Wednesday Bird Droppings: A Flaherty flop

Good morning, Birdland!

If you’re going to lose a west coast game, last night was the way to do it. Give up a boatload of runs early, don’t provide any amount of false hope on the offensive side, and let your east coast fan base turn off the TV without any concern of missing a comeback. You thought Jack Flaherty pitched poorly, but he was actually just being courteous. That’s the sort of X-factor this team needed at the deadline!

Flaherty has now made three starts for his new team. They have progressed from great to meh to yikes, in that order. His 7.07 ERA in those 14 innings is bad, but probably a bit unfair to his overall quality thus far. His 4.55 FIP is closer to reality and is about what we were all expecting from the addition. The Orioles would be fine with that sort of FIP if it also came with some length. It did in his first two turns, but not last night.

The O’s bullpen is thin right now as they work with a six-man starting rotation. They had to use three more arms after Flaherty last night, and then James McCann took one for the team and gave them an inning. With an off day Thursday they may be able to avoid any roster moves for the time being. But that probably depends on what Dean Kremer can give them tonight as he goes toe-to-toe with Cy Young contender Blake Snell.

Links

Orioles ownership needs a reality check | The Baltimore Sun
Good luck with that! Team owners don’t tend to even live in reality, so it’s tough to check them on it. John Angelos is waiting, expecting the state of Maryland to blink. They shouldn’t, but he has four more months to play with, so it seems likely that he takes that entire time.

Webb refusing to waste opportunity with Orioles | Roch Kubatko
It’s early. Jacob Webb has only made four appearances for the Orioles, but the 30-year-old righty sure has looked good. The team needed to uncover at least one more dependable relief arm. Maybe Webb is the guy.

For Orioles’ John Means, rehab tour provides reunion with coaches who helped make him an All-Star | The Baltimore Banner
We love to see the John Means machine revving back up. Who knows what he can give the 2023 squad, but he certainly won’t hurt. Hopefully September gives him enough time to get up to speed.

Orioles birthdays

Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!

• Bret Barberie turns 56. The infielder spent 1995 in Baltimore, posting a 77 OPS+ and 1.1 bWAR.
• The late Gene Brabender (b. 1941, d. 1996) was born on this day. He was a member of the Orioles pitching staff from 1966 through ‘68, tossing 289.2 innings between the rotation and the bullpen.
• A posthumous birthday for Gene Woodling (b. 1922, d. 2001), who had a solid 17-season big league career. His time with the O’s was split into two stints. The first was a half season in 1955, and the second lasted from 1958 through 1960.

This day in O’s history

1996 - The O’s explode for 14 runs to beat the Athletics in game one of a doubleheader. Rafael Palmeiro leads the way with six RBI, and eight members of the starting lineup record at least two hits. Baltimore also wins game two 5-4.

1999 - Former Orioles pitcher Juan Guzmán has to leave his start for the Reds because his shoes are too small and giving him blisters. He had been dealt to Cincinnati two weeks prior along with his size-10.5 orange cleats. But he instead wears the new size-9.5 red cleats sent to him by Puma.