Official 2012 Baltimore Orioles Thread

The 2012 season is almost upon us. With Pitchers and Catchers reporting, you can almost hear the crack of the bats and taste the pretzels and beer.

I'll start the thread by posting some rankings for the Orioles:

Batting

• Runs: 708 (14th)
  
• Batting Average: .257 (11th)
  
• OBP: .316 (19th)
  
• Slugging: .413 (9th)
  

Pitching

• ERA: 4.89 (30th)
  
• Quality Starts: 60 (30th)
  
• WHIP: 1.45 (30th)
  
• BAA: .277 (29th)
  

Sorry for the depressing pitching stats. However, the offensive production is there, we just need the pitching to back it up. If that comes around, we should get significantly better than the perennial cellar dwellers that we've been recently.

If we have any chance this year, our young pitching will need to step up. Our season and future is riding on the arms of Britton, Arrieta, Matusz, and Tillman.

Hey if you all need an ace, the Nats 6th starter is available. Just let us know.

Great. First day of Spring Training and the Nats fans are trolling our new thread already. We've sunken to a new low as a franchise.

Bump back to the first page.

Pretty fair assessment of the team: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/02/23/running-down-the-rosters-baltimore-orioles/

Sad...but fair.

Hey if you all need an ace, the Nats 6th starter is available. Just let us know.

Considering the Nats have yet to accomplish anything (other than providing great seats for Phillies and Mets, and sometimes Orioles fans), I'd recommend you hold onto your players. As Orioles fans from past years know, a team that looks good on paper doesn't always deliver on the field.

Sad...but fair.

This season is all about our young pitchers, we go as they go. I don't believe that they are as bad as they were last year. So we'll see. Still have 0 expectations and anything over 62 wins will be decent in my book for this team.

Reluctantly, I can accept another sunken season and a top 5 draft pick as long as our prospects continue to develop and cornerstones Weiters, Jones, and Markakis stay productive.

As with every year, I'm just hoping for a .500 record by Memorial Day, so that the games still matter up until the All-Star break.

Reluctantly, I can accept another sunken season and a top 5 draft pick as long as our prospects continue to develop and cornerstones Weiters, Jones, and Markakis stay productive.

As with every year, I'm just hoping for a .500 record by Memorial Day, so that the games still matter up until the All-Star break.

Yep...I usually root for a quick start to keep me interested deeper into the spring or, if I'm lucky, summer. Then, when we do win games, I want it to be because a younger player does something. Back when Mora, Millar, or Scott would drive in the game-winning runs it would feel hollow.

If we have any chance this year, our young pitching will need to step up. Our season and future is riding on the arms of Britton, Arrieta, Matusz, and Tillman.

Notice how quickly the 2011 season went down the tubes when the pitching coach quit on them?

Hey The O's are the Kings of April.

Hey The O's are the Kings of April.

The first week/week-and-a-half of it, anyway.

Considering the Nats have yet to accomplish anything (other than providing great seats for Phillies and Mets, and sometimes Orioles fans), I'd recommend you hold onto your players. As Orioles fans from past years know, a team that looks good on paper doesn't always deliver on the field.

Lol. I'm not trying to talk **** O's fans. It's not a fair fight and I'm no bully. But seriously, we just don't have room for Lannan so it's not a question of holding onto players. We're ass deep in starting pitchers and someone's gotta go. That someone is looking like Lannan.

Serious question: When's the last time the O's looked "good on paper"?

Serious question: When's the last time the O's looked "good on paper"?

1993-4

The first week/week-and-a-half of it, anyway.

The Orioles in April keep me excited up until the NFL draft. Right around that time the first nose-dive occurs

1993-4

1998

Yeah good thing Angelos got rid of Davey Johnson.

I mean any time a guy keeps you in first place all season long in the AL East, you gotta fire a guy like that.

.....good thing Angelos got rid of Davey Johnson.....

.....and Pat Gillick.....

.....and Pat Gillick.....

You border on trolling with your random pictures. There was a "Super Nats Fan" in here about a year ago (that will remain nameless) that would post Ravens pictures in here all the time accusing us Redskin fans of being Ravens fans because we still remained loyal to the Orioles. He was reported and has not been seen since. So....I'd tread lightly in here if I were you. Not saying you are trolling, but it's borderline.

You border on trolling with your random pictures.

agreeing with and advancing a point (with the aid of a picture).....made by an orioles fan.....is considered trolling?

Yeah good thing Angelos got rid of Davey Johnson.

I mean any time a guy keeps you in first place all season long in the AL East, you gotta fire a guy like that.

.....and Pat Gillick.....

agreeing with and advancing a point (with the aid of a picture).....made by an orioles fan.....is considered trolling?

I said "Borderline" trolling. I've seen you post more than once in the 2011 thread with "funny" pictures. If you want to make fun of us, I'm just suggesting you keep it in the Nats thread.

I said "Borderline" trolling. I've seen you post more than once in the 2011 thread with "funny" pictures. If you want to make fun of us, I'm just suggesting you keep it in the Nats thread.

here are the 4 pictures posted in the 2011 orioles thread:

1. in response to a philadelphia fan gloating about "taking over" opacy this upcoming season:

2. again....in response to same philadelphia fan:

......yet nothing is better than to send those fat, drunken, toothless, gross, puke-covered, pot-bellied, jobless pieces of **** and their equally elephantine and heavily tattood women back up 95 crying in their PBR's after yet another spanking.

3. first reporting that the orioles might be being shopped by the universally hated angelos:

This came from Eric Bickel's twitter page:

EBJunkies Eric Bickel

FWIW I heard the Orioles r being quietly shopped by Peter Angelos. Good news 4 O's fans. Bad news is asking price isn't enticing 4 buyers.

Eric Bickel is co-host of The Sports Junkies on 106.7 The Fan in DC.

4. lastly....an admittedly "funny" picture in response to the mispelling of dan snyders name:

?

not one shot at the orioles or thier fans (just pga)....2 of them actually defending them against a lost phillie fan....and one "funny". not one can be considered....by any stretch of the imagination...even "borderline" trolling.

I'm just saying be careful. Us O's fans haven't been in a good mood for about 15 years.

1998

The 2004 Orioles looked pretty good to a lot of fans. Miguel Tejada (young bonafide star and former MVP) was the biggest signing in team history. With 3 free agents (Tejada, Palmeiro and Javy Lopez) the Orioles had added over 120 HRs to their lineup. Future "stars" Larry Bigbie, Adam Loewen, Luis Matos, and Daniel Cabrera were poised for breakout seasons (or so many thought). They were also in the hunt for a in-his-prime Vlad Guerrero, which was a sign to fans that the team was all in and serious about building a champion. Obviously it didn't quite work out that way.