The play of the Baltimore Orioles to start the 2012 baseball season has been very encouraging.

But one of the big stories for the Birds this year has been the play of left fielder Nolan Reimold. A player who has always had potential, Reimold has been fantastic assuming the roll of lead-off hitter for Baltimore.

Going into Wednesday night’s game against the Chicago White Sox, he was hitting .351 with a robust OPS of 1.125. Of his 13 hits, four have been home runs.

Not only has been Reimold been getting it done with the bat, he has made some spectacular plays in the field.

After a fine rookie season in which he hit .279 with 15 HR’s, the 28-year-old from Bowling Green slumped badly in 2010. Injuries had a lot to do with his decline.

He did bounce back last year to hit 13 bombs in only 267 AB’s.

The Reimold of 2012 has been sizzling.

Can he keep it up? Well, it’s a long season. But if he can stay healthy and get 500 AB’s for the first time in career, who knows what kind of numbers he will accumulate.

We do know that–because of Reimold–the Orioles aren’t really missing Brian Roberts as much as they thought they would.