This piece goes back a couple of days, but seeing as how the new Baltimore Orioles just left town with a couple of wins against he Yankees, it seems only fitting to still throw it up for you to see.  Showalter is a former Yankee manager, the one just before Joe Torre who many credit with helping rebuild the franchise into the team so many hate today.  Now Buck is doing that with the Orioles, and the Orioles showed the bombers a different attitude this weekend.

For those of you who follow the O’s closely should enjoy this piece from Don Markus and Dan Connolly as it has Buck sharing some untold stories about the Yankees core four before we knew who they were.  It also has him talking about four players that could be the future of the Orioles.

Think about the American League East for a few moments now. Think how good all five teams in the league could be next year.  Perhaps the Rays slide back a bit as they lose a couple of their veterans, but this division promises to be very good in 2011 and 2012.   Winning 100 games in the east will be unheard of.  Winning 95 might also be difficult.

And while Joe Maddon thinks a more balanced schedule might be a good thing, each team owner probably will not agree.  It is much easier to fill your stadium with another team in your own division over and over again if they are all good, and so the strength of the AL East will allow Baltimore, Tampa and Toronto all to become stronger.  But, once again, the disparity between an American League East team and the rest of the league will become greater.  While Kansas City might have 19 games against all 5 American League East teams, Baltimore has 19 against each one.  KC might sell out all 19 games, but Baltimore could sell out 76.

I know I am getting ahead of myself.  The Orioles haven’t shown they are there yet.   But the pieces that you see right now, are, finally, beginning to look like they belong in the major leagues.  Add to that the prospects that Buck talks about in the article, and well, you begin to think that just maybe this is going to be a team to watch very soon.  Will we be talking about a different “core four” in a couple of years?  That would be fun.