Baltimore Orioles: We made it this far

The Baltimore Orioles and Buck Showalter enter their final series before the all-star break tonight against Anaheim.

The Baltimore Orioles enter the final weekend of play prior to the all-star game at 49-35 this evening under the watchful eye of Buck Showalter. There are some, both locally and nationally, who are surprised by this mark. It wasn’t possible that the O’s were going to be that good – was it? Obviously it was. I stand by my prediction at the beginning of the season, that being that this team will be in it until the very end. If they find themselves on the outside looking in, so be it. But I just can’t see a scenario where we go into the middle of September with the O’s far out of the mix. I said that before the season, and I’m saying it now. This weekend’s series with Anaheim is the final one before the all-star break. After Sunday’s game the Oriole all-stars will head back to the west coast and to San Diego for the festivities, and the rest of the players and coaches will scatter. Players look forward to the few days off they get during the all-star break the way normal people look at a two week mid-summer vacation. It’s previous time for them.

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And they should take time to do whatever relaxes them next week. They made it this far – so they might as well try to finish the job come the second half. Just for the sake of precision, the Birds have already surpassed the 81-game mark; so numerically they’re already in the second half. But you get my meaning. And the same is true of management. Whatever moves Dan Duquette makes in the next couple of weeks will go a long way towards deciding how the season finishes out. Obviously the question is whether or not to give something up, and if so how much is too much? We’ll be delving into that as we go along, but the key obviously is to not just make moves, but to make the right moves.