Home Run Derby

 Before I get to today’s topic, I would like to encourage people to go back to look at our Nationals preview.  Clearly my “worst team in baseball” labelling has riled up some Nats fan, not to mention my o-fer vs the Mets prediction.   I bring it up, because today’s team in the spotlight, the Baltimore Orioles, will challenge the Nats for the title of “worst team in baeball.”

Before I get too far, I would like take this time to remind eveyone to visit my partner in this feature, SkyKing162.  We take very different approaches to this exercise, but quite often end up with similar answers (except for Rick Ankiel)…Go Figure!  I am sure as we get to more of the upper echelon teams, we will see some striking desparities.

Now to the Orioles. On paper, they have a slightly better team than the Nats, mainly because the have some legitimate starting pitching in Jeremy Guthrie, Daniel Cabrera and Adam Loewen.  That not to say we have the makings of  a dominant staff, but at least a respectable one.  Of course, Cabrera will have to stop walking a hitter every other inning to start to reach his potential.  He’s teetering on the bust label now.

The hitting on this team provides a little bit of pop (142 team Home Runs last year).  The loss of Mr. Vitamin B-12 shot (Miguel Tejada) will put some downward pressure on that number as his replacement Luis Hernandez is not going to bring back memories of Cal Ripken.  Anyway, let’s get to the predictions.

Win Total Over/Under is 65.  That tells you that Vegas thinks that this is the worst team in the majors…or at least a really bad team in an extremely strong division.  I will take the over here, as I think they will top out around 70 wins.

Player most likely to have a Home Run Break Out Season: I will pick my fellow Greek, Nick Markakis.  The 24 year old outfielder hit 23 dingers last year with a .847 OPS.  He showed great growth from his rookie year (16 HR, .799 OPS) last year. I believe the trend will continue and he will hit over 30 Home Runs this year.

Player most likely to have a disappointing Home Run Season:  Kevin Millar.  He didn’t have a great power season last year at 17 roundtrippers, and at the age of 36, he is entering that time of one’s career were performance begins it’s decent.  Well, unless of course, your name is Barry Bonds.

Bold Statement: Nick Markakis will be in the top 5 in AL MVP voting this year.  The power of the Greeks!

Best Case Scenario for the Team:  Cabrera, Loewen and Guthrie all take a major step foward this year and each win at least 12 games, leading the team to a 3rd place finish in the AL East. 

Best Chance for Hardware (League Awards): Markakis wins a silver slugger and is named to the All-Star team (and it will be deserved not because you need one Oriole on the team). As you can see, I think he is going to have a fabulous year.

And now for the roundtable:

Sky: So, what will be the Orioles main storyline of 2008?

Oriole Bloggers: [crickets chirping]

Nick:  Hey did you know that Nick Markakis is Greek and is going to have an awesome year?

Oriole Bloggers: [crickets chirping]

Sky: Well, I guess this wraps up the roundtable.

Next up: My second favorite team growing up, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 at 8:15 pm and is filed under 2008 MLB, 30 Teams in 30 Days, Orioles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.