[Oscar]

it's a possibility

[bigboydan]

The thing is it's not probable though.

They might have one of the worst bullpens in MLB, but I just don't see losing a 100+ games this year like your thinking they will.

[stump]

not the worst in history, but the worst in 2008

[rugbybdyb]

Im a huge fan of the o's and they are so terrible..........I hate liking them but Im not a fair weather fan.

[Doc JS]

Agree with Dan. Possible, but not probable.

You gotta be really, really bad to be considered with the early Mets and the Tigers of just a couple of short years ago.

It's late and I'm too lazy to look it up, but didn't the Mets lose like 120 games in the first year? That's really tough to do!

I think 100 losses is almost a certainty, but you've "gotta take to the next level" to get to 120!! LOL

I get DirectTV's Extra Innings package and I enjoy Jim Palmer on the O's broadcasts. He obviously knows the game. It's almost painful for him to describe the action sometimes. He's trying not to be a blatant homer, but he's also trying hard not to kill the O's. It's funny to watch. You know he wants to say, "God, we suck" but of course, he can't do that! Funny stuff!!


Doc

[willyback]

Could happen. The AL East is especially tough this year. Tampa Bay is going to be strong for the first time in franchise history. The Yanks are still a threat. Boston's going to eventually start winning (once Curt and Josh get well). Toronto still has great pitching. Baltimore's the odd man out, looking at a lot of potential losses. And it only gets tougher for Baltimore when playing AL Central and West teams this year. I'll put their losses between 90-100 this year.

[mofome]

i hate the fact that i love the Os.

[Oscar]

i hate the fact that i love the Os.

me too. someday we'll be back on top mo

[mofome]

me too. someday we'll be back on top mo

Not while we're alive. Angelos will live to be 186.

[mofome]

The O's will be the worst in the American League this year and the Nats will be the NL's worst team.




Red Sox, Yankees chase 100-win seasons

The 2007 MLB season was a bit more competitive than we’re used to. For the first time since 2000, no single team won or lost 100 games. Boston and Cleveland led the way at 96-66, while Tampa Bay brought up the rear at 66-96. Things could be even tighter this year; the largest total on the 2008 MLB futures market belongs to Boston at 94½ wins.

Even without a hard salary cap, it makes sense that some parity would creep into the league. It’s been a decade since Tampa Bay and Arizona joined the majors, pumping up the MLB roster to 30 teams. This is an increasingly saturated marketplace; even the long-suffering Rays are showing signs of improvement, while the New York Yankees have fallen back to the pack since reeling off three consecutive 100-win campaigns between 2002 and 2004.

The small-budget Oakland Athletics famously showed their winning blueprint in the Michael Lewis book Moneyball; GM Billy Beane’s statistical analysis approach hasn’t been adopted universally by any means, but it has spread to clubs like Boston, Toronto and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Still, assembling a baseball roster remains an exercise in spending. Boston’s two World Series in four years are a product of both GM Theo Epstein’s savvy and the nine-figure payroll he gets to spend.

There’s also something about the allure of the number 100. So let’s indulge our fixation with base-10 and pick the two teams most likely to win (and lose) 100 games in 2008.

100-Game Winners

Boston Red Sox
As mentioned, the Sox have the right combination of front-office intelligence and big dollars to continue performing at a very high level. The Curse of the Bambino has been put to rest. Yet the defending champions actually underperformed in 2007; according to pythagorean wins and losses, the Sox were the only team in the majors to hit the ton at 101.8 first-order wins and 103.1 third-order wins. The scary thing is that Boston should be even better this year with Sean Casey and David Aardsma adding depth to the roster.

New York Yankees
It’s impossible to ignore the biggest wallet in the majors, although the Yankees’ payroll shrank from $208.3 million in 2005 to a mere $189.6 million last year. The Yankees won 94 games in 2007 even while the starting rotation was suffering another injury-plagued campaign, and while players like Hideki Matsui (.818 OPS) and Robinson Cano (.741 OPS) were struggling through the first half of the season. The Yankees remained good enough for 98.3 first-order wins and hope for more in 2008 with the growth of pitchers Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy.

100-Game Losers

Baltimore Orioles
These are the Los Angeles Clippers of baseball. Peter Angelos bought the team in 1993; the Orioles peaked four years later with 97 wins and an AL East Division title. Since then, bupkis: zero winning seasons, nine fourth-place finishes in the division and five different managers. Angelos is making plenty of money, though, and he’ll make even more this year now that he’s not spending it on Miguel Tejada and Erik Bedard. Baltimore won 69 games (78.3 third-order) with those two stars; the O’s should do much worse without them.

Chicago White Sox
It was all too easy to predict the fall of the 72-90 (69.5 third-order wins) Pale Hose last year. It might be a bit of a stretch to peg them for 100 losses in 2008, but the Royals, Rays and other typical bottom-feeders have made some progress. Chicago, meanwhile, is sticking to the old “small-ball” model under manager Ozzie Guillen. Not only have they failed to acknowledge that pitching was the backbone of their 2005 World Series win; the Sox have also jettisoned starter Jon Garland for shortstop Orlando Cabrera. Cabrera may be the better player, but the back end of the rotation now features John Danks, Jose Contreras and Gavin Floyd. If “Bad Jose” shows up like he did last year (5.57 ERA), Chicago is doomed.