Baltimore Sun/Schmuck: Orioles on the verge of ... something

Here’s a review of what we know as the All-Star break approaches, and things we’ll need to keep an eye on in the second half of the season:

The youth movement

Your patience, if you were one of the patient ones, looks like it is starting to pay off. Left fielder Nolan Reimold was just named American League Rookie of the Month for June and his main competition was across the clubhouse. Reimold has emerged as one of the early favorites for Rookie of the Year and pitcher Brad Bergesen is right there with him. Matt Wieters is coming along, though—by some accounts—he was already supposed to be Johnny Bench by now.

The best news, of course, is that this year’s infusion of young talent appears to be just the tip of the player development iceberg. If all goes well, maybe the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will collide with it in a year or two and start to sink.

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The front office

MacPhail has been very consistent in his stewardship of the organization’s improving talent, holding back some of the top young prospects in the face of a growing clamor to rush them onto the major league roster.

The much-criticized Felix Pie experiment did produce a potential marquee left fielder ... it just wasn’t Pie. The jury remains out on Rich Hill, but both former Chicago Cubs have served MacPhail’s greater purpose, even if that purpose was not always clear to the fan base.