I am trying hard not to dwell on another frustrating loss marred by poor play and lacking in clutch hitting.  Really, there have been 3 losses in a row like this.  I can understand having a few games in a row when the Orioles do not hit well with runners in scoring position.  It happens to every team for stretches.  Nor am I going to put the blame at the feet of the Orioles bullpen, which seems to be unravelling after having look so good in recent weeks.  I will say that the poor defense is getting to me.  The Orioles are not a talented enough team to win if they play this poorly defensively.  But like I said, I do not want to dwell on these things.

The Orioles will be a maddening team this year.  Perhaps more so than when they were just plain bad.  Then we expected losing.  Now we see potential for them to reach the .500 mark, and when that potential is done in by sloppy play it is hard to watch.  So I will focus on some positive things I saw while reading up on the Orioles.  The first is a piece by Rob Neyer on his Baseball Nation blog.  Neyer offers some hope and sensibility to O’s fans frustrated by recent play:

Here’s the thing, though: Before Showalter arrived, the Orioles were 32-73. Since his hiring, the Orioles have gone 64-56 … which is still really impressive and does probably say something about Showalter’s talents. And suggests the organization is free of overpaid veterans like Derrek Lee and Vladimir Guerrero and comes up with some good young homegrown hitters, the 25-man roster will be in excellent hands.

Neyer does not gush about the specifics of why Orioles fans should be excited, but it helped me to gain some perspective.

Since Neyer did not do any gushing I will let this video gush for me.  For your consideration, I give you the awesomeness of Matthew Richard Wieters behind home plate.

Yb9Ykr5y4rg