ESPN mag says orioles will....

[SilentJames]

What ever happened to trying to attract readers with intelligent, well-informed writing?

Exhibit A

[crissfan172]

It's a lot more expensive to do it that way.

Yeah...probably.

Have you never been to Orioles Hangout?

Ah...yes...fair point.

Exhibit A

God help us all.

[Lucky Jim]

Crawford and Papelbon?

I'll admit that I don't follow the "hope springs eternal" mantra much anymore, but Crawford was **** and Paps is just a reliever, albeit a very good one. Boston being healthy will probably net them another 5-8 wins over last year.

There is now way the Os win 70 games this year. Pitching was horrible last year and what do the Os do? Trade their best starter and roll the dice on a couple Asian imports.

How do you look at a 69 win team that added no impact players and say "yeah, we are going to be better"?

They're not even trying.

Bump?

...

[Lucky Jim]

Be lucky to win 69 games. In their best case scenario they have the Orioles winning less than 70 games. Worst case scenario is breaking the team record of 107 losses.

Thoughts?

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Bump...

[Lucky Jim]

I agree. I'd probably set the over/under at 60 wins.

I really just don't believe in the young pitching anymore and I'm not really that excited about the hitting. Duke made a lot of solid moves (and IMO one truly terrible one) but there's a lot of AAAA and otherwise unexciting talent on the team and really, if I'm the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Rays, I'm not worried about facing Hunter/Arrieta/Chen/Hammel/Matusz, or any other permutation of five starters we can come up with. I think Markakis is going to have a brutal year.

But that being said I've been wrong lots of times and I like watching winning baseball so, bite me, ESPN the Ragazine. GO O'S.

Bump...

[Lucky Jim]

We will lose 100 games this year. It's a sure bet.

Bump...

[Lucky Jim]

Well, I've got to have some skin in the game.

That said, I think we're probably a 71-75 win team, conservatively. I do think they could surprise (and by surprise I mean, like, 80 games).

Ouch!

...

[Barnaby Graves]

Bump...

I was right that the starting pitching would be mostly bad. Hammel I missed. Chen I had no idea what he would do. Our starters still have a long way to go.

[Lucky Jim]

I was right that the starting pitching would be mostly bad. Hammel I missed. Chen I had no idea what he would do. Our starters still have a long way to go.

Ha. Sure. Sure. Spot-on.

[Barnaby Graves]

Ha. Sure. Sure. Spot-on.

Thanks for concurring.

[Lucky Jim]

Thanks for concurring.

Well, the thread is a joke - I mean, I quoted myself, too, as being wrong.

That said, I don't think you're particularly right - the starting pitching has been good enough (and far better than last year). We'll see if it's enough. Or if it holds up.

[Barnaby Graves]

Well, the thread is a joke - I mean, I quoted myself, too, as being wrong.

That said, I don't think you're particularly right - the starting pitching has been good enough (and far better than last year). We'll see if it's enough. Or if it holds up.

I'm rather annoyed because I think Arrieta has actually pitched very well, even from a numbers standpoint, and it's really the ERA that's not there. But the HR/9 is down, the BB/9 is down, the K/9 is up, all of those numbers have improved considerably. His stuff is great and he loses the zone from time to time like a typical young guy. He's not a 5.89 ERA pitcher but that's what the numbers say.

Matusz... total Jekyll/Hyde act. Something great is in there.

Hunter I wasn't enthused about from the beginning, too many high pitches, too hittable. I watched him against us when he played for Texas and he kicked our asses so he's not a total loss but the HR/9 is bad and I'm not optimistic about improvement even if his HR/FB is unlucky.

Hammel bewilders me, he hasn't been as good lately but he's still good. Clearly a completely different guy than the Tampa Bay Ray I saw.

Chen I had no idea what he'd do and he's been better than I ever could have guessed.

I'm optimistic about the spot-starters. Miguel Gonzalez and Chris Tillman, I think, could do a good job if called upon. Eveland walks way too many guys and scares the crap out of me.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, we're 10th in the AL in starting pitching ERA. It has not been "good enough."

[Lucky Jim]

I'm rather annoyed because I think Arrieta has actually pitched very well, even from a numbers standpoint, and it's really the ERA that's not there. But the HR/9 is down, the BB/9 is down, the K/9 is up, all of those numbers have improved considerably. His stuff is great and he loses the zone from time to time like a typical young guy. He's not a 5.89 ERA pitcher but that's what the numbers say.

Matusz... total Jekyll/Hyde act. Something great is in there.

Hunter I wasn't enthused about from the beginning, too many high pitches, too hittable. I watched him against us when he played for Texas and he kicked our asses so he's not a total loss but the HR/9 is bad and I'm not optimistic about improvement even if his HR/FB is unlucky.

Hammel bewilders me, he hasn't been as good lately but he's still good. Clearly a completely different guy than the Tampa Bay Ray I saw.

Chen I had no idea what he'd do and he's been better than I ever could have guessed.

I'm optimistic about the spot-starters. Miguel Gonzalez and Chris Tillman, I think, could do a good job if called upon. Eveland walks way too many guys and scares the crap out of me.

We're on the same page pretty much w/ all of this.

[Malike]

How did Boston improve? If Pineda doesn't find his velocity did the Yankees improve? You think Hellickson is going to have a 224 BABIP again this season?

His BABIP is like 250 isn't it? I haven't checked in sometime, but I know its not too far off last years.

[Lucky Jim]

EDIT: Forgot to mention, we're 10th in the AL in starting pitching ERA. It has not been "good enough."

It's been good enough to be far from a 60 win team, which was your "over/under," and it's been good enough to put us .5 games back in the AL East having played the toughest schedule in the league. At the current pace, it's going to save us something like 100 runs over last year.

Given what we knew coming in, it's been "okay" - with room for improvement and room for regression.