The 2010 is, mercifully, in the books.
Sure, the last couple months have seen Buck's Birds playing as well as anyone in the league. But they had to win like hell just to get to 66 wins. Most of the season was, if you recall, miserable.
But the winning was quite remarkable and if you tuned out early to watch the Ravens, you missed the best baseball of the season. Maybe the last 10 years. In August and September(October), the Orioles posted back to back winnings months for the first time since 2005. It is the first winning August and Septmber since 1996. From August 1st, they finished the season on a 34-24 run, a .586 winnings percentage.
However, if the Orioles want to continue their success in 2011, they still need to improve. Outside of Luke Scott, all the hitters underachieved in 2010. They'll need more consistency (and improvement) from the young pitching. And they'll need to add some free agents to the lineup and the pitching staff to continue to compete in the AL East.
But heading into the offseason, there are a lot of reasons to be hopeful. And Buck Showalter has a lot to do with that. Buck's going to have a lot to say about who will be playing first base next season. And third, a short and left field. You have to like the way he's evaluated the talent so face and you have to expect that he will have a ton of input about who is traded, who they will keep and who they will target in the offseason.
I'll be posting some more wrap up type posts during the rest of this week...and start looking forward to Spring Training.
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