The Baltimore Orioles have 11 stolen bases and 0 caught stealing through 16 games. It is the most impressive short term speed show by an Orioles team that I can recall.
Brian Roberts has 4 SB, Corey Patterson - 3 SB, David Newhan - 3 SB and Luis Matos has 1 SB.
The speed show is probably over, at least for now, as Newhan (broke a leg stealing 2nd) and Matos (shoulder) are both on the DL. Roberts will continue to swipe a few bases and Patterson has the wheels to swipe a lot of bases if he gets on (which he usually does not).
It will be interesting to see if Perlozzo (O's rookie manager) has any tricks up his sleeve to replace this part of the offense, or keep it going with half of the wheels. I'm favorably impressed with Perlozzo so far. The O's are above .500 with a pitching staff that is alternately spectacular and horrific and a defense that has been shaky (13 errors).
The offense has been functional. They are, so far, able to score runs w/o hitting a home run (for the pure NL fans, the AL equivalent of "small ball").
Perhaps the pitching and defense are just bad. But perhaps this is only an April malaise. The defense is certainly expected to solidify. I can't imagine that the O's pitching staff can consistently pitch so inconsistently throughout an entire season. The quality of the pitching will certainly change, the question is which direction will it go?
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