Tell me you’re clueless about the Orioles without saying you’re clueless about the Orioles.
1. It is highly questionable whether they were tanking by design or whether it was simply a function of ownership’s unwillingness to spend.
2. Characterizing how the Orioles have gotten into contention as “not hard” should mean the Marlins, A’s, Tigers, Royals, Guardians, Nats, Pirates, Reds, Giants, D-Backs, Mariners, are all similarly positioned. Of those maaaaaaybe you could make a thin case for the DBacks and Reds.
3. Henderson, Holliday, Kjerstad, Cowser, Westburg, Rodriguez, Mayo, Basallo, Rutschman, Norby, Bradfield. Easy? Oh, and that’s after trading Ortiz and Hall for Burnes. They also developed Kremer, Bradish, Bautista, and others far beyond their original profiles.
You’re going to lean on the fact that they haven’t gone to 7 straight ALCS like the Astros and that’s true, so you’re right…..what they’ve done is “easy”. Now list the other teams that have gone to 7 straight AL or NL CS’s since that is your standard. Yanks? Dodgers?