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Hello, friends.
There are now 121 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2018. That still seems like a lot of days because it is, but spring training is now just a little more than two and a half months away, so their chance to improve over the offseason is much more limited.
A bit of actual news happened over Thanksgiving weekend, with a report trickling out on Sunday that the Rangers are signing starting pitcher Doug Fister to the low price of $4 million guaranteed. I wouldn’t have had a whole lot of interest in the O’s signing Fister, but man, that’s cheap. Maybe it’ll prove to be a guide post for negotiating with Chris Tillman, maybe not.
It’s a reminder that not every potential bargain is signed in January or February. You can strike early in the offseason and get a bargain too, if you identify the right player and get his attention with the right dollar figure. Dan Duquette, who is much smarter than me, surely knows this, though he does not often demonstrate that knowledge by signing players early.
Have you cleaned the Thanksgiving leftovers out of your refrigerator over the weekend? The baseball writers of Birdland certainly have, because there’s not a whole lot to even pretend is new for discussion on this Monday.
Around the blogO’sphere
Wouldn’t it be nice to trade Mark Trumbo? (Birds Watcher)
This seems to be the number one Birdland fantasy of the offseason. It’s not hard to see why. At a minimum, Trumbo needs to be hit in the face with a pie on Opening Day to purge any lingering bad karma.
Birthdays and anniversaries
There are a few former Orioles with birthdays today. They are: 2009-12 pitcher and one-time t-shirt night honoree Jason Berken, 1997 seven-gamer Tim Laker, 1989-92 slugger Randy Milligan, 1962/66 pitcher Bill Short, and 1956 reliever Johnny Schmitz.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Your birthday buddies for today include: novelist James Agee (1909), martial arts screen icon Bruce Lee (1940), guitarist Jimi Hendrix (1942), science guy Bill Nye (1955), baseball Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez (1971), and actress Alison Pill (1985).
On this day in history...
In 1896, the Richard Strauss piece Also sprach Zarathustra was first performed. The fanfare for this is known for its inclusion in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In 1942, following a German invasion of Vichy France, the French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships rather than turn them over to the Nazis.
In 1973, as part of the first-ever invocation of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, Representative Gerald Ford was confirmed by the Senate to become the Vice President of the United States. He did not become VP until after House confirmation on December 6.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on November 27 - or at least, unless something happens later. Hey, now that somebody signed Doug Fister, I guess you never know. Have a safe Monday.