Connolly's Tap Room

Tap-In Question: Who will be the Orioles’ biggest surprise this season?

By Dan Connolly

Posted on April 19, 2017

We’ve batted this topic around in the press box earlier this year. I also asked the writers at BaltimoreBaseball.com to give me their opinions.

Now, with 12 games of the 2017 season in the books, I’m coming to you.

Who will be the Orioles biggest surprise in 2017?

Now I suppose you could go with someone who is supposed to be a big contributor that won’t be – the biggest bust, if you will.

But this team’s gotten off to a hot start, so I’m willing to go positive for a bit (not really the barkeep’s strength, but we all can learn new things, I guess).

So, let’s frame it this way: Who is the Oriole that you aren’t necessarily counting on that will come up big in 2017?

Either a good player that does better than expected (such as Mark Trumbo in 2016) or a guy you weren’t expecting at all that contributes (Donnie Hart in 2016).

Our staff took a crack at it here. The names bandied about: Craig Gentry, Jesus Liranzo, Trey Mancini and Welington Castillo.

Oh yeah, and I predicted Ubaldo Jimenez to be my surprise Oriole of 2017. I’m sticking with it. I have no choice; it’s been published on the in-tra-net. Must be true.

Incidentally, I also play with fire under a ladder with a black cat while running over sidewalk cracks with scissors only 10 minutes after going swimming.

You can go out on that precarious limb with me, or make a more reasonable call. That’s up to you.

You do have the advantage of two weeks of watching this team, but there’s a whole lotta baseball left to play. There’s still time to make a great call. Or a ludicrous one from half court. Give it a shot.

Tap-In Question: Who will be the Orioles’ biggest surprise in 2017?