The state of the Orioles franchise

                                                                

                                                                           

 

The new baseball season is almost upon us, and finally you can

start to see the Orioles show the young talent they have talked about

for years. Throughout the last few you have seen Nick Markakis, Brian

Roberts, Chris Ray, Jim Johnson, and others come up through the farm

to the bigs and produce. Andy Mcphail has also added to that talent by

trading for players such as Adam Jones, George Sherill and Luke Scott.

He has also added a lot of low risk/high reward type players like Felix Pie,

Rich Hill and David Pauley among others. If you add up all that talent and

they all pan out, you have a pretty solid core of young players to build your

franchise around.

 

Give the O’s one or two more years and you will be really impressed,

as they have top pitching prospects in the minors ready to be called up.

Those top prospects are Righty’s Chris Tillman, Jake Arrieta and southpaw

Brian Matusz as the top 3, and Righty’s David Hernandez, Brad Bergesen and

Lefty Troy Patton right behind them. The O’s are lacking position players in the

farm besides top elite prospect catcher Matt Wieters, first baseman Brandon

Snyder and outfielder Nolan Reimold, and recently acquired infielder Justin Turner.

The O’s are also hoping former first round pick Billy Rowell starts to produce with the

bat. They are also hoping a move of 3rd base to the outfield help him concentrate on

hitting more. The O’s also have the fourth overall pick in the draft again, and

should be looking for another Matusz type pitcher, or a power hitting infielder.

 

             The O’s are going to be improved in 2009, probably around .500, but watch

out MLB, the O’s are on the rise once again, and should be contending for the

playoffs in 2010 or 2011.

                                                                                                                        By- Greg  Quick