The Orioles are going to be a very interesting team. Every offensive projection I've seen suggests that the hitting is going to be top-five in the league. Especially once Matt Wieters comes up; he's being called "Mauer with power", though from the impressions I've getting he sounds more like Mike Piazza plus quality defense, and he completely annihilated single-A and double-A last season (and actually hit better at the higher level). Not that there's any expectations for him around here or anything
Between Wieters, Markakis and Jones (who a bunch of different national media have called a top breakout candidate), this team will score a lot of runs. Even Cesar Izturis at shortstop is going help the offense: with a mid-.600s OPS, he will be about a hundred points better than the OPS for Baltimore's shortstops last season. And this is with the team making an effort to focus on defense, signing Izturis and trading for Felix Pie as a reclamation project in left field.
The big problem is that the starting pitching is going to blow Roger-Clemens'-tiny-testicles. There are four new starters in the rotation behind Jeremy Guthrie, and only Japanese import Koji Uehara looks like a definite answer beyond this season. The Andy MacPhail Express from Chicago brought in Rich Hill, who looked decent in spring training and is going to be given a chance once he is healthy in a couple weeks, but the other three in the rotation now (Alfredo Simon, Adam Eaton and Mark Hendrickson) are just keeping places warm.
The Orioles have been making a conceited effort to keep their most-talented young pitchers earn their way through the minors the past couple years. Even though Brad Bergesen and Brian Matusz showed in spring training that they probably could hold their own in the majors right now, the team is sending them down, to triple-A and single-A respectively, to earn their promotions.
Hopefully, the young guys down in Norfolk will perform well early on in the season and the team will promote them to give them their chances soon; That Eaton-Hendrickson combo is going to KILL me.
Fortunately, the bullpen is setting up to be pretty good. The back end, with George Sherrill starting the season as closer, former closer Chris Ray coming back strong and last years' surprise Jim Johnson, is very strong.
The Orioles really aren't trying to win this season, but if Wieters is anything near his expectations and a couple of the young pitchers earn early promotions and pitch well in the majors, the O's will win a bunch more games than most expect.
Really, this team could win 70 games and finish last, or they could win 85 games and finish third (or even then likely fourth, with the strength of the division).
It's definitely going to be an interesting season...