OFFICIAL: BALTIMORE ORIOLES THREAD

matt49er · 2011-04-04T01:14:39-07:00

I searched and didn't find any O's threads out there. How many O's fans we got here on the zone? I'm very excited for this season, I live about 45 mins away from Camden Yards and bought a 25 game package with my stepfather this season. The young pitching looked GREAT allowing 1 run all series vs the Rays despite our #2 pitcher being out for 3-6 weeks. When Matusz gets back this staff could really be complete, we've been hearing for years now about how good the young pitching was going to be and it may be finally arriving. The defense has also been very impressive Markakis's catch to save the tying run in the bottom of the 9th Saturday might be one of the top 10 plays in baseball this season. The lineup hasn't been great yet very clutch coming up with key hits and rarely leaving runners in scoring position and moving runners unselfishly and playing good team offensive baseball. Brian Roberts has been red hot to start the year. Not much yet from Vlad, D.Lee which is encouraging going 3-0. I go to my 1st game on Thursday and I'm pumped! Hopefully Andy Mcphal and ownership are telling the truth about their plan. They have been telling the fanbase once the young pitching comes along and starts to click with our young core of position players like Weiters, A.Jones, Markakis as well as Roberts they will spend the $$ on top FAs when adding them will mean the team will be competitive. It's been 13 consecutive hard losing seasons for the O's and I for 1 am praying the plan starts to work this year and next offseason the ownership lives up to it's word and adds a few high caliber FAs to springboard this team back to where it belongs-amongst baseballs elite. Not to long ago the O's once led MLB in payroll (mid 90's w/Cal, Palmeiro, Alamar, Bordick, Mussina, A.Belle etc) I just hope cheap ass Peter Angelos pony's up the cash for someone like Fielder, A.Gonzalez etc. I'm not holding my breath but I think this team can show some real improvement this year and promise for the future. .500 with solid development from our young pitchers and position players especially Weiters would be nice. Small chance we do surprise some ppl and end up competing for the wild card however with our youth and lack of top tier dominate players I do not think that will happen this season. O's fan or not I'd love to hear what baseball fans think of this years O's and their future potential. GO O'S!!!!!!!!!!

Apr 4, 2011 at 1:39 AM

OregonDuckNiner
Veteran
Posts: 6,385

I like Brian Matusz, think hes gonna be really good. Got him on my fantasy team.

How you think he's gonna do when he comes back from the DL?

I'm a giants fan btw, and A's are my AL team. But I am rooting for the O's this year as well, take the AL East

Apr 4, 2011 at 2:00 AM

Niners99
Veteran
Posts: 44,304

not to troll or anything, but im not sure why the O's fans are so excited about this season vs. any other season. theyre employing the same strategy they always do. spend money on hitting, rely on the farm system/crappy castoffs for pitching, and blaming injuries and their division as the reasons they never win.

they just went extra crazy this offseason with the additions of Vlad, Reynolds, Lee, and Hardy.

btw did you only start this thread because theyre 3-0? if they went 0-3 would this thread still exist? dont lie...

Apr 4, 2011 at 4:54 AM

blizzuntz
Veteran
Posts: 56,393

I rooted for the O's when I was in the Baltimore and DC area. I came to the conclusion that they are cursed in many ways.

Apr 4, 2011 at 6:32 AM

TheXFactor
Veteran
Posts: 25,990

This is BIRDLAND

Apr 4, 2011 at 7:28 AM

Fincham11
Veteran
Posts: 3,687

I'm an O's fan, glad you started this thread. I will post here daily...

Apr 4, 2011 at 7:40 AM

jrg
Veteran
Posts: 166,549

lol

Apr 4, 2011 at 11:31 AM

matt49er
Veteran
Posts: 7,672

Originally posted by Niners99:
not to troll or anything, but im not sure why the O's fans are so excited about this season vs. any other season. theyre employing the same strategy they always do. spend money on hitting, rely on the farm system/crappy castoffs for pitching, and blaming injuries and their division as the reasons they never win.

they just went extra crazy this offseason with the additions of Vlad, Reynolds, Lee, and Hardy.

btw did you only start this thread because theyre 3-0? if they went 0-3 would this thread still exist? dont lie...

the reason O's fans are more excited this year vs. other years are the young pitching is supposedly arrived this year should make a nice impact and in 1-2 years theoretically (spelling?) we'll have 4-6 young arms at or near their peek years:

Gutherie
Matusz
Britton
Tillman
Bergeson
the 1st 3 are the ones i'm really high on the other 2 will be avg 4-5 starters or good relievers IMO

Brian Roberts is one of the most underrated players in baseball and he's back healthy for the 1st time in a year and a half. Him back at leadoff allows Nick Markakis/Adam Jones to bat in somewhere else in the lineup where they belong.

