OK, everyone said they think we are going to get 4th place and all that.

I'm making no predictions. The only reason people make predictions is because they want to seem smarter than everyone else.

Person X: "See, I made that prediction last year, and I was right. I'm obviously very intellegent and better-looking than everyone thought in high school."

Maybe I'm coping out, and that probably is the case. It's probably because my predictions never come true, except when I predicted that Lebron James would win Rookie of the Year his first year in the league, back when he was a junior in High School. (You are sweating me so much right now.)

What this is about is: HOPE! I'm going to root hard for the O's. I'm going to HOPE they win. I'm going to HOPE everything works out for them. And even though they are somewhat underdogs in the AL East, I'm going to HOPE they do the impossible, and make it to the World Series for the first time since 1986. Booyah!

Things of note:
1.) Our Infield - If Javy can make the transition to first, we have the best hitting infield in the majors. Mora, Tejada, Roberts, and Lopez are solid hitters.

2.) Our Pitching - If Mazzone can get the best out of our young arms, we could be mighy sick.

3.) Our Clubhouse - Having Millar and Conine on board will help our younger players, and keep the mood in our locker room light. When compared with last year's steroid scandals, and DUI's and all the other bad stuff going on, KMill, and Conine are welcome additions.

4.) The other teams suck. The Blue Jays are going to suck despite all the good players they added. They over-paid for all those guys, and they are not all-stars, aside from BJ Ryan. That's my one prediction. And maybe I'm bitter.

5.) Last year. We were in first place for the first half of the season. We have potential to be very good.

Orioles: This is the Year Baby!!

The year to come in fourth place. I love the O's, but the American League East is tougher than Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven. Did the O's upgrade? Certainly. Let's break it down:

First, the upgrading by subtraction. The O's said good bye to Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Steve Kline and Jorge Julio. These players were more than terrible for us. By getting rid of them we just cemented at least 10 more victories.

Now the actual additions. By far the two best additions are Kris Benson and Ramon Hernandez. Both of these players are going to be high impact if they stay healthy. This means they will likely get injured. Other additions include Jeff Conine, Kevin Millar, Corey Patterson, LaTroy Hawkins, and Richard Hidalgo. Conine and Millar are pretty much the same guy. Both are old, but solid and will greatly improve the clubhouse.

Patterson ... umm ... another Cub who was booed out of Chicago. I'm not sure what the O's are thinking here, but he's got to be better than Sosa. He's probably better than incumbent Luis "Delicate Flower" Matos also. Hawkins is much better than Kline, but so is a glass of lemonade. Hidalgo is yet another fading outfielder. The O's like them like I like pizza. A lot.

In the end, I predict the O's will finish in fourth. They've got great potential with their starting pitching as well as strong lineup (Roberts, Mora, Tejada, J. Lopez, Hernandez, Gibbons). Unfortunately the other teams have players who have surpassed just having potential. I think the evil Yankees have bought first place. Toronto will take second. Boston will fall to third. And Tampa will once more be in the cellar.

A few other bold predictions:
Miguel Tejada will lead the majors in RBIs
Daniel Cabrera will be an all-star and top 200 ks
Kevin Millar will get injured
Luis Matos will get injured
Brian Roberts will start slow but will continue to shine
Bruce Chen will win 15
The O's will struggle all year to find a reliable closer

O's on the Brain

Alright, now that we've given our lame introductions and Aaron's admitted he jumped ship for the Ravens, let's dig in. A couple of us seem to have the Orioles on the brain, so I'd like to discuss how we're feeling about the team and how competetive they'll be. I want us to be as honest as possible, no pipedreams of "this is the year, baby!" (Aaron, I'm looking in your direction).

I like how the Orioles changed things up this year. It seemed like, when Miggy started his whining, the Orioles were content with not making any big moves and would leave him on an island with another sub-par rotation. But looking back at this offseason, they've tweaked more than I expected. They picked up an upgrade at catcher, Ramon Hernandez (or RamHern, as Jim likes to excitedly call him), Cory Patterson in the OF (whoop-dee-doo), and Conine and Millar, both clubhouse veterans who are practically the same 1B/RF position player. If the moves stopped here, I'd still be a little peeved if I were Miggy. But they didn't. I know Miggy wanted the O's to get an ace, but I think they got someone better than an ace: Leo "The Rocker" Mazzone (we should be giving mafia nicknames to all these Italians on the O's). The O's got lucky in that Sam "The Peach" Perlozzo is Leo's homeboy and they wanted to coach together. They also both have two Z's in their name, which has to be Guiness record for Z's in a coaching staff. The last big move was the trade they made to get Kris Benson, which I found out that his real name is Kristin and I will be referring to him by that from now on. The O's made a great move here, and my beloved Mets gave up a quality pitcher for Jorge Julio (who will give up a homerun as soon as you think to yourself "please don't give up a homerun") and John "Kenny" Maine, who is a #2 prospect. I'm hoping the Mets are using these guys to trade for Zito, but that's another topic, back to the O's. Mazzone has a guy who COULD be an ace in Kristin and can potentially refine the rest of the rotation into promising pitchers and possibly another ace out of Bedard or Cabrera.

