Friday’s series opener between the Baltimore Orioles and Oakland Athletics marks a key matchup between two potential, yet improbable, playoff teams.

It certainly was not a series anyone expected to be exciting in late July, but here we are staring a key playoff matchup between Baltimore and Oakland in the face in just three days. Sure, they may not be the two most exciting teams in the entire world. Despite the shortcomings of both, they provide and interesting boost to the baseball world looking for more parity.

Neither team is perfect by any sense of the word. The Orioles rank 20th or lower in every offensive category with the exception of slugging percentage, where they rank 17th. Miraculously those numbers are still better than the A’s, who rank 25th or worse in absolutely every offensive category.

Now maybe the Orioles are not one of the best pitching team’s in the league, as they are rank 17th or lower in all categories there too, the A’s are in the top-five in every major statistical category other than quality starts. With so many good arms in the A’s organization, it is clear the O’s are going to have to do what they do best, hit home runs, as there aren’t going to be many sustained rallies.

It has been a long road back to relevance for both fan bases. Most A’s fans would have to go back to 2006 for the last time they really challenged for anything and Baltimore fans, well they have to go a lot further back. As they stand today though, Baltimore is a half-game behind the A’s for the final Wild Card spot and while Friday will not determine who will it, there should be some fierce competition.

What the series could determine most importantly, is what each team does at the trade deadline in seven days. Both teams seem to perceive they can compete for a postseason birth. A series win or loss though could go on to determine whether or not the owners and general managers of both organizations feel as if selling or buying is a worthwhile cause at this point. Like it or not, both teams are deeply flawed and all of those flaws cannot be rectified with one trade, but fixing just one or two of them at the deadline could be enough for them to make it to the postseason.

Baltimore is leading the league in one-run wins and has a negative run differential and the A’s can’t hit their way out of a paper-bag. Yet here they are as two of the three teams atop the race for the two Wild Card spots and baseball fans should love it. Both team’s are great stories, organizations who have come up short in just about every way the last decade, but appear to be back to the cusp now. Baseball fans and the baseball world should reveal in this weekends series no matter who wins, it is good for baseball, good for competitive spirit and it should be just good plain fun.

I arrived home late last night from Cleveland and Pittsburgh. I took in Friday and Saturday night’s Oriole wins at Progressive Field and a game at the beautiful PNC Park Sunday afternoon. These were two more stadiums on my journey to see an official game at every MLB park, numbers 17 and 18 respectively. But Cleveland was all business, with my Orange gear on I was there to see the Orioles play. The second night we actually sat with 5 Orioles fans and were louder than the Indians fans in our section which was in the bleachers. The Indians have some interesting traditions, none more unique then the drum guy. This guy plays his little bass drum all night long when the Indians have a runner in scoring position and everyone in return claps along.

In my last blog, i deemed this series against the Indians as the most important series of the season up to this point. I was right with the Orioles taking 3 of 4 and the Yankees getting swept in Oakland. The O’s are now just 6.5 games back of the Yankees and tied for the Wildcard lead with a huge two week period ahead with Tampa, Oakland, and the Yankees. Its now or never and the two games I saw in Cleveland along with Sunday’s was the start! But back to the trip, I was pleasantly surprised that my party of three wasn’t the only Orioles fans at Progressive Field. The fans in Cleveland were also very welcoming towards us Orioles fans. I did make the classic mistake of asking the woman next to me who was more hated, Model or Lebron. She got over it!

The highlight of the two games in Cleveland besides the obvious two wins that I got to see on the road, was hearing the roar of the crowd when Jim Thome took his first steps towards the plate of his first at bat Friday night. He went on to double, Homer, and single that night! Thus they didn’t cheer for him very much the 2nd night! His home run in Friday nights game put him alone at 6th all-time, passing short time Oriole, Sammy Sosa. This was the first significant home run that I had seen in person since Manny Ramirez’s 500th which took place May 31st of 2008 off of the submariner, Chad Bradford, at Camden Yards. The Orioles lost that game 6-3. Thome of course homered in the 2nd game of the trip on a solo shot off Zach McAllister. His first two home runs as an Oriole, in my first two games seeing him play in an Oriole uniform.

