Next up in the series are the Orioles. Their 69-93 record was good enough for fourth place in the AL East. Baltimore needs a lot of work if it wants to get back to competitive. Next season will be a rebuilding year.
Infield
Looks pretty good around the horn. Melvin Mora, Miguel Tejada, Brian Roberts, and Kevin Millar form left to right looks good on paper. Trade speculation surrounding all of them could be true as the team needs to start over. Not any overwhelming prospects in the infield. Otherwise, there isn't anything to do to improve the infield.
Outfield
Ughhhhh. Not nice. A nice RF prospect in Nick Markakis, but Jay Gibbons in LF and Jay Payton in CF isn't very good. They'd need an upgrade at two of the three positions. Put both positions that need upgrading could have the current players traded. Other than Markakis, no prospects that stick out at all.
Pitching
The one thing that the O's do have is an ok pitching staff. Erik Bedard is the ace of the club, and is one of the rising stars in the league. Rumors about Bedard being trading are floating around. Jeremy Githrie and Daniel Cabrera aren't bad pitchers on paper, but haven't done much on the field. It could be that the poor everything behind him and the lineup has hurt him. Adam Loewen, a BC boy is coming off of shoulder surgery, but is still a nice looking prospect. The last part of the rotation is up for grabs. Either an acquisition or one of Brian Burres/Garrett Olson/Hayden Penn could fill the void.
The bullpen is ok. No true closer, but Jamie Walker or Chad Bradford could do it. The bullpen will probably be filled with crappy ceterans or young pitchers. Chis Ray isn't a bad pitcher who has some potential. Othewise it's a mess I don't want to clean up.
Prognosis
Not very good. Another poor finish near the bottem. This team needs to start over again.
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