Baltimore Orioles Nolan Reimold Seems To Be Back In Old Form

In the month of August, the Orioles – under new manager Buck Showalter -- have become one of the hottest teams in the league.

MASN is getting its best rating all year, and fans are already starting to tune back in. However, the recent buzz in the big leagues has masked the success of a familiar name in AAA Norfolk: Nolan Reimold.

After a tremendous rookie season was shortened by an Achilles tear, many thought Reimold would come back strong and be amongst the team leaders. Unfortunately for the organization, Reimold found it more difficult to come back than was expected and once he did, he was not even close to the same guy fans watched last season.

Reimold was eventually sent down to AAA to work on his issues, but it only got worst there. In May, Reimold batted .122 and questions of whether he would be able to rebound were floating around Baltimore.

Through the season, the Tides tried just about everything, including trying him out at first base. Reimold now switches back and forth from the outfield to first. However none of that mattered until August.

Since August 1, Reimold has turned it on and is looking a lot like the guy that was on pace to be the AL rookie of the year in 2009. He is batting .333 with two home runs and nine RBIs this month and is starting to get back into the discussion of being called up.

Although there are tons of theories on why he struggled in May, June and July, the best explanation is that he was rushed back after his surgery on the torn Achilles tendon. Throughout Spring Training, Reimold was seen limping and was shuffled in and out of the lineup to help his foot rest. He was so focused on being able to play on opening day, that he didn’t realize that it was in his best interest to wait until he was truly ready.

While getting sent back down is never a good thing, there is a silver lining in the situation. With the emergence of Cory Patterson, the O’s now have four solid outfielders (Patterson, Felix Pie, Adam Jones, and Nick Markakis). With that big of a log jam, finding a spot in the outfield for Reimold would be tough. By being in AAA, Reimold has been able to work on switching to first base and might be able to avoid further cluttering the Orioles outfield.

The original hope of the Orioles was that Brandon Snyder would be the guy to fill that void, but Snyder has been up and down this year and the certainty of him contributing to the big league club has diminished. If Reimold can learn the position, then he can provide another option for the team’s future at first base.

Assuming Reimold stays this hot throughout August, there is no doubt that he will be one of the first people called up when rosters expand on September first. When that happens, it will be interesting to see if he can be the player we all thought he could be.

Injuries Could Stifle Baltimore's Breakthrough Season

Ever since Andy McPhail took over as General Manager, Baltimore Orioles fans have had this year circled. This is supposed to be the year that we saw signs that all of the waiting and developing prospects was going to show itself. However, as Spring Training is ¾ done, it seems that something unforeseen could stand in the way, injuries.

Every manager in baseball will say the same thing about record in Spring Training; it doesn’t matter. While I agree that your record doesn’t matter, what happens there is crucial.

Coming into the spring, the Orioles had four major players that either used the offseason as time to heal or were still injured coming in: Nolan Reimold (Achilles), Brad Bergesen (shin and shoulder), Adam Jones (ankle), and Brian Roberts (back). While Roberts’ has been the most publicized, all of these should be concerns.

Since Roberts has been the most talked about, I will start with him. While not the most talked about player anymore, Roberts is as critical to the Orioles success this season as anyone.

Though the Orioles have said he should return to the lineup in a few days, consider this a warning. Back injuries like this don’t just go away. They linger; sometimes they end careers abruptly.

If he can’t consistently be in the lineup, the leadoff spot goes from a solid spot, to one where there isn’t a viable option. Andino would take his spot in the field, but who bats leadoff? Izturis doesn’t have the speed or the average, and Jones has the power to be more of a two or three.

Next comes the most underrated player on the Orioles this year. If you saw Brad Bergesen take that line drive to the shin from Billy Butler, you would know why I’m still concerned. When he got struck, Orioles fans everywhere flashed back to when Mike Mussina got hit in the face by a Sandy Alomar Jr. line drive. It was that gruesome.

Before getting injured, Bergesen was a candidate for rookie of the year and had racked up 11 quality starts in his last 12 starts. If he can return to that form this season, he is probably the staff’s most consistent pitcher.

My issue isn’t so much the shin, but the shoulder injury he got while idiotically shooting a commercial for MASN. Shoulder injuries on a pitcher are never minor…ever. They can cause accidental change in a pitchers delivery, loss of velocity, and loss of movement on the breaking ball.

If I’m right and the shoulder is a bigger issue than Dave Trembley is letting us know, this could go down as the most irresponsible thing the team has ever done with a player.

Injured player number three is the Orioles sole All Star and gold Glove winning centerfielder. If healthy, Adam Jones is the teams most talented player. An amazing combination of speed, contact, power and field give this guy endless potential.

The biggest part of that sentence is “if healthy.” Jones’ 2009 was outstanding when he was able to play, but saw stints on the DL because of hamstring and ankle problems.

Centerfielders have a knack for pulling muscles because of the amount of ground they cover and Jones might not be an exception to this rule. Look what happened to Ken Griffey Jr.

Jones may be the team’s best player, but at least he has a solid back up. Having Pie as a fourth outfielder will be invaluable if Jones can’t go the distance.

Finally, we get to the player I least suspected would be an issue, Nolan Reimold. We knew of Reimold’s achilles injury early in the season last year, but it was so down played, no one spent much thought on it. When he was shut down, it was done quietly and his surgery made very few headlines.

Here we are on March 22, and it still is a major obstacle for Reimold.

As a result of his heel, Reimold has prevented him from playing as much and cause Trembley to keep him from playing back-to-back games pretty often.

That lack of playing time and number of at bats is proving to be a challenge. Reimold is just 1-23 with a measly single this spring. While he is working diligently with hitting coach Terry Crowley, the heel still worries me.