While the Orioles' 4-1 win over Kansas City can be enjoyed for what it represented at the moment, the end of a five-game losing streak, there are occasionally things that happen in the now that have greater significance as far as the club's future is concerned.

In this case we're obviously talking about pitcher Daniel Cabrera who put together the three-hit complete game. It was the big right-hander's fifth straight start in which he has allowed three or fewer earned runs (four games with two or fewer) and last night on the post-game analysis, I heard a word used that I don't think I've heard applied to Cabrera -- "stopper." We have all heard "dominating" occasionally; "potential" a bunch of times, and too often "disappointing." But stopper was almost startling to have mentioned in the same sentence with Cabrera.

Looking at the big picture, Cabrera is one of those players who really does need to be part of the future. Andy MacPhail can't replace the current roster with 25 entirely new players. Some of these players have to be of a caliber to be part of a contender. Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Jeremy Guthrie are the obvious ones. There are a handful of others that Orioles' fans can be hopeful about and Cabrera is at the top of that list.

The term stopper implies qualities that Cabrera hasn't shown until lately, consistency and reliability -- and those would make him a valuable piece to the proverbial puzzle.