Good Morning guys, Well, he season's at it's mid point already. O's are sitting at a pretty decent 44-37. That's probably around what I was hoping for at the beginning of the year. I had picked them to go maybe 84-78 around. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with them so far.

Have they exceeded or have been under your expectations of the O's this year? What's your opinion on their performance so far ? Always good to hear from you guys, thanks.

The Orioles have greatly outplayed their peripheral stats. Their defense is atrocious, their offense is bad, and their starting pitching is suspect. Markakis's bat will help the Orioles if he keeps hitting like he was before the injury, but if Reimold is out for the rest of the season, the O's should consider looking for another corner outfielder. Arrieta's results really need to start matching his performance. The Orioles have a chance at the second wildcard, but right now they look like they will finish with a .500 record.

The O's are on pace to finish 88-74.

Adam Jones is on pace to hit 40 home runs, Davis 28, Hardy 24, Wieters 22, Betemit 20 and Reynolds 12.

Yeah, that'd sure be nice Tom! Le't hope we see another April/May out of them right :)

In large part the record is what it is because of the bullpen holding onto those close games. If we're going to have any chance of the playoffs it's going to need to stay good and the rest of the team is going to have to get it together.

I'm confident this team will go on an offensive tear some time soon when Markakis is back, too many big bats for it to not happen. I think the O's have a legit top 10-12 above average offense and the pen has a claim for best in baseball. The defense of course is very bad.

It all comes down to the 3-5 spots in the rotation. Britton, Tillman, St. Johnson, Arrieta, Matusz. If 2 of those guys step up the O's are playoff bound.

I'm just praying for a winning record, nothing more. Can we make the playoffs? No.

LOL. Why not? Toronto, Bosox & Tampa all have their own problems. Pretty much EVERYTHING has gone wrong for the O's the last month and we are still the 2nd WC if the season ended today.

Too much talk about our teams stats IMO. The theory is we can't keep winning close games at this rate but it's no fluke the Pen and Buck are having great seasons.

SURPRISED...think thats the word, I, would use.....
EXCITED, would be another...
PROUD, can wear my gear, without comments....
READY, its been a long long time...

I went into this season with the lowest expectations, in a long time.. last year was a killer,
we made some last minute additions, and I fell for the hype....this year we seemingly weakend the team........but give Duqette and Buck credit, they assembled a team of nobuddies, and
if the season ended today..we would be a wildcard !!

This year's team has definitely exceeded my expectations thus far.

At the halfway point of the season, I would have said the exact same thing about the 2005 team - which had the exact same record, 44-37.

The 2005 team went 6-5 in the first 11 games of the second half. Then, beginning with game # 93, the wheels came off. They lost 14 of their next 15 and their record went from 50-42 to 51-56.

At that point, Lee Mazzilli was fired and Sam Perlozzo took over as manager. The Orioles reacted well to the change initially and got their act together again long enough to get back to .500 at 60-60. Then they lost 10 of their next 11, falling to 61-70.

They managed to claw their way back to within six games of .500 at 69-75 - then lost 11 of their next 12 and dropped to 70-86 before winning 4 of the last 6 to finish at 74-88.

So, the fact that this year's team has done better than expected thus far doesn't mean they're going to hold on to a playoff spot. It doesn't necessarily mean they're even going to finish with a .500 record.

But I do think they're going to finish with a better record than the 2005 team. Calabrams' opinion notwithstanding, I don't think this year's club is going to go through any 1-10, 1-11, or 1-14 stretches with Buck at the helm.

"I don't think this year's club is going to go through any 1-10, 1-11, or 1-14 stretches with Buck at the helm."

Totally agree. We may hit a few bumps in the road but not to that extreme.

Add me to the list of those whose expectations have been exceeded at the half-way mark. I've been something of a prodigal son in recent years (didn't follow the O's closely; too painful) and have only this year returned to regularly viewing the games and following the club. It was great to see stretches of play that brought to mind the old "Orioles Magic."

But I don't look for the Orioles to carry the same level of excitement we saw during much of the first half into the second half. I don't expect them to gallop along and keep winning series after series, or run off a long string (or two) of wins as before. I do believe the bullpen will keep getting the job done and players like Wieters and Adam Jones and maybe 1 or 2 others will continue to fulfill their promise. At the same time, the chronic deficiencies in the club (esp. defense, erratic starting pitching & 3rd base) will continue to make themselves felt, as will the too-frequent dry spells in hitting (esp. with RISP).

All in all, I look for this season to be an incremental improvement rather than a leap forward. As I've said before, the Orioles' second-half motto can be ".500 or bust!" More significantly, I have the feeling that 2012 may finally be the turning point for a real return to respectability and contending status.

Lot of good things starting with Hammel, Chen, the bullpen, homeruns, etc...

The back half of the rotation, infield defense, and plate discipline are atrocious. Roberts, Thome, and Gregg are wasted roster spaces.

Let's hope Britton comes up and looks good. Even when Markakis gets back I don't expect much from him anymore, which is sad.

Good morning willym, hope you had a good 4th. Thank you for the info. particularly on the 2005 team because I was wondering just how parallel we were to them. That was a nasty skid they hit, but I agree with you in the fact that'd be hard to see that under Buck.

I'd like them to at least split with L.A. and hopefully go into the All-Star break on a winning note. Take care and stay cool !

They have definately performed better than I thought they would. I really hope they hold on to make the playoffs, but just staying out of the cellar is an improvement.

All pure luck and baseball VooDoo! Buck pulls rabbits out of hats while Dan burns incense and prays to Satan. Angelo's is in the background sticking rusty pins into the backs of player replicas. Real "smoke and mirrors"!!!!!!

Hey, you never know what goes on behind closed doors! Just ask Bill Clinton :)