The 133rd season of Major League Baseball is upon us. Over the next month and half, we will be taking a look at each ball club, leading up to the Expert Predictions of the esteemed staff at Sparty & Friends. We will be previewing each team, from worst to first. Today, we turn our attention to the home of the best stadium in the MLB… and a budding team to boot. You can find all the teams we have already previewed, here.

Ah, the O’s. So they haven’t been good in almost a decade now. So they tend to have a problem getting great players to stick around. So they always hit and barely ever pitch. So they spend money about as wisely as a six year old in a candy store. So they fire people despite the fact that the losing is barely ever their fault.

But despite all that some things look to be turning around. This O’s team looks pretty deep. This O’s team has Matt Weiters, the #1 prospect in all of baseball right now. This team just signed a Nick Markakis to a reasonable long term deal that will avoid arbitration and free agency. This team made some smart off-season moves to gain players for low prices. However, this team still has an owner that is quite possibly the worst in sports. The fans staged a walkout of a game last year at 8:05 (8 in honor of Cal, 5 in honor of Brooks) and a lot of people left to protest the ownership. But President and GM Andy MacPhail seems to be making a bunch of good decisions. After the jump we will get into the specific players and other such details…

Last Season: 68-93 (5th place in the AL East)

Who’s Gone: Garrett Olson (trade), Brian Burress, Steve Trachsel, Adam Loewen, Kevin Millar (free agency), Juan Castro (free agency), Jay Payton (free agency), Alex Cintron (free agency), Ramon Hernandez (trade), Daniel Cabrera

Who’s New: Rich Hill (trade), Mark Hendrickson (free agency), Koji Uehara (free agent, Japan), David Pauley (trade), Cesar Izturis (free agency), Ty Wiggington (free agency), Felix Pie (trade), Gregg Zaun (free agency), Ryan Freel (trade), Chris Ray (out all last year with injury), Matt Weiters (#1 prospect in all of baseball)

Projected Lineup:

Italics indicate changes made by Sparty. Brian Roberts is the projected leadoff hitter, as he has been that for the last several seasons. Anyone else considered to be batting first in the lineup would be purely opinion of the original author.

1. Brian Roberts (2b)

2. Adam Jones(CF)

3. Nick Markakis (RF)

4. Aubrey Huff (1B)

5. Luke Scott (DH)

6. Melvin Mora (3B)

7. Felix Pie (LF)

8. Greg Zaun (C)

9. Cesar Izturis (SS)

Projected Rotation:

RHP Jeremy Guthrie

LHP Rich Hill

RHP Koji Uehara

LHP Marc Hendrickson

LHP Chris Waters

CL George Sherrill

Key Bench Players:

Ryan Freel (OF)

Ty Wiggington (Everywhere)

Manager: Dave Trembley

Lineup Outlook – Like most years, the O’s can hit. The line-up is quite good from 1-7. Pie might work as a lead-off hitter or he might not. If he doesn’t they’ll just switch him and Adam “The Original Not Pacman” Jones. Jones has speed and has decent power and I thank the Mariners for his services. Brian Roberts will continue to bat in the two-hole where he’s traditionally very effective. (GITC Note: I changed the previous sentence and didn’t go back to fix it completely. I was trying to say that Roberts should move to 2nd despite previously being effective in the lead-off spot.) People forget that he is one of the most consistent hitters at second base in the MLB. Markakis will set the table for Huff much like last year. Everyone is expecting an All Star season out of Markakis this year and I tend to think he’ll deliver that. Huff should be able to keep up most of his unrecognized yet awesome season from last year.

Luuuuuuuke rocking the retros.

Batting 5th and hopefully driving in those guys on base will be Luke Scott. There’s exactly one problem here: Luke Scott is way better at home. The fans love this guy in Ba’more. I went to an O’s game last year that included about twelve guys in the first row up the third baseline with letters painted on their chests. The first guy had an “L” and the last two guys had a “K” and an “E” on, but there were about nine guys in the middle all wearing “U” proudly. Luke hit a home run that night and the while stadium broke out into a “Luuuuuuuuuuke!” chant. It was awesome. He may be helped on the road by the bench as the O’s now have legitimate back-ups in Ryan Freel and Ty Wiggington.

The bottom of the line-up is not as deep of course, but Greg Zaun can hit a little as can Cesar if Mora gets on base. Melvin Mora continues to be one of the best guys in baseball. Just a seasoned pro doing his job to feed his wife and six billion kids. All in all, they should score enough runs to win the games where they get some good pitching.

Uehara might be the best pitcher on the Oriole staff.

Starting Rotation – This rotation is a mess. Guthrie is a rising star but is not a #1 starter. The Japanese import, Koji Uehara, might actually be the best starter on the team and will most likely turn heads the first time through the league. Rich Hill’s stuff might have worked in the NL Central, but that’s way different over here in the big leagues. Mark Hendrickson might work out but also has a chance of being a complete flop. Chris Waters showed some real promise last year and should have the 5th spot although it could go to other young pitchers such as Radhames Liz who appeared to be gaining control over his crazy stuff near the end of last season. The Orioles have plenty of prospects to fill the 5th spot and I think it might be a revolving door this season. The rotation isn’t actually weak anywhere but where it is strong is still a mystery. There will be strong spots because of all the potential.

Bullpen – The O’s have the awkward but good situation of having one guy who was an All Star closer last year (George Sherrill) and another guy who was a great closer the year before (Chris Ray). As of now, Ray looks to be the set up man. But if anything goes wrong, there will be a switch pretty quickly. Two other solid arms are out in that bullpen as well. The crafty lefty veteran Jamie Walker and last year’s flame-throwing Rookie of the Year candidate Jim Johnson. With those four guys, the O’s look to have a decent bullpen for a change.

Prediction – With the proclivity of the AL East to be awesome, the O’s have little chance at the playoffs. They will definitely annoy the rest of the teams with random guys pitching shutouts and by scoring in bunches to steal games in much needed end of season series. I’d say that they have a good chance to finish ahead of the Blue Jays and might finish above Tampa if the Rays have the letdown year some are predicting. I’d say they win 70-75 games. They could be sneaky good.

For your Youtube clip of the day, I give you this O’s commercial from last year on MASN (Mid-Atlantic Sports Network). It’s a great spot and I really loved it the first time I saw it.

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