The Baltimore Orioles, who lust after home runs like the Weinstein brothers go after an Oscar, signed another slugger by agreeing with Pedro Alvarez on a reportedly one-year, $5.75 million contract.
Alvarez, bumped out of Pittsburgh due to his lousy defense at third base and then first base, won't have to worry about that with the Orioles, with whom he presumably slots in at the DH spot, with Mark Trumbo moving to fill a hole in right field. Overall, it's a minor upgrade for the Orioles and maybe worth a win or two. Alvarez will provide more offense than the projected right-field combo of Ryan Flaherty and Nolan Reimold, though Trumbo's defensive deficiencies will give some of that back.
Here's what interesting: How many home runs will the Orioles hit in 2016? They hit 217 in 2015, which ranked third in the majors behind the Blue Jays (232) and Astros (230). They led the AL in 2014 with 211 -- 34 more than the Blue Jays -- and led in 2013 with 2012, 24 more than the Mariners. What if all the regulars matched their career highs in home runs? Let's look:
LF Hyun Soo Kim: 17 (ZiPS projection)
3B Manny Machado: 35 (2015)
1B Chris Davis: 53 (2013)
CF Adam Jones: 33 (2013)
DH Pedro Alvarez: 36 (2013)
RF Mark Trumbo: 34 (2013)
C Matt Wieters: 23 (2012)
SS J.J. Hardy: 30 (2011)
2B Jonathan Schoop: 16 (2014)
Total: 277. That would break the major league record of 264, set by the 1997 Mariners (Ken Griffey Jr. led the way with 56). Of course, the bench would chip in a few more homers, so let's add 23 to give the Orioles an even 300 home runs.
Now let's do this: What if they scored runs at the same ratio to home runs as they did in 2015?
2015: 217 home runs, 713 runs = 3.28 runs per home run
2016: 300 home runs x 3.28 runs per homer = 984 runs
Of course, I don't know if that ratio holds up. The more home runs you hit, the more likely more of them are solo home runs, so the ratio of runs scored goes down (unless you're adding more hits and walks). But we're just having fun with this, so we'll stick with it. Now, 984 runs is a lot of runs. Only two teams in recent history -- the 1999 Indians and the 1996 Mariners -- have reached that mark, and those teams played in a higher offensive era with more hits, more walks and fewer strikeouts than the Orioles.
Plus, let's be realistic: All the Orioles aren't going to reach their career highs. Hardy, for example, once hit 30 home runs but has just 17 over the past two seasons. But let's say the Orioles hit 260 home runs. Using our same scale, we get 852 runs. Hey, that's still a lot of runs! The Blue Jays scored 891 last year, but the No. 2 team in the AL was the Yankees with 764.
The Orioles allowed 693 runs last year. If they score 852 and allow the same number of runs, we'd project a win-loss record of 97-65. So there you go, Orioles fans. Hit 260 home runs, and maintain the same run prevention, and you'll win the AL East.