The MVPs of the trip are Chris Tillman and Miguel Gonzalez who shut down the Indians in front of two gigantic Cleveland crowds. Both nights after the games the Indians put on an incredible firework show called “Rock N Blast.” This is a once in a year extravangza sponsored by the the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was the only reason fans stuck around throughout the Orioles 10-2 beatdown of the Indians. Big round of applause to Ryan Flaherty as well for homering in back to back nights along with Thome. The Indians are getting ready to install a Jim Thome statue in center field already and he hasn’t even retired yet!  I’ll be back Cleveland for the Ravens-Browns game in November!

Up until this year, there had been a trend with the Orioles in the offseason and preseason to have the front office and whatever media was willing to echo their comments talking about how a few key moves would bring winning baseball back to Baltimore.

“We just need to solidify the bullpen,” they might say, and then Mike Gonzalez was signed, or Kevin Gregg. “This team needs proven veteran performers,” they might also say, and then Derrek Lee was signed, or Vladimir Guerrero. Gonzalez had the two key blown saves that led to the 2010 season’s opening up with that 2-16 disaster – though there was much else wrong, to be sure. Gregg… must think positive thoughts.

As for Lee and Guerrero, they largely performed at the plate like any minor league call-up. Guerrero’s continued occupation of the DH and cleanup spot made the team actively worse by forcing Luke Scott into the field and Nolan Reimold to the bench.

The Orioles signed those two veterans to a combined near-$15 million in salary. That was money flushed down the toilet in some futile quest to get to 82 wins, and, as it turned out, seasons that started out with the goal of buying parts to get to 82 wins ended up instead oriented around the goal of avoiding 100 losses.

Whether it was intentional or not, this year’s team did not have that, “Maybe THIS is the year to break the consecutive losing season streak” buzz around them. In fact, not long before the season got underway, executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette was asked point blank by Eddie Encina of The Baltimore Sun whether he thought this was a .500 or better team, and he said no.

Coming into the organization from so long out of baseball, one thing you might say for Duquette is that he had fresh eyes. He took a look at the roster, and it’s clear that he decided that there is no way the Orioles were one or two pieces away from contention. He swept away some of the dead weight – Matt Angle, Kyle Hudson, we hardly knew ye – and set about tinkering around the margins for small but cost-effective upgrades over recent-vintage Orioles teams.

Some of the offseason moves that really characterize this for Duquette include the trade of a couple of minor leaguers for Dana Eveland, a separate trade for a couple of minor leaguers for Taylor Teagarden, and signings of players like Matt Antonelli, Endy Chavez, Luis Ayala and Wilson Betemit. None of these are moves you look at and think, “That’s it! This is the piece the Orioles need to win.”

Looking at moves only through the lens of whether or not it is the last move to get the Orioles into contention is a mistake. It’s true that in baseball in the present, you need stars and superstars to win, and the Orioles only have Adam Jones and maybe Matt Wieters at that level.

But, you also need guys to play well enough to hold their own for the major league minimum or near it – or at least, that’s what you need if you’re the Orioles. There is probably room to add to the payroll, if it makes sense to do it, but the team can’t buy the best player at every position. They probably can’t buy the Albert Pujols- or Prince Fielder-caliber players at all. Sometimes they are going to have to settle for the best player in a certain cost range and hope they fit into the plan. They need to eventually get their scouting and farm system turned into a well-oiled machine that continually churns out solid players with years of team control.

