Thursday Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles won’t have the #1 pick next year

Hello, friends.

It is official now. The Orioles will not have the worst record in baseball this season. The Tigers lost yet again on Wednesday night, securing that they will have the #1 pick in the 2020 draft. The O’s own loss locked in their #2 spot. There will not be back-to-back #1 picks to start off this rebuild. Check out Andrea’s recap of the Orioles 107th loss of the year.

The Orioles should still be able to draft a very good player, and they might even still draft the best player, if the Tigers choose poorly or unluckily and the Orioles choose luckily or well. But they won’t choose first.

The 3-2 loss at the hands of the Blue Jays marked yet another grim milestone for the 2019 Orioles nonetheless. Gabriel Ynoa took the loss after giving up a first inning home run, dropping his record for the season to 1-10. The Orioles have another 1-10 pitcher on the roster in David Hess.

On last night’s MASN broadcast of the game, Gary Thorne noted that this feat - two pitchers on the same team with 10+ losses and only one win - has not happened since the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics. For that team, Jack Nabors was 1-20 and Tom Sheehan was 1-16. Unrelated to pitching struggles, this team’s first baseman was named Stuffy McInnis and their best pitcher was Bullet Joe Bush. Those are some great old-timey baseball names.

It’s not out of the question that the Orioles could end up with a third pitcher in this undistinguished category. Paul Fry sports a 1-9 record on the season. How does a reliever end up with nine losses? Very carefully. I don’t know off hand whether some other, older baseball team had a similar struggle or if the Orioles would have that all to themselves.

Mike Mussina was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame 250 days ago. The Orioles have not yet announced any plans to retire his jersey number or add his statue to Legends Plaza at Camden Yards.

Around the blogO’sphere

Notes and some thoughts on Hays (School of Roch)
Roch’s on board with a healthy Austin Hays being the Opening Day center fielder in 2020 and I’m right there with him.

Mike Elias on Alex Cobb, openers, and more (Baltimore Baseball)
Elias’s Sunday remarks contained multitudes beyond just Chris Davis’s future. Here, Rich Dubroff runs through some of the things that were less covered so far.

Jonathan Villar aims to play all 162 games (Orioles.com)
He’s 98.1% of the way there. Jonathan Villar is also the only player in the majors with 24 home runs and 39 steals.

Sizing up Dylan Bundy’s year (Steve Melewski)
If the Bundy of the last ten starts (3.99 ERA) is the Bundy who shows up next season, that would be more exciting than a lot of alternatives.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 1971, the Orioles beat the Indians, 5-0. Jim Palmer racked up his 20th win of the season in the game, the fourth O’s pitcher to do so that year.

In 1978, Mike Flanagan took a no-hitter down to the final out against the Indians before giving up a home run and then two more hits. Don Stanhouse came on for the save in a 3-1 win.

There are a pair of former Orioles with birthdays today. They are: 1988 reliever Doug Sisk, and 1975-76 catcher Dave Duncan.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: pioneer planter Johnny Appleseed (1774), physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849), poet T.S. Eliot (1888), actress Olivia Newton-John (1948), actress Linda Hamilton (1956), actor Jim Caviezel (1968), tennis legend Serena Williams (1981), and new late night host Lilly Singh (1988).

On this day in history...

In 1687, the Parthenon of Athens, which has stood since 438 BC, was damaged during a war between Venice and the Ottoman Empire.

In 1905, Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity was introduced when he published the third of his Annus Mirabilis papers.

In 1918, during World War I, the Allies launched the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the ongoing success of which led to German surrender about six weeks later.

In 1960, the first-ever televised presidential candidate debate took place between then-vice president Richard Nixon and then-senator John F. Kennedy.

In 1983, an officer in the Soviet Air Force, Stanislav Petrov, reacted to a report of an incoming nuclear missile by determining it was a computer error, rather than an actual attack, preventing a “response” nuclear launch.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on September 26 - or at least, unless something happens on the Orioles off day when there are only three games left to play. Have a safe Thursday.