With the Orioles good start and them being five games above .500 at the all-star break, fans should have high expectations for the second half. But will the O’s make the playoffs? In order for that to happen there must be a few things that take place.

The Orioles have had several names swirling around as possible trade acquisitions, Greinke and Garza headline the list. The current rotation is not getting the job done for the Orioles and there is a definite need for another strong starter in the rotation to compliment Wei-Yin Chen and Jason Hammel. If the Orioles go shopping it can’t be after a mediocre pitcher, it needs to be a big name player who can win games against Boston, Tampa, and those pesky Yankees. With the Orioles lineup it shouldn’t take much but our hitting has been known to take an off day all too often, meaning this new pitcher will need to be a guy who can shutdown the AL East. I said it before and I will say it again, if the club wants fans to be satisfied, the Orioles need to make a big deal. It’s split 50/50 between fans who are willing to give up a good prospect such as Machado. In my opinion if the Orioles make the playoffs this year they have as good of a shot to win the World Series as any team in there IF they get a good third starter. With that being said, Machado for Greinke makes all the sense in the world to me, I’m all for it.

For the Orioles to make the playoffs, it is very important that fans come out and support the team. I’m sick of Orioles fans complaining about having a losing record and then not going out to Camden Yards to be there when the team is above .500 at the break. For a team that is in the playoff hunt half way through the season, averaging 21st in attendance in just unacceptable. I have done my part and have been to 12 games, I didn’t even land in America until May 11th from London. Doesn’t everyone want there to be no more Yankees and Sox fans at Camden Yards. The easiest solution is buy the tickets so their annoying fans don’t get to say “Lets Go Yankees!”

Finally the last key to the Orioles making the playoffs this season is to stay healthy. With Reimold not a factor and Roberts flirting with injuries, again, and Markakis coming back this weekend, there is a desperate need for ALL players to stay healthy. The pieces are there: Jones, Wieters, Thome, Davis, Hardy, Betemit, and the rest of the team has what it takes to make the playoffs. The question is will it all stay together? If it does, Camden Yards should host its first playoff game since 1997, I was there and I was six years old. The money jar couldn’t be more full with playoff ticket funds, lets hope I get to use it this year.

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I was in Paris when the Baltimore Orioles’ trade for veteran DH Jim Thome became official and didn’t get much of a chance to opine about it. My guess is that I would have politely said something along the lines of “sure, Jim Thome is better than no one, but is a part time DH with little left in the tank really going to make much of a difference?”

I’m glad I didn’t have the chance to say that. Boy would there be egg all over my face.

Thome has come to the plate in six of the Birds’ eight games since being acquired. He’s managed to collect five hits (all singles), score a run and drive in another. He’s also walked four times and struck out 11 times. He’s been far from terrible since arriving, but hasn’t really made much of a difference in the lineup either. The O’s have won three of the eight games they’ve played since acquiring Thome and enter the All-Star break without scoring a run over their last 21 innings.

The Birds finished the first half of the season with a 45-40 record, good enough for 2nd place in the AL East and currently holding what would be the second Wild Card spot in the American League. The troubling part is that over their last 19 games before the break, they compiled a 6-13 record and averaged scoring less than three runs per game during the stretch.

I don’t want to seem like I’m taking the Orioles’ pitchers off the hook during the stretch. The team allowed nearly 5.5 runs per game during the same stretch, demoting starting pitchers Tommy Hunter, Brian Matusz and Jake Arrieta to AAA Norfolk in the process.

I’ll stop short of labeling the stretch “a disaster” for the Birds, but I’ll admit that I went through about ten minutes of inner monologue before I decided the term would be unfair.

I’m not particularly mad at Thome for not lighting the world on fire during his first week with the Orioles. It would be unfair to expect any player to become a serious catalyst in just one week, but there was absolutely zero reason to expect a soon to be 42 year old who hasn’t put up particularly good offensive numbers since 2008 to be the one to do it.

The truth is that the Thome acquisition is going to bug me until the Orioles decide they want to acquire players who are actually good.

I know WNST.net’s Drew Forrester said Sunday the Birds “had better” make moves to upgrade the team before the July 31 trade deadline. My column today isn’t just an echo of Forrester’s sentiments. My column is much more particular.