Just when you think that the Orioles are going to pack up the tent and head south into the AL East Standings they put a run together like they did this weekend.  Very few Oriole fans were feeling too good about a 2-2 series split in Minnesota during a time when the Orioles were trying to keep their heads above water. On top of that the Orioles were sending three of their most inconsistent starters to the mound for the first three games of their weekend series in Cleveland. The combination of Miguel Gonzalez, Chris Tillman and Zach Britton were 0-3 and had pitched a combined 10 1/3 innings in their last starts. The three young pitchers had allowed a total of 14 runs in those starts. So what do they do? Pitch 19 1/3 innings and allow just three runs in their three wins over the weekend. I guess that’s what you get with a young pitching staff. It could have been two out of three as the Orioles trailed 1-0 heading into the seventh inning of Saturday night’s game. That’s when veteran addition Jim Thome made his presence felt. Thome blasted a 2-run game winning homer to right off of Zach McAllister in the seventh inning and propelled the O’s to victory. I wasn’t a big fan of the Thome acquisition but give the O’s front office some credit. He has now accounted for at least one victory, and his veteran bat allowed Buck Showalter to put Nick Markakis in the lead-off spot. That’s a spot where he has absolutely thrived. He has energized the Orioles offense since his return off the DL after the All-Star break.

Saturday night was another victory that the orioles have pulled out when trailing heading into the seventh inning. They are also undefeated when they lead after eight innings. Grittiness and a great backend of the bullpen will keep this team in the race down the stretch. A win Monday night would guarantee them a 500 record on August 1^st for the first time since 2005 (60-60 on August 17^th).

It was a great weekend for the O’s but they won’t sweep this week’s top three events of the weekend. I had to throw in yesterday’s amazing come from behind victory by Ernie El’s at the British Open. Let’s get to this weekend’s top three.

#3

The Orioles check in at #3 with their 3-1 Saturday night victory over Cleveland. This was just another example of how much this year’s rendition of the Orioles never quit. In years past you could have chalked this one up in the loss column. The Orioles were doing absolutely nothing against Indians starter Zach McAllister. Chris Tillman was pitching extremely well but it looked like his first inning mistake that Shin-Soo Choo hit out of the yard would be his demise. Just when you thought the Orioles three game winning streak would end and the O’s would be shut out after scoring 10 runs on Friday night they rallied. J.J. Hardy started the inning with a single to left and then Thome crushed a 1-0 fastball over the right field fence.  All of a sudden the O’s had a late inning lead. This year a late inning lead is almost a guaranteed victory. Troy Patton, Pedro Strop and Jim Johnson pitched 2 1/3 scoreless to nail down the 3-1 victory.  I actually heard someone suggest that the Orioles should trade Jim Johnson to make the team better. I had to laugh, he is the main reason this team is in the hunt after nailing down save #30 on Sunday. That topic though is a whole other blog.

#2

Ernie Els’ come from behind victory on Sunday at the British Open is #2 this week. I wasn’t sure if it was Els’ performance or Adam Scott’s demise that was the story on Sunday. I picked Els. It’s easy to look at the collapse of Adam Scott and miss how impressive Els’ victory was.

Els started the day six shots off the lead. All you heard from the commentators was how everyone had to be aggressive to catch Adam Scott and for most of the day that looked like it would be the case. The key to the victory though for Els was that he didn’t have a major collapse like every one of the other leaders had. He just stayed the course played patient and pounced on his opportunities. Hell if he would have putted better he could have won by five shots. The onetime Els got aggressive he almost paid the price. His tee shot on 16 ended up by the hospitality tent. He hit a slick shot thru two bunkers to save par and stay in the hunt. When he birdied 18 he probably thought it wasn’t going to be enough. That’s when Scott fell apart. Can you imagine what Els was thinking as Scott made bogey after bogey. From I probably won’t win, to hey I have a shot I better start getting loose, to I’m the British Open champ all in the span of about a half hour.

