Trying to predict how many games the Orioles will win this year is a dicey proposition. If some of their young players take steps forward and the team has a healthy year, maybe they approach or even better a .500 mark. But if some of the opposite occurs and the team once again gets overwhelmed by its American League East rivals, the 2012 Orioles could approach or reach 100 losses.
That seems to be a big swing from the most optimistic outlook to the most dire.
By the way, just twice in club...
There is a theory out there that the Orioles have rushed some of their prospects too fast to the big leagues in recent years and that is one key reason why some of that young talent may have struggled at times in the majors.
One thing to note here is that all players are different in some way, so an organization can have a general philosophy about promoting players in the minor leagues, but they also surely realize that some players can be moved faster than others.
Two of those players for...
I know that Brian Matusz pitched terribly last year and that is the memory many still have as they wonder if he can regain his pre-2011 form for the Orioles.
But I keep thinking back to the Matusz I saw in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. He was a pitcher with an excellent four-pitch assortment and could command them all. He pitched with a plan and with confidence.
We've seen him do that at the major league level as well and I am confident he will do it again. It may take some time and maybe he...
The performance of Jake Fox last year in spring training should remind us to never get caught up too much in spring training statistics. Yet, it's all we will have to go on until opening day and we can't say that spring stats don't matter at all.
But when Fox hit 10 spring training homers last year to lead all big leaguers it led some to jump to the conclusion that he might hit 30 for the Orioles and some even said he should start at catcher ahead of Matt Wieters who was coming off a season...
If Brian Matusz pitches well tonight at Ed Smith Stadium in his spring training debut maybe he will finally be at a point where the questions he has to answer deal more with the present and future than the past.
Few pitchers have ever had such a swing in their performance as this 25-year-old left-hander. He finished the 2010 season going 6-0 with an ERA of 1.57 over his last eight starts and then went 1-9 with an ERA of 10.69 last year.
American League batters hit .372 off Matusz last year...
So Major League Baseball will have 10 teams in the playoffs in October after adding a second wild card team in each league. I like this move for a variety of reasons.
It puts a real premium on winning the division championship and no longer will a late-season game, say between the top two teams in the American League East, not mean much because both squads will be in the playoffs anyway. Now a division that is so tough like the AL East can get a third team into the postseason.
A division...
Right now you'd have to look real hard to find some concern about Orioles 2011 first-round draft pick Dylan Bundy. And you still may not find a thing. The scouts have raved about him since the O's drafted him and right now he's in major league camp clearly living up to the hype at this point.
None of this will help him get an out once the minor league season starts in April and he has yet to throw one professional pitch, but if you doubt Bundy's talent and potential at this point you'll...
When discussing Nick Markakis and what he might be able to do on offense this year, many fans now seem to be of the opinion that Markakis is no longer considered a middle-of-the-order hitter.
Those fans have some stats to back up that opinion. His slugging percentage has dropped every year from 2008 on, from .491 to .453 to .436 to last year's .406. His 31 doubles in 2011 is much fewer than recent seasons when he had 48, 45 and 45. His extra-base hits total has dropped the last few years,...
With as many farm teams and players that there are in the Orioles organization, there will always be some injured minor league players to try and keep track of.
Here is a partial list of some pitchers that spent some time injured last year and how they are doing now. I'll update more from the minor leagues as opening day gets closer:
* Right-hander Clay Schrader didn't pitch after July 25 last season due to a right elbow flexor mass strain. But he has already reported to minor league camp...
It seems that baseball is in love with big-time fastball velocity. Scouts talk about it, pitchers want to gain more of it, fans are impressed by it and reporters are plenty happy to keep track of it.
It takes more than a good fastball to succeed on that mound - we all realize that - but it seems to be the first thing discussed when debating the talents of a pitcher, pro or amateur.
How hard does he throw? Does his velocity hold up into the later innings? What speed does he top out at? Is he...
There seems to be a perception among some that the Orioles' offense is sadly lacking. Maybe when stacked up to that of Boston or New York that is true, but the Orioles had an offense that ranked around league average in the American League in 2011.
