Official Nationals and Orioles 2011 Thread

[Monkeydad]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag59

Orioles 2011 World Series Champions. Seriously Buck Showalter has them playing with swagger.

They're stacked.

Last year they had a great young pitching staff and I thought one the best OF in baseball on paper with Markakis, Jones and Scott/Pie.

Now their infield is hugely upgraded with Reynolds-Hardy-Roberts-D.Lee with Weiters behind the plate and Vlad Guerrero at DH. They're seriously solid at every position in the batting order.

Kevin Gregg is a better closer than they've had since Chris Ray was healthy early in his career, before the fall.

Boston has an older, injury-prone staff with Beckett, Lackey and Dice-K. Papelbon looks like trash and Jenks surely won't be a solid closer (I'm a White Sox fan who suffered through him in the last couple of years). Their sluggers are getting really old (Youk/Ortiz/Varitek...)


I really think the Orioles will be contending for a Wild Card. I knew they had a bright future, but this offseason, they actually spent money and filled roster holes...that's just not Orioles baseball in the past decade. Good to see an actual focus on the team for once.