Nick Markakis

What place will the Baltimore Orioles fall in 2010?  More than 80 wins could be a start. 

Of course there is room for optimism.  Every fan has that in the offseason.  Hoping there club can make the right moves to drive his or her home team to the playoffs.

The reality of the situation is that the Orioles haven’t had a winning record since the late '90s.  This discourages top tier free agents from coming to Baltimore. 

Hopefully, you all remember the classic Sportscenter segment that always aired near the end of the show. It was called "Did You Know." It featured some statistical anomaly that occurred during the day or sometimes took notice of some historical achievement. Well, here's my All-Star version, with a bias towards the Orioles. These "did you know" questions cover the big league club, as well as their minor league affiliates. Here goes!

The Baltimore Orioles have been one of the most disappointing organizations in baseball.

With eleven striaght losing seasons, the O's have been at the bottom of the cellar of the AL East for over a decade, facing beatdowns to the Yankees and Red Sox.

There hasn't been much to talk about in this decade beside these long woes.

All the hearts broke when Cal Ripken retired, who was virtually the last piece to Baltimore's success.

Peter Angelos, current Orioles owner, has been one of the more unpredictable ones in the years.

Beware the ides of July.

Before beginning the “Beltway Series” against the Washington Nationals this Memorial Day weekend, the Baltimore Orioles will finish up their disappointing appearance in the new Yankees Stadium (losing game 1 and game 2 of the three game series).  Assuming that the O’s allow for the sweep (because they might), their record will be 16-25 and 10 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East division.

With every new baseball season comes a renewed sense of hope for baseball fans everywhere. With everyone's record tied at 0 - 0 every fan of every team can imagine a scenario in which their favorite team finds a way to make it to the playoffs and, with a little luck, the World Series.
Behind these hopes there is often times a prediction of a breakout performance by a young player, a return to form by a veteran, or simply a continued dominance by a team's superstar.
2009 has already seen examples of all of these and teams like the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers are reaping the rewards.

This is actually the beginning of my new series where I will run down the top players at the position they play at. Starting with outfielders which is a very tough position to play.

Anyways I will run down the overall best outfielders in the American League. So without further ado, here is my list of the Top 15 Present Day Outfielders.

These are all present day and are based on what kind of player they are today.

Don't look now, but Nick Markakis has a 16 game hit streak going. 

Tomorrow night Nick the Stick goes up against Roy "Doc" Halladay, against whom he is 7-30 lifetime, good for a not-so-good .233 average. On the season Markakis is hitting .381, good for a very good third best in the American League.

Rumor has it that Orioles owner Peter Angelos has an insane man crush on outfielder Nick Markakis. So much so that he would have mortgaged the farm, so to speak, to get him in the 2003 Major League draft. Nick the Stick can do that to a guy, whether he's an 80 something attorney or a 20 something retail superfan. His list of skills and intangibles is off the chart: hitting power and acumen, plate discipline, excellent fielding ability, speed and baseball knowledge. Here's why you should be a believer too.

Toronto Blue Jays:

Don't look now but the Toronto Blue Jays are 6-2 and leading the revamped American League Eastern division. My first Bleacher Report article outlined this possibility when upon the re-hiring of former manager Cito Gaston on June 20, 2008 the team proceeded to finish last season on a 51-37 clip.