Expert: Tony Hutchens - 9/1/2005

Question
What kind of house cleaning do you see going on for next year's team? What players will be gone and who will they be the pursuit of?  

Answer
Hello Al,

  Well, I think we can safely say that Sidney Ponson, Rafael Palmeiro, and Sammy Sosa won't be in an Oriole uniform in 2006. Luis Matos could be gone as well as the front office would like to see more power from the outfield. Obviously, they will be in high pursuit of quality starting pitchers but they learned last year that won't be easy. But starting pitching and outfield power are the two biggest concerns that they will hope to address this off season. And since the free agent market isn't expected to be very lucrative, you can expect the general managers to be very busy trying to pull off meaningful trades.