Your 2017 Baltimore Orioles Preview - Part 1: Infield and Rotation

We’re here, you guys. We made it through the cold, dark winter, but the light at the end of the tunnel is finally here. Baseball has arrived. Last time we heard from the Baltimore Orioles, they were getting their hearts ripped out by Toronto with their best pitcher sitting on his butt. Good thing is that since the 2017 season is officially here, it is now punishable by jail time if you make a joke about Zach Britton, so that one will be the last.

It’s a special season in Baltimore, the 25th anniversary of the best ballpark in the world, Camden Yards. The ballpark that changed ballparks forever is now old enough to rent a car, but still looks as beautiful as it did back in ’92.

Here is what the Orioles will do this season- hit way over 200 homers, have several Gold Glove winners in their everyday lineup, and have the best bullpen in the league. In part 1 of this preview, I’ll be going over the infielders and starters on the roster.

Infield- Chris Davis, Jonathan Schoop, Manny Machado, JJ Hardy, Ryan Flaherty

Best group of infielders in the league, 1-4. Every one of these guys is a Gold Glove candidate, even with JJ Hardy getting up there in age. Manny Machado is a former Platinum Glove winner, Chris Davis was robbed of his first Gold Glove last season, and Jonathan Schoop is one of the best up and coming second basemans in the league, he has maybe the strongest infield arm in the league, and that is saying something with Manny playing just a few steps over. These guys are just studs. Offensively, 3/4 guys are fantastic, again, with Hardy getting older, his numbers have fallen off. Manny Machado is still getting better and put up some great numbers last year, .297/37/96 for the 24-year-old MVP candidate. He is coming into his own as one of the best players in the league, and I expect another top-5 MVP season from Machado, his #s could mirror last year, I’m guessing .298/39/101. We know what we will get from Crush Davis offensively, over 200 Ks, around 33-38 homers, and an average around .220. That is fine with me, he goes on his runs where he is on fire, and then he slumps for 2 weeks and Ks 19 times in 10 games. That’s just Chris.

Jonathan Schoop is one of the most underrated players in the game, his offense really showed last season, when he stopped being a swinger at the plate, and started hitting. His average dropped .10 points from 2015 to 2016, but his home runs went up by 10, but he also played in every game last season. His power is there, just look at the 38 doubles too. He needs to try and get on base via the walk more, hoping to see over 30 BBs for Johnny Baseball. Rounding out the starters is JJ Hardy, the old man. Hardy isn’t the home run threat he once was, but he’s a solid guy to throw in the 9 hole, just don’t expect him to beat out any infield grounders. He’s been slowed by injuries the last few seasons, playing in just 141, 114, and 115 the last three seasons. That is where Ryan Flaherty comes into play, he can play basically any position in the field, and will be the backup at every position around the diamond. Flaherty has shown us power in the past, and isn’t a bad option to step in if Hardy gets hope. He’s Buck’s boy, and that is because he can play everywhere. Love me some Flats. You’re looking at close to 100 home runs from these 4 starters if everything goes right.

Catcher- Welington Castillo, Caleb Joseph

The familiar face of Matt Wieters is no longer the backstop for the Orioles, Wieters down 95 to play for the Nationals, opening the door for the Orioles to get Welington Castillo. Offensively these two are very similar in almost every category. Defensively, that is not the case. Wieters is a much better defensive catcher than Castillo is. Welington allowed 10 passed balls last season for Arizona, Wieters only had 1. The nerd stats say that Castillo is a much better pitch framer, and that was one of the things that Orioles fans complained about with Wieters. Castillo showed some pop in the WBC for the Dominican Republic and I think will be a nice little surprise here for the Orioles, expect to see him up around the 20-24 homer mark. People forget Caleb Joseph had one of the worst offensive seasons ever last year, batting .174 with 0 homers and 0 runs driven in. We know about the injury to the soft spot, but he was just bad last year. Hopefully he regains his 2014-2015 days and we get decent production about him. He has options, and Chance Sisco is waiting for his chance, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chance up here this season too.

