Baltimore Orioles: Predictions that Came True in 2014!

Jun 11, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles celebrate on the field after defeating the Boston Red Sox 6-0 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Every year while writing about the Baltimore Orioles I do the incredibly foolish move of making predictive statements of hopeful projections for the season ahead. I suppose if you throw enough outlandish prognostications against the wall, some of it has to stick!

Actually, many years I have had a majority come true to some extent, if not beyond. Some from the past included moving Mark Reynolds from third to first, stating Nick Markakis would best thrive as a leadoff hitter, and largely (but not fully) predicting the great season from Chris Davis in 2013.

But this past year had a higher percentage of losers than in previous seasons, as I’m pretty sure it did for a lot of writers who build a Bird’s nest far out on the limb. Who saw Steve Pearce coming on to have a powerful offensive season? And nobody would expect the physical mountain that is Matt Wieters to be lost to Tommy John surgery.

Tomorrow I’ll write a second article on what I got wrong (along with many O’s writers), so it could be a long piece. But first, here are some expectations that did indeed work out, at least to some extent.

(Predictive statements from the middle of March are written in italics.)

Overall Prediction for the Team Finish – I called for Tampa Bay to be a narrow winner over the Orioles in the AL East, but with the O’s in the playoffs. Specifically I said …

Overall the Baltimore Orioles are an improved team in every department beyond the 2012 and 2013 versions, and this translates into a significant win total.

With 96 wins, this certainly turned out to be true. We in Birdland last spring really believed this team deserved greater respect around the country, as only an occasional writer picked them to win the division, and none would have said the Orioles would have the second highest win total in all of baseball.

Step through the following two pages for position player and pitchers projections that came true. Before the season, did you also expect many of these to work out?