Does Chris Davis belong in Orioles’ Hall of Fame? | MAILBAG

Question: Am I the only one who thinks Chris Davis belongs in the O’s Hall of Shame? That contract he signed and embarrassing performance over the life of it ate up a large percentage of the O’s payroll and prevented the team from acquiring quality players under the O’s shoestring payroll budget. From: Glenn Fuller

Answer: Glenn, I disagree with you. Chris Davis was a terrific and popular player from 2011-2015, leading the majors in home runs twice. He was a key player for the 2012 team that broke the 14 consecutive seasons of losing baseball.

While the contract was ill-advised, it was popular at the time. Many fans were saying they wouldn’t go to games unless the Orioles re-signed Davis,

Davis’ performance wasn’t good and it didn’t help the team, but I think he put a lot of pressure on himself to justify the contract.

While most of the comments I’ve received about Davis since his election to the Orioles’ Hall of Fame have been negative, fans at the ballpark rarely booed him, and he remained popular. I’ll bet he’ll get a huge ovation when he returns on August 1^st.

Question: Last year, the Orioles’ starting pitching staff had a very difficult start to the season. In my opinion, it was one of the biggest reasons the Orioles had a difficult season. Have the Orioles identified what caused such a difficult start to last season?  Was it an anomaly? From: Paul Armstrong

Answer: Paul, you’re correct about the slow start. In the first half of the season, Oriole starters had a 5.16 ERA and in the second half, they had a respectable 3.97 ERA.

Trevor Rogers pitched brilliantly in the second half, and having him for the start of the season as well as having Kyle Bradish for the whole season, plus the additions of Chris Bassitt and Shane Baz, could help the starters begin the season much more strongly.

Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. If you’d like to submit a question, send it to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com. Questions may be edited for clarity, length and style.