I am a long time viewer on covers, but just don't post too much. I am hoping to do more this year for MLB season as it is my favorite and best sport. Nothing like Opening Day. Baseball until the end of October? Love it. I did a write-up on one of my favorite futures bets of the season. Good luck to everyone and hope we can all crush the books.
Baltimore Orioles Season Preview
It was a disappointing season in Baltimore. They got off to a slow start, fired their manager and just couldn’t put it all together. They have such a young offensive core, that they cannot allow this to happen again. What hurt them last year? Their starting pitching. The Orioles had a team ERA of 4.60 which ranked 5th worst in all of baseball. It put a lot of pressure on the offense to perform and win high scoring games. That type of ERA will not be enough in a tough division. So what did they do in the offseason? Improvements were made:
They added Chris Bassitt and Shane Baz. While these are not the biggest names, they are big time improvements from what they had last season
Example of 2025 rotation:
- Dean Kremer (171 ? IP)
- Tomoyuki Sugano (157 IP
- Cade Povich (112 ?)
- Charlie Morton (101 ?)
All of the pitchers listed above had an ERA of 4.19 or worse.
I left out Trevor Rogers because he missed the first two months of the season. When he pitched? He was incredible. Posting a 1.81 ERA. If they can get this type of production from Rogers or not a huge drop off, it would be massive for the Orioles rotation. Throw in Kyle Bradish, Baz, Bassitt and Eflin, this rotation is much improved. This will certainly be the X-Factor of a successful season. The bullpen could be shaky as there are some question marks, but I do like the addition of Ryan Helsley. He could eventually turn to their closer.
Key offensive additions: Pete Alonso, Taylor Ward and Blaze Alexander.
They made a big splash by adding Pete Alonso. He will give this team the consistent power threat they have been missing. While he may have been the headliner, I LOVE the addition of Taylor Ward. The talent is there with Ward and we saw it last year from the former first round pick. He had a career year hitting 36 home runs .475 SLG .792 OPS. He played in all but four games. I would like to see him lower his strikeout % but this is a great add for the Orioles. I think he will make a huge impact.
I am also expecting an offensive bounce back from Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman. Specifically Rutschman. The talent is there as we saw in previous seasons. The hope is he made some adjustments. He had his worst season as a pro hitting just .220 and .673 OPS.
There is so much potential from other young guys in this lineup: Basallo, Cowser and Mayo are names that need to step up and help produce. The potential is there for a bounce back in Baltimore. In 2023 this team won 101 games and in 2024 they won 91. This is still a good team who made improvements where needed.
I like them to bounce back and I officially bet: YES to make the playoffs.
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