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Five Reasons The Baltimore Orioles Will Win The 2014 World Series

The Orioles haven't won a World Series title since the early 80s, but that's not stopping us loyal O's fans from holding onto hope that someday, our birds in black and orange will return to baseball's biggest stage for another shot to be world champions of the sport. Unfortunately, we've been plagued with the success of our northern rivals, the New York Yankees and their precious Derek Jeter and the Boston Red Sox and their "Big Papi" David Ortiz. The Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays have been lesser opponents, but while the Orioles have been in their decade-long slump, those teams have been anything but insignificant to us. This year is different for the Orioles and the AL East, and here's why.


A: The Orioles Hit The Ball

Even with the loss of Matt Weiters, the Orioles are anything but lacking a powerful hitting game. Our leadoff man, Nick Markakis, has been starting us off on the right track for several consecutive games up to this point, and while we so often leave men on base, ranking 11th in the league in that field, running the order over and over will eventually squeeze the inevitable "boom" out of the O's offense.

Speaking of the boom of our offense, how about Nelson Cruz? What a marvelous start to the season he had until falling into his unfortunate post-break slump. But no worries, Nelly, while you work on getting your cut for hitting the dinger back, the rest of the O's offense certainly will make up for you.

The grueling west coast trip the Orioles faced in late July was ultimately a testament to their abilities. Adam Jones rocked Oakland and Anaheim with several multi-run home runs while he received strong hitting from the rest of the lineup during his time in the driver's seat.

Even players buried underneath our depth chart got in on the action. Caleb Joseph has been delivering the long ball, as Gary Thorne so infamously puts it, at clutch times lately, while the rotation between Schoop and Flaherty at second has proved successful as they can both hit the ball well. Delmon Young's strong hitting, as unexpected as it may have been, has helped the Orioled tremendously, especially with teams like the A's and the Halos.


B: The Orioles Defend The Field

As Kurt Russell rhetorically asked before our most recent Super Bowl between the Broncos and the Seahawks, the name of the game is putting points on the board, right? Wrong. That helps, but it's only one piece of the puzzle that many seem to forget all too often. Oh, and the Seahawks, the top rated defense, won that game by a final score of 43 to 8. Thanks for the advice Kurt.

Football aside, the Orioles have a defense that is unlike any other in baseball, in my opinion. Nick Markakis has the ability to field balls diving, jumping, or on the run with ease, as he's proven in our last several outings. But by far the biggest power player for the O's on defense is the sheriff of third, Manny Machado. His arm is a cannon, period. His timing is superb. His speed and ability to play the gap and the foul line seemingly at the same time gives him a huge comfort zone stretching from the infield into the lower outfield.

J.J. Hardy has been a wonderful, but expected compliment at shortstop, as he so often is. Chris Davis is a first basemen, and I usually don't have much to say about them unless they can't catch the ball. Catchers Nick Hundley and Caleb Joseph have been stellar behind the plate as well.

Pitching has been outstanding so far in the second half for the Orioles. Chris Tillman, Wei Yin Chen, Kevin Gausman, Bud Norris, and Miguel Gonzalez have all proved that they're solid starters and shown their true colors. Ubaldo Jimenez is a strong pitcher too, and I'm eager to see him back on the mound. The only exception is Tommy Hunter, who's definitely been inconsistent. Thankfully, he's not a starter, and reliance and confidence in him is low enough for Buck to be mindful about how many times he sends him into the heart of the diamond.


C: The AL East Lacks Competition

If I'm coming off as cocky or arrogant by saying this, I'm sorry, but there shouldn't be much doubt as to who's going to take the crown in baseball's best division this year. The Red Sox are a changed team for the worse, the Rays are too far back to recover, the Yankees are inconsistent, and the Blue Jays are plagued by injuries.

The Jays having Encarnacion back in July would have put a bad taste in my mouth, but now that the pennant chase is beginning to gear up and teams have the ability to truly pull away in their divisions, his absence is going to be the suicide of Toronto. Lowrie seemed to make a brief cameo appearance of sorts when the Jays matched up against the Orioles in their series in early August, but that was short lived.

The Yankees don't have Tanaka at the moment, so they suffer from Toronto-itis to an extent. But their issues are deeply rooted, starting with the fact that their lineup is inconsistent. They dropped former Oriole Bryan Roberts recently, leaving them with Brendan Ryan and Stephen Drew as options for the second base position. To put it bluntly, they both hit horribly. That's the key difference between Schoop/Flaherty and Drew/Ryan, one tag team is effective behind the plate, the other isn't. If the Yankees had their star pitcher back and could solidify their second base slot, then I would see them as a serious threat to the Orioles for the AL East title, and I mean that sincerely.

The Rays are unbelievably good on paper. Even without David Price on the mound, their pitching game is pretty good in my opinion. Chris Archer and Jake Odorizzi lead Tampa's bullpen superbly, with relief pitchers like Jack McGee posting 51 innings pitched having allowed only eight earned runs and no home runs. Ben Zobrist heads up the Rays hitting game with a solid average hovering around .280, with Matt Joyce and Evan Longoria backing him up on the lineup quite nicely. If the Rays hadn't gotten off to such a bad start, they would be extremely worthy competition to the birds of Baltimore.

As for the last place Red Sox, goodnight and good riddance. Ben Cherington wrecked any of your chances at recuperation at the trade deadline. It's backseat for you, buds.


D: The Orioles Can Win Big Games

This is the part where I feel the Orioles are the most underrated. We came into Oakland and showed true competition. The walk-off homer in the first game was nearly a tear jerker for hardcore fans, but the point is that we played that game well. We won the next game and lost the rubber match, so I'm not taking anything away from the Athletics because they do have the best record in baseball. You can't argue with the numbers. But we can beat them, and if it came down to an ALCS between the O's and the A's, we are in-play without question.

As for baseball's second best team and least liked team in Los Angeles, the Orioles almost swept them twice. Once in Anaheim, where Tommy Hunter walked in the winning run in a foolish relief attempt, and another here in Baltimore, where it took extra innings to break the scoreless game. If it came down to an Angels vs. Orioles playoff series, we could take that and we've proven that.

Then comes the rest of the American League. And there goes the rest of the American League. We haven't been swept once this year, proving that there's no formidable opponent in our league that we can't somehow take down.


E: It's about time, Baltimore

The Orioles were the cream of the crop in the late 60s, 70s, and early 80s. This burst of success is reminiscent of days of old. The Orioles haven't had a shot like this since the heartbreaking 2012 playoff loss to the Yankees, and arguably the 1997 playoff loss to Cleveland. We're hitting like never before, we're pitching like never before, and it's time to bring baseball's highest honor back to Charm City. Plus, we could lose a lot of our power players to free agency within the next few years. Let's get it done before they're gone.


Live, eat, sleep, Orioles. They can't win without support. Let's give them some, Orioles Nation.

~ BmoreBirdland

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