Baltimore Orioles: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season

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The Rotation

In terms of their starting pitching, that is where we might see the true struggles of this team come to the surface. Does John Means repeat, or better, improve upon what he did in 2019? I don’t know. He’s more of a contact lefty, so I wouldn’t say he’s particularly a number one.

Does Alex Cobb stay healthy? Injury history would point to “no.” What about Wade LeBlanc? Do we see another resurgence in his game much like the one he briefly had in his first year in Seattle? Does he even make the team in a starting role?

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Who will piece together the back end of the rotation? Will it be the crop of young guys like Keegan Akin, Kohl Stewart, and Dean Kremer, or will they prove to be not quite ready and the back end will be sured up by veterans plugged into the system such as Tommy Milone, Asher Wojciechowski, and Tom Eshelman? Either way, I think the Orioles rotation will have its fair share of hardships this season and will be a huge reason the O’s don’t win that many games.

But the bullpen of this O’s team is very interesting. Mychal Givens, if he shows out in the first half, will almost certainly be a prime trade candidate. I know they used Shawn Armstrong a bit in the closer role last season, but as of now, I would say Givens is their ninth-inning guy and this will be a great chance for the Birds to reel in another solid prospect in return for him if he does indeed perform well.

Hunter Harvey and Miguel Castro are very intriguing arms in this pen as they can both hit the high 90s with ease and have electric stuff that could also swing them into a starter role at some point in each of their careers.

And finally, I’m interested to see what we get out of the Zack Britton return of Cody Carroll and Dillon Tate. Tate has worked his way back up to getting good velocity on his fastball and has since developed into more of a bullpen arm, while Carroll pretty much missed all of 2019, so I would expect to see him come back fresh and throwing bee bees out of the pen.

This isn’t a good team, but it’s young and it has potential. Look for the young bats and arms on this O’s team to hit the show hard this year and advance the franchise into possible relevancy in 2021.

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I had the Baltimore Orioles finishing 60-102 and in last place in the AL East before the Coronavirus shutdown. Now, I’m not sure how many games they’ll play, but I still have them finishing in last place. However, don’t be surprised if we see the Birds over-perform and overtake a very down Red Sox organization for that fourth slot in the East.

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