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What's worse than being 27 games out of first place in the AL East? Being the worst team by 9.5 games in the D.C. area when the other team is the Washington Nationals is worse. What's worse than the having your top ERA in the starting rotation at 4.38? Its worse when the pitcher leading the team in victories is a middle reliever with just four wins after the halfway mark of the season. Oh, and he has a 4.45 ERA and is on the record for seven losses to boot. The Baltimore Orioles 2010 season was never going to be easy or even uplifting, but who knew Baltimore Orioles tickets to Oriole Park at Camden Yards could be so disappointing.

This is a baseball team in rebuilding mode in a division geared for competition for the AL pennant. Thus, playing in a division with a hyper competitive top three (Yankees, Rays, and Red Sox) and a decent fourth-place team (the Blue Jays, a team hovering around .500) means a team in desperate need of its own army of Stephen Strasburgs and Jason Heywards is going to have a deceivingly bad record.

I am not claiming this could be a playoff team or even a team playing to the .500 mark, but this is a baseball team capable of maybe posting a winning percentage closer to 40 percent and not having to endure another potential run at the worst record in the MLB.

Not all the news is bad. There are still a few reasons to watch the Orioles play. The ballpark is one of the best in the MLB and they have a young guy named Nick Markakis in right field. Markakis is in his second year of a 6-year $66 million contract and is playing up to his pay grade. He is batting a solid .308 and walking at an incredible rate, meaning his on base percentage is one of the best in the American League (number seven to be exact).

Markakis is never going to be the classic cleanup guy fans desperately want (he has just six home runs), but he is always going to be a solid outfielder. If the Orioles do not feel the team will be rebuilt by the time his contract is up they may consider trading him for a few more prospects.

Twenty-four year-old center fielder Adam Jones does not have the patience at the plate of Markakis, but he does have the power fans are lusting for. Journeyman second baseman Ty Wigginton has equaled Jones power production and is batting third instead because of his marginally better eye at the plate.

The Baltimore Orioles have another half of baseball to play, and though they may not be playing for a division championship, but they are playing to avoid being statistically the worst team in both leagues.