More facts and opinions (O's add Calvert Hall grad to minors deal)

Time to present a few more facts and opine about them today. We take a look at some things that happened with the 2023 Orioles and some that might happen in 2024.

Fact: The Orioles set a single-season team record with 1,431 strikeouts in the 2023 season. Not only did that club set a team record, but they shattered the previous mark of 1,248 strikeouts, set in 2016 and 2019.

Opinion and other facts: Despite that number, a record-setting number covering a long span of time with the first O’s season in 1954, the O’s are not a big strikeout team.

They did in fact have that many strikeouts last year but that ranked only as the ninth-most in the American League and 13^th-most in the majors. AL average for the season was 1,422. The Orioles averaged 8.86 strikeouts per every nine innings and that was also a team record and is the only time in club history they averaged 8.00 over the full season for every nine innings. But the 8.86 number ranked only as 10^th best in the AL where eight teams averaged 9.00 or more per nine.

While the O’s strikeout percentage ranked better – they were seventh in the AL at 23.5 (MLB average was 22.7) – they were not among the top clubs in that stat either.

My take on pitcher strikeouts has changed big time in recent years. I used to think getting outs was the only thing and swings and misses were not that important. I have come to believe that swing and miss stuff can show dominance and is important. Getting outs any way you can is still the biggest key, but at a time when hitters strike out so much, getting Ks on the mound can have its importance.

In an early December article here, I discussed Baseball America’s Statcast pitching rankings on the farm with Baseball America’s Geoff Pontes. The O’s farm pitchers scored quite well via the BA findings and ranked sixth among all clubs at In-Zone swing and miss percentage. Meaning, at a time when young hitters know the strikezone better and better and chase less and less, getting misses within the zone can be huge. O’s minor leaguers scored well here in 2023.

That all could bode well as the O’s an organization from the minors to the majors, improve their strikeout capabilities. It could all be important in the coming years to the big league club in Baltimore.

Fact: After producing the only 30-30 season (homers and steals) in O’s history in 2021 and producing an OPS of .878, Cedric Mullins’ OPS was .721 in both 2022 and 2023.

Opinion: It is making his 2021 performance look like an outlier. That .721 OPS over the last two years is counting 1,127 plate appearances. While he is just above league average, with an OPS+ of 104 for that two-season stretch, Mullins OPS+ was 137 during the 30-30 year.

Which is the real Mullins?

Mullins went 0-for-12 in the ALDS and just 2-for-45 his last 14 games, counting the postseason. In the postgame clubhouse after Game 3 at Texas, he indicated that while he was healthy enough to play late in the year, the two groin injuries he dealt with that sent him twice to the injured list, impacted his performance at the end of this season. 

“100 percent," said Mullins. "My game is in my legs and for me to have two leg injuries in basically back-to-back months takes its toll. Things start to compensate, and other areas start to hurt and get tight. You know, the offseason is really focused on healing, the healing process, regardless of how long it takes. Then get those areas strengthened and then I don’t have to bother with it again."

Mullins defended playing late in the year, saying that yes, he was playing banged up but so were other players.

Fact: Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez had an ERA of 7.35 in April and May of 2023. After he returned from a stint to “reset” in the minors, his ERA was 2.58 his last 13 starts.

Opinion: He completely turned around his season, a credit to his work and the work he did with coaches back at Triple-A including pitching coach Justin Ramsey. He became the fifth rookie in O’s history to start a postseason game in the Texas series.

Rodriguez turned a corner last year and I believe he can keep it turned in the direction we saw in the second half. He gained confidence and located his pitches better. His groundball rate went up and his homer rate went way down. He was rolling. I suspect in 2024 he looks much more like the second-half version we saw last summer.

O's add local product: Thursday evening the Orioles announced the signing of right-handed pitcher Dominic Freeberger, a Baltimore native and 2018 Calvert Hall grad, as an undrafted free agent. He signed a minor league contract.

Freeberger, 23, was the 2023 Big East Conference Player of the Year for UConn as a position player, where he batted .346/.429/.484/.913 with seven homers and 61 RBIs in 61 games. In six games on the mound, he allowed three earned runs over 5 1/3 innings. He also pitched at UNC-Asheville, throwing a combined 34 1/3 innings to an ERA of 6.29 between UNC-Asheville and UConn.

The Big East Conference honored him as a position player but the O's plan to use him on the mound at least at the outset of his pro career.

In 2022 he played and pitched some also in both the MLB Draft League for Frederick and in the Cape Cod League. He was ranked as the seventh-best high school infielder in Maryland as a senior at Calvert Hall.

A reader pointed out last night his father, George, was an O's draft pick as a catcher in round 40 of the 1992 draft out of Baltimore Poly. He played two years on the O's farm and in 45 games in the 1992 and 1993 seasons. According to baseball-reference.com, Mr. Freeberger passed away in 2002 at age 28.