Hello, friends.
There are now 147 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2026. At most two of these days will have real baseball, depending on whether the World Series finishes in six or seven games. Today is not one of those days, as the teams will travel back to Toronto to settle whatever is left. The Blue Jays hold a 3-2 edge in the series after winning in Los Angeles last night, starting the game with back-to-back homers off Dodgers starter Blake Snell and never looking back. They are now one win away
from their first title since going back-to-back in 1992 and 1993.
As we know, the fact that the World Series is going on hasn’t stopped the Orioles from having some coaching-related news. The big breaking story of the new manager, Craig Albernaz, hit on Sunday night and then hitting coach news – specifically that the two assistants won’t be returning next season – came out during the week.
It wouldn’t surprise me if some more coaching staff news trickles out between now and next week’s press conference introducing Albernaz. Though the Orioles do like to keep things secret and not ever say anything about it, if they do choose to move on from guys, they can’t stop them from telling people, or other people in other front offices finding out because so-and-so Orioles coach is out looking for a new job. At a minimum, one additional change is that it’s not likely that former interim manager Tony Mansolino will go back to his old job. The “interim” seldom sticks around if they aren’t the person chosen for the big chair.
Even moreso than a manager, who has a lot of invisible aspects of his job but does at least have tactical choices and public statements where you can judge him on that, it’s tough to really know who’s a good coach and who’s not a good coach. All that we can tell is whether a group of players does well or doesn’t do well.
With the hitting coaches, pretty much everybody underachieved this past season, so at a minimum, those guys didn’t help stop the problem. The team having moved on from the assistants seems good. I won’t lose any sleep if the hitting coach, Cody Asche, also is out. It’s not as clean to judge the pitching coaches because the sheer amount of injuries, and bad offseason decisions by Mike Elias, left them lacking a lot of talent in their area of influence. Albernaz will probably want to bring in some guys where he had some say, so independent of whether the incumbents did a good job or not, that’s why I’m expecting more change. Maybe we’ll get more trickles today.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
Why Craig Albernaz is a good fit for the Orioles (The Baltimore Banner)
The Banner’s Jon Meoli is feeling good about this hire. He’s not the only one.
On the subject of the new manager, Albernaz, the team posted a short message from him on its Facebook page yesterday. It seems that the jokes about his accent were not selling short the magnitude. I’m particularly fascinated by the way he says “Birdland” with such a strong New England accent that it almost turns into like, Australian.
Enrique Bradfield Jr., tearing up Arizona Fall League, eyes his debut (The Baltimore Sun)
Things are going really well for Bradfield out in Arizona, you guys. He’s more advanced than most of the competition, so it has to be taken with some grains of salt. Still, he could hardly be doing better.
On George Zuverink, a forgotten early Oriole (Baltimore Baseball)
John Eisenberg’s series on Orioles history reaches back for some memories about a relief pitcher who was here from 1955-59, with a last name that will perpetually keep him very far towards the bottom of the alphabetical list for franchise history.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1986, the Orioles traded Storm Davis to the Padres, receiving catcher Terry Kennedy and reliever Mark Williamson. A favorite of mine when I was younger since he had the same first name as me, Williamson’s place in Orioles history was throwing an inning in the combined no-hitter on July 13, 1991.
There is one lone former Oriole who was born on this day. Happy 47th birthday to outfielder Luis Matos, who accumulated 4.4 bWAR for the team from 2000-06.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: architect Christopher Wren (1632), first vice president and second president John Adams (1735), five-star admiral William Halsey Jr. (1882), actor Henry Winkler (1945), and gold medal gymnast Nastia Liukin (1989).
On this day in history…
In 1831, the leader of the deadliest slave rebellion in US history, Nat Turner, was arrested in Virginia. Turner had led a four-day revolt in August that killed more than 50 whites in the area. He was tried and hanged within two weeks of the arrest.
In 1905, in response to an ongoing revolution, Russian tsar Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto, which if he adhered to it (he didn’t) would have provided some basic civil liberties for the Russian people. The manifesto also called for the creation of the Duma, an elected parliament.
In 1938, the infamous radio broadcast where Orson Welles adapted H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds took place, in which some people who turned on their radios mistakenly believed it was a narration of an actual invasion.
In 1945, Jackie Robinson, then a member of the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs, signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers, with whom he eventually debuted, breaking baseball’s color barrier, in 1947.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on October 30. Have a safe Thursday.
