Thursday Bird Droppings: When your ex-prospect wins a Cy Young elsewhere

Hello, friends.

There are now 136 days until Orioles Opening Day 2016.

As of last night, there are only two pitchers to ever win a Cy Young award who have been drafted by the Orioles. The first was Mike Flanagan. The second game last night, when Jake Arrieta triumphed in the National League. It sucks a lot, and it's a bit tougher to hold to my belief that he never would have succeeded here... but really. He was 27 when the Orioles finally traded him and he had a career ERA at that time of over 5. He was so bad here, you guys. So bad.

Likely it's the Orioles fault in some way for failing to unlock his full potential, although maybe not. Maybe it's just one of those things. But that doesn't make it any easier to swallow watching him succeed at such a high level in the same year that the O's starting rotation was more or less garbage. Especially with the only good starting pitcher departing as a free agent - and now there are no sure things hanging around in next year's rotation. In Chicago, meanwhile, they will have the defending Cy Young winner in their 2016 rotation.

Alright, enough about that. Let's roll into the links.

Around the blogO'sphere

Ex-Orioles pitcher Jake Arrieta seems poised to win NL Cy Young Award - Baltimore Sun
Spoiler: He won. Arrieta received 17 of the 30 first place votes available. That's a pretty easy way to win it. You know, after you've done the hard part of putting up a 0.75 ERA over the second half of a baseball season.

Steve Melewski: When is the right time to lock up a core player?
Using the context of the recent San Francisco Giants extension for Brandon Crawford, half of the MASN duo wants to know when is the right time to lock up a core player? I don't think he needs me to tell him that with the Oriole and Manny Machado, the right time is right now.

School of Roch: Orioles interested in Neil Walker
The other half of the MASN duo with some far less interesting or positive thoughts to ponder, about which I will have more to say on this site later in the day.

Darren O'Day Seeks Four-Year Deal - MLB Trade Rumors
Four years and $36 million is a lot!

There’s Nothing Wrong With Paying Big for Darren O’Day | FanGraphs Baseball
...but Jeff Sullivan says that teams shouldn't sweat it, because Darren O'Day is really good. He's right! O'Day is good. Although unfortunately I think that for a team like the Orioles, who have so many holes to fill and a budget that seems to have some limitations, maybe it's not the best way to spend their dollars.

Birthdays and anniversaries

On this day in 1963, the Orioles announced the hiring of Hank Bauer as manager. That one worked out OK, wouldn't you say?

Of all of the players to ever play for the Orioles, two have birthdays today. They are Dickie Noles, who appeared in all of two games for the 1988 O's, and Larry Haney, from the 1966-68 teams. It's also the birthday of sorta-almost Oriole Justin Duchscherer.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Along with those former Orioles, your birthday buddies are: King Charles I of England (1600), notable for being executed 49 years later; President James A. Garfield (1831), notable for being assassinated; talk show host Larry King (1933), Calvin Klein founder Calvin Klein (1942), The West Wing actress Allison Janney (1959), actress Meg Ryan (1961), actress Jodie Foster (1963), Olympic gold medal gymnast Kerri Strug (1977), and Every Time I Die singer-songwriter Keith Buckley (1979).

On this day in history...

In 1493, Christopher Columbus first stepped ashore of the island that today we call Puerto Rico. He originally named it San Juan Bautista.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, in which he incorrectly speculated that the world would not long remember what he had to say on that day.

In 1969, the Apollo 12 astronauts Alan Bean and Pete Conrad became the third and fourth people to ever walk the surface of the Moon.

In 1990, the Grammy Award for Best New Artist given to Milli Vanilli was stripped upon determination that they did not actually sing on their award-winning album.

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And that's the way it is in Birdland on November 19 - at least, unless something happens later. Have a safe Thursday.