Anthony Amobi: Reynolds finally emerging as legit power threat

Yesterday, the Orioles lost deep in the heart of Texas to the Rangers. However, slugger Mark Reynolds again showed his power stroke. The third baseman, acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks in the offseason, put on quite the power display in Atlanta over the weekend, and followed up that performance with two homers last night, his 19th and 20th. Despite Baltimore's 13-4 loss to the Texas, the story of last night's game was the power and approach of the third baseman. I know a lot of fans are not impressed with Reynolds at the hot corner, where he has a league-high 20 errors - obviously, a concern - plus, the umpteen strikeouts and low batting average. However, we should embrace him in Birdland as our big bopper. Reynolds is your prototypical all-or-nothing guy in baseball folklore - who can walk. We all saw it in Arizona and fans should not be all that surprised. It's not the best thing in the world to have on your team, but it's a lot better than some of the alternatives that the Orioles have trotted out over the past several seasons. But boy, can he launch those homers. However, Reynolds really heated up in the past few weeks and is pretty much doing what we all expected now. He's certainly started to hit the longball and is looking to be first certified power threat that the Orioles have had their lineup in quite a long time. Vladmir Guerrero and Luke Scott aren't doing it now in the middle of the lineup, so the team needs keep Reynolds the cleanup spot. Considering how much Reynolds struggled since the season began, it is good to see him make an impact for the Orioles. Perhaps he was hampered by batting in the bottom of the lineup, or struggled changing leagues. He has produced in his career, and is now only starting to live up to expectations in Baltimore. The thing we should hope for as fans is that during the heat of the mid-Atlantic summer, the ball will fly off his bat. As long as he walks, drives the ball over the fence, makes productive outs and plays excellent defense, the Orioles can live with the strikeouts. Instead of harping on Reynolds for his flaws, let's start to appreciate what he can do at the plate. In the end, the Orioles may not contend; however, the new slugger in town might make things a little bit more interesting in Charm City for seasons to come. 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.