Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Baltimore Orioles Season Preview - Part IV



Well here we go, the final part of the season preview for the Baltimore Orioles. So far I reviewed the starting rotation, bullpen, and the infield. Today class, we are going to learn about the outfield, DH, and catcher. Why is the catcher lumped in with the outfield you ask? Because I fucking forgot to include him with the infield, okay?!? Happy?

Lets get going

Catcher - Ramon Hernadez

Ummm....he's fucking good. I will admit that when the O's signed him, I wasn't exactly doing backflips of joy, ya know. But he is a real solid prescence behind the plate with a laser, rocket arm. And his offensive numbers are really nice for a catcher (20+ hrs & almost 100 rbi). When I look at his stats, my favorite number is 144. That is how many games he played last year. When your team has a catcher who is good offensively and defensively AND he stays healthy, then you have a good thing going. Lets hope he keeps it up. If he played on a different team, there would probably be a little All-Star buzz with him.



Left Field - Jay Payton

Is he the starter? Who knows. Since I forced Huff into first earlier and I refuse to acknowledge Millar as a starter, I am going to put Payton here. This did not exactly make me happy. But that is because my only real memory of Jay Payton is having him on a fantasy team while he was a Met and trying to get a message to Bobby Valentine through his nephew to play him more so my team would get better.



But as I actually look at his numbers, I am starting to feel a little optimistic. He had a good year offensively last year although he swings at everything. His is projected to be up later in the lineup so that's okay. If the O's have a guy batting 8th or 9th who bats .296, then things will be okay.

Note: Lets hope he looks a little more excited in the field.



Center Field - Corey Patterson

No other offensive player scares me as much as Patterson. Which player is going to show up for the O's this year. When properly motivated, Patterson can be a dangerous hitter. He can hit for average (not great but okay) and he is fast as hell. But he can also flat out suck with the best of them. I mean, hell, his last year in Chicago was freakin' pathetic. He batted .215!! Last year he batted .276. So which is it. I dunno. I am afraid of this guy though. I am not expecting him to light it up.

Left Field - Nick Markakis

Just for the record, I spelled his name correctly without looking it up. This kid is awesome. Very early last year, I compared him to David Wright to a buddy of mine who is a Met's fan. My point was that he was young, home-grown, and had tons of pontential. Well my friend laughed at me like I was an idiot. And this time, he was wrong. (That makes it 9,9834 times he was correct and 14 that he was wrong in thinking that I was an idiot).


Markakis had a really good year last especially considering it was his first in the bigs. There were some tough moments but he overcame them and finished the year with some real nice numbers. Hell, if he just repeats those numbers I'd be happy. But he will probably exceed them.


Ex. There was story in the WashPost about one of his struggles last year. There was a point when other teams found a big weakness with the inside fastball. For a while it was eating him up. So what happens, he overcame it and went on a steak where he batted .500. He has a real good future ahead of him.


DH - Jay Gibbons

I will freely admit that I really like Jay Gibbons. After Cal left, he was one of the few O's that I could recognize. If he could only stay healthy (how many times has that been muttered about a professional althete?). So I am going to just go forward and assume that he stays healthy this year. If so, then the O's DH position will give them about 25hr and 100rbi. That's pretty good. If he goes down, then Millar comes in. As someone who has lived in Boston for a while now, I am pretty familiar with his work. He is streaky and can be good but not someone you want to rely on for a whole season. So lets hope the O's don't have to do that.


Now that we have looked at all of the players. Lets look at the lineup as a whole. This is based on a prelimerary lineup that Perlozzo put out. I am making one slight change and that is the removal of Millar.


Lineup

  1. Roberts
  2. Mora
  3. Markakis
  4. Tejada
  5. Huff
  6. Hernandez
  7. Gibbons
  8. Payton
  9. Patterson

That's a pretty good lineup right there. 8 & 9 are really up in the air but besides that, there is some consistently.

So what does it all mean? Well if this team was playing in a vacuum, then they would be really dusty!! Thank you, thank you. Please tip your waitress. (ummm...sorry about that joke, I must be tired)

Seriously though, I think this team could finish the year with a winning record. This team has so much potential. But it won't happen. Playing the AL East is a two team division. The Blue Jays have been trying really hard lately and they finished 10 games back. I think the O's will start the year well and may stay in contention through the All-Star break. But I don't expect this team to be able to last the year. I think this is one of the better teams the O's have fielded in years now. In the end, they will be two pitchers and one outfielder short of the playoffs.

Final prediction: 78-84 4th place

Stupid Angelos

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