As the day job kicks into a very busy season and the Baltimore fall ushers in a Baltimore winter baseball begins to drift from the city's mind.

Yes Baltimore had baseball on its mind - jerk.

There are a lot of questions circling the Orioles right now, like vultures.

What will the rotation look like?

Will Bergesen come back as good?

Will Hernandez find his strike-out pitches and keep the ball in the park?

Will Matusz continue to progress?

Will Wieters continue his absolutely TORRID last month at the plate?

What about first base and third base?

Melvin Mora is gone, no cheering let's be nice.  Melvin was a great player for this team.  He will go down as one of the top 10 Orioles infielders ever.  The only good thing that came out of the Syd Thrift years.  He lived in the area, was one of the only current Orioles to show up to Elrod Hendricks' funeral, he gave back to the community and played a stellar thirdbase for a long time.  He will be missed - but who replaces him?

Josh Bell.  Bell is the young thirdbaseman the Orioles acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers for George Sherill.  Why Josh Bell?  Let us take a look at his numbers so far this year:

At AA Bell hit to a .917 OPS with a .287 AVG, 9 HR and a SLG over .500.  This was all in less than 120 AB.

Bell, along with Snyder, are crushing the ball in the AFL right now.

I am hoping that the the two young corner players play their way on to the team.  At this moment I am comfortable going to battle with a young, hungry infield with two bats that could prove to be very large.  Frankly, we have got nothing to lose.

The Orioles are in an nearly impossible fight in the AL East - but that is for another post.

2010 is the year that the Orioles need to show solid, quantifiable progression in wins.  This does not necessarily mean I expect the Orioles to be a competitive force but the Orioles should jump over the Blue Jays, who are circling the drain in my opinion, and challenge the Rays for a solid season.  If the Orioles young pitching staff can be near league-average, as opposed to league-worst, they should finish around 500.

The offense is another story.  Jones needs to continue his progression and prove he can keep it up for the entire year.  Wieters needs to build off his awesome Fall.  Markakis needs to start taking walks again and find his power-swing.

Markakis had a weird season.  His average and doubles and RBI were there, but his walks and homers were way down.  Thus, his OPS was off the mark.  Markakis also had a quietly sub-par year in the field.  I am willing to chalk this up to a bad year, it happens to everyone.

Other things:

Brooks Robinson was honored at the Babe Ruth Museum this week and all accounts have it being a wonderful event.  It was sponsored by the Orioles, the Babe Ruth Museum.  Many former Orioles, current members of the Orioles front office and MASN were in attendance.  But no current members of the Orioles team.

This is NOT a big deal - it really isn't.  But one member of the local media just will never miss an opportunity to grind his axe.  Nestor Aparicio railed against the Orioles calling them every name in the book -  no one really cared.  Peter Schmuck called Nestor out today for creating a "phony controversy" (which it is).  Nestor of course responded in the comments section.

Nestor is a complete jerk with a dying station.  Now granted, I'm no Mencken over here, but I do know a blowhard with an axe to grind when I see one.   If Peter Schmuck had not mentioned your actions in his blog no one would have heard about it.