Hello, friends.
There are now 117 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2018. Today will be occupied by teams tendering contracts to their arbitration-eligible players - or non-tendering them, as the case may be. The Orioles will probably tender everybody, but maybe a future Oriole will get non-tendered, as happened to Welington Castillo at this time last year.
The calendar has now turned to December and in another day the long-awaited posting of Japanese star Shohei Ohtani will take place. At some point we will hopefully hear that the Orioles at least submitted a response to the questionnaire put out by Ohtani's agent. If we ever even hear that much, that will probably be the last of it, because can you imagine the Orioles seriously getting involved there?
Perhaps that will prove to be the development that gets things moving for every other free agent. Maybe it won't be. Articles are popping up from writers willing to point out that maybe teams aren't in a rush to sign free agents this year because the free agents kind of suck.
Indeed, it's really not a good year to desperately need to fill three starting rotation spots with free agents. The Orioles are in a bad place until they sign people and until those people turn out to be at least decent.
Around the blogO'sphere
Duquette outlines O's plan to contend in 2018, addresses futures of Machado, Britton, Schoop (Baltimore Sun)
On Machado: “The club has to decide if he’s going to be a long-term fixture in our lineup.” You mean you haven’t already? And on Schoop: “That’s a conversation for another day.” Great plan!
Orioles set home game times with earlier Sunday starts (School of Roch)
Sunday home games will start half an hour sooner next season, with 1:05 game times instead of 1:35. Color me curious about the reason for this change.
A look at one free agent lefty bat (Steve Melewski)
Even though it’s been a slow news month, do we really need to take a look at Adam Lind?
Three pitches Orioles pitchers could throw more often to improve their 2018 outlooks (Baltimore Sun)
The Sun’s Jon Meoli wants to see more and better sliders from Kevin Gausman and Gabriel Ynoa, and more of Dylan Bundy’s changeup.
Orioles giving Chance Sisco shot at starting (Orioles.com)
There might be some platooning with Caleb Joseph, and that’s OK too.
Taking a look at some Orioles minor league signings: Rosa, Tejada, Sardinas, Ryan Ripken (Baltimore Baseball)
Maybe one of these guys will end up mattering, but also, maybe none of them will end up mattering.
Which team can keep Shohei Ohtani the healthiest? (Fangraphs)
Of interest here - though perhaps not to Ohtani - is that the Orioles have rated the best in keeping pitchers healthy over the past five seasons.
Birthdays and anniversaries
On this day in 1954, the Yankees and Orioles completed the largest trade in MLB history. The trade had begun almost two weeks prior and when it was done, 17 players changed teams.
A December 1, 1970 trade brought Pat Dobson to the Orioles from the Padres. Dobson was one of the four 20-game winners on the 1971 O's staff.
Also on this day in 1998, the Orioles signed Albert Belle to a five-year contract, of which he only ended up playing two seasons.
One lone former Oriole has a birthday today: 1991-94 catcher Jeff Tackett.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Your birthday buddies for today include: "poetaster" Julia A. Moore (1847), World War II-era Russian general Georgy Zhukov (1896), comedian Richard Pryor (1940), singer-songwriter Bette Midler (1945), jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius (1951), and singer-songwriter Janelle Monae (1985).
On this day in history...
In 1862, President Lincoln delivered a State of the Union address in which he reaffirmed the need to end slavery.
In 1913, the Ford Motor Company introduced the first moving assembly line.
In 1941, Japan's Emperor Hirohito gave the final approval to attack the United States.
In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama after refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man.
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And that's the way it is in Birdland on December 1 - or at least, until something happens later, which it will when the O's tender all of the contracts. Have a safe Friday.