Bad, Bad, Baltimore

Bad.. Bad... Baltimore is so bad, right now! Well.. in my 2K9 season at least...

In my APBA 2K9 Project, I have taken the best players of each of the 30 franchises from the years 2009-2011 -- Of course, the more successful those teams are, like the Texas Rangers (2 World Series appearances), the better.... which means the least successful... you get the idea.

The Baltimore Orioles by 2011, have yet to break out of their long depression... they would do so by winning 93 games in 2012, in which they have since been far more competitive. The unfortunate thing for my APBA 2K9 Project, their best team from 2009-2011, was their 2011 ball club that only won 69 games (2009 - 64 wins, 2010 - 66 wins).

They have everything going against them for the most part, their lineup & defense is probably their strongest elements, and the lineup for most part does not match up against most teams in the American League; Another problem with their lineup is that they have no .300 hitters, and in a league that are taking the best of the best from each franchise, which means stronger pitching rotations, those .300 batters will be missed.

The team also has no bench, when Felix Pie is your best option off the bench, you know you are in trouble.

Their rotation is easily the weakest in the entire MLB in this project. I don't think any other team sports a Grade D starting pitcher in their rotation, nor do I think any rotation has 4 pitchers with a Grade C or less, as well.

The team actually played above-and-beyond in two games against a tough Minnesota Twins team, only for their bullpen to blow the game, twice! One of those games, the Orioles led 6-0 entering the 8th Inning!

The Orioles are currently batting .180, while their pitching has a 9.00 ERA... Ouch! It gets worse, they have been outscored already by 26 runs... All this in 4 games! Their latest loss was being shutout by Tampa Bay's Jeremy Hellickson, in which the O's could only manage 2 hits.

Their center-fielder Adam Jones has been lousy, 2-for-17 with a single RBI, while striking out over half-the-time with 9 K's at the plate. Their best hitter at this point has been their #9 hitter, Melvin Mora (5-for-13, .385 BA).. only 3 other hitters have 4 hits & only two of those hitters are batting over .250 right now.

The Orioles have gone belly up, it's going to be really interesting to see how bad they will be as the season goes on, after watching them give up some possible wins early on, I have a feeling they may have a difficult time reaching 40 wins by season's end.