Baltimore Orioles: Chemistry must form

There’s not much to say this morning regarding the Baltimore Orioles short of the fact that pitchers and catchers are set to report tomorrow. That’s the first in a series of events that officially start to tell us that summer is coming! We’ll have another week-and-a-half or so before the “fake games” begin, and of course over a month before the regular season. However that aside, this week we’ll start to see something important…in an ideal world that is. The players will begin interacting with each other in the clubhouse, in the greater Sarasota community, and of course on the field. Out of all of those places, the field is probably the least important…

…we all know that the Orioles can play with the best of them. However my personal stance is that the chemistry among this team and it’s players was what carried them for much of last season. Part of that has to do with the fact that the same core group of players (Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Matt Wieters, etc). However those core group of players are also true leaders in the sense that they’ve helped to welcome some of the newer players into the fold. When a free agent such as Wilson Betemit or Taylor Teagarden comes to the franchise it’s up to the core players to welcome that guy into “the group” as quickly as they can. This isn’t a novel idea; it’s really the same as a new student moving to a town and starting at a new school.

Courtesy of John Munson/THE STAR-LEDGER via USA TODAY Sports

So starting tomorrow the Orioles need to work to ensure that camaraderie returns in 2013. Somehow I think that Buck Showalter won’t really allow for it to be any other way, however the true onus is on the players. On the field I have no doubt that the players will be as good if not better than in 2012, however team chemistry can propel a decent team into being great.