Baltimore Orioles: Four Bold Playoffs Predictions

Sep 20, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles outfielders

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(rear) celebrate after a game against the Boston Red Sox at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Orioles defeated the Red Sox 7-2.Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

Jones, Markakis, and Cruz will perform well, and a new star will rise.

Adam Jones is such a great competitor and he has been waiting for this time his whole baseball career. He has lived through so many lean times that these playoff moments will not pass without his best efforts. He is ready.

If the above can be said for Jones, it may be even more emphatically stated about Nick Markakis. Gone is the talk of the overpaid slap-hitting outfielder, as are the injuries – the latter contributing to the former. Not gone is the inner wound of having to watch Orioles playoff games in 2012 with an injury. This is his time; this is the culmination of all these years with the Orioles as the most veteran member of the organization. He is ready.

Nelson Cruz had a great start to the season and carried the team through the difficult early two months of the season – keeping their collective head above the water until the pitching could come around and take the load. The middle months were horribly anemic (.214 over the summer), but September brought back the big bat from the early season. The homers were not quite as frequent, but the hits against the shift and balls in the gaps were abundant as he batted .349.  He has extensive playoff experience, and he is ready.

No team sends all eight or nine guys to the plate with high averages at the top of their game. Everyone has a hole or two, and sometimes those types of ordinary players step up and become a star through the playoffs. I’m talking about a Rick Dempsey sort of performance – Dempsey, who was a .231 hitter in 1983 in a .233 career. But he was the World Series MVP that season with four doubles and a homer.

So who could be a bottom-half-of-the-order player to catch fire for a couple of weeks and make a difference? Could it be Alejandro De Aza? Jonathan Schoop? Ryan Flaherty? Steve Pearce is less within this category after his great season, but we know what can happen when he gets very comfortable at the plate. Look for one of these to step up and make a huge difference.