I’ve said for some time that the Birds cannot view their start to the 2012 season as a sign that they’re on the cusp of turning the page. There simply is not enough evidence of that being the case. There is significantly more evidence of the Birds experiencing good fortune thanks to a couple of nice pieces (OF Adam Jones, C Matt Wieters and P’s Jason Hammel & Jim Johnson notably) and an element of luck via injuries to rival teams.

I’m certainly not backing off of those statements. The start of the 2012 season is in NO WAYS a sign that the Birds’ “rebuilding” plan has worked, or that former executive Andy MacPhail and current GM Dan Duquette have put together a group of players that are just a year away from reaching greatness. The reality is that there just aren’t enough good players either currently at the Major League level or set to reach the majors in the next year or two to suggest the team will be able to win for more than half a season.

The players I mentioned before (Jones, Wieters, Hammel, Johnson) are good players. Unfortunately, that’s about where the list ends.  OF Nick Markakis and SS JJ Hardy are supposed to be good players. SP Wei-Yin Chen and RP Pedro Strop have showed signs that they might be good players. P Dylan Bundy and SS Manny Machado are believed to be good players for the future. Thome and 2B Brian Roberts USED to be good players. 3B Mark Reynolds and 1B Chris Davis (or is that 1B Mark Reynolds and OF Chris Davis?) are players you want to believe are good but you know better.

It’s been an up and down first half of the season for the Baltimore Orioles.  After a fast start, recently the team has been looking somewhat like the Orioles of past years.  In the last 20 games or so, quality pitching and timely hitting have been at a minimum.  The formula the Orioles used during their hot start has started to unravel after injuries and just simply poor play has plagued them.  Injuries to Nick Markakis, Endy Chavez, and Nolan Reimold have decimated the outfield, leaving Adam Jones the lone staple.

The Orioles are right on the line between irrelevance and contention.  There are problems that need to fixed and there are ways to do it.  At this point it’s a matter of trying.  Both with the players and the front office.

Since his new contract extension back on May 26th, Adam has completely dropped off in production.  Batting a mere .260 in June and July, it seems as though Adam has almost phoned it in at this point.  He doesn’t hustle down the line or after foul balls near as much and just isn’t having many quality at bats.  Adam needs to put his money where his twitter feed is and start hitting the ball and not just talk about it.

The trade for Jim Thome hasn’t worked out very well either.  He is batting a measly .238 since joining the team with zero homeruns; the main reason we traded for him.

The stellar starting pitching during the first part of the year has all but disappeared at this point, with three of the original five starters not even at the major league level anymore (Matusz, Arrieta, Hunter).  Clearly if the Orioles want to stay in contention they need to trade for an elite arm like Zach Grienke or trade for a couple of quality arms like Matt Garza and Ryan Dempster.  I personally would trade anyone except Bundy and Machado (especially after their Futures Game performances) for Grienke.  He is a great pitcher who I think the Orioles could easily sign to a longer deal.  He has said he likes the small market teams better because he isn’t much of a media guy.

Anyone who has stepped up to play third base has been simply downright awful defensively.  Buck Showalter has resorted to putting Robert Andino there but what you make up defensively with him, you give up on the offensive end.  There aren’t many, if any solutions out there for this problem at this point.  Padres Chase Headley has been a rumor but they clearly want too much in return for him.  This is probably just going to be a hole the O’s will have to deal with for the rest of the season.

Brian Roberts’s return was a great story, but that’s about all it really was.  His average is down to .182 and is still without an extra base hit.  Yes, that’s right, he doesn’t even have ONE.  This is clearly not the production that you need out of your lead-off hitter.

Nick Markakis should be returning to the lineup after the All Star Break which should bring some much needed stability to the lineup.  For what it’s worth, he hit two, two run homeruns during his Friday rehab start with AA Bowie.  If anything, it’s encouraging to say the least.  His return would allow Davis to move to left field which is more suited for his abilities in Camden Yards.

With all this said, the team is still five games above .500 at 45-40 and a manageable 6.5 games behind the Yankees for first place in the A.L. East.  While there are clear problems on this team, they can be fixed by simply caring about how well the team does.  If the front office wants to make something out of this year, then they will go for it and trade for some legitimate pieces. If not, the team will simply fall into irrelevance