The 2009 Baltimore Orioles

Winston-Salem, NC -- With the glossy ice covering the Greensboro streets this morning, it's difficult to comprehend playing baseball in the warm sunshine right now. It's time to review our third team in the B's Bistro season preview; the Baltimore Orioles. By hiring Andy MacPhail in June 2007 as the President of Baseball Operations, Peter Angelose could finally stop pressing the "Re-start" button on this rebuilding project that launched in 1998. Does Mike Flanagan even work for the Orioles anymore? After building two World Series winners with the Twins, and then having mediocre success with the Cubs in the mid-90's, MacPhail knows that being impatient and wasting your cash on mid-level free agents isn't the best route to build a winner. MacPhail has done what the Orioles should have implemented a decade ago; blow-up the old, non-effective core, and trade whatever chips for buckets of prospects. The deals that sent Federal liar Miguel Tejada and the cranky Erik Bedard to Houston and Seattle, respectively, were both winners. For once, the Orioles have some legitimate pitching prospects down on the farm, and I'm not talking about Matt Riley and Jimmy Haynes. Chris Tillman (Bedard trade), Brian Matusz ('08 1st round pick), and Troy Patton (Tejada trade) are promising prospects, but not major league ready. These trades, along with the "low-risk, high reward" deals for Rich Hill and Felix Pie, are exactly the type of trades that the Orioles need to be making. The procrastination to make the "take a step backwards in order to go forwards" trades has only prolonged the rebuilding project. One other point that needs to be made is that the Orioles have finally "tapped" into the Asian market with the signing on Kenji Uehara. He may not be the best pitcher in Japan, but the signing is more of a symbol of progress. For now, the Orioles will struggle with the stable of arms currently on the roster, but that will likely change in the upcoming years. Here's my stab at this year's unproven rotation:

• Jeremy Guthrie (R), 10-12, 3.63 ERA, 120 K's, 58 BB's, 190.2 IP (2008-BAL) -- The nicest guy in baseball.
• Koji Uehara (R), (2008-JPN) -- I heard this guy was just mediocre in Japan, and he's now passed his prime.
• Rich Hill (L), 1-0, 4.12 ERA, 15 K's, 18 BB's, 19.2 IP (2008-CHC)
• Mark Hendrickson (L), 7-8, 5.45 ERA, 81 K's, 48 BB's, 133.2 IP (2008-FLA)
• Brad Hennessey (R), 1-2, 7.81 ERA, 21 K's, 15 BB's, 40.1 IP (2008-SF)

The only part of the team that has plagued the Orioles more than the starting pitching has been the bullpen. However, with the emergence of George Sherrill as an All-Star closer, and with Chris Ray returning after a year-long stint on the DL, the back-end of the bullpen is suddenly a strength. Jamie Walker, who has been a colossal waste of money, provides very little relief from the left side. Speaking of the southpaws, I like the re-signing of John Parrish, who was very underrated IMO when he last pitched in Baltimore. Let's see if Jim Johnson can step-up and burnish the "set-up man" position this year, or he could be out of the league by season's end.

If you're going to hand-out "long term" contracts, be sure you sign the right player (see Belle, Albert). Another clear sign of progress under the MacPhail administration came this winter when the O's locked-up 4th year player Nick Markakis to a 6 year/$66M deal. This signing demonstrates that the Orioles are interested in winning and they'll lock-up the players that want to be here. For his many years of service and hopefully a few more All-Star seasons left in him, Brian Roberts signed a 4 year/$40M extension. In this market for a 31-year-old second basemen, I think the O's overpaid on this one. It looks silly when Orlando Hudson just signed a deal for $3.4M/year. Carrying on the homegrown talent trend, super prospect Matt Wieters looks primed to be a star in the making. He tore up minor league pitching last year and has a rocket of an arm behind the plate. Look for him to get called up in May (to delay his arbitration eligibility by 1 year) to take over for Gregg Zaun behind the plate full-time. Here's my projected lineup, and it finally has some homegrown talent sprinkled in there:

• Brian Roberts - 2B (S), 0.296, 9 HR, 57 RBI (2008-BAL)
• Adam Jones - CF (R), 0.270, 9 HR, 57 RBI (2008-BAL)
• Nick Markakis - RF (L), 0.306, 20 HR, 87 RBI (2008-BAL)
• Aubrey Huff - 1B (L), 0.304, 32 HR, 108 RBI (2008-BAL)
• Melvin Mora - 3B (R), 0.285, 23 HR, 104 RBI (2008-BAL)
• Luke Scott - DH (L), 0.257, 23 HR, 65 RBI (2008-BAL)
• Cesar Izturis - SS (S), 0.263, 1 HR, 24 RBI (2008-STL)
• Gregg Zaun - C (S), 0.237, 6 HR, 30 RBI (2008-TOR)
• Felix Pie - LF (L), 0.241, 1 HR, 10 RBI (2008-CHC)

The three new acquisitions are placed at the bottom of the order with their main purpose being to play defense. While sitting in the Arizona sun last Spring Training, watching the Cubs take on the Mariners, my good buddy turned to me and mentioned that Felix Pie will be a star someday. I told him that he's the next coming of Corey Patterson, and that he'll probably be traded to the Orioles in the next two or three years or so. I like the young outfield, but I'm not that high on Pie because of his lack of plate discipline. Zaun is merely keeping the catcher's seat warm for Wieters. It was a good move to end all catching rumors by trading away Ramon Hernandez to the Reds for utility man Ryan Freel. Ty Wigginton will supply further depth on the bench as well. As you can see above, I attempted to construct the lineup with the L-R-L alternating combination. However, the power drops considerably in the bottom third.

The Orioles are nowhere close to contending with the big boys in the AL East, but that could change with a Tampa Bay-like run in the next couple of seasons (2011 and beyond). The pitching needs to develop and mature under Rick Kranitz, and an impact bat needs to be added to supplement the excess of speedy batters. For the first time, the progress is measurable -- from the trades for prospects, wise drafting, locking up young stars, and tapping into the foreign markets, the Orioles appear to be on the right, albeit slow track, back to respectability. They are even listening to the fans, by changing the road uniforms to have "Baltimore" across them, and they even incorporated a little Maryland flair in the sleeve patch. Suffice it to say, the Orioles are ahead of the Nationals in their rebuilding project; who would have thought that a year or two ago?

Happy Birthday to avid B's Bistro reader and Baltimore resident Kevin Attridge!