Tuesday Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles are on a roll

Happy Tuesday, Camden Chatters! How about those Orioles? Winners of four out of their last five games, a full two games out of last place in the division. They finished up their homestand with two series wins and a four-game series split. That’s good baseball!

This team is bad, I’m not delusional. But sometimes they are also fun. And it’s getting easier to squint and imagine a time when this team could be good. That’s a pretty good feeling, isn’t it?

I’m not saying we’ve got this rebuilding thing in the bag. There is still a lot that needs to happen, a lot that could go wrong, and a lot of very good teams in the division. I’m just saying that after so long of nothing but gloom, it’s starting to feel like I wouldn’t be crazy to have some hope.

Maybe I’m just on an Orioles-related high for two reasons. First, the previously mentioned four wins out of five games. Two came against the first-place Twins and two against the last-place Royals. And it could have easily been a five-game win streak if not for a bad end to game two in the Royals series.

Bad teams win four out of five games sometimes. Having watched a lot of bad baseball in my day, I know this. But I’m still a sucker for a solid run of baseball. It gets me imagining a world where being an Orioles fan is more like 2012-2016 than the rest of my adult life. And one of these days, a run of solid baseball might mean we’re watching a solid baseball team.

The second thing is that guy down in Norfolk. The buzz around media (social and mainstream) is that May 16th might be the day that we finally see Adley Rutschman in Baltimore. I won’t believe it until I hear it from Mike Elias, but regardless of the specific date it’s coming soon. And it might not be just Rutschman. In a story for MLB.com, Joe Trezza states that he could just be the start of a “big wave” of promotions that will change the look of the team.

Trezza mentions Grayson Rodriguez, D.L. Hall, Kevin Smith, and Kyle Stowers as players who could follow in the so-called wave. My question is, do you think Kyle Bradish is sad that no one says he’s the one who kicked off the wave?

Links

Expectations For Orioles Prospect Adley Rutschman Are Outlandish, Unreasonable … And Necessary? - PressBox
In which Glenn Clark 1) says that it's basically understood that Adley Rutschman will be promoted to the Orioles for Monday, 5/16's game against the Yankees, and 2) believes that for the Orioles to succeed, Rutschman must be live up to every bit of the hype. Do you agree?

Orioles reset: Through two homestands, the new ‘mountain’ in left field at Camden Yards is proving difficult to scale – Baltimore Sun
Look I'm just gonna say it: I hate that wall.

Minor Monday: Neustrom finding his stroke at Norfolk - BaltimoreBaseball.com
Robert Neustrom isn't a highly ranked prospect, he doesn't appear on the top 30 prospects list. But there's no denying that he’s making the most of his opportunity at Norfolk this year.

Birthdays and History

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have exactly one Orioles birthday buddy: Kam Mickolio. Mickolio, who turns 38 years old today, was the fourth-best player to come to Baltimore in the Adam Jones trade. He pitched in 23 games for the 2008-2010 Birds. In the winter of 2010 he was traded to the Diamondbacks along with David Hernandez for Mark Reynolds.

On this day in 1897, the old timey Orioles had a very strange play. Jack Doyle hit a ball to the outfield that rolled in the outfield, up a ladder that was randomly leaning up against the fend, and over for the home run. What the heck? Old timey baseball was wild.

In 1972, Dave McNally pitched his fourth complete game shutout of the season. To date in the 2022 season, there have been two complete games, one each by Patrick Corbin and Walker Buehler. And Corbin’s wasn’t even a shutout!

In 2012, the Orioles became the first team in American League history to start off a game with three straight home runs. Do you remember that? Any guesses on who they were? Go ahead and think about it. I’ll wait...have your guesses ready? It was Ryan Flaherty, J.J. Hardy, and Nick Markakis. That was a fun team, wasn’t it? Also, Ryan Flaherty was batting leadoff? What on earth? Turns out he was first in the lineup three times that year.

Fun fact, that was the second time that Hardy was the meat in a three-dinger sandwich to start a game! He hit the second of three home runs on September 9, 2007 for the Brewers. In that game it was Rickie Weeks, Hardy, and Ryan Braun.