Five Reasons to Anticipate the Baltimore Orioles 2016 Season

Aug 14, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop (6) sprays third baseman Manny Machado (13) with water after his two run walk off home run in the thirteenth inning against the Oakland Athletics at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Baltimore Orioles defeated Oakland Athletics 8-6 in the thirteenth inning. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports /

With a new year upon us, here are five good reasons to be excited about the upcoming 2016 season of the Baltimore Orioles.

Actually, it was not difficult at all to put together these reasons. There continues to be exciting things happening around the Orioles. Whereas it is often easier to be negative — and we will give five reasons for concern as tomorrow’s article — let’s start the New Year off on a positive note.

Writing this just before midnight on the 31^st, I am having this déjà vu moment. I think this is about the fourth or fifth consecutive year I’ve been at home thinking about the Orioles while everyone else in the world is seemingly out partying. But, what is more important about a New Year than baseball?

So now as you see this just some hours after having counted down the final seconds of 2015, here is a countdown of five good reasons to look forward to Baltimore Orioles baseball in 2016…

Reason #5 — The Orioles bullpen remains among the very best in the game

Several MLB teams, particularly the Kansas City Royals, have demonstrated the high value of a strong shutdown bullpen. This shortens the game and leads to victories, even when the starting rotation is not necessarily the best. It has been a strength of the revived Orioles of the past four years, and it remains a strength for 2016.

Zach Britton is a legitimate closer, of which I believe there are no more than about 10 to 12 in MLB at any given time. Darren O’Day could qualify essentially as another, and the Orioles are enriched to have both of these late-inning arms in their arsenal. It is difficult to overstate their value.

But the bullpen is not just a two-man show. The Orioles have other assets. Mychal Givens gives every appearance of having arrived on the scene as a sort of reincarnation of Darren O’Day. Brad Brach is better than his stats indicate, as a few bad outings blow up his numbers. Though not a big fan of the two lefties Brian Matusz and T.J. McFarland, the latter does a commendable job of eating critical innings and the former is at least valuable for getting out some big goober from Boston. It will be interesting to also see what level of contribution Dylan Bundy is able to make.

And beyond this, there is a rising talent that has flown well under the radar until recently, and that is Andrew Triggs. Coming along just behind Givens, this side-armer actually had better numbers at AA and AAA. We did a feature article on him with all the details about five weeks ago. A time could come for the Orioles when the bullpen features three side-arm / submarine relievers.

Reason #4 — Seeing Jonathan Schoop take another huge step forward

This might seem to be in the realm of prediction, and I suppose it is. But I believe there is very good reason to expect Jonathan Schoop to become a top-tier hitter, just as he is in terms of his defense. He made great advances from 2014 to 2015. He often appeared to be overwhelmed in his first full year and had a very difficult final month.

But even with injuries in 2015, his production was categorically much improved. Imagine seeing another step of improvement, projected also over a full season.

Schoop	G	AB	Avg	HR	PA/HR
2014	137	481	.209	16	30.1
2015	86	321	.279	15	21.4

As can be seen, Schoop hit 70 points higher. The final category gives the number of plate appearances per home run. It is possible to imagine a 35-home run season from him.

Reason #3 — The Orioles have a legitimate on-base percentage player for the top of the order

Every year the Orioles talk about wanting to improve the on base percentage of the team, and every year it seems that they fail to get this accomplished.

For 2015, the team OBP was .307 … better than only two other teams. The league average was .318. In 2014, the O’s were .311, with .313 in 2013. None of these are very good at all.

Losing Nick Markakis contributed much to the decline in 2015, so it is good to see the Birds pick up Hyeon-soo Kim. Though the jury is officially still out on the exact transition he will make to American baseball, we wrote about this previously with the expectation that he is going to do well — especially relative to OBP.

It would be great if the Orioles could add another high OBP bat to the lineup, guys who can score ahead of the power hitters to follow.

Reason #2 — The Ascendance of Manny Machado as one of the top players in MLB

Getting Manny Machado back for all 162 games of 2015 was more than could have even been imagined or hoped for on New Year’s Day just 365 days ago. Not only was he the only player to be in 162 games in the American League, his name appears on many top 10 statistical lists.

Reason #1 — The new look of a new team for a new season

With the number of high profile free agents entering this offseason, it is inevitable that the Orioles of 2016 will have more of a new look than the familiar faces of the past four years. This will especially be true if Chris Davis does not ultimately return to Baltimore.

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The Orioles already have two of the six free agents coming back (Matt Wieters and Darren O’Day), which is one more than anticipated. The most likely to return was deemed to be Steve Pearce; now that does not appear to be in the cards. Wei-Yin Chen and David Lough will not be back. Gerardo Parra is still possible, though he talks like there will be a better offer elsewhere — let’s hope so.

There have been some new additions that will impact the team, notably Kim and Mark Trumbo — a reasonable choice to believe could hit a significant number of long balls at Oriole Park (though we said that last year of Travis Snider). I believe this Vance Worley pick could end up being better than currently imagined. Dylan Bundy has to be on the team, and presumably Rule 5 pick Joey Rickard. So there are five new faces for sure.

L.J. Hoes could be another addition. And the talk is of another left-handed bat and starting pitcher. But these might bump a new player or two mentioned just above. In any event, it is going to look different.

Next: A Yoenis Cespedes Orioles Lineup

There are a lot of nice pieces on this team. Almost every franchise would love to have what the Birds have at third base, second base, center field, the bullpen, and defensive strength up the middle. But players have to live up to their potential, and frankly stated, too many did not in 2015. But it’s a new year!

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