Friday Bird Droppings: Where Orioles palace intrigue is in fashion

Hello, friends.

Another day has dawned with the Orioles in last place in the American League East.

Did you enjoy your day off from the Orioles? Hopefully so, because they’re back and so is this train of misery that is the 2018 season. The Marlins are coming to town starting tonight, which may be a small piece of good news as the O’s could stand to get to face another bad baseball team. They have thus far acquitted themselves somewhat acceptably against bad teams such as the White Sox, Royals, and Mets.

The off day is unlikely to have solved any of the team’s problems, unless it turns out that the day off - or in Chris Davis’s case, three days off - was just the sort of mental reset needed to get assorted players looking like better versions of themselves than what they have shown thus far in 2018. Jonathan Schoop, Trey Mancini, we’re looking at you.

Even if the offense is somehow solved, there’s still the defense to contend with. They are bad at basically every position, especially in the outfield, but only slightly less so in the infield. Manny Machado’s move to shortstop combined with Tim Beckham’s injury has led to an All Along The Watchtower kind of infield: There’s too much confusion. They can’t get no relief.

And the pitching staff, oy vey, the pitching staff. Richard Bleier is definitely out for a while. Tanner Scott is coming back, which may not be a bad thing. Brad Brach and Mychal Givens haven’t been good out of the bullpen. Alex Cobb hasn’t been good in the rotation. Kevin Gausman has underperformed. David Hess and Yefry Ramirez may or may not be worth anything.

Commercials on MASN this season proclaim at their conclusion: Ain’t baseball great? No, it ain’t.

Around the blogO’sphere

Rosenthal: Big shakeup coming for O’s? (The Athletic)
If you are a subscriber to The Athletic, you can get the latest palace intrigue from Ken Rosenthal. If you’re not a subscriber, the free few paragraphs tease about Buck Showalter’s position no longer being totally secure.

Bracing for the worst with Bleier (School of Roch)
Roch doesn’t see any point in pretending that there might be good news about Bleier. Hard to argue with this point of view.

Latest slide puts Orioles on 116-loss pace as struggles are reaching historic levels (Baltimore Sun)
The Orioles beat corps has been watching some horrible baseball and for the most part, they are not sugarcoating what they are seeing.

Davis a prime rebound candidate (Orioles.com)
LOL. But don’t blame Brittany Ghiroli for this one, as it seems some editor tasked her with picking one slumping hitter from each AL East team.

Will more youth be on the way, plus other notes and Aberdeen’s roster (Steve Melewski)
Melewski thinks that Cedric Mullins might be the next Orioles prospect to get a shot this season.

Field of dreams: Father builds one, son drafted by Orioles (Delmarva Now)
This is actually about 2016 pick Brenan Hanifee, now pitching for the Shorebirds, who comes from a family of Orioles fans.

Adam Jones paid $3.456 million to buy Cal Ripken Jr.’s mansion (Baltimore Sun)
Considering the house was first listed at $12.5 million, Jones seems to have gotten a bit of a deal here.

The Blue Jays should plan for 2020 (Fangraphs)
Although this is about the Blue Jays and not the Orioles, its central argument about the ascendant Yankees and Red Sox is one that also applies to the O’s.

Birthdays and anniversaries

Of all of the players to ever suit up for the Orioles, not a single one has a birthday today. This was also true yesterday.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Your birthday buddies for today include: Mona Lisa subject Lisa del Giocondo (1479), singer-songwriter Waylon Jennings (1937), actor Jim Belushi (1954), actress Helen Hunt (1963), actress Courteney Cox (1964), rapper Ice Cube (1969), and actor Neil Patrick Harris (1973).

On this day in history...

In 763 BC, the Assyrians recorded the occurrence of a solar eclipse, a significant date in that it has allowed historians to understand the chronology of Mesopotamian history.

In 1215 AD, England’s King John put his seal on Magna Carta. In a bit of a dick move, John had the pope of the day, Innocent III, annul the document within weeks. The unhappy barons rebelled.

In 1752, at least according to tradition, Ben Franklin conducted his experiment of flying a kite in a thunderstorm to prove that lightning is electricity.

In 1844, Charles Goodyear received a patent for vulcanization, which strengthens rubber.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on June 15 - or at least, until something happens later when the Orioles play the Marlins. Have a safe Friday. Go O’s!