FanPost

1997 Orioles vs. 2017 Orioles

The Big 3 in 1997 The 2017 Orioles are off to the team's hottest start since 1997. I made an offhand comment on another post dismissing this year's team as not as good as the '97 edition. But then I decided to think about it more deeply.

1997 was a great year for O's fans until it wasn't. I quit a lucrative job overseas to come back and watch them win the World Series. You know how that worked out.

But before that, they were a great team with the best record in the league. So how do they compare to the 2017 O's?

First of all, the strength of the 2017 O's is the bullpen. But that's no advantage over the '97 team. I believe Zach Britton may be a better pitcher than Randy Myers but it doesn't matter because Myers did not blow a single save in 1997. Armando Benitez, in the regular season, was an awesome setup man, equal to Brad Brach. The depth was about the same: I'll take '97's Arthur Rhodes and Jesse Orosco over Mychal Givens and Donnie Hart, but it's the same ballpark. One can quibble either way, but it's best to call it a push.

Infield defense, also a strength of the 2017 O's, is again a push. Manny Machado is better at third than Cal Ripken, but Roberto Alomar was better at second than Jonathan Schoop. Hardy/Bordick and Davis/Palmeiro are about equal.

The '97 O's had better outfield defense because they took it seriously. I like Brady over Jones in center, B.J. Surhoff was solid after moving to left field, and Jeffrey Hammonds was OK in right. I don't know if outfield defense was a strength of that team but it wasn't a weakness like it is this year.

May I say that I really like Wellington Castillo? Didn't the O's have some lesser overpaid catcher last year? Castillo's probably a better catcher than '97's Chris Hoiles but Hoiles was a more important hitter.

In fact, offensively, you could make a case for this year's team, if they were hitting. When Hoiles got injured in June '97 the Orioles became offensively challenged and they stayed that way. Palmeiro, possibly not juicing yet, had the worst year of his first Baltimore stay and was a major reason they lost to Cleveland in the ALCS. Alomar had an arm injury which kept him only very good instead of the super-greatness he returned to as soon as he left town (sigh). Brady was also below his peak and Cal was below average. Like this year's team, they struck out too much, were slow, and too homer-dependent. But right now it's hard to make an argument for the 2017 team's offense.

Where the '97 team had it all over this year's team was the front of the rotation. Mussina was an in-his-prime ace and the Orioles are not going to see that this year. Dylan Bundy has been great but there's a little smoke-and-mirrors feel to it, plus I keep expecting his arm to fall off. Mussina was overpowering and unhittable and amazing and having an ace like that -- a guy who flat out beat an in-his-prime Randy Johnson in the playoffs twice -- that's quite an advantage.

I'll also take Scott Erickson in one of his best seasons and early-season Jimmy Key over Gausman and Wade Miley (gulp) for numbers two and three. The rotation is the main reason I reflexively said the '97 team was better. Key faded down the stretch, but Scott Kamieniecki was a serviceable 4th starter. Where the '17 O's have an advantage is that, believe it or not, they have better 5th starter options. The '97 Orioles never found anyone effective to take that 5th start. I don't know if that position matters on a playoff team, though.

So to summarize:

Starting Pitching: 1997 team by a large margin
Bullpen: Push
Infield defense: Push
Outfield defense: 1997 team
Offense: Well, it's not really a strength right now, so 1997
Manager: Davey Johnson was really good, but I'll take Showalter

Hmm. The teams are closer than I imagined, but the problem is that the 2017 team LOOKS like the 1997 team because its starting pitching -- led by Wade Miley and Dylan Bundy and Ubaldo Jimenez -- looks like Mike Mussina, Scott Erickson and Jimmy Key. I guess I still have to take 1997.

That said, it doesn't take the best team in the league to win the World Series, nor does having the best team in the league guarantee even getting there.

First the Cleveland Indians figured out that they could foul off Benitez's awesome 98 mph fastball and crush his inferior breaking pitches. Nobody had approached him that way before and he wasn't smart enough to adjust (I would rather have Brach than Benitez in the playoffs).

Rafael Palmeiro gripped the bat so tightly in postseason it seemed like you could see it in his gritted teeth. He was terrible in the middle of the lineup. In fact, only Brady and Cal hit against Cleveland, and they weren't enough.

Then in quick succession Peter Angelos fired Davey Johnson and let Jon Miller go (as much as I like Gary Thorne, the latter is still painful). Then he installed Ray Miller, already proven to be over his head as manager, in that post again. We learned that Ripken and Alomar rarely spoke and the team famously was labeled as taking 25 separate cabs home from the ballpark. The ending takes away from the joy of the journey. But they were a great team that probably should have won the whole thing.

In sum, maybe the '17 team isn't as good on paper as the '97 team. But maybe they don't have to be. The '97 team's demise was the harbinger of a 13-year wander in the wilderness. THAT at least will be a pretty easy mark for the '17 team to beat.

Go 2017 Orioles!

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