Saturday Bird Droppings: Where Miguel Castro is starting, because why not

Hello, friends.

The Orioles are still tied for last place in the American League East as they come down to the final two games of the season. The AL East itself, however, is still in doubt, as two Yankees wins and two Red Sox losses would mean the two teams must play a tiebreaker game to settle who gets the division and who must play in the wild card game.

Not that there’s ever a good reason for anyone to want the Yankees win, but wouldn’t it just be hilarious if the Red Sox collapse from the division lead and get wiped out in the wild card game? That’s too delicious a possibility to ever actually happen. It’s fun to think about, though.

Less fun to think about is the fact that the Orioles now are in possession of the 11th pick in next year’s draft. If the O’s get swept and the Athletics win their last two games, they could end up with the 10th pick.

The O’s are now 7-19 in September. How does a team end up that bad for a month? It’s almost unbelievable, except for the fact that anyone who has spent the whole season watching this starting rotation isn’t surprised by it at all. The only real surprise is that they didn’t have a 7-19 month before now. All it took was the offense completely collapsing.

Around the blogO’sphere

September struggles and the final season series - School of Roch
Let Roch guide you through many of the brutal things that have been going on this month.

O's road woes a big factor in 2017 losing record - Steve Melewski
And here’s Steve Melewski to get us through just how bad the Orioles have been on the road this season.

Manny Machado, rotation among O's question | MLB.com
Neither the first nor the last of the hundreds of articles about what the Orioles will end up doing about either Manny Machado or the starting rotation.

Miguel Castro starting Saturday as Orioles get first glimpse of how he’d look in rotation (Baltimore Sun)
This one will be of interest for all of those who want to know whether Castro could possibly be a rotation option next season.

Walking Off Memory Lane: 2017 O’s one of 7 in club history with a dozen or more walkoffs (Baltimore Baseball)
We may not spend enough time thinking about the fact that, if only this starting rotation wasn’t atrocious, this might have been a fun season.

Birthdays and anniversaries

One current Oriole has a birthday today. It’s Seth Smith. Happy birthday to him! It’s also the birthday of 1995 outfielder Curtis Goodwin, 2002 bullpen guy Yorkis Perez, 1995 two-gamer John DeSilva, and 1962-65 rotation member and baseball Hall of Famer Robin Roberts.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Along with those current and former Orioles, your birthday buddies for today include: poet Rumi (1207), Wrigley Company founder William Wrigley Jr. (1861), writer Truman Capote (1924), Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel (1928), actress Jenna Elfman (1971), Magnificent Seven gymnast Dominique Moceanu (1981), rapper T-Pain (1985), and one of Mumford’s Sons, Ben Lovett (1986).

On this day in history...

In 1791, the last of Mozart’s operas, The Magic Flute, had its debut performance in Vienna, Austria.

In 1927, Babe Ruth became the first player to ever hit 60 home runs in a season.

In 1938, the infamous Munich Agreement was signed between Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, by which it was agreed that Germany could occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain proclaimed this meant, “Peace for our time.”

In 1949, the Berlin Airlift came to an end, after fifteen months of supplying Berlin almost entirely by air, in defiance of a Soviet blockade.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on September 30 - or at least, until something happens later. With Castro starting, maybe a little some of it will be good? Maybe not. Have a safe Saturday. Go O’s!