Olson

[osfan83]

I think this is perfectly reasonable. If you're going to be starting 2-3 of these types of guys, it would make life as a fan a lot more bearable if they showed some improvement as the season progressed. So far, that isn't happening. If Olson/Liz/Burres are going to continue to start, they each have roughly 12 starts left in them. What do you need to see from each of them in their final 12 starts to feel like this season provided something useful for them?

This is an important point. Going into this season I think we all agreed we were in rebuilding mode and would likely be a last place team, and yes as a team the O's have exceeded expectation. But most people here also recognized that the most important thing to take place in 2008 would be to see some progression from our "future". So far we've seen this in Jones, Markakis keeps getting better, and you can even argue that D-Cab is showing some signs of improvement. Liz/Olson/Burres need to show some progression. If each has about 12 starts left, we need to see 5-7 or so good starts from any of these guys that expect to be in the rotation in April next year. We need to look back in September and say _______ has made some strides towards becoming a Major League pitcher.