Looking Forward to 2008: Baltimore Orioles

For a team that hasn't had a winning season since 1997, you wouldn't think the Baltimore Orioles would be in a rebuilding mode, but that's exactly what they're doing.

The team's president of baseball operations Andy McPhail began the project by dealing SS Miguel Tejada to Houston, but got top pitching prospects Troy Patton, Matt Albers and Dennis Sarfate as well as outfielder Luke Scott and third baseman Mike Costanzo.

There has been a lot of talk that Tejada wouldn't be the only Orioles' star to be traded this offseason, left-hander Erik Bedard and 2nd baseman Brian Roberts have also been rumored to be on the move to new teams.

But, for sake of this article, let's say the Orioles' will open the 2008 season with both Bedard and Roberts in the mix. What this team has, actually isn't horrible, but let's not forget that they're in the AL East with the Yankees and Red Sox so the wild card is their only shot at getting in the playoffs and even that is a big stretch.

Here's a list of their arrivals and departures from 2007:

Arrivals:
LHP Patton
LHP Albers
LF Scott
RHP Sarfate
3B Costanzo
C Guillermo Quiroz

Departures:
CF Corey Patterson
SS Tejada
RHP Jaret Wright
RHP Kris Benson
C Paul Bako

Erik Bedard isn't the only pitcher in the rotation that has dominated teams, young right-hander Jeremy Guthrie opened eyes last season, going 7-5 with a 3.70 ERA. Though Guthrie struggled down the stretch, it was the first time he had been a full time starter in the big leagues. Behind the front two are right-hander Adam Loewen (3-0 3.56 ERA), right-hander Daniel Cabrera (9-18 5.55 ERA) and possibly left-hander Troy Patton (0-2 3.55 ERA).

Offensively there are some familiar faces. Guys like Brian Roberts, Kevin Millar, Melvin Mora, Nick Markakis and Aubrey Huff, but when you bring back Ramon Hernandez who missed a lot of last season to injury as well as newcomer Luke Scott, you're going to score runs. How many is the real question and how much will your pitching give up?

Prediction Time:

The Orioles play in the, stacked, AL East, so that should tell you that they're not going to win a lot of the games they play inside their own division, but I think they'll surprise a few teams here and there, but not many. I think until the Orioles start reaping the benefits of the prospects they received from Houston in the deal for Tejada, they'll have another couple of losing seasons.

Orioles - 60-102