Election Day Bird Droppings: Go out and vote, people!

Good morning, Camden Chatters.

Well, here we are. It’s Election Day in America. Who else is feeling an overwhelming sense of anxiousness and unease? We all hope it’ll be an orderly, peaceful process tonight and perhaps there’ll be cause for celebration by night’s end, but with so many mail-in ballots needing to be tabulated and the possibility of litigation or court cases, this whole ordeal could drag out for several more days or even weeks. Anyway, cheers!

If you live in Maryland, you can register to vote at a polling place and vote today. This is also the case if you live in the District of Columbia. Elsewhere, consult the Internet. In any case, if you ARE registered to vote and you haven’t already done so, what are you waiting for?? Go, do it now! Don’t waste time reading this! (Unless you’re currently reading this while in line to vote, in which case, I retract my reprimand.)

Speaking of voting, MLB awards season is upon us, and last night the Baseball Writers Association of America announced its finalists for Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the Year.

The Orioles were shut out of all categories, which wasn’t a surprise, though some O’s fans were pulling for Ryan Mountcastle to break into the top three of the ROY race. But Mountcastle played just over half the season, and his relatively late call-up presumably put him behind the three finalists, outfielders Kyle Lewis of the Mariners and Luis Robert of the White Sox and right-hander Cristian Javier of the Astros. By Baseball Reference WAR, Mountcastle’s 0.5 mark fell well short of Robert (1.6), Lewis (1.4), and Javier (1.3). On FanGraphs, Mountcastle’s 0.7 WAR is tied for 13th among AL rookies, with Lewis leading the pack at 1.7 and Robert close behind at 1.5.

The good news is that Mountcastle didn’t lose his rookie eligibility this year, so he’ll still be a candidate for Rookie of the Year in 2021, when he’ll (hopefully) have a full season to put up some big numbers.

In other awards news, tonight Rawlings will announce its 2020 Gold Glove winners. (This seems like a weird night to schedule that, but I guess it’d be a welcome reprieve if you want to avoid election coverage for a while.) The Orioles’ Anthony Santander is one of three finalists among AL right fielders, though he seems like a long shot to beat out the Rangers’ Joey Gallo. As they say, it’s an honor just to be nominated.

Have a good day, everyone. I can’t help but wonder how we’ll be feeling this time tomorrow.

Links

Elias: O’s set on ‘reviving winning baseball’ - Orioles.com
It’s apparently an annual tradition for the Orioles to be rumored to be up for sale based on little to no evidence. Mike Elias’ letter to season-ticket holders is the latest attempt to quash those whispers.

Holt and Holmes given new titles (plus other notes) - School of Roch
Elias also held a conference call with reporters yesterday and talked about a number of subjects, including Chris Holt being named the pitching coach and Darren Holmes the assistant pitching coach. Or is that assistant to the pitching coach?

Answers to your Orioles questions - BaltimoreBaseball.com
Rich Dubroff answers questions from readers, including one who thinks the Orioles should try Trey Mancini at third base and another who thinks they should try Ryan Mountcastle there. People, you can’t just put anybody you want at third base! That’s not how this works!

Orioles birthdays and history

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have five Orioles birthday buddies, including 1994-98 right-hander and playoff ruiner Armando Benitez (48), 1979-81 outfielder Mark Corey (65), Red-Sox-great-who-finished-his-career-with-the-Orioles Dwight Evans (69), half-season O’s lefty Ken Holtzman (75), and the late Earl Robinson (b. 1936, d. 2014), an early 1960s outfielder.

On this day in 1982, Jim Palmer was voted the runner-up for the AL Cy Young, marking his eighth (and final) top-5 finish for the award, including three wins. Palmer lost out to the Brewers’ Pete Vuckovich, who was a strange choice, considering he allowed 1.5 baserunners per nine innings, giving up 234 hits and 102 walks, and was only the 34th-best pitcher in the AL by FanGraphs’ WAR (not that that stat existed back then, of course). One pitcher who really got hosed was Toronto’s Dave Stieb, who finished fourth in the voting despite trouncing Vuckovich in every major category, including starts, innings pitched, ERA, WHIP, complete games, and shutouts. But Stieb was 17-14 while Vuckovich was 18-6, and 1980s voters be like, “wiN-loSs rEcOrD iS aLL tHaT mAtTeRs!!!”