Tuesday Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles are closer to full strength

Hello, friends.

There are now 13 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day. This number is currently in use by Manny Machado, so do something amazing today in his honor - but probably don't have that thing be hitting a deep fly ball in the direction of Adam Jones. The number was also worn by Rodrigo Lopez and Steve Barber.

It's getting awfully close to crunch time. The full Orioles team has not assembled for some time, thanks to the World Baseball Classic, though Machado and Welington Castillo are expected back tomorrow and will possibly be back into games on Friday. Jonathan Schoop will be back shortly after the Netherlands lost in the 11th inning to Puerto Rico in the semifinals last night. The American team, including Adam Jones and Mychal Givens, still has a semifinal to get through tonight against Japan.

The team will be using these last couple of weeks to evaluate the fifth starter candidates. Some of that may continue today as the team takes on the Blue Jays. The 1:05 game will actually air on Baltimore radio, so if you can get to listen in to 105.7, you'll be able to tune in. There may also be more outfield experiments, but you won't be able to see that, or at least not for today.

What there will be are links, which are eternal.

Around the blogO'sphere

Pedro Alvarez has the bat to play in Orioles outfield, but what about the defense? - Baltimore Sun
Early returns are that he does not have the defense - or perhaps, worse, that he has precisely the defense to play in the Orioles outfield. But really I noticed this story because the Sun promoted it on Twitter with a photo of Dariel Alvarez.

Wade Miley scratched from today's start - School of Roch
That today was actually yesterday. It seems that Miley was suffering from the flu, or at least flu-like symptoms. Things did not go well without him.

A look at Ubaldo Jiménez and the pitching instructor that helped him - Steve Melewski
Orioles fans may be surprised to learn that anyone has helped Ubaldo Jimenez pitch better at any point. Well, those September starts were pretty good, weren't they?

As season looms, Orioles fans balk over streaming blackout - Baltimore Sun
A genre of journalism I like to call, "Interview someone you already know on Twitter," though to be sure, in-market cord-cutters will be screwed out of legally streaming Orioles games, as has been the case for some time.

Top 18 Prospects: Baltimore Orioles | FanGraphs Baseball
If you haven't gotten enough of Orioles prospect lists, here's Fangraphs taking on the top O's guys. Like most prospect lists, he likes Chance Sisco and doesn't like much of anyone else unless there's some development to come.

Camden Depot: Brady Anderson is Teddy Roosevelt
Over at Camden Depot, a dive into the pages of American history for some comparison for yesterday's Ken Rosenthal story about Brady Anderson.

Birthdays and anniversaries

One lone former Oriole has a birthday today: Tommy Davis of the 1972-75 Orioles. He turns 78 years old today, so happy birthday to him.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you as well! Your birthday buddies for today include: Song dynasty founder Emperor Taizu (927), Night on Bald Mountain composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839), one-time James Bond Timothy Dalton (1946), radical philosopher Slavoj Žižek (1949), Final Fantasy music maestro Nobuo Uematsu (1959), and actress Rosie O'Donnell (1962).

On this day in history...

In 1556, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury was burned at the stake in Oxford for the crime of continuing to believe in the English church under Catholic Queen "Bloody" Mary I of England.

In 1925, the passage of the Butler Act in Tennessee prohibited the teaching of human evolution there.

In 1963, the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closed.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would be boycotting that summer's Olympics in Moscow in protest of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

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And that's the way it is in Birdland on March 21 - or at least, unless something happens later, which, hey, it might, because there's going to be a spring training game and a WBC game today. Have a safe Tuesday!