Reason for optimism: Virtually all of the players that contributed to the most home runs hit in baseball in 2016 return.
Reason for pessimism: It would be surprising if all the power returns as well -- and Baltimore needs every one of those home runs.
The Baltimore Orioles of recent vintage seem to find a way each year to confound sabermetric analysts, who in turn take to their keyboards and enrage fans of the team. While many professional athletes and managers insist they don't read what's written about them, that's not the case with Orioles manager Buck Showalter. He's not only aware of what the sabermetric community thinks about the Orioles, he's amused by it. As he told the Washington Post at the start of spring training, "It's fun to see people scratching their heads about our team."
Order me up some Head & Shoulders -- here's my annual review of the Orioles.
