Thursday Bird Droppings: Still annoyed about the Gold Glove snub of Jorge Mateo

Hello, friends.

Are you ready to start to find out who’s going to be crowned the champion of MLB this year? Too bad, because the World Series doesn’t start until tomorrow night. It’s been a several days dead period owing to neither LCS going past five games. Things might not have felt as dead for so long if one of those series had gone the distance. Some day these late October problems will be directly relevant to Orioles fans.

It’s not so bad. You can always spend tonight doing something hopefully fun like catching up on some of the shows that you missed during baseball season. In this house, we’ll be trying to get caught up on Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, whose second season has more delightful murder investigation podcasting hijinks between Steve Martin and Martin Short and their bewildered millennial building-mate Selena Gomez. What’s at the top of your pile of stuff to watch?

2023 Opening Day for the Orioles is five months and three days away from today. That’s quite a while, though as we have written on this site lately and will be writing for the next couple of months, there’s at least a decent chance something happens over the November/December/January months this offseason. That hasn’t happened since Mike Elias took over - with not even a longshot chance of anything last year due to the lockout.

Whatever happens could be a big surprise. Elias and company have seemed to run a tight ship in terms of rumors leaking out to the media. That is to say, they mostly haven’t. We’ve seen this a lot with their draft decisionmaking and a bit with trade deadline deals. If they are actually looking to sign meaningful free agents or make hot stove season trades, that probably won’t be any different. We all might find out when the team sends out a press release.

That’s still a couple of weeks away in any case. The World Series must be played, finished, and several days must pass before there’s even the potential for free agent activity. The Phillies and Astros have the stage. Do you think that the Astros will keep rolling like they’ve done all postseason so far, or will these surprising Phillies find a way to pull off a stunning upset?

Around the blogO’sphere

Jorge Mateo deserved a Gold Glove (FanGraphs)
You’re damn right he did! Thanks for noticing, FanGraphs.

The Joe Maddon connection still paying off for Brandon Hyde (Steve Melewski)
With Hyde potentially joining Maddon as a Manager of the Year award winner, Melewski reflects on some of the influence on Hyde of the guy who once had him on the coaching staff.

Reviewing Ryan Mountcastle’s 2022 Orioles season (Baltimore Baseball)
In case you didn’t get enough of thinking about Ryan Mountcastle when Stacey reviewed his season earlier this week, you can also check out Rich Dubroff’s thoughts on the first baseman.

Austin Hays seeks balance after up-then-down 2022 (The Baltimore Sun)
In case you didn’t get enough of thinking about Austin Hays when Tyler reviewed his season last week, you can also check out Nathan Ruiz’s thoughts on the outfielder.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

There are several former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2017 infielder Ruben Tejada, 1999-2003 pitcher Jason Johnson, 2003 reserve outfielder Pedro Swann, 1985-87 pitcher Eric Bell, and 1960 one-game catcher Del Rice.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: composer Niccolò Paganini (1782), sewing machine magnate Isaac Singer (1811), 26th president Theodore Roosevelt (1858), baseball Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner (1922), and novelist Sylvia Plath (1933).

On this day in history...

In 1275, according to historical tradition, the city of Amsterdam was founded.

In 1806, French armies led by Napoleon defeated the Prussians in the Battle of Jena-Auerstadt during the War of the Fourth Coalition, leading to the occupation of Prussia by France until seven years later in the War of the Sixth Coalition.

In 1936, Wallis Simpson received a divorce. This allowed her to marry England’s King Edward VIII; however, the government would not consent to the king marrying a divorced woman, so Edward had to abdicate the throne to his brother, George VI, grandfather to current king Charles III.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on October 27. Have a safe Thursday.