Matthew Taylor: Which Oriole could pull off major hitting streak?

Hitting streaks have been on the top of many minds in Major League Baseball lately. Jackie Bradley pieced together a 29-game hit streak that ended Thursday night. That left him five games short of the Red Sox team record, held by Dom Dimaggio, which he could have been tied when the Red Sox visit Camden Yards next week. Meanwhile, MLB started its celebration of the 75th anniversary of Joe DiMaggio's record 56-game hit streak on Sunday and is pushing out daily notifications about his hit(s) on each date during the streak. Enough about Red Sox and Yankees players. Let's talk Orioles hit streaks.

Eric Davis established the current club record by hitting safely in 30 consecutive games in 1998. His is one of 55 total hit streaks of 30 games or more in baseball history. Davis' streak started on July 12, 1998, when he tallied two hits, including a grand slam, in an 11-7 victory versus the Red Sox. The final game of his hit streak was on Aug. 15, when he went 4-for-4 versus the Cleveland Indians as part of a 9-8 O's road victory in extra innings. During his 30-game hit streak, Davis upped his average from .292 to .331 and improved his on-base percentage from .368 to .391. He finished the 1998 season with a .327/.388/.582 slash line with 28 home runs. The .327 average, at age 36, was his career best.

Overall, 14 Orioles batters have had hitting streaks of 20 games or more. Adam Jones is among those 14 O's batters with his 20-game streak in May 2012. Cal Ripken Jr. is not on the list. Ripken had three separate 17-game hit streaks but never topped that total. Only B.J. Surhoff, who had 21-game hit streaks during both the 1999 and the 2000 seasons, has had multiple hit streaks of 20 games or more for the Orioles.

Jones is the most recent batter to have had a 20-game hit streak. The first guy to do it in an O's uniform was Bob Nieman in 1956. Nieman, a right-handed-hitting left fielder, arrived in Baltimore on May 21, 1956, as part of a six-player deal the O's made with the Chicago White Sox. He found his groove late that summer, starting his hit streak on Aug. 17 and keeping it going through Sept. 7. Nieman's 20-game streak overlapped with teammate Bob Boyd's 19-game hit streak, which started a day after Nieman's and ended a day before.

Nieman was the sole holder of the O's team record until Davey Johnson tied him with a 20-game hit streak in 1970. Doug DeCinces then topped them both with a 22-game hit streak in 1978. Deuces were wild that season as DeCinces' 22-game run knocked Nieman from the top spot after 22 years. Records were nothing new to Nieman. In 1951, he became the first major league player to homer in his first two big league at-bats. Keith McDonald of the St. Louis Cardinals matched that achievement in 2000.

Which current Orioles batter is the best bet to chase Davis' team-record hit streak? Manny Machado made it more than halfway there with his 16-game hit streak this season. That effort is currently tied for the fourth-longest hit streak in the majors in 2016. Machado also had a 14-game hit streak in 2014. Meanwhile, J.J. Hardy made it exactly halfway to the team record last season with a 15-game hit streak. Jones also had a 14-game hit streak in 2014 to go along with his aforementioned 20-game streak in 2012.

Who do you think will be the next Orioles batter to have a 20-game hit streak? Can anyone on the current roster reach Davis' 30-game hit streak?

Matthew Taylor blogs about the Orioles at Roar from 34. Follow him on Twitter: @RoarFrom34. His ruminations about the Birds 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.