Monday Bird Droppings: Where Trey is still the ROY of our hearts

Hello, friends.

There are now 135 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day. Another three days remain for the nine qualifying offer free agents to decide whether or not they will accept the offers made by their former teams, after which point the makeup of the free agent market will be settled.

Later today, the Rookie of the Year award winners will be announced. Trey Mancini has been revealed as a finalist for the AL award, though he probably won’t win. Second place isn’t looking too likely either, but congratulations to him for a great rookie campaign all the same.

Today marks the beginning of league-wide GM meetings in Orlando, something that is probably exciting to Elder Price from The Book of Mormon musical and hardly anyone else. Well, GMs of cold-weather places might enjoy being in Orlando instead of where they might be otherwise.

Anyway, probably nothing will happen at those meetings, but you never know. Maybe some groundwork will be laid for something to happen later.

Around the blogO’sphere

Making the case for the 3 AL Rookie of the Year finalists (FanRag Sports)
There aren’t many people outside of Birdland who’ve seriously tried to make a Trey Mancini Rookie of the Year argument, but here’s FanRag’s Jonathan Bernhardt trying to do just that - along with for Aaron Judge and Andrew Benintendi.

The first annual Vladdy Award (Beyond the Box Score)
Former Oriole Vladimir Guerrero is getting an award named after him by our friends over at Beyond the Box Score. It’s for swinging at ridiculous pitches.

Inside Baseball MLB Notes: Where will Jay Bruce land? (FanRag Sports)
Not to be outdone by a top 50 free agent list, Jon Heyman takes a guess at the top 80 free agents contract values. There aren’t even 80 good free agents!

Birthdays and anniversaries

There are a few former Orioles with birthdays today. They are: Baserunner-allowing champion Wade Miley, one-time nugget Josh Bell, 2001-03 rotation member Pat Hentgen, and 1975-79 outfielder Larry Harlow.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Your birthday buddies for today include: novelist Robert Louis Stephenson (1850), Negro Leagues player and historian Buck O’Neil (1911), actress Whoopi Goldberg (1955), late night host Jimmy Kimmel (1967), and basketballer Metta World Peace (1979).

On this day in history...

In 1940, the Walt Disney animated musical Fantasia was released.

In 1947, the Soviet Union finished development on the AK-47 rifle. A 2004 estimate placed the worldwide number of AK-47s at 75 million.

In 1956, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court opinion in Browder v. Gayle that declared that segregation on public buses in Alabama was unconstitutional. When this ruling took effect, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, begun after the arrest of Rosa Parks, came to an end.

In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC. Over 3 million people visit annually.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on November 13 - or at least, unless something happens later. Mancini fans, keep crossing your fingers and hoping that something crazy happens! Have a safe Monday.