****Official 2013 Baltimore Orioles Thread****
 

2013 Baltimore Orioles

The O’s earned an American League wildcard berth last season thanks to a 29-9 record in one-run games. That kind of luck - er, performance - tends to even out, so they’ll need to improve in other areas if they want to contend again. But since we care only about fantasy implications …

Offseason moves:

Re-signed OF Nate McLouth

McLouth provided plenty of second-half help for fantasy owners, with seven home runs and 12 steals in 89 games. But look more closely, and you’ll see an underwhelming .694 OPS, along with a probable playing-time threat in Nolan Reimold. Mixed leaguers shouldn’t bother with McLouth.

Signed SP Jair Jurrjens

Remember when Jurrjens made the NL All-Star team in 2011, and posted a 2.60 ERA in 2009? For this injury-prone, soft-tossing righty with a subpar strikeout rate, those days are probably gone. Stay away, even if he makes the rotation.

Claimed 2B/SS Alexi Casilla

The somewhat speedy Casilla (21 SB in 106 games last season) will serve as insurance against Brian Roberts’ injuries.

Lost 1B Mark Reynolds to free agency

The emergence of Manny Machado made Reynolds and his sky-high strikeout rate expendable. Reynolds will start at first base for the Indians, where he’ll try to bat higher than .221 for the first time since 2009.

Projected Lineup

1. Nick Markakis RF
2. Nolan Reimold/Nate McLouth LF
3. Adam Jones CF
4. Matt Wieters C
5. Chris Davis 1B
6. J.J. Hardy SS
7. Manny Machado 3B
8. Wilson Betemit DH
9. Brian Roberts 2B

The leadoff spot is uncertain, with Markakis, Roberts and Reimold/McLouth as possibilities. Markakis was having a solid season before going down with a thumb injury in early September, and could be a .300, 20-homer guy. Jones should come close to another 30-homer, 15-steal season, while Davis’ 33 homers were a pleasant surprise for the vast majority of people who thought he could only hit in the minors. Wieters and Hardy are likely to repeat as solid if unspectacular fantasy performers at premium positions.

Rotation

1. Jason Hammel
2. Wei-Yin Chen
3. Chris Tillman
4. Miguel Gonzalez
5. Steve Johnson
CL: Jim Johnson


Hammel threw harder, struck out more batters and induced more ground balls than he ever had before. We don’t know if he’ll do it again, but he’ll have more upside than other SP5 types in mixed leagues. Chen could be a solid AL-only option, while Tillman’s sub-3.00 ERA was helped by some fortunate BABIP luck (.221); don’t reach for him, even if he might be improving. The final spot figures to be up for grabs between Johnson, Jurrjens, Brian Matusz and Jake Arrieta, and you should avoid all of them. One or all will be replaced soon enough by a certain stud prospect mentioned later in this article.

Raise your hand if you had Jim Johnson pegged for 50-plus saves last season! Yeah, same here. Johnson throws plenty of strikes and gets tons of ground balls, but his inability to miss bats will make him a bit riskier than the top-tier closers (who are all inherently risky, anyway). If Johnson turns into a pumpkin, Pedro Strop seems likely to step in, though his shaky control might drive Buck Showalter crazy.





Big questions:

Will Roberts finally be healthy?

He hasn’t played more than 60 games since 2009, so the guess here is a big, fat NO. If you want to draft Roberts late in a shallow league with the idea of replacing him quickly if things don’t work out, fine. Otherwise, stay away.

Will Machado improve in his first full major-league season?

The 20-year-old Machado made an earlier-than-expected debut for the O’s last summer, shifting to third base in a move that filled a real-life need while disappointing fantasy owners. He hit 18 homers and stole 15 bases between the minors and majors, and could offer similar power/speed production for you in 2013. However, as talented as Machado is, he’s still very young, and probably a couple of years away from making a big impact. Note that Hardy is signed through 2014, so Machado isn’t likely to move from the hot corner soon.




Sleeper

Again, McLouth isn’t very good. Reimold missed most of 2012 due to a neck injury, but hit 19 homers and stole nine bases between the minors and majors in 2011. He might fly below the radar in AL-only leagues.

How soon will Dylan Bundy join the rotation?

It’s possible that the 20-year-old Bundy – universally regarded as one of baseball’s top three prospects – will break camp with the O’s. It’s far more likely that he’ll start in Double A, spend most of the season in the minors, and be limited to about 150 innings. Keeper league owners should be all over Bundy if he’s still available, but he won’t pitch enough to help in redraft leagues this season.

Top prospects

Dylan Bundy, SP – Stud. Blue chipper. Great attitude, according to most. Future ace.

Kevin Gausman, SP – Gausman is a big, talented righty who was drafted by the O’s last year, but at 22 with only 15 professional innings under his belt, he’s still at least a year away from helping the big club. If you want to draft a starter in your dynasty league, Gausman is a solid candidate.

Jonathan Schoop, 2B/SS – Schoop batted .245 with 14 homers at Double A last season, and might start 2014 at the keystone in Baltimore.