Think back to the past decade of Orioles baseball and try and recall moments of success. Yes, this dismal decade might be a bit of a blur; however, the 2005 season had some moments of hope, at least in the first half of the year. Baltimore spent 62 days in first place in the AL East, and came into the All-Star break 47-40. The O’s came out of the break, and won two straight over Seattle. Shortly after, the O’s traded outfielder Larry Bigbie to the Colorado Rockies for slugging outfielder Eric Byrnes. The team believed they could be contenders. However, the deal at the deadline for Byrnes, as well as their success in the first half, could not be sustained. By the end of August, the O’s were 51-53. Rafael Palmeiro was busted for steroids and lying to congress. By season’s end, it was more of the same sad story for the Orioles. Their combined record post All-Star break was 27-48, and their 74-88 record was 21 games behind both the Red Sox and the Yankees.

There have been pessimistic comparisons out there, from fans and media alike, that 2012 will turn out like 2005. Heck, maybe you can’t blame people for thinking that way. The Orioles came into the All-Star break with a 45-40 record. They also enjoyed a stint in first place during May and early June. Dan Duquette has been telling the media and the fans that he has been given the green light to buy at the deadline, in hopes of continuing the push towards the team’s first potential postseason appearance since 1997. However, the trigger has not been pulled on any one of significance yet, a la Ryan Dempster or Zach Greinke. The Yankees are still eight games ahead of Baltimore in the AL East. After struggling out of the gate post-ASB, losing 4 of 5, the O’s have won three straight, including their 10-2 drubbing of the Indians last night in Cleveland. Their ace, Jason Hammel, is on the DL with a knee injury. Could the comparison to 2005 come to fruition?

Whether or not the Orioles are able to make their first postseason appearance since 1997 is irrelevant to this argument; 2012 will be different than 2005. To begin the comparison, one must look at the man who leads the players every day, the manager. Lee Mazzilli, who led the Orioles for the first half of 2005, had not even managed in the Majors for two years. Sam Perlozzo, who succeeded Mazzilli after the midseason firing, had a career record of 128-172; not much better.

Buck Showalter has won AL Manager of the Year twice. He managed both the Yankees and Diamondbacks, and left right before they both became World Series Champions. His experience and style has changed the culture in a locker room, which has been accustomed to losing for a long time. Buck is not going anywhere. However, if he was to leave, and if history is any indication, that means the Orioles will be World Series champions soon; right?

Secondly, the 2012 Baltimore Orioles lineup has been built much differently than seven years ago.  In 2005, the Orioles had sluggers, and supposed-to-be Hall of Famers, with Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro in the heart of the lineup. I think we all know how that turned out. Before the season started, Rafael Palmeiro adamantly denied steroid use, after Jose Canseco mentioned, in his book, that he had. Palmeiro went to Congress, looked them dead in the eyes, and said, “Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period. I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never.” Well, on August 1^st, he was suspended 10 days after testing positive. From then on, Palmeiro would need ear plugs the rest of the season to drown out the boos in Baltimore and opposing stadiums when he would come to the plate.

Sammy Sosa? He hit a dismal .221, with only 14 home runs and 45 RBIs. Tejada had a down year, compared to an MVP like season in 2004. Eric Byrnes, who was acquired at the 2005 deadline, hit .192 with 11 RBI in 31 games with the O’s.

The 2012 Orioles lineup is infused with young talent that will be part of the nucleus for years to come. Adam Jones, who signed a 6 year deal worth $85.5 million this year, made the All Star team and currently leads the Orioles in Average (.294), HRs (22), RBIs (63), Runs Scored (63) and SBs (11). Chris Davis, at 26 years-old, is a consistent power threat, and is second on the team in homeruns with 15. Matt Wieters, also age 26, is second on the team in RBIs with 46, and has been one of the best defensive catchers in the league. Nick Markakis is off the DL, trying to build on some of his strong moments in the first half of the season, before his injury. In this post-steroid era of baseball we now live in, the younger, fresher lineup allows for guys to play fundamentally sound baseball, on an everyday basis.

With the next three games against Cleveland, and July ending with series against division foes Tampa Bay and New York, this stretch will serve as a test of where this team will go this season. In addition, it will provide GM Dan Duquette a plan, as to the players he needs to target and the teams he needs to call before the July 31^st trade-deadline. Regardless, 2012 has been assembled and guided in a much more effective manner than 2005, and the Orioles are finding success they have not had in a very long time.

