Buck Showalter officially took over the Baltimore Orioles on Aug. 3. The team had 32 wins at the time and appeared to be spinning its wheels towards another lost season.
This season is another lost season, but Showalter has the Orioles at 12-8, a .600 clip, since he began running the show.
The starting pitching has improved, with a few bad outings sprinkled in, the rotation has gone deeper in to games and given up fewer runs than at any point this season. Also, the bullpen has improved because the pitchers seem to know their roles better than at any time this year, except the closer’s role.
Baltimore’s offense has shown some improvement under Showalter as well. The clutch hits were few and far between for the two other managers the O’s have had this season, but a more patient approach has produced more hits in situations with runners in scoring position.
The last facet of the game that seems to be better is the defense. Fewer errors has meant shorter innings for the pitchers. There have also been more double plays turned in the last 20 games, however, that could be the impact of Brian Roberts’ return. Adam Jones has also seemed to returned to his Gold Glove form from 2009.
Showalter isn’t the fix-all, but his impact has been felt over his first 20 games for the O’s and if the franchise can continue this momentum going in to next season, the O’s could be looking at their first winning season since 1997,
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