Baltimore Orioles

"The Yankees have their dynasty. Now, let's make the Orioles a winning dynasty." This statement was made by Orioles owner Peter Angelos at the beginning of his tenure as Orioles owner. I say, "Hey Pete, what winning dynasty?!"

Most Orioles fans today still remember this statement. Nowadays, it has become a complete joke, after 11 straight losing seasons. However, the Baltimore Orioles still remain one of the most-storied franchises in the history of baseball. They had many winning seasons in the '60s, '70s, early '80s, and early-to-mid '90s.

1. Matt Wieters
No he's not going to start the season with the big club, but all indications are that Wieters will be up at some point for the Orioles this season. The wunderkid is the best catching prospect in baseball right now and has a chance to be the face of the Orioles for years to come.

Orioles fans should be excited to see just how good Wieters really is and how he performs in the majors. If Wieters is the real deal, the Orioles could be really competative in a few seasons.

2. The real Adam Jones

Lawrence Barreca and I are community leaders on Bleacher. I live in Maryland. He lives in Louisiana. So how do we communicate? We run a show called "Baltimore Sports Analysis" on BlogTalkRadio.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Baltimore-Boy/2009/03/24/Baltimore-Sports-Analysis

That would be our first episode. Here are our respective profiles:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Baltimore-Boy

The vast improvement of the Baltimore Orioles’ minor league system brings much hope for an organization trying to break a string of 11-straight losing seasons and return to contention in the cutthroat American League East.

However, two decisions made over the weekend signal a harsh reality of the present, and the need for more patience as the organization waits for its bumper crop of starting pitching to mature in the minor leagues.

Before being faced with a serious elbow injury, Chris Ray was locked in as the O's closer, and deservedly so. At age 24, Chris went on to post a 2.73 ERA and record 33 saves. 

It wasn't until the following season in 2007 that something peculiar began happening. 

Chris lost his dominance, but being the warrior that he is, kept on insisting nothing was wrong. Despite having discomfort in his elbow, even taking drugs to ease the swelling and null the pain, Chris still insisted he felt fine.

So far this offseason has provided us with many prospect lists. Baseball America's top 10 Yankees prospects and top 100 overall.

Is anyone else pumped up about the upcoming 2009 season? Or is it just me?

So much has gone on this offseason for the Baltimore Orioles; it's difficult taking it all in. We've seen trades, extensions, free-agent signings, International exploration, etc. Let's just say it's been a fun few months.

This probably won't be a popular article in Maryland, all the more so because a lot of baseball people are creating some irresponsible hype around the Baltimore Orioles.  I say irresponsible because Oriole fans deserve better than to be grossly misguided like that.

Make no mistake about it—Baltimore is done.  DOA.  Forget one fork, the Os have four protruding from their collective corpus.

One from the New York Yankees, one from the Boston Red Sox, one from the Tampa Bay Rays, and one from the Toronto Blue Jays.

On one hand, you have a 28-year-old right fielder from Puerto Rico. On the other hand, you have a 25-year-old, right fielder from America.

They are Alex Rios of the Toronto Blue Jays and Nick Markakis of the Baltimore Orioles.

As of now, Markakis has certainly had the better career, but certain players definitely develop faster then others.

Both players are five-tool talents, they both have rocket arms in the outfield, speed on the base paths, power in their swings, man their corner outfield spot well, and both know how to put the ball in play.