Fans: Are Orioles Worth It?

The question is fast becoming a staple of the Baltimore talk-show circuit. It is winding its way through the stands at Camden Yards. And it comes up again every time the Orioles and their fans suffer another tough loss:

Is this really the best team money can buy?

It certainly is the most expensive. The Orioles’ $74 million payroll is the biggest in the history of the game. The club came out of spring training stocked with superstars and seasoned veterans, right down to former White Sox starting shortstop Ozzie Guillen - since departed - who signed on to be the 25th man on the roster.

Everything went along swimmingly for a while. The Orioles played their first four series against the small-revenue Royals and Tigers and looked as if they were going to run away with the American League East. Then they started playing better competition and getting banged up, and suddenly the losses started piling up faster than grand jury indictments in Arkansas.

The O’s hit bottom with a series of late-inning losses that carried them into May in a 3-11 tailspin. It didn’t help that the Yankees and Red Sox countered with an unprecedented two-team roll that turned the power structure in the East upside down in little more than two weeks.

Didn’t help at all.

The talk shows are abuzz with complaints about new manager Ray Miller and concern that the Orioles are too old, or too overpaid, or too populated with potential free agents to compete with their streaking division rivals.

There is some truth there, but the situation is not critical. Miller has maintained his composure and chalked it up to some early season bad luck, which is probably the right way to look at a three-week slump at a time when the leaves haven’t fully sprouted yet.

Bad luck? The Orioles have had a raft of it. Center fielder Brady Anderson suffered a sprained sternoclavicular joint (the point where the breastbone and collarbone come together) and got off to the worst start of his career. He finally went on the disabled list, but the club’s offensive chemistry clearly suffered from his struggle ... and then from his absence.

Worse luck? Right-hander Mike Mussina was knocked out of the rotation by - drum roll, please - a wart. He had been pitching with a small wart on the index finger of his right hand, but it cracked and created enough discomfort to keep him from throwing his breaking pitches. So, he joined Anderson on the disabled list, finally returning last Sunday to pitch well against the Twins.

Abysmal luck? Scott Kamieniecki tried to pitch through a spring groin strain and came up with a sore elbow. He joined Anderson and Mussina on the disabled list, leaving the Orioles without their leadoff man and 40 percent of the rotation.

Everyone knew there would be injuries. The Orioles are baseball’s oldest team, with an average age of 33 and eight players 35 or older. But the three major injuries to strike them over the the first five weeks did not involve the old guard.

The main problem has been offensive chemistry. The Orioles may have the most expensive starting lineup in baseball, but they are looking up at a bunch of small- and medium-revenue clubs in the offensive rankings.

“We’re scoring some runs,” outfielder Joe Carter says, “but we still don’t feel like we’re scoring the runs we should. We really haven’t had four or five guys get hot. We’re waiting for that breakout when six or seven guys get going, but you see that a lot early in the season. Everybody wants to get off to a great start, so you press a little more.”

Miller continues to preach calm. What else is he supposed to do when his team clearly is better on paper than it is on the field?

“If the best offensive team always won, the Detroit Tigers would have won every year in the ‘80s,” Miller says. “The thing you want is, when you’re not pitching well, to have enough offense to win, and when you are pitching well, to have enough offense to win.”

The Orioles have not had enough of either lately. No. 4 starter Doug Drabek struggled in the early weeks. So has reliever Terry Mathews and - to a lesser extent - Jesse Orosco and Norm Charlton. Miller was forced to use minor league call-ups Nerio Rodriguez and Sidney Ponson in back-to-back starts, which is something you don’t expect from a team that will spend as much on its rotation as the A’s will spend on their entire payroll.

Welcome to a Peter Angelos nightmare. The best team money could buy is proving, so far, that money isn’t everything.