Strike 2: Before the Baltimore Orioles were a perennial contender, they were the American League’s version of the current Colorado Rockies.

The once proud franchise – winners of three World Series titles and having produced some of the games’ all-time greats, including Hall of Famers Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken Jr, Frank Robinson, Jim Palmer and more – made the playoffs at the end of the 2016 season before falling on hard times. Veteran manager Buck Showalter was ushered out after 2019, when the O’s lost 115 times. They went 52-110 in 2021, and ended up missing the postseason six consecutive seasons. A frugal front office was letting productive players leave and wasn’t spending successfully on free agents. The fanbase was understandably frustrated.

On the plus side, all that losing allowed the Orioles to acquire a lot of high draft picks. While “tanking” wasn’t looked upon favorably by fans and media alike, teams could still do it then (the new collective bargaining agreement between the players union and the owners has removed some of the “reward” for tanking these days) and the O’s took full advantage, purging the payroll and going young.

Any of this sounding familiar to Rockies faithful?

While the Rockies have never been fully in on “tanking,” they’ve followed a similar path. The results since their last playoff appearance in 2018 have been pretty lousy. They spent freely on free agents that didn’t pan out, and the result has been a lot of losing – including what’s about to become their second straight 100-loss season. All this has earned the Rockies their own collection of high draft picks. The question is, have they – or will they – hit on their picks the way the Orioles have done with theirs?

So far, the answer isn’t real positive.

Since 2018, Baltimore has selected players like catcher Adley Rutschman (the first overall pick in 2019), infielder Gunnar Henderson, outfielder Heston Kjerstad and most recently, another first overall pick, infielder Jackson Holiday (in case you hadn’t heard, he’s the son of former Rockies star Matt Holiday.) Meanwhile, the Rockies have picked TBD players like outfielder Benny Montgomery and pitchers Riley Pint, Ryan Rolison and Gabriel Hughes. Only Pint has made it to the big leagues so far, and his debut has been less than impactful.

To be fair, the jury is still out on most of the Rockies recent draft picks. That means there’s reason for Colorado faithful to look at the Orioles progression and see a glimmer of hope. Young players going through rough times – including multiple 100-loss seasons – while taking time to develop. It’s happening at Coors Field right now.

There’s no secret sauce here. It’s about drafting well and developing big leaguers, and when you do go after a free agent, like the current Orioles have done with guys like Craig Kimbrel, or make a big trade to bring in a pitcher like Corbin Burnes, you have to get that right, too.

So it’s doable. The question simply is, can the Rockies front office get these things right the way Baltimore has? Have the latest group of young players they’ve drafted during their current swoon – Jordan Beck, Chase Dollander, Sterlin Thompson, Zac Veen and this year, Charlie Condon, become productive big leaguers. Stars even? When it comes to free agency, can Colorado do better than obtaining a guy like Cal Quantrill (who’s having a very solid season for the Rockies but who would be a fourth or fifth starter on a playoff contender)? If and when they do make a big trade (something they’ve not done well in the past) will they be willing to trade any of their stockpile of young talent, like former Gold Glover Brendan Rodgers, for some top of the rotation pitching help?

These are all things that Baltimore has done right. That’s why they can sidestep the urge to try to spend like their division rival, the New York Yankees – whom the O’s beat out for the AL East title last season – and still be a playoff team and World Series contender.

Baltimore would be a terrific role model for the Rockies at this point. But in order for it to be successful, the Rockies have to be able to do all the right things the way their role model has shown them to do.