Baltimore Orioles

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2002 Finish: 67-95, 4th, AL East, 36½ GB	2002 Payroll: $62,994,770 (15th)

Projected Lineup 2B Jerry Hairston Jr. CF Gary Matthews Jr. DH David Segui RF Jay Gibbons 3B Tony Batista LF Marty Cordova C Geronimo Gil SS Deivi Cruz C Dan Wilson Projected Rotation RHP Rodrigo Lopez LHP Omar Daal RHP Sidney Ponson RHP Jason Johnson RHP Scott Erickson CL Jorge Julio

By John Donovan, SI.com

Powerless and pitching poor, the Orioles are a team without hope. They have stumbled through a string of five straight losing seasons -- soon to be six. They have a farm system that's dryer than a Gobi martini and they are without a bankable star.

There will be optimism this spring in Ft. Lauderdale -- isn't that what spring is for? -- but it will be more along the lines of, "It can't get any worse."

The punchless O's begin the 2003 season with the memories of a remarkably squalid second half of '02 still fresh on their minds. In late August, the Orioles had fought their way back to .500 at 63-63. It was a remarkable achievement. It was, in fact, a mirage.

The Orioles finished the season 4-32, the worst stretch of baseball this century. The young pitching faltered. The offense that barely was disappeared altogether. It was terrible.

So this winter the Orioles canned general manager Syd Thrift, replaced him with a two-headed GM (Jim Beattie and former Orioles pitcher Mike Flanagan), looked for more offense and signed none of it. They missed out on Cliff Floyd and Ivan Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui. Instead, they signed shortstop Deivi Cruz.

If there is optimism for the Orioles, it's for 2004. That's when the team finally sheds the onerous contract of Albert Belle (who hasn't played since the 2000 season) and can really make a play for free-agent talent.

Until then, it looks to be more of the same.

As sad as it may seem, the Orioles are fairly set for spring training. That happens when the minors, once the pride of this organization, are left to rot and no one pushes for a job.

Manager Mike Hargrove will tweak here and there, looking for some spark for a team that had the worst batting average in the AL (.246), was 13th in the AL in runs (only Detroit was worse) and had the second-worst on-base percentage in baseball (at .309, only Detroit's .300 was worse).

So, for instance, if Marty Cordova is not healthy enough in left, or looks particularly bad in spring training, maybe Hargrove will try to plug, say, Chris Richard in. If first baseman/designated hitter David Segui's injury woes continue, that could open up spots at designated hitter or first base or the outfield with Richard, Melvin Mora and Jeff Conine in the mix. Former Oriole B.J. Surhoff, in spring training with a minor league contract, could be a factor, too. There are all sorts of possibilities. Unfortunately, none is a magic cure.

Rodrigo Lopez, a rookie last year who was the team's biggest success story, is now the team's ace. Lopez, picked up as a minor-league free agent last offseason, went 15-9 with a 3.57 ERA in '02, including a 6-0 July (with a 2.57 ERA). But afterward, he was just 3-6 with a 4.94 ERA. He'll have to make adjustments now that opponents have a bead on him. But with a good fastball and an outstanding slider, he is their best hope.

Larry Bigbie, a September call-up last season, hit only .176 in 16 games. But the lefty-hitting outfielder hit .302 in Class AAA Rochester in 2002, smacking 105 hits in 98 games. He's not particularly powerful, but he can hit and proved to be one of the best things the O's had in Rochester last season.

Arrivals: LHP Omar Daal (from Los Angeles as free agent), SS Deivi Cruz (from San Diego as free agent), RHP Kerry Ligtenberg (from Atlanta as free agent).

Departures: SS Mike Bordick (to Toronto as free agent), OF Chris Singleton (contract non-tendered, signed with Oakland), INF Luis Lopez (waived), RHP Chris Brock (waived), RHP Josh Towers (waived, signed minor league contract with Toronto).

Segui is a career .292 hitter with OK power, Conine could drive in 100 runs with enough playing time (and enough runners on base ahead of him), Jay Gibbons smacked 28 homers last year and Tony Batista had a team-high 31 dingers. If all of them are hitting, all year, the Orioles have a chance at mediocrity. But because the rotation is only so-so, and a bullpen has to have something to go on, the Orioles, at best, will be only so-so in '03. And it's a lot likely they'll be a lot less than that.