Happy Monday, Camden Chatters! I hope you had a fun Halloween weekend. If you’re a Ravens fan, my condolences on whatever that game was yesterday.
It was, obviously, a slow weekend for the Orioles. They made some housekeeping moves, if you missed it. Albert Suárez, Colin Selby, and Codi Heuer cleared waivers. Suárez elected free agency, not that it’ll keep him from being an Oriole next year anyway. Selby and Heuer will remain in the system. If you’re not sure who Cody Heuer is, that’s ok. Nobody is.
There are quite a few things happening today! The BBWAA award finalists will be announced; the same will happen for the Silver Sluggers. It’s possible we could see Pete on the Silver Slugger list; I expect every other finalist for all awards will be non-Orioles.
Also, free agency opens today. So t’s the last day for teams to extend qualifying offers to their free agents, which means the Orioles will be giving one to Trevor Rogers…unless they announce they have signed him to a new contract! (Don’t hold your breath).
Today is also the day that the Orioles must decide if they’ll pick up Ryan Mountcastle’s $7.5 million team option. There doesn’t seem to be a place for him on this team. But sometimes the Orioles do weird things.
In non-Orioles baseball news, the Gold Glove winners were announced yesterday. Former Oriole Christian Walker won his fourth award. Aside from him, nine of the winners were honored for the first time.
Links
A busy November is coming, more from the mailbag – MASN Sports
November was busy last year, even without an impending lockout. And Roch dips back into his never-ending supply of mailbag questions.
Orioles utility prospect Brandon Butterworth: ‘I love being on the field. I love being available’ – BaltimoreBaseball.com
Rich Dubroff caught up with prospect Brandon Butterworth, who I just learned is 5’9”!
Orioles decline Robert’s ’27 team option after injury-plagued season – MLB.com
If you missed this news, here it is. Kind of a no-brainer, considering the option was for $20 million.
Birthdays and History
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have five Orioles birthday buddies, including Sam Horn (63). Horn DH’d for the Orioles from 1990-92. In his Orioles debut in 1990, Horn hit two home runs and had six RBI. He was a lefty who couldn’t hit lefties, but thrived as a platoon bat. In his best year, 1991, Horn OPS’d .850 with 22 home runs in 117 games.
Other former Orioles born on this day in history are judge puncher Sidney Ponson (50), 2022 three-gamer Denyi Reyes (30), journeyman Wilson Betemit (45), and 1980 pitcher Paul Hartzell (73).
On this day in 1971, Pat Dobson pitched a no-hitter against the Yomiuri Giants in an exhibition game in Japan. The Orioles played 20 games in their tour of Japan and went 12-2-4.
In 2011, the Orioles claimed Darren O’Day on waivers from the Texas Rangers. Yes, he was a waiver claim! O’Day spent seven seasons as a stalwart in the Orioles’ bullpen. He appeared in over 60 games in five seasons. He was especially dominant in his first four seasons, when he pitched to a 1.93 ERA in 273 games.