Here are eight team statistical categories from last year, and the Orioles ranked near or above league average in five of them:
Runs: 723 was AL avg. while O's scored 708 to rank seventh.
Average: .258 was AL avg. while O's were at .257 to rank...
It sure sounds like Ryan Braun is losing in the court of public opinion.
The Brewers' slugger and current National League MVP had his 50-game suspension for testing positive for elevated testosterone overturned and he spoke very passionately in presenting his defense publicly on Friday.
Yet this is an era where we have come to expect anyone in the public eye that gets disgraced in some way to spin the matter to put themselves in the best possible light. It's a time where sports fans are...
Matt Angle is not the kind of guy that would likely ever publicly say anything negative about his organization or teammates, but when he had praise for the Orioles on his way out of the organization Thursday afternoon, it sure sounded heartfelt and sincere.
"I felt like I had great coaches and great people that actually cared about (me) all along the way," Angle said by phone from Ohio yesterday. "That is from the training staff to the on-field coaches to your strength and conditioning. I...
Outfielder Matt Angle, who was drafted by the Orioles in round seven out of Ohio State in 2007 and made his major league debut last year, is now headed to the Los Angeles Dodgers, an Orioles official confirmed this afternoon.
Angle was designated for assignment by the Orioles on Feb. 10 when the club signed Luis Ayala and today he has been claimed by Los Angeles on waivers.
In 31 games last year, Angle hit .177 with one homer, seven RBIs, 12 runs and 11 stolen bases in 12 chances. He hit his...
While my neighbor Terry's yard looks like a plush fairway at Augusta National and, compared to his, mine is like the U.S Open rough, that is not what I'm talking about here.
The negative fans among us may be enjoying this time like no other. I get that the Orioles deserve to be bashed for 14 losing seasons, I just don't see the need to focus on it 24-7. Call me crazy, that's just me.
* This is from Yahoo! Sports' Orioles 2012 season preview:
Reputations in baseball die hard, and few...
I've heard this question a lot recently: Who will start for the Orioles on opening day? To me, who cares? The bigger issue is who will start and what will happen the other 161 days.
For some reason there is a bit of an obsession with the opening day assignment as if the club would have been a contender if Jeremy Guthrie was still here and everyone could pen him in now for that outing.
The Orioles don't have a clear candidate right now for that start but they also don't have a clear...
He's moving out of the cave and into the yard. The Orioles announced the hiring today of Ryan Wagner as the new public address announcer at Camden Yards. Here is the press release from the club:
The Orioles today announced that Ryan Wagner has been selected as the new Voice of Oriole Park. Wagner was chosen to be the club's new public address announcer out of a field of 670 applicants.
An Orioles fan originally from Baltimore, Wagner spent last season as a resident of Major League...
When Baseball America released its much anticipated annual list of the top 100 prospects in the game today, the Orioles had two players listed among the top 11 and three in the top 82.
Pitcher Dylan Bundy was ranked No. 10, shortstop Manny Machado No. 11 and infielder Jonathan Schoop No. 82. While 13 teams had more players on the list than the three Orioles, Texas is the only other organization with two players listed among the top 11 and one is Yu Darvish.
The rankings are a composite list...
Under Major League Baseball's new collective bargaining agreement all teams will be allotted a certain amount by MLB in a bonus pool to sign its top 10 round picks, starting with the 2012 First-Year Player Draft.
The amount of the pool total depends both on how high the team picks in the first round of the draft and how many selections a club has in the top 10 rounds. Baseball America released a list today of the bonus pool money allotted each club.
Here is the list published today by BA....
It won't be too long now before spring training heads for its final days and the main focus surrounding the team will likely be on which players make the Orioles' final 25-man roster that will take the field on opening day.
Over the next few weeks, there will be some debate and arguing, as there is every year, that the best 25 players should head north. Of course, this seems to make perfect sense, and why would a team not include one of its top 25 players on the roster to start a new...