If you blinked earlier this week, you missed the brief return of Brad Bergesen to the Baltimore Orioles. He was called up for Tuesday’s game as long relief insurance in case Zach Britton had a short outing, but did not find his way into the game even though Britton only made it four innings. Wednesday, he was designated for assignment to make room for Tommy Hunter – ouch.

In fact, it was the second time the Orioles have DFA’d Bergesen this year; for the first, he was cast aside to make room for the short tenure of Bill Hall. The players who get yo-yo’d back and forth like this, tossed from the roster, called up for a day and tossed again, are the ones the teams don’t care about. That’s fair, in Bergesen’s case. When we saw him last year at the big league level he threw over 100 innings and had a 5.70 ERA.

He probably has no part of the team’s future any more, but whenever I think of Bergesen, I can’t help but remember the unexpected delight from his debut season. Maybe it’s not rational. In fact, it’s probably not rational. Part of the fun of being a fan is going wild sometimes. You have to be careful not to get too crazy about it – otherwise you end up like Yankees fans trying to say that Derek Jeter is a great defensive shortstop. You get your moments, though, and mine is what Bergesen might have been if it wasn’t for the scourge of a Billy Butler line drive.

It’s a little hard to remember those heady days now. The spring of 2009 was yet another year in recent memory where the future looked brighter than the present. This was the time when then-manager Dave Trembley was uttering quotes like “The cavalry is coming” – referring to promising pitching prospects like Chris Tillman, Jake Arrieta and Brian Matusz. We were excited about those guys once, and early in 2009 we had no reason not to be.

Bergesen was like the cherry on top. Here were all these prospects coming along, but they weren’t quite ready yet, so when a hole in the rotation opened up in April, up came Brad Bergesen. Who? He was not on any prospect lists. I had never heard of him. You had probably never heard of him. But he was a groundball pitcher who’d had some decent results in AA the year previous – 24 games, a 3.22 ERA – so when a space opened, it was his turn. Heck, why not? Everyone else the O’s were throwing out in ’09 was not doing so great.

Over his first seven starts, you might say he looked like he fit in perfectly with the 2009 rotation, which isn’t a compliment. A month into his big league career, he had a 5.49 ERA. Then… well, I still don’t know what happened. His next eleven starts saw his ERA drop to 3.43. He went at least six innings in every one of those starts and he went seven or more innings in six starts, with eight innings in four starts and one complete game. That’ll play, and it did play. 

It may not be a must win game for the Baltimore Orioles today in their series finale with the Minnesota Twins, but it is as close to one as you can get.

There is no such think as a “must win game” unless a loss would eliminate the team from the playoffs, or playoff contention. Instead, there are several key games throughout the length of the season and today’s game is one of them. A win gives the O’s a split with the Twins and a bit of a mental boost heading into a tricky four game series against the Cleveland Indians.

However, a loss this afternoon and the O’s will have won exactly one of their last six series, a road win over the Seattle Mariners during the July 4th week. They are currently sitting a half-game out of the race for the second Wild Card behind the Detroit Tigers and are a whopping 10-games back of the New York Yankees in the no longer close American League East. More important than all of that though could be the fact they only hold a half-game lead over the Boston Red Sox for second place in the East.

Looking at all those factors, it is probably clear to you that winning against Minnesota today isn’t just important, it is almost an imperative. All year one of the biggest questions in baseball has been about whether the Orioles are for real or not and just weeks ago there was heavy discussion about whether Baltimore should be buyers at the trade deadline. Now, because of the losing, everything is in flux. The O’s look a little like frauds wh0 can’t hit, can’t pitch and can’t string wins together and again look like a potential seller at the deadline.

