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Baltimore Orioles
Overall: 23
Title track: 63
Ownership: 92
Coaching: 5
Players: 26
Fan relations: 48
Affordability: 26
Stadium experience: 8
Bang for the buck: 11
Change from last year: +19
In the star-spangled town where Francis Scott Key saw that the rockets really did have a red glare and the bombs actually burst in air, it should come as no surprise that bang is a major factor in the Orioles' standings ascension. Overall, dem O's jumped 19 spots from last year, giving the franchise its best finish yet.
What's good
As if frequenting the beloved ballpark that broke the mold (No. 8 in stadium experience) hasn't provided fans with enough ROI, Charm City cheerers are constantly showered with swag. Of 81 home dates this season, 66 featured some kind of promotion, including 25 giveaways. While Hawaiian Shirt Day and the five-date Player Designed T-Shirt Series (Zach Britton and J.J. Hardy, among others, waxed artistic) were big hits, nothing was more popular than the Buck Showalter Garden Gnome. The miniature statue, which pays tribute to the 2014 AL Manager of the Year (who ranked fifth in the coaching category), was so coveted that when the original giveaway date was rained out, the June makeup game drew a sellout crowd of 45,675. About the only person in Baltimore who didn't go gaga for the garden gnome was Showalter himself. "Buck likes to keep the attention on the field and on his players," says O's VP of communications Greg Bader. "But his genuine resistance to the entire concept seemed to drive even more fan interest."
What's bad
Though the team has overperformed in recent years, O's fans still aren't convinced that owner Peter Angelos is ready to open his wallet and pay for a pennant. Angelos remains among the lower-ranked owners in baseball, and he's fallen in each of the past two seasons -- though still not down to the triple digits, where he languished in the dark days before the Birds' recent upswing. Angelos' response to the Baltimore riots -- playing a game in an empty Camden Yards and moving three home games to Tampa Bay to avoid taxing the Baltimore police force -- was met mostly with praise. But if Angelos is to climb these standings, he'll have to pay free agents like slugger Chris Davis, whose contract is up this year.
What's new
The Orioles' ascension is due in no small measure to a big jump (up 21 slots) in the bang for the buck category. Among MLB teams, only Pittsburgh and Arizona scored higher than Baltimore (11). A Camden Yards outing has always been among the most affordable fan experiences in the league, and now the product on the field is living up to expectations. Birds backers love that for the price of one Ravens ticket ($100.19, on average), they can buy four seats to see an O's squad that has reached the playoffs twice since 2012 and over that time has won the second-most games in the American League. Not coincidentally, the team's success largely overlaps with Showalter's reign. In Baltimore, that's known as bang from the buck.
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