The Annual Dissing of the Orioles

It is that time of year again when writers and baseball fans make predictions about where teams will place at the end of 162 games. And so that means that we are again at that annual spot of the orbit of the earth around the sun where the Orioles are obligatorily dissed by everyone near and far.

Here is a sampling of what some baseball writers have to say about our beloved Birds. I was going to list who said what, but have thought better of that and have chosen to conceal the guilty parties – though some of them indeed deserve to be jackslapped for their dissing!

–          The Orioles are such a bungled mess that we haven’t called them anything other than the OriLOLes for months.

–          The Orioles are still a directionless team with less-than-competent management and a meddling owner. Things may not get better for a long, long time.

–          The lowly Baltimore Orioles are firmly entrenched in the basement of the division and are hopeless. It’ll be at least a decade before they are able to come out.

–          Barring a snap decision by Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Clayton Kershaw, CC Sabathia, and Justin Verlander to simultaneously demand a trade to Baltimore, this is the worst rotation in the league.

–          It will be tough for Baltimore to regress much further but they are simply over-matched in the AL East and in MLB in general, and while they have made some moves they haven’t made enough. It’s going to be a long year at Camden Yards.

–          Last, and certainly least, are the Baltimore Orioles. While they are often considered somewhat of a laughing stock, their lack of success cannot continue forever.

–          Peter Angelos wrecked this storied franchise like a man setting fire to the Louvre.

Here also is a sampling of Twitter remarks from a single day last week when the O’s were beating the Yankees:

–          Why do I have faith in the Orioles this season? Somebody slap me.

–          A Yankees fan>> Wow the good old AL East punching bag @orioles is winnin 3-1… Let’s Go Yankees!!!

–          I wonder if the Orioles alternate uniform is the Texas Away uniform

–          From a young woman>> Guy: “if I told u my team u’d laugh.” Me: “the orioles.” Guy: “how’d you know?!” Me: “you said I’d laugh.”

–          CF Adam Jones and the outside corner low and away is one of modern baseball’s greatest love affairs

–          Hi, I’m an orioles fan, you may not be familiar with my team — Allow Me To Explain Hell

As we all know all too painfully after 14 losing seasons, there is but one thing to fix this situation … winning!  That is difficult to do, especially in the AL East. Some of these comments really do hurt, because, well, they are true!

So, here is my projection for the season for the AL East with the number of wins for each team. I am thinking that it will be tighter than many other years.

Rays – 92

Yankees – 90

Blue Jays – 85

Red Sox – 83

Orioles – 76

So, yes, after being annoyed by the comments, I go ahead and put the Birds back in the basement. I fear this continues to be the reality, but 76 wins would represent progress – especially if some of the foundational pieces for the future continue to improve.