MLB 2010 Season Thread

[Droford]

4) Baltimore Orioles Finally, out of the basement, but more thanks to the ineptness of Jp Riccardi than anything else. Alright, maybe not... but Riccardi definitely helped. They have 3 young allstars in Adam Jones, Nick Markakis and Matt Wieters. I feel as if Garrett Atkins will bounce back and Ty Wiggington is an improvement over Mevlin Mora at this point. The rotation is shaky but full of potential. Millwood and Guthrie are solid but unspectacular. Matsuz and Tillman are both highly touted and could turn in strong years. There's a lot of good young talent on this team but they won't win more than 75 games or so next year. Offense: 6 Starting Pitching: 6 Bullpen: 7 Defense: 7.5 Overall: 6.625

You mention Jones/Markakis/Wieters but neglect to mention Nolan Reimold, the 3rd cog in the best young OF trio in Baseball. Wigginton isn't playing 3B, that goes to Tejada for now (look out for Josh Bell!) and I would say that he is a moderate offensive improvement at 3B but negated by the expected defensive decline over Mora, who despite sucking at the plate last year, was a pretty decent defensive 3B. Atkins as it stands right now plays 1B and is an upgrade from the platoon they played at 1B late last season but a major downgrade from Aubrey Huff who they had to start last year. You nail the talking points on the pitching staff, but the key no one is talking about is that the bullpen has probably been improved a ton and that should help the overall pitching numbers out a lot.

The offense should be higher than a 6. They had a slightly above offense last year that shouldn't be much different this year.