2008 Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles were hoping to be a team over the past years to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. But what has happened instead is they have continued to get worse. Last year they barely finished above Tampa Bay for 4th place in the AL East. This year won’t be any different with the trades of Miguel Tejada and Erik Bedard. This is a team starting completely from scratch. While General Manager Andy MacPhail is hoping that by reloading the farm system by trading away high priced players he can turn this once proud organization around. This team won’t have much of a chance in competing this year. They just don’t have the players to compete with the other teams in the American League. Trading away your best pitcher and offense threat for prospects means you are ready for a year of struggles and growing pains.

Pitching:

The pitching staff took a big hit when they traded away 28-year-old Bedard to the Seattle Mariners. That leaves the team with 7 -5 Jeremy Guthrie as the team’s ace. The rest of the rotation just keeps getting worst. Daniel Cabrera has games where he looks untouchable, and then he has games where he just looks awful. If that’s not enough to convince you that their rotation isn’t that good, Steve Trachsel is the projected 4th starter. The bullpen doesn’t get much better. Last year they went out and spent $42 million to upgrade this unit. That didn’t work so well as the bullpen posted a 24 -35 record with a 5.71 ERA. So don’t expect much of an improvement this year. The bright side about this year is that the Orioles will get a good chance to look at some of the prospects they have.

Offense:

The best returning player they have coming back is second baseman Brian Roberts, but rumors are he still might be traded before the start of the season. Without Roberts the team will have no proven stars at all coming to the plate. The team got young CF Adam Jones in the Bedard trade. They also have young talent in RF Nick Markakis and SS Luis Hernandez. The team is getting old in a lot of other positions so don’t be surprised if by mid-season you see a completely different lineup. Just like with the pitching this will be a good year to find out what kind of big league bats they got in their farm system.

Defense:

What is surprising about this team that only won 69 games last year, is that they were the best in the American League in giving opposing team extra outs. Kevin Millar plays a pretty solid first base. He only had 1 error in 103 games. Second baseman Roberts also had a solid year with only 7 errors in 154. So even though the defense did its part in 2007, we expect a much worse 2008. You have figure with the playing of more and more young players their inexperience will lead to more errors.

Prediction:

This will probably be the worst team in the American League. We expect not only a last place finish in the East, but we don’t expect them to be even close to the Rays. Oriole fans just need to be patient and give it a couple years and see where your young talent takes you.

2008 Baltimore Orioles Odds to Win World Series 100 – 1

For every team’s odds head over to Sportsbook.com and check them out. You can also go to Sportsbook.com to look at the odds for teams to win their division or league pennant. Feel free to leave any comments in the comment section.

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