Thursday Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles aren’t trading for anybody

Hello, friends.

There are now 112 days remaining until the next Orioles game. There is one week to go until the Rule 5 draft, in which the O’s will presumably participate, though we can only hope that new GM Mike Elias does not share Dan Duquette’s obsessive fascination with taking and keeping those Rule 5 players for as long as possible.

While Elias and company are understandably still getting settled in, the rest of baseball is getting a move on with the offseason. The big news from Wednesday was the Diamondbacks trading first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to the Cardinals for three players and a competitive balance draft pick.

Two of those three players are young MLBers whose stars shown brighter as prospects than they have shown yet at the big league level. I don’t know that I would be extremely excited if I was a Diamondbacks fan, but at the same time, it would be nice if the Orioles had someone good enough to trade for Luke Weaver and Carson Kelly, the two young MLBers sent by St. Louis out to the desert.

The Orioles time in the trade hot seat will presumably come again. It might not happen this offseason because the O’s don’t have anybody in the “must trade now” category. We’ll see who’s performing well enough to get traded in July and what those players end up being worth at that time.

For now, the signings and trades continue and as usual, the Orioles are on the outside of all of the activity. One difference between this offseason and every other recent one under Duquette is that there was never any expectation that the O’s would be trying to compete in the 2019 season, so there’s not any urgent feeling that the O’s are missing out by not making additions.

Around the blogO’sphere

What new faces will join the Orioles? (MLB.com)
The new Orioles.com beat writer dives immediately into the inbox.

This, that, and the other (School of Roch)
In this edition of “the headline tells you nothing about the article,” a scout compares prospect Ryan Mountcastle to Ichabod Crane, and this is apparently a compliment.

For Miguel Castro, giving back begins at home (Steve Melewski)
A trio of MLBers, including Miguel Castro, made some contributions back in the Dominican Republic.

Orioles could face obstacles in hiring coaching staff (Baltimore Baseball)
The obstacle is that it’s late in the calendar to be trying to assemble a coaching staff.

Orioles expand in Warehouse to grow ticket sales, sponsorships (Baltimore Business Journal)
The Orioles are going to occupy a bit more space in the B&O Warehouse for the next three years. The new space will be dedicated to selling more tickets. They will probably need the help.

Banning the shift is a solution in search of a problem (Fangraphs)
If commissioner Rob Manfred succeeds in banning the shift, that would be dumb.

Birthdays and anniversaries

In 2010, the Orioles traded David Hernandez and Kam Mickolio to the Diamondbacks for Mark Reynolds. In the years since, Reynolds has gone on to ascend to 12th place on the career strikeouts list.

There are a few former Orioles with birthdays today. They are: 1984-89 outfielder/DH Larry Sheets, 1977 three-gamer Mike Parrott, and 1981 reliever Jeff Schneider.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: songwriter Ira Gershwin (1896), “Take Five” pianist/composer Dave Brubeck (1920), Craigslist founder Craig Newmark (1952), movie man Judd Apatow (1967), and basketballer Giannis Antetokounmpo (1994).

On this day in history...

In 1648, the English New Model Army purged Parliament of any MPs who might take the side of King Charles I. That same Parliament went on to try and execute the king within three months.

In 1884, the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. was finally completed.

In 1917, Finland declared its independence from Russia.

In 1947, Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated. This is only 20% of the original size of the Everglades.

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on December 6 - or at least, unless something happens later, which it might, because you never know. Have a safe Thursday.