Zach Wilt: Adam Jones belongs among the O's all-time greats

The Baltimore Orioles' bats are ice cold. Last night, the Birds were shut out for the fifth time this season, scoring just three runs in three games against the Oakland Athletics. As a team, the O's are hitting .247 in August and .225 since the All-Star break. Their batting average was nearly 50 points higher in the first half.

Leadoff man Adam Jones has been one of the club's few bright spots during their second-half swoon. Jones picked up his 120th hit of the season in the loss last evening and went 2-for-4 with his 22nd homer of the season on Tuesday night against the A's. In August, Jones has slashed .368/.375/.553 with two homers and three RBIs. After the break, he's hit .300/.333/.470 with five longballs and 12 driven in. While the O's have seen numbers fall from first-half stars like Mark Trumbo and Matt Wieters, Jones has picked up the pace as the season has progressed.

Jones' hot streak should be nothing new for Orioles fans. 2016 marks his ninth year in Baltimore and he's been a model of consistency since coming to Charm City in 2008. He's a career .278 hitter, who's hitting .276 on the season. Jones has hit below .280 in one of the last seven seasons, last year when he played just 137 games due to an ailing back injury. He played 162 games in 2012, 160 in 2013 and 159 in 2014. Over the last five years, Jones has averaged 153 games played per season and is on pace to play 155 in 2016.

At age 30, Jones has posted a 105 OPS+ this season. He's had eight consecutive years at that total or higher. He's also one of only 15 active players with five-plus seasons of 25 or more homers. Jones is on pace to go deep 32 times in 2016, which would be his first 30-plus homer season since 2013 (33).

Do you think of Jones as one of the Orioles' all-time greats? You should. On Tuesday, Jones collected his 1,404 hit with the ballclub, passing Al Bumbry for sole possession of 10th place on the Orioles' all-time hit list. Bumbry played in 1,428 games over 13 years for the O's, while Jones has played just 1,276 over nine seasons. Next up on the list is Paul Blair, who had 1,426 career hits with the O's. He donned the orange and black for 1,700 games over 13 years, 424 more games than Jones has played with the club to this point.

There's another big milestone coming up for Jones: 224 homers as an Oriole. That would put him ahead of Rafael Palmeiro for fifth all-time on the O's career home run list. He's nine away from that total and one pace to hit 10 more in 2016. With two more years remaining on Jones' six-year deal, I think it's safe to say that he'll break that record, too.

Given their second-half struggles, it might be hard to remember that the Orioles have been one of the best teams in baseball over the past four seasons. In fact, in the American League, no team has more wins than the Orioles since 2012 (418). They've been a model of consistency and Jones' dependability has played an important part in that success.

He's been a guy that Buck Showalter can count on to go out and play every day, hit consistently and provide some pop to the top of the order. I haven't even mentioned what he brings to the team defensively. It could be easy to overlook what Jones brings to the Orioles, especially when the offense around him has struggled, but without him, there's no way the club would be as successful as they've been the past four seasons.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. Follow him on Twitter: @zach_wilt. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. 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.