Monday Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles may have a coaching staff soon

Hello, friends.

There are now 73 days remaining until the next Orioles game. If you find pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training to be any kind of meaningful milestone, you may be pleased to know that is now less than one month from today. Presumably, the Orioles will have a coaching staff by then.

Longtime readers of Camden Chat may know that spring training does not excite me in any way, but I do make an exception on days just after it has snowed in the area. Yesterday, I was shoveling and clearing off cars, and today I will have a bit more of that to do because it kept snowing after it was dark, so the idea of baseball activities starting soon, even if they’re boring, mundane activities being performed by the leftovers of a 47-115 team, is at least sort of exciting.

The news that spring training is less than a month away may sink in with teams at some point. There are a lot of players out there who are still unsigned could help most teams be a better team in 2019. This group is headlined by the big two, Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, whose large contract demands have not yet been met.

It’s different for O’s fans this year since there’s no feeling of urgency about signing free agents. We’re not anxiously awaiting improvement to a roster that we are told will compete this year. The only thing that the Orioles will compete for is the #1 pick in the 2020 draft. Somebody should just go ahead and sign those guys, though. They’re pretty good.

Around the blogO’sphere

Sunday Notes: Can the Astros secret sauce spice up the Orioles pitching? (Fangraphs)
Mike Elias introduced the phrase “secret sauce” into this interview.

Brian Roberts and other ex-Orioles team up for baseball camp (Herald-Tribune)
There’s never a bad time for a feel-good story that involves Brian Roberts.

Reviewing the coaches, arbitration figures, and Trumbo’s recovery (School of Roch)
Several items about Trumbo’s health have appeared on Roch’s blog in the past couple of weeks. I wonder if he’s going to be ready to play on Opening Day.

Orioles don’t raise season ticket prices for 2019, introduce new membership plans (Baltimore Sun)
This stuff probably isn’t going to bring in much new business - unless someone is a really big Billy Joel fan and really wants an early crack at those tickets - but new perks like being able to reserve a few giveaway items when you can’t attend that game may help stave off a few cancellations.

How will the O’s handle their catchers in 2019? (Steve Melewski)
Melewski ranks the four Orioles internal options for catcher and Chance Sisco ranks fourth of four. That’s not very exciting for a once-hyped prospect.

Birthdays and anniversaries

In 1963, the Orioles and White Sox completed a trade that sent future Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio to Baltimore in a five-for-two trade. The O’s, who traded the five, included future Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm in the deal.

In 1993, the Orioles acquired future Hall of Famer Harold Baines (weird to say) from the Athletics. It was a good day for trading for future Hall of Famers.

There are a pair of former Orioles with birthdays today. They are: 1990 four-gamer Danny Boone, and 1984-85 infielder Wayne Gross. It’s also the birthday of the non-Oriole Boog Powell, who is a free agent on his 26th birthday.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Roman politician Mark Antony (83 BC), early American traitor Benedict Arnold (1741 AD), final Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI (1861), novelist John Dos Passos (1896), television’s Andy Rooney (1919), actress Faye Dunaway (1941), movie man Steven Soderbergh (1963), and rapper/actor LL Cool J (1968).

On this day in history...

In 1639, the Fundamental Orders were adopted in Connecticut. The document is considered to be the first written constitution to create a government.

In 1784, Congress officially ratified the Treaty of Paris, which had ended the Revolutionary War.

In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled by plane to the Casablanca Conference, a ten-day summit with British prime minister Winston Churchill on the next steps in World War II. This was significant for being the first time a sitting president traveled by airplane - and the conference itself ended with a declaration that the Allies would only accept unconditional surrender from the Axis Powers to end the war.

In 1967, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park hosted the “Human Be-In,” an event credited with being the precursor to the coming year’s events that now just get called the Summer of Love.

In 1973, Elvis Presley broadcast a concert, Aloha from Hawaii. As this was the same day as the Super Bowl, NBC did not air the concert until April, though there were still claims that more people watched this concert than watched the Apollo 11 moon landing.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on January 14 - or at least, unless something happens later, which you never know, it might. Have a safe Monday.