A win against the Twins to split could change it all. Winning today is an important step to righting the ship and getting the team at least somewhat back on course. Perhaps they aren’t the runaway AL East Champs people believed they were in May or early June, but there is no reason this team cannot be at least competitive, if not a Wild Card team. In order to achieve those goals though, they have got to win on Thursday, otherwise every loss after it will not only move them closer to a below .500 record, but to a position where there is again a season of no-hope.

Baltimore may be a perfectly flawed team, which many think is an oxymoron, but they may have the right types of flaws to allow them to overcome their biggest obstacles. They don’t have a top lineup, but pretty everyone can hit for power, have a flawed pitching staff, but a bullpen that has been solid most of the year and all together a team suited to hang with the big boys, but not necessarily beat them.

Keep in mind, heading into the season the goal was never to beat the big boys, but rather carve a path back to baseball relevance. So far, they have begun to do that, but the team has reached a fork in the road with one path leading them towards eventually success and the other leading back to where they started before Spring Training. If they want to press on down the path they have been on, to a return to relevance, they have to show the fans and the rest world that despite a series opening loss to start the second half, they are not going to go quietly by dropping the first two.

Obviously there is a lot of baseball left, so there is no way to call Thursday’s game a must win. Looking at it though, you can see it is one the Orioles might have to win in order to keep their heads above water. If they can’t win, especially with one of their best pitchers in Wei-Yin Chen on the mound, it could mark the point in the year when the team enters full slide mode.

It was definitely a good and bad weekend for the Orioles. The Birds signed their #1 draft pick right before the deadline and won one of the most exciting games of the year. On the down side they dropped two of three to the Detroit Tigers and lost their best starting pitcher to a knee injury to start the second half of the season. This weekend showed a lot of things. The Orioles are definitely going in the right direction for their future, they are still contenders, but ultimately aren’t ready to run with the big boys. Here’s why summed up with my top three events of the weekend.

#3

Sunday’s loss to the Detroit Tigers showed the Orioles everything that they covet to be a contender in the American League. The Tigers may trail the Orioles in the Wildcard hunt but they are much more prepared to make a run down the stretch. It all starts with the guy that made the start for Detroit on Sunday. Justin Verlander was everything that a #1 starter was supposed to be. He walked out to the mound on Sunday and dominated the Oriole line-up. He not only dominated but he went deep into the game, pitching eight shut-out innings to get the Tigers to their closer and give their bullpen a much need rest after Saturday’s 13 inning marathon. The Tigers started the game with another big weapon, their lead-off hitter. Austin Jackson hit Miguel Gonzalez’s second pitch of the game out of the park to give the Tigers a lead they never relinquished. Until the Orioles find a legitimate lead-off hitter their offense will continue to struggle. Nick Markakis may be the best option right now, but in the long run he is not the answer.

#2

For the second straight year the Orioles signed their top right handed starting pitcher #1 pick right before the signing deadline.

This year’s #1 pick Kevin Gausman signed on the dotted line just minutes before the 5 pm deadline on Friday afternoon.  Oriole fans can gleam hope from the fact that Dylan Bundy and Gausman could be anchoring the rotation in the next couple of years. Gausman is a lanky right hander that has a great fastball and change-up. He has already pitched a lot this year so don’t expect much from him for the rest of this season. It will be interesting to see where he starts the year next year. There was speculation that Gausman would go back to LSU after the Tigers lost to Stony Brook in the College World Series. Former Orioles Pitcher Ben McDonald is close to Gausman and he told us on our show last week that he expected Gausman to sign and he was correct. Although the decision was not a slam dunk for Gausman, “It was a difficult decision, said Gausman. “I love LSU. I think I always will. Baton Rouge will always be a second home to me.” Kevin was 11-1 with a 2.72 ERA for the Tigers with 128 strikeouts in 115 2/3 innings. Gausman was drafted by the Dodgers in 2010 and turned down the Dodgers to go to LSU.

The second half is under way, and the O’s are above .500. It has been a long time since those words have even been muttered. In a way, that makes this season a success already. Everyone in Baltimore would love for the team to make their way into the playoffs, but that would be an added bonus to an already great season.