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Let's hope we see this again!

Rotation sucks. See you in 2014.

Do the Royals have enough starting pitching to contend?

WTF is this?

Sure

What's next an official Jag thread for the 2 fans here? Though we could combine it with Jaguar drivers and at least get something relevant out of it.

5th place in the AL East.

Not too impressed with the offseason moves. We're gonna need some more O's Magic to pull last year off again

2012: Fluke season

2013: Back to reality. They'll struggle to play .500

Not trolling, but that's how I see it as well.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BDPfijZCQAAHzKn.jpg

http://www.baltimoresun.com/media/ph...2/74442189.jpg


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For some reason I thought Jurrjens would be bigger than that. Eh, maybe he'd be a little taller with two good knees.

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Rays win the division this year.

Wil Myers will be awesome.

Aren't there any fan forums in Baltimore? We don't really need an "official" 2013 Baltimore Orioles thread on Chiefsplanet.

If I were a mod, I would lock delete this thread.

Where were you all last year for the 2012 Orioles thread?

Great start to the season beating Price. Let the Haters hate all year.

Good job O's. Gona be interesting this year.

Chris Davis had a big knock. Adam Jones was in beastmode.

That was a baseball game. Lets go O's!

1 down 94 to go

Yea, just go ahead and lock this thread, mods. LMAO

Don't you WANT to relegate us to this particular ghetto?

At any rate, I'm not excited at all. Everyone knows that a ballclub can't sustain this kind of record in three run wins...

OK.

Couple things before this game's over. Helluva good time BTW, three lead changes so far with at least one more to come (7-7 9th).

Chris Davis might hit 40 bombs this year.

The Rays have had three O's runners dead meat at the plate, and ****ed up the throw each time.

Pedro Strop needs to get away from me.

EDIT: ****.

Bedtime.

Game.. Devil Rays.

Hunter goes Boom

Do you realize that noone gave a single fuk on this board? Keep responding to your own posts. Chiefs and Aids fan.

You need laid. Youre so angry. Seek help

People keep ripping, but the Orioles thread from last year was pretty damn big. Just put the thread on ignore if you don't like it. If they start posting in other baseball threads people will bitch about that too.

Nice win take 2 of 3 from Tampa. 3 Games into season and Brob already hurt.

If you were to look at the "Who Posted?" list on the 2012 thread, you might find that there are several of us here. Now, if your problem is with the poster rather than the thread itself, well, you two can work that out like big boys any time.

God BRob. It is truly sad to see the only man who made O's baseball entertaining a few years ago struggle when we are finally playing up to his level.

Still pisses me off the O's fleeced Adam Jones from the Mariners. Oh well, he's a great kid. At least he gets to play for a ****ing winner this way.

P.S - Howard Lincoln, DIAF

We do not need to encourage activity for Baltimore people on here, all they do is create fat threads.

I'm still laughing at the threads this offseason on the O's forums. Talking about trading for Billy Butler, and all the absurd proposals we'd take for him (or Wil Myers). Trading 2 AA pitchers I never heard of for an AS player or top-3 prospect in Baseball was quite hilarious. Most delusional board I ever saw and that's an achievement.

http://www.camdenchat.com/2013/4/5/4...rro/in/3951521

BRob out 2-4 weeks. on 15 day DL

Davis are you kidding me? Grand slam

Good **** the Twinkies

Paul Severino ‏@SeverinoMLB 6m
Elias: Chris Davis has 16 RBIs this season, the highest total through 4 team games since the majors starting recording RBIs in 1920.
Retweeted by Jon Heyman

Roberts hurt again? Sheesh

Wow

Man the stadium was electric when Big Country hit that grand slam!! Ain't the beer cold!

Can we make this the M2M hook up thread of CP? Iowian has been asking for one, and there's a fairly gay vibe emanating from this thread :P

It obviously won't stay on this pace, but I was pretty happy to get Davis as late as I did in my fantasy draft. I'm pretty happy with him being my 3rd outfielder along with Trout and Craig.

Holy shit. I just got home and saw this. 16 RBI! This dude also hit, I think, seven bombs in the last 6 games of 2012 (One of them beat James Shields despite a two-hit, 15K performance). That's a damn good month in ten games.

Davis and Jones have been laying the ****ing wood. Crazy!!

Going to the game tonight. Pumped up!

Have fun. Taking my son Tomorrow.

Manny coming up huge. Go ahead double and an Earl Weaver Special on the day of Earl Weaver's remembrance ceremony.

Adam Jones ‏@SimplyAJ10 1m

I want to thank whatever slapdick threw that banana towards my direction in CF in the last inning. Way to show ur class u jackass.

oh no, a banana. be glad it wasnt batteries. lol

Since ChiefsO'sfan can't post in the Royals thread. I wanted to share with all that read this thread what hangs above my office desk.

I won it from a sports card magazine in high school. Measures 32"x24". I've always enjoyed having it and collecting memorabilia from all MLB teams.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...5/P1010239.jpg

Man, this thread has soooo many posts.

It's almost like people on CP care about the O's or something.