Hello, friends.
There are now 39 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day. It’s only one day more until all position players are required to report to camp, and on Friday, the Grapefruit League schedule will begin for the O’s. We have made it to the week that has something resembling Major League Baseball, even if the real thing must wait a while longer.
The main thing I don’t like about spring training is that nothing good can happen. There can pretty much only be bad news. It doesn’t matter how good such-and-such guy looks or who is looking forward to doing what. The only thing that matters is that nobody important gets hurt between now and March 26. But all the guys are down in Sarasota and all of the beat writers are down there too, so assorted daily narratives come along anyway, like yesterday with Trevor Rogers looking good in simulated game throwing:
Sometimes guys look good in spring training and it doesn’t mean anything in the regular season. Sometimes guys look bad in spring training and it doesn’t mean anything in the regular season. Depending on how things go, sometimes it does feel like it means something, but on the outside, we have no way of knowing what really could connect to what will happen in 39 days and what won’t.
Still, for this kind of thing, my philosophy is that it’s better to have things that don’t matter where you need to remind yourself to pump the brakes on excitement rather than have it be where you have to make excuses for why it will be better when it matters. So, Rogers? Looking great. And since position players aren’t even required to have reported yet, we will just not worry about how hitters looked on Valentine’s Day.
In fringe of the roster news, the Orioles yesterday sent cash considerations to the Twins to acquire reliever Jackson Kowar. The 29-year-old Kowar had been in “DFA limbo” after the Twins cast him off; Kowar had already been waived by the Mariners early this offseason. He is out of minor league options after a 2025 season where he posted a 4.24 ERA in 15 games. Over four major league seasons, he’s appeared in 54 games and has an 8.21 ERA. He might just stink enough to be an O’s bullpen candidate.
The team transferred Colin Selby to the 60-day injured list to make room on the 40-man roster. Selby was reported to have shoulder inflammation, so the team must think he’ll be out for a while for him to go on the 60-day.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
Chris Bassitt just missed out on a title in Toronto. He wants to win it in Baltimore. (The Baltimore Banner)
One thing can always pierce right through my jaded defenses: Guys showing up and immediately talking about wanting to win a World Series here. I still remember Brett Phillips arriving and doing that. Why do I even remember that Brett Phillips existed, let alone that he was an Oriole for a short time? It’s a sickness. Anyway, let’s hope this goes better for Bassitt than with Tomoyuki Sugano saying similar stuff (minus the just missing out on a title) last spring.
Bassitt says Alonso ‘one of the big reasons why I came here’ (The Baltimore Sun)
I dream of the day when top-end starting pitchers are saying things like this as they sign with the Orioles. This offseason was not the one.
Albernaz says Bassitt will ‘fit in right away’ with Orioles (Baltimore Baseball)
The manager has not, as yet, tipped his hand about his plans for the starting rotation. Which he doesn’t really need to divulge for a month anyway until he sees if someone gets hurt between now and then.
New Orioles closer Helsley standing out with stuff, work ethic early in camp (Orioles.com)
This is another example of a story that only gets written because there’s nothing real to say. But hopefully it ends up meaning good things in the season!
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 2018, the Orioles announced the signing of free agent starting pitcher Andrew Cashner to a two-year contract. Cashner, who wasn’t even the latest-signing Orioles starting pitcher that year (with Alex Cobb to come later in camp,) put up a 5.28 ERA in 28 starts that season. Let’s hope the recently-announced Chris Bassitt signing goes much better.
There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 1997 reliever Brian Williams, 1991-93 outfielder Luis Mercedes, and 1960-64 pitcher Chuck Estrada. Today is Estrada’s 88th birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you as well! Your birthday buddies for today include: astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564), philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748), jeweler Charles Tiffany (1812), women’s suffrage activist Susan B. Anthony (1820), Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton (1874), The Simpsons creator Matt Groening (1954), comedian/actor Chris Farley (1964), and rapper Megan Thee Stallion (1995).
On this day in history…
In 1493, while on his return journey to Europe, Christopher Columbus wrote an open letter of his discoveries on his voyage to the New World that was widely distributed after he returned to Portugal the following month.
In 1898, the USS Maine suffered an explosion while in the harbor of Havana, Cuba. The explosion and sinking of the ship, which killed 274 of the ship’s 354 crew, was almost certainly an accident, but some American officials and newspapers instead chose to blame Spain and the incident sparked the Spanish-American War.
In 1945, the third and final night of the fire-bombing of the city of Dresden took place. This combined effort by the Royal Air Force and US Army Air Force destroyed much of the city center and killed around 25,000 people.
A random Orioles trivia question
I received a little book of Orioles trivia for Christmas. I’ll post a question each time it’s my turn in this space until I either run out of questions or forget. The book has multiple choice answers, but I’m not giving you those because it would be too easy. Here’s today’s question:
Whose 68 career triples put him atop the Orioles franchise leaderboard?
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on February 15. Have a safe Sunday.