Brian Roberts returns

On Wednesday Brian Roberts completed a long road back from injury making his first start with the Orioles since May 16, 2011.
I never thought I would be writing those words this year. I honestly doubted I would ever write those words again. Brian Roberts' recovery was so long and his body seemed so delicate this spring that I never thought he would get back to Camden Yards. But now he is back so that leaves the team with some very interesting questions:

What should the Orioles expect from Brian Roberts going forward?

At his best Roberts is a plus defender and an on-base and doubles machine. No one should expect a 50-double-pace from Roberts this summer; so what should be expected? Roberts should be among the team-leaders in OBP, BA in the .270's and probably a 30-ish doubles pace with very occasional power. The OBP is the key to Roberts' game, and something the Orioles lineup currently lacks an abundant supply of. In his first game back Roberts went 3-4 with an RBI, but more importantly he worked counts, saw pitches and played Brian Roberts ball. In four ABs he saw 22 pitches, just over five pitches per AB. In his second game Roberts went 0-5 where he saw only 16 pitches total, a little more than three pitches per AB. Once again, when Roberts is patient good things happen and I expect him to keep that trait going forward.

Perhaps most importantly Roberts seemed comfortable and unfazed in the batter's box or on the field. He took a hard slide on Tuesday trying to run a double play and he popped right back up and went back to work.

If Roberts struggles, what then?

In two games Roberts has gone 4-9 with three singles and a sac-fly. So far so good, but the question needs to be asked: what if he struggles? This is not the Orioles team that many expected. This Orioles team is currently 10 games over .500 and one game out of first place on June 14th. This Orioles team is quickly becoming a serious contender. This Orioles team might not be able to carry the fan-favorite amazing comeback-story if he can't produce at a significant level. At the very least Roberts needs to perform at second base better than Robert Andino. After four weeks the Orioles need to look at Roberts' body of work and be able to say, with no hesitation, this player will help us stay in the playoff hunt. If the team can't do that then they need to make some very tough decisions that could be very unpopular for a lot of reasons. One would think that if he discovers that he simply can't do it any more and he is hurting the team Roberts would be the type of guy to walk away without drama and I'd like to think that the team and Roberts already have some sort of agreement already in place, all we can do is sit and watch.

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