Are these Orioles rookie starters for real?

Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images One good argument, I always felt, against the “Argh! My eyes! The Orioles are tanking!” theory was that no fewer than six Orioles prospect arms—Keegan Akin, Dean Kremer, Zac Lowther, Alex Wells, Mike Baumann and Bruce Zimmermann—had to fall on their face this season in order for the Orioles rotation to be as bad as it was.

True, Mike Elias & Co. forked out, like, zero money on free agent pitcher signings this offseason. (Matt Harvey’s 127.2 innings, at $1,000,000, were a steal, in retrospect. Well, maybe.) But in the front office’s partial defense, were they supposed to not audition the stable of rookie throwers they inherited from the past regime?…