Weekend Bird Droppings: Where Adam Jones may be back in action soon

Good morning, Birdland!

Welp, baseball (along with just about everything else) remains on pause in North America, and it doesn’t sound like that is changing anytime soon. However, there is baseball to watch elsewhere in the world.

The Korea Baseball Organization and Japan’s Nippon Pro Baseball have both restarted spring training activities following their own coronavirus lockdown. Games are occurring in empty stadiums. Heck, there are even highlights to cherish.

The exact date of their opening days remains up in the air, but it is expected to take place sometime in mid-to-late-April. In the meantime, the spring training videos will have to tide us over.

For Orioles fans, the NPB takes on a heightened importance over any of its previous seasons. A familiar face is suiting up for the NPB’s Orix Buffaloes. That’s right. The one and only Adam Jones could be playing real baseball in just a few weeks. That’s almost as good as actual Orioles games, right?

If you are interested, it seems that the easiest way to watch NPB and KBO games would be by using a VPN and finding the appropriate streaming service. But if anyone in the comments has a better method, feel free to let us know. We all need a baseball fix!

Links

Hyde keeping tabs on players remotely - Orioles.com
It sounds like the Orioles are operating just like any other business right now. Checking email, lots of conference calls, and a healthy amount of texts between co-workers.

“We’re in a holding pattern that we’ve never been in before” - School of Roch
More quotes from the same interview with the skipper. Perhaps the most significant takeaway here is in regards to Trey Mancini. The team’s slugger is said to be in good spirits and mentally strong. That is great news!

How it might look in 2020: The O’s rotation - Steve Melewski
The O’s rotation is something I would rather not look at, thank you very much.

Orioles birthdays and history

Is it your birthday? Happy birthday! Two former Orioles turn another year older today.

Jimmy Yacabonis turns 28. The right-handed pitcher was drafted by the O’s in 2013, and then spent parts of three seasons in the big leagues between 2017 and 2019. In 55 total games as an Oriole, Yac compiled a 5.75 ERA, 78 ERA+ and 0.2 bWAR. He is currently in the San Diego Padres organization.

Longtime major league outfielder Tommy Davis is 81. He played with the Orioles from 1972 to 1975, slashing .291/.327/.372 with 24 home runs, 102 OPS+ and 2.4 bWAR. Davis received a bit of MVP buzz as an O, finishing 10th in the voting in 1973 and then 26th in the voting in 1974.

2018 - Alex Cobb signs a four-year, $57 million contract with the Orioles. The right-handed pitcher had bounced back from Tommy John surgery in 2016 to post a solid 3.66 ERA over 179.1 innings in 2017.