Matt Weiters although he struggled last year is not far removed from being the #1 prospect in all of baseball. Alot of O's fans including myself feel he will break out this season.

The Guerrero signing is overrated, he will not have near as a good a year as he did in Texas last year and will fall off in the 2nd half of the year. D.Lee is probably just above avg at 1B at this point in his career and Mark Renyolds strikes out more than anyone in baseball literally so to tell u the truth I'm not that thrilled with those 3 signings but vs what we had last year it is an obvious improvement at 1b/3b/dh.

jj hardy is 2 years removed from being an all-star, was hurt alot of last year and is young. he's my favorite signing of the offseason.

the team only took a flyer on 1 injured pitcher in justin duchersher (spelling?) as of now we have 5 starters pitching better than him and at 750k 1 yr deal he was worth it IMO guy can pitch when healthy.

3rd place and about a .500 record is what i expect. ceiling for this team is wild card IF at least 3 of the young pitchers develope and have breakout years and Gutherie our lone vet has a nice year. Lee/Guerrero/Renyolds/Hardy will have to have nice years, Weiters will need to break out and Markakis/Jones will need to have years reflective of their previous best in the ML's in order for this to happen. I'm not a homer I know this won't all happen but as an O's fan 13 straight years of losing (I'm 28, I wasn't even driving last time we were in contention) this team is a team that can compete everday, not be an embarassment, provide some excitement and possibly overachieve and contend. that coupled with some nice young position players and pitchers make it exciting FINALLY.

the timing in which i started the forum is because being 3-0 they were on my mind when reading the general mlb thread i decided to start an o's thread. in the general mlb thread there were way more o's comments than i anticipated being a 49ers board.

the AL East excuse makes me sick also the Rays showed that you do not need to have a billion dollar payroll to compete w/the Yanks/Redsox. I would love to have a payroll like those 2 teams the Phillies etc but it doesn't HAVE to happen that much we agree on completely.

[ Edited by matt49er on Apr 4, 2011 at 11:37 AM ]

Apr 4, 2011 at 2:46 PM

matt49er
Veteran
Posts: 7,672

4-0!!!!!

GO O'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apr 4, 2011 at 6:37 PM

Fincham11
Veteran
Posts: 3,687

4-0 baby!!!!

Apr 4, 2011 at 7:22 PM

#10

matt49er
Veteran
Posts: 7,672

Originally posted by Fincham11:
4-0 baby!!!!

hell yeah! wtf is going on with bs injuries/sickness to the starting pitchers though man?

gutherie-pneumonia
matusz-hit by liner in simulated game vs his own team
and i forget who but another one of our arms got hit w/a liner and had to push back a start....worst luck ever for a 4-0 team.

Apr 4, 2011 at 8:09 PM

#11

Fincham11
Veteran
Posts: 3,687

Originally posted by matt49er:
Originally posted by Fincham11:
4-0 baby!!!!

hell yeah! wtf is going on with bs injuries/sickness to the starting pitchers though man?

gutherie-pneumonia
matusz-hit by liner in simulated game vs his own team
and i forget who but another one of our arms got hit w/a liner and had to push back a start....worst luck ever for a 4-0 team.

I know i just read about Gutherie with the pneumonia. Probably, cuz of this crazy ass weather on the east coast, cold one day, nice as s**t the next. Gutherie looks like he's going to have a great year.

I'm excited also about Britton. He looked good sunday. O's got tomorrow off so that will give a little time to get healed up.

Apr 4, 2011 at 8:11 PM

#12

Fincham11
Veteran
Posts: 3,687

Another thing, I'm looking foward to the Texas series on April 8-10. I want to see how we fair against the AL champs.

Apr 4, 2011 at 8:43 PM

#13

OregonDuckNiner
Veteran
Posts: 6,385

Originally posted by Fincham11:
Originally posted by matt49er:
Originally posted by Fincham11:
4-0 baby!!!!

hell yeah! wtf is going on with bs injuries/sickness to the starting pitchers though man?

gutherie-pneumonia
matusz-hit by liner in simulated game vs his own team
and i forget who but another one of our arms got hit w/a liner and had to push back a start....worst luck ever for a 4-0 team.

I know i just read about Gutherie with the pneumonia. Probably, cuz of this crazy ass weather on the east coast, cold one day, nice as s**t the next. Gutherie looks like he's going to have a great year.

I'm excited also about Britton. He looked good sunday. O's got tomorrow off so that will give a little time to get healed up.

I don't like Guthrie, they always say he's gonna break out this year and has some crazy good games, but he's just way too inconsistent. I think Matsuz is gonna have a big year though, he was really good towards the end of the year last year

Apr 5, 2011 at 1:43 AM

#14

Niners99
Veteran
Posts: 44,304

Originally posted by Fincham11:
4-0 baby!!!!

just remember the 2003 Kansas City Royals went 9-0 to start the season.