Friday Bird Droppings: It’s World Series time

Good morning, Camden Chatters.

Only two teams are still standing. One series remains. The 2023 MLB season will wrap up sometime in the next four to seven games with the crowning of a new champion.

The World Series begins tonight with one of the unlikeliest matchups that could have been predicted when the playoffs began. Representing the National League is the Arizona Diamondbacks, who had the worst record of any of the 12 postseason teams at 84-78 — a whopping 17 games worse than the Orioles, and even four games worse than the Seattle Mariners, who didn’t make the playoffs at all.

Coming out of the AL is the Texas Rangers, who early in the season looked every bit like serious World Series contenders before fading in the second half and falling into a wild card spot, only to rebound and dominate every opponent — the Orioles included — in the postseason.

Few predicted the Rangers to get past the Rays, the O’s, or the Astros, let alone all three. Absolutely nobody predicted the D’Backs to take down the division-winning Brewers and Dodgers and the previously red-hot Phillies. But here we are. Rangers. Diamondbacks. Something tells me this won’t be the most widely watched World Series of all time, but it’s intriguing in its own way. The D’Backs haven’t won a championship since 2001. The Rangers have never won one in their 63-year-history, dating back to their days as the Washington Senators. So no matter who wins, we’ll be seeing a rather unfamiliar team at the top of the baseball world.

I’ll be tuning in, because it’s the World Series. But this would have been a whole lot more fun if the Orioles were involved.

Links

Villa promoted to Orioles director of player development - School of Roch
A whole bunch of O’s player development staff just got promotions, and it certainly seems like they’ve earned them. Congratulations to all of those who are movin’ on up.

Elias, Hyde, Henderson win Sporting News awards - BaltimoreBaseball.com
While these aren’t as high-profile as the BBWAA awards that will be announced in November, the Sporting News honored three Orioles, including a second consecutive AL Manager of the Year award for Brandon Hyde. Hopefully the BBWAA will agree this time instead of shunning Hyde like they did last year.

Jon Meoli: How coaching changes could impact the Orioles’ pitching program - The Baltimore Banner
Paradoxically, Chris Holt is so talented that it’s a good thing he’s not the O’s pitching coach anymore. Now he’ll be able to implement his pitching program throughout the organization, as Meoli notes.

Is there a lesson for the Orioles from the 2023 postseason results? - Steve Melewski
People can opine all they want about whether the playoff format is fair or not, but the main lesson for the Orioles is this: they should play better next time.

Orioles birthdays and history

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Five former Orioles were born on this day: infielder Rubén Tejada (34), right-hander Jason Johnson (50), outfielder Pedro Swann (53), lefty Eric Bell (60), and the late catcher Del Rice (b. 1922, d. 1983), who had one lone at-bat for the O’s in 1960 amidst a 17-year MLB career.

Random MLB game of the day

On Oct. 27, 2019, the visiting Houston Astros defeated the Washington Nationals in Game 5 of the World Series, 7-1, to take a 3-2 lead in the series. The Astros never trailed in the game, jumping out to a 2-0 lead on Yordan Alvarez’s second-inning homer off Joe Ross, followed by a Carlos Correa two-run blast two innings later. George Springer added a two-run shot of his own in the ninth to put the game out of reach, while Gerrit Cole worked seven strong innings in what would turn out to be his final game for Houston.

At that point, the visiting team had won all five games of the series. Unfortunately for the Astros, that pattern continued, and the Nats went on to win the final two games in Houston to claim the championship. That weird bit of history repeated itself just this past week, again at the Astros’ expense, when the Rangers beat them in an ALCS in which the road teams went 7-0.