Anthony Amobi: Davis repays Orioles' patience with power surge

As we all know by now, Orioles first baseman Chris Davis is enjoying a torrid - as well as historic - start to the 2013 season. Over the past few seasons, he has become not only a star, but an endearing presence to the Orioles fan base - not only because of his freakish power and 6-foot-3physique, but his ever-improving ability at the plate. The baseball world saw that during the first four games of the season and that brought Davis and the Orioles a lot of positive attention. It seemed that Davis singlehandedly willed the Orioles to three wins as he hit four home runs and drove in 16, including a dramatic eighth-inning grand slam in the home opener. In that period, Davis made baseball look like a video game and the Orioles literally like a one-man team. The burly slugger made what should be a very, very hard game that most utterly fail at look easy. For his efforts, he was named the American League Player of the Week. Davis delivered once again at the plate last night, as he hit a ninth-inning homer that helped spark a five-run rally and helped the Orioles defeat the Red Sox 8-5 in Boston. Overall this season, he has five home runs and 18 RBIs in eight games; in addition, he has struck out only once. FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal this week chronicled the trade with the Texas Rangers that brought Davis to Baltimore. Looking back at the deal, I still wonder why and how the Rangers ever let him go. At the time, I remembered a lot of talk that Davis seemed to be your prototypical Four-A player - impressive in the minors, but lackluster at the major league level. He did not hit with much consistency in the majors, nor earned regular playing time; therefore, Davis lost his spot in Texas and got traded to Baltimore after injury and the emergence of Mitch Moreland at first base. Although Davis has struggled at times in Baltimore, going through peaks and valleys, until he finally emerged as a viable power threat in 2012, when he batted .270 with 33 home runs and 85 RBIs. However, he did strike out 169 times in 562 at-bat-bats and only walked 37 times. I do know that Davis certainly has improved as a hitter since he came to Baltimore. His improvement, perhaps, came about as the Orioles simply just let him play and figure things out. Baltimore's faith in Davis is now really starting to pay off. Davis has played various positions in the field with the team - first base, third base, right field and designated hitter -over the lineup throughout his tenure with the Orioles. Toward the end of 2012, he was a rock in the Baltimore lineup and came through in the clutch many times. I know quite a few fans in the offseason lamented the loss of Mark Reynolds and wondered how the team would make up for the loss of power. Davis has surely made up for it in a brief sample size and has won the hearts of fans. At this point so far in this season, I'm asking myself, "Is this the real Davis?" Who know? I just know it has been a lot of fun watching him at the plate. Anthony Amobi blogs about the Orioles at Oriole Post. His observations about the O's appear as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.