My honest opinion is that while I can see their potential for possibly making the Wild Card slot, I realistically think they will finish either 3rd or 4th in the AL East, with Boston taking the other spot. The Yankees will finish 1st (blech) and the Blue Jays, with their improved roster, taking 2nd. The boys in Tampa will take up the rear again. I think the O's will compete early, like they did last year, but it will still take this year to mesh well. If this team stays mainly intact though, and can add another prime player or two, I can see the next year being a possible "this is the year, baby!" year.

And lastly, I found out that Kevin Millar is keeping a diary on the O's website to give us a little "insight" on the season. In the first installment, i picked out my favorite quote:
"I was joking around with Brian Roberts and Jay Gibbons, because we live in the same place, and I called them a couple days ago. I said, "I'm not eating alone anymore, so I'm inviting myself up to your place." I did that, but it takes time."

Looks like Millar wants the clubhouse to have a "Brokeback" kind of vibe if you ask me...
Thoughts?

Mmm...sports...tasty

My name is Aaron...and I am an eater of sports. While some people worry about their salary, relationship problems, or the unstoppable avian flu, I worry about how the Orioles will ever be able to make the postseason when the evil Yankees and Red Sox spend gazillions of dollars on steroid-laced hulks. Yes, I'm bitter.

Now, the Orioles are my favorite sports team. I would vote for Cal Ripken to be emperor of the planet. His rule would be strict, but fair. I'm also that fan who grew up rooting for the Redskins and then jumped to the Ravens when they came to Baltimore. Those of you who would call me a traitor are clearly jealous that the Ravens actually made it past the second round of the playoffs within the last decade.

While the Orioles and Ravens comprise the bulk of my sports eating, I watch/read everything. I particularly enjoy the special, heartwarming stories (like Kevin Garnett launching a basketball into the stands and taking out a fan).

Besides sports, my other hobbies include telling Jim that his favorite football team shouldn't be the Steelers just because he once bought a Steelers T-Shirt at a thrift store.

RUA Sports Eater?

Hello, my name is Jim and hopefully I will be participating in this blog semi-regularly. I'm excited to be involved in this, and I hope that if you will join us regularly for chatter.

I was born in upstate New York, and moved to South Carolina and Houston, Texas before finally settling in Maryland in 1987 (I was six). I am currently a fan of the Wizards, the Redskins, the Terps, and the Orioles. I also sorta like some random teams, or players, but these teams are where my allegiances lie. I also kinda like the Steelers because I bought this rocking awesome Steelers t-shirt from a thrift store a couple of years ago. Aaron often tells me that that is not an appropriate reason to root for a team, and he may be right. But at least I'm willing to admit why.

My favorite season for sports is the off-season. I love when players get traded, and teams do their drafting and all that stuff.

I wasn't very into sports in High School, because I was in a rock band, and I also tend to be very single minded....so the rock band didn't leave much room for sports in my head. So my sports knowledge will tend to pick up circa 2001.

Thanks for joining us.

Are You Hungry?

Hi. I'm Frank and I eat sports. I put this blog together so that my friends and I can yak about the major sports themes of the moment as well as banter/gloat/trash-talk about our favorite teams. I plan on wielding this blog with Steinbrenner-like power, expecting the very best out of our writings, but probably not living up to our potential. Unlike Steinbrenner, though, I'm fine with that.

My team allegiances lie with the Redskins, Mets, Terps, and Wizards, in that order. I lived in New York until I was four (which explains the Mets) and then moved to Maryland and have been here ever since. I am a semi-Orioles fan and root for them to win, if only so that the Yankees lose ground. There are only three teams I truly hate: The Cowboys, Yankees, and Duke. The rest I just dislike immensely.

So now that you've got some background on me, I'll let the other guys in on the action and post before we get into our first topic.

I'm getting hungry, aren't you?