Despite a red hot 26-14 start to the 2005 season, the Orioles once again couldnt contend with the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for the AL East crown as they went just 48-74 the rest of the way out and finished well behind the leaders of the pack. The Orioles gained many backers in the early going as they got off to a fast start. The odd thing was that these initial backers, for the most part, continued to stick with Baltimore for the remainder of the season, despite the breakdown the team experienced and as a result, a lot of people lost a lot of money on the Orange birds. These early bandwagon jumpers, in non bandwagon-like fashion, stuck with the Orioles and it ended up costing them as they finished their last 122 games at -31 units. This further emphasizes our point of handicapping individual games and not teams over the course of the season.

The 2005 Baltimore Orioles are the perfect example of why it is vital to do your homework. Pay special attention to trends developing as the season unfolds. Vegas was able to trap plenty of Orioles backers last season, but if you are able to recognize when a team is in a terrible slump, youll be able to start betting against them at the right time and youll make some nice gains instead of taking huge losses.

The 2006 Orioles have all the makings of a mediocre team. Their pitching staff isnt good enough to keep them in games consistently. Last season, the Orioles were terrible as a home favorite at just 11-18 against American League ball clubs. Watch to see if a similar trend develops this season. You may be able to take advantage of road underdogs beating up on the Os at home, especially within their division. A lot of these starters are talented but rough around the edges, maybe Leo Mazzoni will have the effect that Baltimore fans are hoping for and get this staff turned around. Daniel Cabrera and Eric Bedard are both guys who could use some help developing, but Bruce Chen and Rodrigo Lopez have a little bit of experience and should be able to help guide this young staff. The bullpen returns to Jorge Julio, who was the teams go to guy for three seasons before losing his job to BJ Ryan last year.

In my opinion, Baltimore has a great player in Tejada. His numbers are incredible but they even suffer slightly as sometimes he tries to do too much at the plate to help his team win. Javy Lopez is one of the better catchers in the game and hell move to DH this year to make room for newcomer Ramon Hernandez. Last season Melvin Mora really came through with 27 home runs, 88 runs batted in and a .283 batting average. Brian Roberts injuries are a concern for this ball club but if he can regain his early 2005 form, this team will contend in a very tough division, maybe the toughest in baseball. But overall, they just dont have enough fire power to help out a mediocre pitching unit. Acquisitions like Kevin Millar just dont do enough to put a team over the top, especially one who has to contend with two of baseballs best franchises.

This article was written by Jimmy Boyd. Pick up his Baseball Picks here.