Wednesday Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles have finally arrived in last place

Hello, friends.

The Orioles September of failure has finally reached the place where it was headed all along. The O's are now in last place. For now, they share last place with the Blue Jays, who actually have a 13-11 record in this month. There are still four more games left for the Orioles to play, all of which are on the road, where they are 29-48 for the year.

For most of the Buck Showalter tenure up until now, the end of the season felt like an occasion for sadness, because it meant that O's baseball would be going away for months. There's nothing like that feeling this season. It'll be a blessing when this nonsense is all over with. Soon, we won't have to watch Orioles pitching for nearly six whole months.

I'm sure the Orioles still care and I'm sure they're all still trying to win, but it's just not happening. They're now 7-17 in September and 5-16 since the probable Mark Trumbo-demanded cessation of post-game pies. They are bad. They can't pitch. They can't hit. They sometimes can't even field.

The Orioles are just a bad baseball team that's going nowhere other than maybe higher up the draft board. They are currently sitting with the 12th pick, if I'm reading the tiebreaker correctly. Getting into the top ten would require more failure. If there's anything the September 2017 Orioles are good at, it's failing.

Around the blogO'sphere

Orioles must upgrade rotation to make the most of this core's last run together (CBS Sports)
This is definitely not the last time we will read an article with this as its argument as we get into hot stove season.

Duquette on 2018 rotation: "I don't know where they're going to come from, but we'll have some good starting pitching" (Baltimore Baseball)
As C-3P0 once replied to Han Solo, “That isn’t very reassuring.”

In season's final days, mounting injuries help club evaluate young talent (Baltimore Sun)
That’s one way to try to put a positive spin on this thing.

New safety netting is likely coming to Oriole Park, and it's about time (Baltimore Sun)
Although there have been no official announcements, Peter Schmuck reads into the tea leaves and predicts that netting will extend to the edges of the dugouts at Camden Yards next season.

Orioles attendance drops 6.4% in 2017 (Baltimore Business Journal)
Surprisingly, the MLB’s worst starting rotation was not a prime draw for bringing fans to the stadium this season. The O’s stayed above 2 million fans, barely - but this was their worst year for attendance since 2011. Hey, what a coincidence, it was their worst year in the standings since then too!

Pedro Álvarez on his return to Pittsburgh - School of Roch
Pedro was a popular guy as he returned to Pittsburgh with the O's yesterday.

Trumbo's take: Veteran opines on his season and more - Steve Melewski
Trumbo on Trumbo's crummy season. Does not include any reference to the Trumbo-initiated pie embargo.

MLB - The five most important front-office decisions of the summer (ESPN)
Dave Cameron of Fangraphs, writing for ESPN, lines up to take a lick at the O's front office for failing to trade Zach Britton at the deadline.

Birthdays and anniversaries

In 1996, following a first inning ejection, Roberto Alomar spit in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck.

There are a few former Orioles with birthdays today. They are: 1998 one-gamer Radhames Dykhoff, 1978 outfielder Carlos Lopez, and 1961-66/69-71 reliever Dick Hall. Today is Hall's 87th birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Your birthday buddies for today include: English admiral Robert Blake (1598), American Founding Father Samuel Adams (1722), singer-songwriter Meat Loaf (1947), not-as-good-as-Brooks Robinson Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt (1949), basketballer Steve Kerr (1965), actress Gwyneth Paltrow (1972), rapper Lil Wayne (1982), and skater boi liker Avril Lavigne (1984).

On this day in history...

In 1066, William the Conqueror set sail from the mouth of the River Somme, kicking off the Norman conquest of England.

In 1529, an Ottoman siege of Vienna began as Suleiman the Magnificent attacked the city. The siege was not a success and Ottoman borders expanded no further into Europe.

In 1905, an Albert Einstein paper entitled "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon its Energy Content?" in the physics journal Annalen der Physik. This paper gave the world the famous equation E=mc².

In 1962, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published.

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And that's the way it is in Birdland on September 26 - or at least, until something happens later when the Orioles play the Pirates, although as I've said frequently in this space this month, no one can guarantee that what happens will be any good. Have a safe Wednesday. Go O's!