Hello, friends.
All things are relative, and this is true also of how bad the Orioles are right now. There is no doubt that they are bad, but, like a plummet into a Death Star trash compactor, it could be worse. My challenge for you, in hopes that it will make you feel a little bit better, is to think about something that's worse than the Orioles are right now.
Then we just have to hope that the trash compactor walls don't start closing in. Or at least, if they do close in, that the Orioles have an astromech droid out there somewhere to stop them from being crushed. Come to think of it, maybe the O's are at this moment screaming into the comm-link as the walls slide ever closer. I will move on from this nerdiness now.
If you missed last night's rain-shortened Orioles game, you are surely better off. You can and should check out the lowlights in Stacey's recap of the game - though there is at least one O's highlight. There was a new Orioles Eutaw Street home run! I like Eutaw homers. Yes, they're less exciting in 8-1 losses, I agree.
So the Orioles are in third place right now and that's a lot less fun than first place... but hey, it's a whole lot more fun than being 30+ games out like they were on this day six years ago. In fact, that's my thing that's worse than the Orioles are right now: the 2010 Orioles.
Hopefully these links are not worse than the Orioles.
Around the blogO'sphere
Tillman: Shoulder has "definitely been getting better every day" - School of Roch
You don't want to have to hear Chris Tillman talking about his shoulder getting better because that means it was worse. It's something, though! Saturday will be the true test.
Orioles' Australian left-hander Alexander Wells proving advanced in debut at Aberdeen - Baltimore Sun
There is a new beat writer sheriff in town who loves every prospect, in case you haven't gotten that impression already. Joking aside, I am intrigued by Wells - though of course he's a long way away from MLB.
Can they win the AL East - Baltimore Orioles (Today's Knuckleball)
That is the question everyone is asking around here. Veteran scribe Bernie Pleskoff thinks the O's rotation gives them the least chance out of the Jays, the Sox, and the O's. It's a fair, if unoriginal, take.
Orioles' Hyun Soo Kim gets chance to be solution to team's problems against left-handers - Baltimore Sun
He didn't do much with his first chance, but hopefully it's not his last chance. Nolan Reimold, much as it pains me to say, has done enough to show he's not the solution to any problem.
WATCH: Baltimore Orioles Get The ‘Full House’ Treatment " CBS Baltimore
You may have already seen this video on your rounds about the Internet, but if you have not done so, now you can. I guess I'm not enough of a Full House fan to appreciate it. Don't let that stop you.
Adam Loewen on his Anything-But-Ordinary Career | FanGraphs Baseball
Old friend alert! Fangraphs' David Laurila had a chat with the former Orioles first round pick after his most recent trip to the great DFA in the sky. Good luck to him in the next chapter of his career.
A Cy Young Reliever Should Be Almost Impossible | FanGraphs Baseball
Jeff Sullivan on any topic that connects to the Orioles (in this case, Zach Britton) is mandatory reading.
Jose Altuve reaches 1,000 career hits, but is 3,000 in reach? | SI.com
Another treasure of a baseball writer, Jay Jaffe, arrives with some forecasting for the future of the 3,000 hit club - including his odds for both Manny Machado and the gone-but-certainly-not-forgotten Nick Markakis.
Birthdays and anniversaries
There are two former Orioles with birthdays today. They are 2011 DFA fodder Josh Rupe and the late Bob Kennedy of the 1954-55 Orioles.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Your birthday buddies for today include the following: Mozart rival Antonio Salieri (1750), explorer Meriweather Lewis, compatriot of Clark (1774), the world's deadliest female fighter pilot, Russian Lydia Litvyak (1921), Holocaust survivor and hero Professor Liviu Librescu (1930), baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente (1934), funny man Denis Leary (1957), noted Orioles fan Edward Norton (1969), and music's Aphex Twin (1971).
On this day in history...
In 1587, Virginia Dare became the first English baby born in the Americas. Three years later, her grandfather, Roanoke's governor John White, returned to the colony and found it deserted.
In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was ratified after Tennessee approved it. Maryland, which had rejected the amendment in February, did not ratify the amendment until 1941. Bad form, past Marylanders.
In 1940, the Battle of Britain had what they simply call The Hardest Day, which was the largest aerial engagement in history at that point in time, and the costliest day in aircraft for both sides in the three month battle.
In 1958, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita was first published in the USA.
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And that's the way it is in Birdland on August 18 - or at least, until something happens later. Have a safe Thursday. Go Orioles and all the Americans competing in Rio.