1. Tejada is a shadow of his former MVP type, steroid(?) self. And Houston is a fantastic hitters park.
2. Garrett Atkins is iffy to repeat his best CO numbers.
3. Millwood is likely to revert to his career averages.

But Mike Gonzalez is a really, really solid pick up. Who wouldn’t want him? – TL

Wieters, Reimold, Jones, Markakis, Pie, Matusz, Bergesen, Mickolio, Tillman

The Royals may have a better record next year but the O’s have more long-term pieces in place.

They were a better team than the Royals last year, hidden by being in a vastly superior division. And unlike the Royals, I can’t see where they have gone backwards this offseason.

FWIW (not much). the season series was 4-4 last year. 37 runs scored, 37 given up. They have got better, we haven’t. They win.

they would have been in contention for the division title. One thing I like about that organization is that they aren’t afraid to bring up young talent and let them get their feet wet. (ex. Nolan Riemold) This off season the O’s went out and spent money on proven talent and addressed most of their problems, unlike the Royals. They have a solid young outfield, a future all star catcher, along with a solid young pitching rotation. Millwood, Miggy, and Atkins will only enhance this team unlike Kendall, Pods, Anderson for the Royals. No contest on who’s better…none.

though thats probably because I expect the worst out of this season.

You will have to look awfully hard to find a team worst than the Royals maybe the Omaha O’Royals but even that is doubtful.

Love this blog btw (really, this site is awesomely hysterical, and I’ve learned quite a bit in the month or so I’ve been a member here). I know terrible GMing, and I think GMDM would give Mike Flanagan a run for his money (Flanagan’s signature move after the 70 win 2006 team: $43M to Danys Baez (I’m sure Dayton is eyeing him), Jaime Walker and Chad Bradford). The Orioles do have a nice bundle of young talent, but still have pretty serious problems. Garrett Atkins is the first baseman. As good as Cesar Izturis’s defense is, his career OBP ties him with Yu Bet. The pitching has the potential to be good someday, but I’m not sure it will be in 2010. Millwood’s FIP was around 4.8 IIRC, Guthrie’s (or Guts) FIP wasn’t pretty either, Tillman has a lot of talent but started giving up homers when he got the promotion (though is still very very young), Matusz really does look awesome, and rounding out the rotation is Brad Bergesen kind of came out of nowhere last year (he was BA’s 18th best Oriole prospect coming into 2009 and then put up 3.43 ERA, though his FIP was 4.10. Sickels compared him to Nick Blackburn, which I think most Oriole fans would take, though I think everybody reminds Sickels of a Twin player or prospect sometimes.

Anyway, I think most expect the Orioles to win between 73 to 77 games in 2010, primarily based on the performance arc of guys like Wieters, Jones, Reimold and Markakis. I’m pretty bullish on the club’s future, but am not sure if MacPhail will be able to secure the guys that the team so desperately needs (1B). And I have a bad feeling Felix Pie will ride the pines way too much in 2010.

Since I’m not convinced we’ll even make it to 70 wins this year it wasn’t hard. Orioles do play in a much tougher division so it may not show in the record, but they are substantially more complete than the Royals (unless you subscribe to “quantity over quality”, in which case our plethora of outfielders beats their smaller set of actually good outfielders).