Obviously, continued success for the next couple months will enhance the buzz at Camden Yards, which should only grow heading into the 2013 season. Nobody thought this team would win the World Series this season; it was supposed to be another year of disappointment as the second decade of the rebuild continued. With a season on inching towards a playoff appearance, the franchise is headed in the right direction.

They have a young, growing super-star, who has yet to hit his prime, to build their team and marketing campaign around. Adam Jones consecutive All-Star appearance solidifies him-self among some of the league’s best. The same concept proved very productive for teams recently; the Brewers, Rays, and Pirates (this season) have all built their offense around a youthful, middle of the order bat.

And Jones’ contract negotiations may have been a better sign for the future of the team than his performance on the field. The front office has shown a willingness to spend the money necessary to keep their core intact. This means the fans should all have the confidence that when the time comes, players like Matt Wieters, Manny Machado and Dylan Bundy will have to turn down a lot of money to leave Baltimore.

More hope occurred within the last couple weeks, as the Orioles also proved to be legit buyers for the first time since Cal played Short Stop. After acquiring Thome, with one of the first moves before the deadline, Baltimore has been rumored in deals for big names like Matt Garza and Zack Grienke. The Orioles national attention has grown drastically over this short season; their names are brought up in more and more conversations by sports analysts on national networks.

So does anyone know what’s next for the O’s for the rest of the summer? No. But continuing to pull out games, like the one on Saturday night, will keep this team in the hunt. They will be a more competitive squad than any of which the local middle schoolers have witnessed. It will be a tight race, but even without a playoff appearance, the fans should respect what this team has accomplished.

The future seems much better than it looked before the beginning of the season. Bundy and Machado have exceeded expectations, the Hammel trade and Japanese acquistions proved worth-while and players like Adam Jones, Matt Wieters and Jim Johnson have proven this team is ready to get their name back in the race.

1.)    Who will carry this pitching staff through the dog days of summer?

Jason Hammel has undoubtedly been the best pitcher in the Orioles rotation in 2012. He leads the Orioles in wins at 8, ERA at 3.47, and strikeouts with 101. However, he has struggled in his last three starts, losing all three. And while a 3.47 ERA is not too shabby, not even a month ago on June 22^nd, Hammel was sporting a 2.61 ERA. Wei-Yin Chen has been the team’s second best starter, with a 7-5 record and 3.93 ERA. However, just like Hammel, Chen has cooled off as we enter the second half of the season.  He has not won a decision since June 17^th and he gave up a career high 3 HRs in his last start against lowly Seattle.

Hammel and Chen are both in their 20s and would benefit greatly from a veteran presence like a Ryan Dempster from Chicago. Even a James Shields of Tampa Bay, who is 30, has big game experience from pitching in the World Series and multiple playoff games. Baltimore would greatly benefit from having guys who have been in postseason contention battles leading their staff. Dempster is coming off the DL and James Shields has a sub-4 ERA throughout his career. Both names will be mentioned heavily come the trade deadline, and Baltimore should definitely be hitting the phones to see what they want.

2.)    Can Mark Reynolds be an effective hitter in this Orioles lineup?

The definition of effective for Mark Reynolds in comparison to other Major League hitters is much different. One can never expect that Reynolds will be a guy who gets on base, he has never hit above .280 in his entire career. Nor can one expect Mark to chill with the strikeouts either. Reynolds led the American League last year with 196 K’s, and that was only his 4^th highest total of his career! And don’t even get started on Mark Reynolds and his horrific attempt at fielding. He led the majors in 2011 with 31 errors last year.

Mark Reynolds is an effective hitter when he is hitting home runs. In 2011, he was fourth in the majors with 37 HRs. Despite all of his faults, when he was on, he was not a guy you wanted to face if you were an opposing pitcher. If you follow Earl Weaver’s Three Keys to Winning Baseball: Pitching, Defense, and Three Run Homers, you know for sure Reynolds did not fall into the first two categories. But with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth, Mark Reynolds is that power hitter that you want at the plate. That is, of course, when he is not mired in a 3 for 25 slump like he was during interleague play.

