Monday Bird Droppings: Where spring training is looking ugly

Happy Monday, Camden Chatters! I hope you had a lovely weekend.

The Orioles continue to roll through spring training and their pitchers continue to struggle. Yesterday they stumbled to a 13-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates broadcast the game on their cable network, so if you have MLB.tv maybe you saw it! If you could stand to watch, that is.

One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday afternoon is to snooze on the couch in front of the Orioles game, and I was happy to do just that yesterday! It’s the best way to watch the team’s defense fall apart, in my opinion.

Because yesterday’s game was pretty ugly. Starter John Means struggled, but his day would have looked better if he hadn’t been the victim of a botched double play. I’m not worried about Means yet, because I have to have some hope.

Fernando Abad is trying to make the team this year, and today’s audition did not go well. He gave up five runs in one inning, but he also had to deal with an error from Ramon Urias. Dillon Tate didn’t fare much better, giving up three runs in his inning. It was a pretty poor showing all around.

Today is the first of just two off days for the Orioles this spring, so there will be no baseball to check in on this afternoon.

Links

High-level prospects crowded field Tuesday, club still needs look at Kjerstad - School of Roch
Roch has all kinds of info in his "leftover for breakfast" post. Austin Hays or Cedric Mullins? Or both? Plus, Adley on catching the knuckleballer, and lots of prospects are getting looks.

Orioles observations on Yusniel Diaz making an impression, John Means’ progress and a brutal day on the infield | ANALYSIS - Baltimore Sun
Jon Meoli takes a look at how Yusniel Diaz has impressed in spring this year. This has to be year we finally see him in the big leagues, right?

Sunday Notes: Dustin Morse is Missing the Hammond Stadium Press Box | FanGraphs Baseball
Sunday notes have tidbits on Tyler Nevin and Adley Rutschman.

Birthdays and History

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have five Orioles birthday buddies, four of whom were with the team for less than 10 games over one season. The fifth is Marv Breeding (b. 1934, d. 2006). Breeding played second base for the Orioles from 1960-1962. He appeared in 337 games in those three years. His batting line was...not worth mentioning.

Mark Worrell (four games in 2011), Chris Lambert (four games in 2009), and Mike Moriarty (eight games in 2002) are all celebrating their birthdays today.

It’s also the birthday of the late Ryan Freel, who played in just nine game for the Orioles in 2009 before being traded to the Cubs. 2009 was Freel’s last year in the big leagues, he spent most of his career with the Cincinnati Reds. Freel tragically took his own life in 2012 at the age of 36. After his death, Freel’s family donated his brain to studied and he was posthumously diagnosed with CTE. He suffered multiple concussions during his playing career.

On this day in 2001, the Orioles announced that Albert Belle was permanently disabled due to a degenerative hip condition and would not play in the MLB again. Belle had signed a five-year contract with the Orioles before the 1999 season but was unable to play the final three years.