Baltimore Busts - The Story of the Once Heralded Season

This year was supposed to be the year Baltimore would get over the .500 mark for the first time since before Cal Ripken retired. Brian Matusz was supposed to be a superstar, and Jeremy Guthrie was supposed to repeat his second-half success from last season. Vladimir Guerrero was supposed to hit over .300 like he did last year, and Mark Reynolds was suppoesd to have 30 homers by now.

But, none of this has happened. The Baltimore Birds have hecome the Baltimore Busts. What happened?



Nick Markakis knows it's been a season to forget for the Orioles.


Jeremy Guthrie's season hasn't been all that aweful ignoring a few horrific starts, but his performance has not met expectations.

Brian Matusz's season was a lost cause from the start, where he missed his his first few starts due to an injury. He came back and looked ok in his first start against the Athletics, but it was all down-hill from there. The one brightside of his injury was that it opened the door for top Orioles prospect Zach Britton.

What happened to the April/May version of Zach Britton?

Britton was stellar in his first few starts, showing his stuff could match the best. But come late June, he began to struggle. It all started with his June 28th start against the Cardinals. Britton was rocked, giving up a home run and 4 total runs in 5.2 innings pitched. Britton has continued to struggled, and hasn't gotten a win since June 8th. He's currently on the disabled list.

Once highly regarded prospect Chris Tillman has floated between the minors and bigs this year. He currently resides in AAA Norfolk, since Buck Showalter was not impressed with his recent big league performances.

Another former top prospect, Brandon Erbe, was supposed to join Britton in the bigs this year as well, but he, now 25, has passed the prospect stage, and unless he's a late bloomer, it seems as though he'll be another bust as well.

Mark Reynolds - a Tale of Two Players.

Mark Reynolds has been very streaky this season. He's made stellar plays in the field, and he's thrown some into the 5th row. He's had days where he has 5 home runs in 8 days, and he's had streaks where he has 5 home runs in 8 weeks. There have been glimpses of greatness and failure from Reynolds this season. He has managed to cut down on strikeouts, so I will give give him credit for that atleast.

I'll wait to write Vlad off until after he gets off this hot streak.

The future rests in the hands of Manny Machado, Zach Britton, Andy MacPhail, and Buck Showalter.

So to all you O's fans out there... pray that these 4 can succeed and turn the Boys of Baltimore around. Watch other teams this year, and once again hope your boys in the black and orange can get some free agents and turn it around next year.