are set for excitement and heartbreak. One can't help but imagine Commissioner Selig holed up in an office, with an Emperor Palpatine like smile across his face as he watches this weekend’s games unfold. While the drama may never compare to the final day last season, be assured that the intensity and magnitude of what does remain should more than suffice. Four teams. Two positions. Everything is on the line. Let's take a look at the contenders.

Baltimore Orioles (89-67, +1 up on Wild Card 1)

Despite an underwhelming run differential for most of the season, Buck's bunch has defied expectations and stayed in the mix all season long, thanks to excellent starting pitching and clutch hitting. Failing to fall in September, Baltimore has held strong with a 16-9 record including four extra-inning wins that have added on to their record of 16 straight over the course of 2012. In fact, much of their success is derivative of their ability to win close games. They are currently a lead leading 27-9 in one run games thanks largely in part to an underrated bullpen led by AL saves leader Jim Johnson, and setup men Pedro Strop and Troy Patton. One thing to keep in mind is that this Baltimore team is very much fighting a war on two fronts. With the Yankees holding a precarious one game lead in the division, Baltimore must continue to click on all cylinders.

A cause of concern may be first year starter Wei-Yin Chen who has led the Orioles staff in a myriad of pitching categories in a very solid season. September however has not been kind to Taiwanese lefty. Whether it be exhaustion, or simply the league catching up to him Chen has struggled during the season’s final month. In five starts, Chen is 0-3 with a 5.90 ERA. Furthermore, he has allowed se
ven home runs in 29 innings making that his highest monthly total all season long.

Orioles Promote Dylan Bundy to the Big Leagues; plus Scouting Notes

(Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

By Jim Pratt | @BigLeaguesMthly

With an 18-inning, five-plus hour affair with the Seattle Mariners last night now in their hip pocket, the Baltimore Orioles continue to defy logic as they find themselves in a deadlock atop the AL East.

According to Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports, the Orioles contacted their top pitching prospect, Dylan Bundy, shortly after their 4-2 win against the Mariners to inform him of his promotion to the big leagues.

The Orioles have been reluctant to call-up Bundy, deciding to send him to Instructional League once the Double-A season ended, but the use of seven relievers last night has seemingly forced their hand.

Bundy is expected to be in uniform for tonight’s series finale with the Mariners.

In the August issue of Big Leagues Monthly | Magazine, columnist Nathaniel Stoltz discussed his thoughts on Bundy in his Scouting Notebook.

MLB Power Rankings - September 10, 2012

Joey Votto is back, Stephen Strasburg is done for the season and the Baltimore Orioles are indeed for real. There were plenty of story lines this past week which played a part in the rankings and the races for playoff berths in both leagues.

The Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are streaking; winning five and six straight games respectively. The Braves' streak has them seven games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers who are right now the first team out of the National League wild card race.

The Angels have moved within one game of the Orioles for the last spot in the American League playoffs and only 2 1/2 games behind division rival Oakland who holds the top position.

With their excellent weeks both teams made moves up the charts while the Washington Nationals swap places with the Texas Rangers mostly due to Strasburg's departure from the field. Please let us know what you think about the rankings in the comments below.

Scouting Notebook featuring Dylan Bundy

By Nathaniel Stoltz | @stoltz_baseball

As someone who frequently discusses prospects in his writing, one of the most important ways for me to get and stay informed about the minors is to attend minor league games. Certainly, statistics, video clips, and even MiLB.tv are invaluable resources as well, but nothing is quite like sitting right behind home plate and taking everything in.

So, without further ado, here are my thoughts on some of the more notable players I’ve had the pleasure of watching in person over the last couple of weeks.

(Cliff Welch/Icon SMI)

Dylan Bundy, RHP, Orioles (Double-A Bowie)

I’ll start with the obvious: Dylan Bundy is a fantastic pitching prospect. You don’t need to go see him to know that. At this point, he’s essentially the consensus top pitching prospect in baseball, which is no small feat for a guy who hasn’t even escaped A-ball and is the least progressed of the top four picks of the previous season’s draft.

So yes, Bundy is terrific. He has four distinct pitches: a fastball with riding life up and in that’s usually in the 92-94 range, a curveball with sharp, big break in the mid-70s, a solid changeup at 81-84, and an upper-80s cutter. The fastball is easily a plus pitch, the curve is unhittable when he sets it up and locates it, the changeup flashes plus, and the cutter is a nice change of pace when he locates it.

Many reports mention the curveball as Bundy’s worst pitch and the cutter as a plus offering, but in my viewings, the cutter looked a bit on the soft side, and several ran out over the plate, while the curve was inconsistent but deadly when he stayed on top of it, forcing some absurd swings by unprepared batters. He’s supposedly been asked to deemphasize the cutter in favor of working on the curve this season—at least the latter half of that seems to be paying off.

Given all the talk about Bundy’s polish for his age, some have suggested he could succeed in a major league rotation right now. Great as Bundy is, that idea is quite a bit off the mark. His biggest flaw at this point is a lack of pitch sequencing ability—compared to some of the polished college arms he was facing, Bundy didn’t have much of a feel for when to go to his offspeed pitches or what to use to strike batters out. It’s completely understandable why this is the case—until he reached High-A, Bundy probably went his whole life getting batters out using whatever pitch he cared to use. Only now is he starting to get any sort of pushback and negative feedback from hitters that will really allow him to assess what is working and what is lagging behind as he advances.

That makes his issue, which isn’t all that big of a deal for a teenage A-ball pitcher, not too difficult to fix, and given that Bundy receives high marks for his acumen and work ethic, there’s no reason he won’t get a better sense of when and where to throw what as he continues to progress. Still, Julio Teheran and Jacob Turner have been waylaid by similar issues in Triple-A and the majors, so it’s not out of the question that Bundy will experience some bumps in the road when he gets to those levels.

Overall, Bundy looks on a path to have a lot of major league success. He has a diverse and effective arsenal with good mechanics and control, with a lot of development time in front of him to tighten things up. He might not quite make it into the Justin Verlander/Clayton Kershaw class of ridiculous aces, but a career along the lines of Matt Cain’s seems feasible. Barring a total meltdown, he’s a #3 starter at the worst.