Thursday Bird Droppings: Kyle Bradish gets 4th place for the Cy Young

Hello, friends.

There are now 133 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2024. Report dates for spring training, though not yet official, are probably now no more than three months away.

Is it worth celebrating an Orioles pitcher finishing in fourth place in the Cy Young voting for this year? Kyle Bradish just missed getting onto the “finalist” list. We have not seen any Orioles pitcher get Cy votes since 2016, when Zack Britton’s incredible season of relief also got him a fourth place finish. It’s a nice marker of progress, if not a huge one. The team finally had someone good enough to be in those conversations.

If you really want to dig into the details and get offended, you could probably get yourself worked up about Bradish finishing in fourth behind Toronto’s Kevin Gausman. Just about the only areas where Gausman exceeded Bradish were innings pitched and strikeouts, but Gausman appeared on 27 ballots, including seven as high as second place, while Bradish was on just 19.

For me, even on a slow offseason day, it is not worth getting indignant about this. The difference between third and fourth isn’t much. And obviously both of these guys were way behind Gerrit Cole, who was the unanimous winner for his 2.63 ERA over 209 innings for the Yankees. Maybe next year we’ll have the good fortune of Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez dueling for votes. I won’t hold my breath on that one.

Three voters tossed a fifth place spot to Orioles closer Félix Bautista, which set him up with an 11th place finish. Had Bautista been healthy for September and pitched at his previous level, he would surely have gotten more support than that. As we know, that wasn’t how it worked out. And he certainly won’t be getting any votes next year.

We’ve got one more day of award results season to go. The MVP awards will be handed out tonight. I’ll be curious to see how many ballots and how high on those ballots that Rookie of the Year winner Gunnar Henderson ends up. Baseball Reference WAR is not the only thing that should determine MVP finishes, but with that said, Henderson had the fifth-best bWAR of any American League player this season. The best player on the best team usually gets a little boost as well.

Around the blogO’sphere

Kyle Bradish’s fourth place finish the highest for an Orioles starter since 1999 (The Baltimore Sun)
It’s both surprising and not surprising to read that the Orioles didn’t have a starting pitcher appear on multiple Cy Young ballots since Mike Mussina in 1999. It’s surprising because that’s a long time to go without top-end starting pitching. It’s not surprising if you’ve been watching the Orioles starting pitching from 2000 to now.

Five teams that could land Corbin Burnes (The Athletic)
The Athletic’s Jim Bowden isn’t someone I consider for generating realistic trade proposals. That said, perhaps you’ll find it worth it as a starting point for sorting out your own thoughts: Coby Mayo, DL Hall, Chayce McDermott, and Dylan Beavers for Burnes. That’s gonna be a no from me, dog.

‘The sky’s the limit’: Gunnar’s top moments from ROY season (Orioles.com)
There’s never a bad time for Gunnar Henderson highlights.

Brandon Hyde was a slam dunk, and rightfully so (Baltimore Baseball)
More praise for the Orioles manager with his own award win having happened this week.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 2018, the Orioles made official that Mike Elias was hired to be the team’s general manager. Five years later, it’s looking like a pretty good decision.

There is one current Oriole with a birthday today. Happy 24th to Grayson Rodriguez!

A few former Orioles were also born on this day. They are: 2007-08 reliever Fernando Cabrera, 2010 infielder Julio Lugo, and 1963 pitcher Buster Narum.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Constitution signer and Fort McHenry namesake James McHenry (1753), musician W.C. Handy (1873), novelist Chinua Achebe (1930), Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto (1952), actress Maggie Gyllenhaal (1977), and comedian Pete Davidson (1993).

On this day in history...

In 1907, Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th state of the Union. It was formed from the combination of what was previously known as Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory.

In 1945, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization was founded. Today, there are 1,159 World Heritage Sites under UNESCO’s umbrella, of which 25 are in the United States. From the Baltimore area, your closest option is Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on November 16. Have a safe Thursday.