That these Orioles, at 14-26, reached the quarter-pole of the 2019 season this past weekend a shade better than last year's 40-game record of 12-28 illuminates the difficulty of evaluating an on-field product while it’s undergoing a rebuild.
What does it mean when a team so different than the last — the 2018 Orioles had eight All-Stars, while the 2019 Orioles have eight players who have been waived or designated for assignment in the past year — performs similarly to the one that came before it? Do the modest expectations for this year’s team make things look better, or is losing still losing no matter who's doing it?