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Spring training is well underway, so what better time to start running through our annual team-by-team previews? We're running these in reverse order of 2015 finish, and now the Baltimore Orioles are up.

Previous: ATL | BOS | CIN | CHW | COL | DET | MIA | MIL | OAK | PHI | SD | SEA | TB

After going 96-66 in 2014, the Orioles regressed all the way to 81-81 in 2015. They had to break the bank to bring back Chris Davis while also retaining Matt Wieters. Wei-Yin Chen departed via free agency while Yovani Gallardo was signed in his place. And the team that was third in the AL in home runs last season added Mark Trumbo via trade and signed Pedro Alvarez via free agency. International signee Hyun-soo Kim is another new face.

Will it be enough to keep with the trend of even-year playoff berths? Remember, the Orioles broke their long playoff drought in 2012 and then won the AL East in 2014 while missing the playoffs in between.

The Lineup

Don't expect mad scientist Buck Showalter to stick with a regular batting order much. He didn't use a single lineup more than three times last season. So consider this a rough outline.

1. Manny Machado, 3B
2. Adam Jones, CF
3. Chris Davis , 1B
4. Mark Trumbo , RF
5. Matt Wieters , C
6. Pedro Alvarez , DH
7. J.J. Hardy, SS
8. Jonathan Schoop, 2B
9. Hyun-soo Kim , LF

As alluded to above, the power should really stick out here. The Orioles clubbed 217 homers last season, only trailing the Blue Jays and Astros in all of baseball. The upside here is now much higher. Here are the career high marks in homers for the top seven guys in the order, respectively: 35, 33, 53, 34, 23, 36, 30. Even Schoop hit 15 homers in just 305 at-bats last season. Backup catcher Caleb Joseph has 20 homers in 566 career at-bats.

While it's pretty obvious that everyone isn't going to reach a career high in homers, there is a stupid level of power here. The Orioles leading the majors in bombs seems a decent bet.

Will too many be solo homers, though? The Orioles were 12th in AL with a .307 on-base percentage last season, which helps explain why they were 10th in runs despite being third in homers. Adding Trumbo and Alvarez doesn't help matters here, instead it's just two more guys who homer often while making lots of outs.

Further, the only real stolen base threat is Machado. The Orioles were last in the AL with 44 steals last season and Machado had 20 of those.

Put simply: This is a pretty one-dimensional ballclub. If they are facing grounder-heavy pitchers or playing in a homer-suppressing stadium, they'll have trouble manufacturing runs. The balance to that is many days they'll be one of the most exciting offenses in baseball.

The Rotation

Only the Tigers had a worse rotation ERA than the Orioles' 4.53 mark last season. What's more, only two AL teams had fewer innings pitched from starters than the Orioles (915 2/3, which comes to about 5 2/3 innings per game). Sure, they added Gallardo, but they lost Chen. Here's how it stacks up.

1. Yovani Gallardo , RHP
2. Chris Tillman, RHP
3. Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP
4. Miguel Gonzalez, RHP
5. Kevin Gausman, RHP
ALT: RHP Vance Worley, RHP Odrisamer Despaigne

Gallardo had a 3.42 ERA, 124 ERA+ and 1.42 WHIP last season compared to Chen's 3.34, 124 and 1.22. So even if Gallardo has the same season, he doesn't improve the rotation. He only holds it steady.

Can the Orioles improve internally?

Tillman's a decent place to start. From 2012-14, he was 38-16 with a 3.42 ERA, making the All-Star team in 2013. Last season he was 11-11 with a 4.99 ERA. A bounce-back effort should be in the cards, because he's only going to be 28 years old.

Since 2010, Jimenez has proven that he isn't capable of being better than average for long stretches while also having the capability to suck. It's hard to trust him for more than what he gave last season (4.11 ERA, 1.36 WHIP).

Gonzalez isn't as bad as he was last season (4.91 ERA, 5.01 FIP), but he isn't as good as he appeared in 2014 (3.23 ERA), either. Somewhere in the middle?

So maybe there's marginal improvement so far, but nothing that really seems to move the needle -- especially in an AL East that boasted three of the top four offenses in baseball last season.

Maybe Gausman breaks out? The former top-20 prospect is only 25 and has good stuff. He's made 42 career starts to the tune of a 4.27 ERA and 1.31 WHIP to this point, but he's never gotten more than 20 starts in a season. He's a decent strikeout guy with control, but has had issues with extra-base hits. If he can cut down on those, he can put together a very good season.

It's hard to see great upside in either Worley or Despaigne, either.

The Bullpen

Perhaps the biggest strength of the team -- outside the bombs! -- is the bullpen. The Orioles ranked third in the AL with a 3.21 bullpen ERA and were fourth in save percentage last season.

There will be plenty of attention paid to the back-end trios in Boston and New York in the AL East heading into the season, but the Zach Britton-Darren-O'Day-Brian Matusz trio is pretty lethal. Check them out:

Britton: 1.92 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 79 K, 65 2/3 IP
O'Day: 1.52 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 82 K, 65 1/3 IP
Matusz: 2.94 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 56 K, 49 IP

Over the past two seasons, Brad Brach has proven a reliable reliever for the O's as well. How about Mychal Givens? After a dominant stretch in Triple-A, the rookie posted a 1.80 ERA, 0.87 WHIP and 38 strikeouts against only six walks in 30 innings. Only two of the 13 runners he inherited scored, too. If not needed in the rotation, Worley and Despaigne add depth.

Can we talk about Dylan Bundy here? Either here or in the rotation would work and he's worth our time. The former first rounder (fourth overall pick in 2011) was once upon a time considered a can't-miss, frontline pitching prospect. He's gone through Tommy John surgery and some other arm issues for three years, but now he's saying he's 100 percent. He's only 23 years old, so he's far from being a lost cause. He is, however, out of minor-league options. Look for him to start in the bullpen, but the most optimistic of forecasts could peg him with a surprise breakthrough in the rotation later in the season.

The Outlook

Did the Orioles improve on the team that won 81 games last season? That's hard to definitively answer in the positive. The rotation appears to be a big problem once again, though it's possible several (Tillman, Gonzalez, Gausman) internal options are capable of having better seasons. As noted, the powerful offense is a bit one-dimensional, but that one dimension is the single most important commodity on offense.

In all, the Orioles have the pieces to make another postseason run, but the most likely outcome appears to be a similar season to 2015. They do play in a tough division, so last place seems more likely than first, even if they win around 77 games. They have, however, surprised before and betting against Buck Showalter in the regular season is never a great idea.

Star player Manny Machado is only 23.
Star player Manny Machado is only 23. (USATSI)