Welcome to Evan's Angle! As a co host of the 3 bagger pod, I will be posting blogs about things happening in and around baseball as well as the sports and business world.
To start off Evan's Angle we will be taking a day to talk about each and every team in the MLB ahead of the 2021 season. Today's post will be about the Baltimore Orioles. This is the easiest team to talk about because there really isn't much here. They are projected to be last place in the AL East as well as the entire league. The Birds finished in 4th in the AL East in the shortened 2020 season by only a game. With the Red Sox picking up a couple of mediocre pieces so far this offseason and the season suposedly being 162 games again this year, they will regress back down to the last place spot. Their lineup is not impressive with Rio Ruiz as their best hitter. They also have journeyman Freddy Galvis who will play above average defense at the short stop position and hit for a mediocre average. The lineup will have a ton of young guys who want to prove themselves in the big leagues. In my opinion the O's would be wise to give 1st baseman Ryan Mouncastle as many reps as he can handle at the plate and in the field. He hasn't ever been a top prospect but impressed last year by hitting .333 in 126 at bats as well as getting on base at a .386 clip. Another big part of this lineup will be one of 2020s break out stars, Anthony Santander. Santander finished 2020 early after an injury took him out. He still had a 1.7 WAR and hit .261 with 11 homers after performing poorly in his prior MLB stints. After looking at the teams active roster, here are my projections for their starting lineup.
The O's pitching is very similar to their hitting, unimpressive. Last year they ranked 16th in team ERA and they have not made any aditions to address the rotation. Their best pitcher is John Means who was an all star in 2019 but has fell off of a cliff since. He threw to the tune of a 3.60 ERA with 121 strikeouts in 155 innings in 2019. He regressed in 2020 owning a 4.53 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 43.2 innings pitched. The O's have a ton of young pitchers just as their lineup has position players. The bullpen looks weak but the focus for the team will be to see if they have a late inning high leverage arm in Tanner Scott. Here is my projected opening day rotation for the team.
The Orioles are going to have a very tough year when it comes down to it. The coaching staff should recognize that this is a lost year and do everything in their power to evaluate the talent they have on the roster and keep those guys healthy. Is Adley Rutschman in the majors yet?
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