I know it's a mere 12ish hours from the debut of Matt Wieters!!!, but with all the Wieters hubbub and the early Lou Montanez-Felix Pie debate and the pitching debuts of David Hernandez and Jason Berken coming this week, I think Nolan Reimold has gotten somewhat lost in the shuffle.
I'm not pretending he's doing, like, absolutely awesome out there or anything. A quick look at his line shows his OBP to be less than satisfactory thus far:
But, still, let's compare that to this:
And Montanez (whose widget is not currently available) was hitting a robust .204/.273/.347 at the time of his trip to the DL.
Lou can't hit. Deal with it. Pie is not in any way, shape or form better than Reimold. We've got the guy that should be playing. Reimold is 25, two years older than Pie and two younger than Montanez. Does Pie really have more upside than Reimold? I say no, he does not.
But really, the point is that with Reimold contributing and the young pitching influx in the form of Bergesen, Berken and Hernandez, plus the emergence of Adam Jones and the continued coolness of Nick Markakis, we're seeing it, and it's starting to feel different quicker than I expected.
There's a fine AP article that talks about this, too. We're really getting younger quickly, the front office and the staff seem to truly believe this is the way to do it (rather than giving lip service and waiting around on guys that are old and stink), and it's getting fun.
Are the Orioles good yet? No. They're hot right now, but this is not a contending club by any stretch of the imagination. There are still many bricks to put into the foundation. Many of the pieces are already in the system. You know the names.
I've never been a huge believer in Reimold, but damn am I enjoying watching him whack the hell out of the ball. It beats the tar out of Pie and Montanez flailing about, helpless in all areas.
And what about the non-Felix pies?
Minutes after the game, Jones stuffed a shaving-cream pie into Hernandez’s face during the rookie’s postgame interview. One day earlier, rookie Nolan Reimold got the pie treatment after hitting a walkoff homer in the 11th against Toronto.
How long can this continue?
“As long as we keep winning,” Jones said. “I guess Wieters will be here tomorrow, so hopefully we can pie him.”
I hear that. Nolan Reimold is my new best friend, but it's starting to feel like I have a posse on this team for the first time in a long time.