2008 was a bad year for the Orioles, plain and simple. They lost nearly 100 games, the pitching was awful, and every Sunday was an embarrassment in Baltimore. The only real positive was the offense they created, but even that could not cancel out the terrible pitching. The Orioles look to try and improve on their 68 - 93 record in 2008.
Projected Lineup:
C - Matt Wieters
1B - Aubrey Huff
2B - Brian Roberts
SS - Cesar Izturis
3B - Melvin Mora
LF - Felix Pie
CF - Adam Jones
RF - Nick Markakis
DH - Luke Scott
Projected Rotation:
#1 - Jeremy Guthrie
#2 - Koji Uehara
#3 - Chris Waters
#4 - Rich Hill
#5 - Radhames Liz
Closer - George Sherrill
Position Battles:
#4 and #5 Starters - Mark Hendrickson and Adam Eaton have a chance at the last two spots in the rotation. Whoever has the better spring should get the job.
Closer - George Sherrill struggled in the second half of last year and Chris Ray is returning from Tommy John Surgery, so they may split the closer duty throughout the season.
2009 Outlook: People have some reason to be excited in Baltimore, but not because of the performance of the team, but because of one player. Matt Wieters. He is one of the top prospects in all of baseball and he has everyone talking. Wieters is a switching hitting catcher who can hit for power and average and play his position well. Other than Wieters the team does not really look any better than it did last year. Jeremy Guthrie is their number one starter, so that shows you that the pitching staff is still not very good and the offense consists of either old players (on the decline) or young players that have not panned out. So it does not really look like another good season for the Orioles, especially playing in the AL East.
Projected Finish: 5th Place, AL East
No comments:
Post a Comment