Will a new year bring a return to past performance for some O's starters?

Happy new year to all Orioles fans. Hope this will be a great year for you and the team you root for.

The Orioles rotation will need to be better this year. No matter what additions or changes the O's make to their starting five, the holdovers simply must do better in 2016.

Last year, Chris Tillman went 11-11 with a 4.99 ERA. In 2014, he went 13-6 with a 3.34 ERA. Miguel Gonzalez went 9-12 with a 4.91 ERA last year after going 10-9 with a 3.23 a season before. Even Kevin Gausman fell off a bit, from 7-7 with a 3.57 ERA in 2014 to 4-7 with a 4.25 ERA.

Can these pitchers return to perform at a level of or near their 2014 seasons?

From 2012 to 2014, Tillman went a combined 38-16 with an ERA of 3.42. In those years, he ranked tied for 11th in the American League in wins and was 15th in ERA. The Orioles went 55-27 (.671) in Tillman's 82 starts. Then they went 15-16 in his 2015 starts.

From 2012-14, Gonzalez went 30-21 with an ERA of 3.45 and the Orioles went 40-29 (.580) in his starts. Last year, they went 12-14 (.462) when Gonzalez took the mound. One year after posting a career-best ERA he posted his worst.

Even though Gausman's ERA went up, several other peripheral numbers improved in 2015. His strikeout rate per nine innings increased from 7.0 to 8.3 and his walk rate went down from 3.0 to 2.3. His WHIP decreased from 1.315 to 1.228. He gave up fewer line drives and got more ground balls. He needs to take a big step forward this year when he finally should be in the rotation from start to finish of the year.

As we ponder what moves the club might make to bolster its pitching staff, how will the holdovers do in 2016 and how critical will that be to the team's success?