Does this team suck? Or what?

How many position players are they away from contending in the AL East?

How close is their starting rotation to Braves' standards?

They've gone backwards this year.

Didn't go to a single game. ...and watched only a handful of innings on
television.

I couldn't tell you their starting lineup.

And consider myself an O's fan.

LOL!

David H.

David H. wrote:
Frankly, the Orioles are quite set at C, 2B, SS, 3B, CF and RF

The Braves had only one good pitcher this year which was Smoltz.
Hudson, Sosa, Thompson were all rather forgetable. : ) Actually, I
will take the Orioles rotation over the Braves right now with Bedard,
Loewen, Cabrera, Penn along with Benson.

Yes and no. I will say Bedard, Loewen, Ray, Britton, Patterson and
Markakis showed great promise. I do not remember when was the last
time this many "young" players showed big improvements.

Actually, no one can tell you either since I do not recall same line up
more than 3 days in a row this year.

To compete the Orioles need more "good" players. They have big holes
to fill at 1b, dh, lf. But the main problem is pitching. How many
good pitchers do they have. You can make a case for some of the others
having potential, but on the 12 man staff only Bedard and Ray can truly
be considered good. They have several pitchers that shouldn't be in
the majors (Ortiz, Chen, Lopez, Williams, etc.).

If the Orioles want to compete, I would want to see at least one of the
hitting holes filled, and several other good pitchers added.

In <1159503458.703737.325400@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.c om>, on 09/28/06
at 09:17 PM, "bgg" <bruceg@gmail.com> said:


We need to add power/rbi potential at 1B and in LF. We need a hitting
coach who stresses plate discipline, the value of OBP, and using the whole
field to have an offense that can come close to the teams we have to beat.
More baserunners tends to lead to more runs scored, and plate discipline
vs. Crowley's aggressive approach tends to result in hitters swinging at
better pitches, which increases the likelihood of getting a hit to drive
in baserunners.

We have to get relievers who can hold leads (no more NL imports - they get
clobbered by AL hitters), and add a dependable two or three starter. Of
our young starters, only Penn should be potential trade bait.

Alan

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