3.)    Will Brian Roberts have any effect on the Orioles chances of making a postseason run?

Love the Orioles or not, you have to feel for Brian Roberts. I get that he was mentioned in the Mitchell Report back in 2007, and admitted to taking a shot of steroids in 2003. The key is that he admitted he this occasion, unlike a certain pitcher from the Yankees who claims he never did while he was throwing 100 mph at 45 years old. Anyway , Roberts has played in just 115 games since the beginning of the 2010 season, and has missed almost 13 months while recovering from multiple concussions. He returned to the Orioles on June 12^th, but was back on the DL not even a month later with a torn right hip muscle.

Now, the longtime leadoff 2B for the Orioles is weighing whether or not he should have surgery on the hip or rehab it on its. On one hand it would be great to see Roberts try and get back with the Orioles sooner than two months, if only to help them out defensively as they lead the MLB with 75 errors. On the other hand, if the Orioles are buyers at the deadline and find themselves in contention come September, how great would it be to have his leadership back in the clubhouse as the O’s make a playoff push?

4.)    Speaking of all this poor fielding, who can the O’s acquire now to help?

Did I mention Baltimore was dead last in fielding in Major League Baseball? If one could point a finger at the glaring hole in the infield for this problem, look no further than 3B. Not one of these guys has above average ability to play the hot corner: Robert Andino, Mark Reynolds, Chris Davis, Wilson Betemit or Ryan Flaherty. The Orioles are in a tie with Anaheim for the Wildcard, and pitching should not be the only area where the Orioles upgrade to make a legitimate run.

Two names come to mind that can immediately help Baltimore at 3B, without having to include Bundy, Machado or much else from the farm system. The first is Placido Polanco from the Philadelphia Phillies. A 36 year old playing for the last place, 13 games below .500 Phillies should come at a bargain for Baltimore. Polanco has won three gold gloves in the past five years, and has yet to make an error in 30 games at 3B with Philadelphia. His lifetime fielding percentages at 1B and 3B are the best in major league history. No, that is not a typo.

If Philadelphia decides they do not want to shop Polanco, the second team the Orioles  should call is San Diego to inquire about Chase Headley’s services. Headley is 28, eight years younger than Polanco, and possesses more ability to hit for power at this point of his career. Headley is an average defensive 3B, and unfortunately suffers from Mark Reynolds strikeout syndrome (He has twice in his career made more than 600 plate appearances, and in each of those seasons, he has struck out over 130 times). However, with San Diego not being competitive in 2012 and Headley heading into arbitration, his services would come at a bargain and he would at least push the guys who are already here in Baltimore.

5.)    Can the Bullpen perform as well as it did in the first half of the season?

This may be one of the biggest questions the Orioles face heading into the back half of 2012, if only because it has been the most reliable department of their team throughout the first half. The Orioles lead the American League with a 2.75 ERA as well as hold the best record out of the pen with a 17-6 mark. All Star Jim Johnson has been one of the most reliable closers in baseball, converting 26 of 27 save opportunities with a 1.21 ERA and a 0.75 WHIP. Luis Ayala, Pedro Strop, and Darren O’Day all have sub-3 ERAs and have been very efficient in setting up Johnson before the 9^th inning.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown and the Orioles own a daunting task to match their outstanding performance post-All Star break. If history is any indicator for Jim Johnson, than the chances of this bullpen holding up are not very strong. His ERA is 3.98 post All Star break, compared to 2.56 before the break in his career. In addition, it has been 22 years since an AL bullpen statistically threw as well as the Orioles have over a full season. Oakland had a combined 2.35 mark in 1990. Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter will be closely monitoring the bullpen to keep those guys fresh and productive down the stretch. Let’s see how they hold up.