Rotation-Kevin Gausman, Dylan Bundy, Ubaldo Jimenez (Wade Miley and Chris Tillman on DL)

This is not breaking news, the Orioles rotation is not that good. This is also not breaking news, neither is anyone’s rotation in the division. The Blue Jays have the most complete 1-5 rotation with Estrada, Happ, Stroman, Sanchez, and Liriano, but can JA Happ really have the season he did last year? The Sox added Chris Sale, but now have to worry about David Price and his injury. He’ll start the season on the DL, but we don’t know when he’ll be back. Rick Porcello will not have a career year like he did last year, he just won’t. Steven Wright and Eduardo Rodriguez aren’t scaring the pants off anyone either for Boston. The Yanks have their question marks in the rotation outside of Tanaka (nice start on Sunday), and the Rays have maybe 2 good starters in Archer and Jake Odorizzi.

The Orioles rotation will be a problem, especially starting the season  with 3 healthy starters as Wade Miley and Chris Tillman will begin the season on the DL. Kevin Gausman, the future ace of the Orioles is ready to accept that role, and we will see him in the first of many Opening Day starts. Gausman takes the reigns from Chris Tillman, who is on the DL with a shoulder issue, barring any setbacks, Tillman will be available to pitch early to mid May (I’ll go with later in May). Gausman showed promise last season, but stats don’t support that. The run support he got was terrible, it’s tough to win games when you’re giving up 2 runs and getting none in your favor. He went 9-12 with a 3.65 ERA and had a 1.28 WHIP. Now we’re ready to call him the savior, but we have to remember that he has never had a winning season, that changed in 2017. I have a great feeling that Gausman takes a big step forward this season, very excited to see what he can do.

Behind Kevin is the guy we did think would be he savior, Dylan Bundy. I feel like he has been in the Orioles system for 12 years, but he’s only 24. He was basically a Rule-5 guy last year, and made it through the season healthy, which is HUGE for him. Starting out in the bullpen and then eventually moving him to starter helped limit his innings to just under 110. We don’t know how many he can throw this year, maybe we see him in the 130-140 range? He’ll be counted on as the #2 starter early, so they need good production from him. We saw his strikeout potential last year, and with the rumor that he is throwing his cutter now, watch out. He was at almost a K an inning last season, I expect him to be right around that number again. I think we see the breakout of Dylan Bundy this season.

Chris Tillman was having a career year last season before a shoulder injury sidelined him in August. That same injury mysteriously popped up this offseason, causing him to miss at least the first month, if not more. A lot of this season lies on his shoulders and if he can be healthy. If he is out an extended period of time and the Orioles have to get another 25 starts out of Tyler Wilson and Mike Wright, things could go downhill fast. Wade Miley came over mid-season last year and stunk up the joint. I’m not expecting much out of Miley, but you have to hope he pitches better than his 6.17 ERA and 1.574 WHIP when he was an Oriole. Ubaldo Jimenez, man. The guy who could give you 8 IP and 2 ER one game, and go 1.1 IP and 8 ER the next. The guy has driven Baltimore crazy for three years, and is now in the last year of his contract. O’s have no choice but put him in the rotation. He did finish the year slightlyyyy better than the rest of his season, but he still wasn’t good, 8-12 with an ERA over 5. He may not make some other team’s rotation, but here he is….the Orioles #3 starter. Woof. Bottom line is that Gausman and Bundy will have to carry this rotation the first month, and get solid work from Miley and Ubaldo, if not, it is a recipe for disaster if Tillman is out even longer.

Get hyped people, another year of Orioles baseball is here which means #DongCity will be visited a ton. This will be an interesting season for the Birds as they try and overcome their pitching struggles. What we do know is that the bullpen will be the best in the league, which we will take a look at coming up in part 2, along with the outfield. Now watch this video below and tell me you don’t get goosebumps.

@BarstoolRDT shoot me a follow so we can take in this glorious Orioles season together. See you in Birdland.