Zack Britton and Nick Markakis are among the nine former O’s who will be guest coaches in this spring’s camp.
Hello, friends.
As of yesterday, Orioles spring training is officially under way! Pitchers and catchers reported to Sarasota and things got started. They’ll have their first workout today. Presumably, we’ll also get the Mike Elias “reveal all of the secret injuries” conference at some point today. Hold your breath, figuratively, until that comes and goes, because we won’t actually know what the roster picture looks like until we know who we’ve assumed is in it but it turns out they actually aren’t.
Opening Day is exactly six weeks away from today. We’ve got another nine days to go before the first spring training game. Once we reach that point, it will really be a steady conveyor belt towards the start of the season.
As camps open up, there was one bit of baseball news from Wednesday evening that will keep the trade rumors stoked. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that the Padres have an agreement with free agent starting pitcher Nick Pivetta that could cover up to four years at $55 million. Pivetta has a pair of opt-outs. Some people have already been wondering about the Padres trading Dylan Cease and perhaps now that they’ve added Pivetta, that only becomes more likely.
Elias running the kind of front office that he does means that we probably won’t find out about a budding deal until one is completed or nearly finalized. If there is any deal to be made in the first place. I’m skeptical, but after this signing I’m more open to the possibility.
With players reporting to camp yesterday, the Orioles also announced a roster of guest coaches for this spring season. Nine former Orioles from several different eras of the team’s history will appear for instruction, mostly for a few days. Adam Jones, freshly minted as a special assistant to the GM, is hanging around for the longest, while Zack Britton will be in for just a few days. Britton, along with Nick Markakis, are appearing as guest coaches for the first time.
Former players coming back for spring training is one of those things that I enjoy even though I seriously doubt that, say, Markakis is going to be able to offer any meaningful insight in a few days time to either a young player or a more-tenured Oriole. I think it’s nice for the team to stay connected to its past in this way. Mike Elias doesn’t usually seem like one for this kind of sentiment, so for him to preside over it happening is interesting.
Wednesday saw a more disappointing Orioles-related announcement as well. The team will be televising just eight of the Grapefruit League games this season. I reacted to this news on Camden Chat yesterday because that’s a pathetic number. We deserve better than this. The Pittsburgh Pirates, generally regarded as a cheapo, skinflint kind of team, still manage to have far more broadcasts than eight. What’s more, The Baltimore Banner’s Danielle Allentuck reported on Tuesday that these spring broadcasts will have the announcers in Baltimore. Come on!
The first broadcast is the Grapefruit League opener, so you’ll be able to see the Orioles, or at least some guys wearing Orioles uniforms, on television in another nine days. It may not be as much as we deserve, but with not having gotten to see them since October, it will be nice to have them on TV again.
Around the blogO’sphere
Nine Orioles with the most to gain (or lose) in spring training (The Baltimore Banner)
I salute Andy Kostka for not giving in to the “five things” industrial complex by stopping at nine and not going all the way to ten. The list includes both guys who are definitely going to be on the team, like Adley Rutschman, and some who currently don’t seem like they will be, like Chayce McDermott.
Three Orioles storylines to follow this spring (Orioles.com)
Included in Jake Rill’s three storylines is one that’s likely important to all fans too: How Félix Bautista looks as he returns from Tommy John surgery.
Start of spring training ZiPS projected standings: American League (FanGraphs)
The Orioles have a tiny edge over the Yankees in these projections, though creator and noted pit beef enthusiast Dan Szymborski cautions that a team would have to win at least 96 games to have a better than 50% chance of winning the division according to the projection. Note: Alex Bregman was signed by the Red Sox after this run and I don’t know how it will impact the AL East as far as the projection is concerned.
The Orioles have hit a playoff hump. They know it’s time to get over it. (The Baltimore Sun)
It is going to be tougher to look back on this season as a success if it ends without the Orioles advancing at least once in the postseason. This knowledge will be looming over everything for the next eight months until the streak of futility is broken.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
There are several former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2013/15 outfielder Henry Urrutia, 2016 pitcher Logan Ondrusek, 2002/06 infielder Howie Clark, 2004-07 reliever Todd Williams, and 1954/57 infielder Jim Bridewiser.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: test pilot Chuck Yeager (1923), TV personality Jerry Springer (1944), actress Kelly Hu (1968), and football Hall of Famer Randy Moss (1977).
On this day in history…
In 1542, the fifth of Henry VIII’s six wives, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery. There was no trial, with Catherine rather being on the receiving end of a bill of attainder passed using an ex post facto law that proclaimed her guilty. These acts are expressly forbidden by the US Constitution, for whatever that is still worth today.
In 1861, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was absorbed into the growing Kingdom of Italy following the surrender of the fortress of Gaeta, the last bastion of resistance.
In 1945, British bombers launched the first of three days of Allied bombardment of the city of Dresden, which over the course of the campaign saw a firestorm develop that killed as many as 25,000 people.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on February 13. Have a safe Thursday.