There is no sense in beating up the Orioles.

I bring to your attention a comment I received from a reader two days ago before the recent losing streak stretched to five games -- the most recent a 6-5 loss to Oakland in 10 innings which completed a three-game A's sweep.

The reader wrote: I think the worst thing that could have happened to the Orioles was actually winning early in the year. Don't get me wrong I love watching the exciting and surprising games they have had and I hope they still have all year long BUT. With winning people lose track of the real focus of this and next year. And that is rebuilding and not acting like a team that needs one or two pieces to compete.

To be sure the Orioles announced that this was a rebuilding year, next year too, and conceded that there would be pain in the process.  Well, this last week has been part of the pain.

And  yes, it might be a little optimistic to believe that the O's need only one or two pieces to make this team whole and a contender. Today on his blog, Sun colleague Kevin Van Valkenburg talks about the Orioles' chances of landing hometown star Mark Teixeira as a free agent.  Kevin outlines the economic realty, that the big money players (as in franchises) are the front-runners for Teixeira. He spells out some of the numbers and lists the Orioles contracts that could be jettisoned to help make room for such a big-time signing.

While it may seem early to dope out Teixeira's free agency situation, there is plenty of relevance in VanValkenberg's thoughts because  the chase for Teixeira, or players like him, will be the real litmus test for the new Orioles front office. It's one thing for Andy MacPhail to have the political courage to trade front-liners Tejada and Bedard for prospects. But when free agency comes, will he have the intra-organizational clout to get owner Peter Angelos to spring for the huge contract(s) it'll take to import the one or two pieces of the puzzle that can't be incubated in the minors.

Orioles fans are being asked to bear the pain of losing now for the prospects of reassembling this team into a contender later. How successful will MacPhail be if and when he asks Angelos to take a leap of faith with his check book?