What would a big win-loss improvement in 2022 mean for Birdland?

In their last three full seasons, the Orioles have lost 115, 108 and 110 games. That is a lot of losses and no one has to tell a single O's fan that.

But the hope is now that executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and his staff have been here since before the 2019 season, and now that the organization has been ranked with one of the best farm systems in the game, that better days are not only ahead, but ahead sooner rather than later.

The Detroit Tigers lost 114 games in the 2019 season and last year went 77-85. Behind a developing young pitching staff, they took a nice step forward in 2021. And while they had a losing overall record, after starting the season 9-24, Detroit went 68-61 (.527) over its last 129 games. The Tigers' win percentage ranked eighth in the American League over that span, while their record was second among American League Central teams behind only the Chicago White Sox. They signed free agent pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez recently and now they hope they are a team very much on the rise.

It can all make O's fans jealous, hoping their day to make such an improvement is close at hand.

Elias has said often that not only does he want to build a winning team but a winning organization with sustained success. And he is trying to do that in the AL East, a division last year that featured three playoff teams and a fourth-place club that won 91 games in Toronto.

The Blue Jays played .562 baseball and would have won the National League East over the eventual World Series-winning Atlanta Braves by 2 1/2 games. The next-best fourth-place team this year in the majors was the Los Angeles Angels, who went 77-85 in the AL West.

Late last year, O's manager Brandon Hyde talked about the challenge of trying to win in the AL East.

"These four teams in this division aren't going anywhere," said Hyde. "They are extremely talented. Three of them have huge payrolls and we just need to continue to get better. And it's not a light switch, throw a ton of money in one-year situation. It's a total process, and I know that's a buzzword, but that is what it really is. A process that takes a little while - probably takes longer in this division because who you are facing 80 games of the 162. I'm encouraged by some of the players that we have and now we just have to continue to add."

Question for the readers today: How important to fans would it be for the Orioles to make a big improvement in 2022 and what would that mean in the won-loss column?