Putting the 2010 Orioles in Historical Context

• The O's finished in last place in their division for the 3rd straight season, the first time in team history that's happened. No previous Orioles team has even done it twice. (But the '54-'59 teams were pretty bad.)
• The team scored 615 runs, which is the lowest total for a Baltimore offense since the strike-shortened season in 1994 (589 runs scored in 113 games).
• That placed them next-to-last in the AL, behind the Seattle Mariners (3.17/game). The Mariners actually scored 100 less runs than anyone else in the league (513).
• Aside from their terrible 54-107 season in 1988, their 3.78 runs/game scoring average was the Orioles' lowest in 38 years, since they scored 519 runs and averaged 3.37 in 1972. That was the last season in the AL before the designated hitter rule was adopted. My point here is that the offense was pretty horrific, by any standard.
• They won 66 games, the first time in the last 7 years that they actually won more games than they did the year before (2004).
• They lost 96 games, making 2010 the 5th consecutive year they lost at least 90.
• They've now lost 90+ games in 8 of the last 10 years.
• Before the 2001 season, the team had lost 90+ games only 5 times in it's entire history in Baltimore, and 2 of those were the first two years after they came over from St. Louis.
• 2010 was the first time in Orioles history that they had 3 people each manage more than 50 games: Dave Trembley (54), Juan Samuel (51) and Buck Showalter (57).
• While the offense was god-awful, the pitching was significantly better, allowing 91 less runs than the year before (785 in '10, vs 876 in '09).
• Those 785 runs made for a 4.85 runs allowed/game average, which was still 2nd worst in the AL behind the Kansas City Royals (5.22 runs/game, 845 total).
• The Orioles are NOT a Moneyball team: they finished dead-last in the AL in walks, with 424 (just 2.6 per game). Nick Markakis's 73 walks made up more than 17% of that total.
• The Orioles are NOT a small-ball team: they finished 10th in the league in steals, with just 76 (less than half a steal per game). Corey Patterson's 21 steals made up 28% of the team's total.
• Further evidence against the small-ball idea: the team was 12th in sac bunts, with 31. What's interesting is that the team that lead the league with 53 (the Texas Rangers) is historically thought of as a lineup of sluggers.