5 Reasons Baltimore Orioles Will Finish with Better Record Than White Sox

One of the things that is most fun about professional sports, and something all fans love to do, is debate with each other about why one team is better than another.

When it's still early in the season, every team is just as good as every other team, and anything is possible, making these debates a lot more justifiable and arguable.

So I'll present one of my own: This season, the Baltimore Orioles will finish with a better record than the Chicago White Sox.

In all honestly, on paper, this match up could go either way. Both teams appear to be about even in the talent department, and both are participating in a semi-rebuild type thing.

But if you continue reading, I'll tell you why the O's will end up being better.

More to Prove

The O's are further along in their rebuilding effort than the White Sox are, so many of their young players are facing the point where they need to either prove they're the real deal or be replaced.

That could motivate them to perform up to their level of potential, making for a better team and more wins.

Guys like left fielder Nolan Reimold (pictured), starting pitchers Jake Arrieta, Wei-Yin Chen, Tommy Hunter, and Brian Matusz, and first baseman Chris Davis could help make and break this team.

The potential is certainly there. Now if only they could all come together and achieve their collective ability, that would make for a pretty scary team.

Young Rotation

Going back to proving one's worth, the young hurlers that make up the Orioles' rotation are the ones who have the most riding on them.

Jake Arrieta (pictured) has proven to be a valuable arm through his first two starts this year, but will need to keep that performance up in order to show the club he's a legitimate big-league pitcher.

Following him, Tommy Hunter has shown the ability to eat innings and keep his team in the game, which is really all that's expected of him. Jason Hammel is here to basically be Jeremy Guthrie 2.0, and Brian Matusz has got quite the pivotal season ahead of him.

After that, Wei-Yin Chen will be looking to make a name for himself in American baseball, and the club's front office personnel have high hopes for his potential.

Once young lefty Zach Britton returns from injury, he'll be looking to build on the very solid rookie season he had last year.

This group has so much potential, and could one day be one of the best rotations in baseball.

If that day happens this year, there's no doubt in my mind that the O's will be a better team than the White Sox.

A More Experienced Manager

Not to take anything away from new ChiSox manager Robin Ventura, who's done a fantastic job with his team thus far in this early season, but O's manager Buck Showalter (pictured, center) knows how to get the job done, as evidenced by his previous three managerial stops.

Showalter is in the second year of his three-year deal with the club, and historically, this is about the time he starts to turn a struggling team around.

The old-school manager is both tough and nurturing on his young players, and he is very capable of helping them grow into their potential.

As O's fans, we're hoping that Showalter's history can repeat itself once again, and not the Orioles'.

Both Showalter and Ventura have their work cut out for them with their respective teams, but in Showalter's case, he has a better chance of actually turning things around sooner rather than later.

At least, that's my opinion.

Continued Growth of Jones and Wieters

Center fielder Adam Jones and catcher Matt Wieters really started to blossom into good young players last season, as well as team leaders.

Jones took a step forward offensively in 2011, and seems to be continuing that trend so far in 2012 with a line of .343 with three homers and four RBI, including getting a hit in every one of the Orioles' nine games so far this year.

On the flip side, Wieters became arguably the best defensive catcher in the game last season, earning him a much-deserved Gold Glove award. All the while, Wieters' offense took a step forward as fans hope that trend with him continues.

These two appear to be growing into quite the up-the-middle pair, and having strong players up the middle will always help a team succeed.

Newfound Depth

I can't speak for the depth that the White Sox have, since I'm not going to pretend to know what they're depth is like, and I won't say one team has better depth than the other, but new GM Dan Duquette did a good job at adding major-league depth throughout the top two levels of the Orioles' farm system.

Starter Dana Eveland (pictured) is stashed at Triple-A, and Japanese signing Tsuyoshi Wada has yet to throw a pitch for the parent club due to rehabbing an injury.

Outfielder Jai Miller is also stashed at Triple-A, providing insurance should an outfielder on the parent club go down, not to mention pitchers Brad Bergesen, Jason Berken and Chris Tillman, and infielder Matt Antonelli.

If the O's need to replace players on their roster during the course of the season, which is a certainty, they'll have better depth and therefore it will be easier for them to continue being competitive in the long run.