Hello, friends.
There are now 137 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day. If you prefer a shorter countdown, today marks three months until WBC-participating pitchers and catchers (if any Orioles are doing
so) report to Sarasota for the start of spring training.
We’ve gotten a bit of minor Orioles-related news over this weekend, minor because the news is that a number of people who were already in the Orioles front office have gotten new job titles. This was first reported by MASN’s Roch Kubatko. Among these is a new assistant general manager, Brendan Fournie, whose previous title was “senior director of baseball strategy and operations.” According to Kubatko, Fournie’s portfolio will include baseball economics, advanced scouting, and salary arbitration.
Speaking of scouting, there’s a new boss for domestic scouting and draft operations, with Will Robertson going from director of pro personnel to vice president of domestic scouting. Unless you’re a very particular kind of sick freak, you’ve never heard of Will Robertson (and by the way, if you’re thinking of TV characters, that’s “Danger, Will Robinson”), but this move received some initial praise from The Athletic’s Keith Law.
I am not that kind of sick freak. I hope this shuffling and/or increase of responsibilities helps bring about a more consistently successful era of the Orioles than we’ve gotten from Mike Elias’s front office so far. Last offseason was a real bust, you know? They’ve got to do better this time around.
Probably not much is going to happen on that month in November. Players and agents generally like to give at least a little time to see what develops with the market, and for most players they aren’t going to get the best deal if they rush to sign with a team right away. We will have to exercise as much patience as possible. It’s not a problem until the good players have all signed elsewhere and the Orioles appear to have whiffed on their opportunity for this essential improvement.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
Reviewing an eventful week for the Orioles (Baltimore Baseball)
Rich Dubroff runs down a week of tinkering on the edges of the roster as well as making changes to the coaching staff.
Rubric for grading the Orioles offseason (The Dishwasher)
This rubric’s hypothetical top A+ outcome is signing Framber Valdez, trading for Freddy Peralta, signing Devin Williams and Pete Fairbanks for the bullpen, and signing Kyle Schwarber and Harrison Bader to bolster the offense. The Dishwasher is not holding their breath waiting for this to happen and I won’t be doing so either.
New Orioles manager’s biggest support? A rival skipper (Orioles.com)
We can all hope that in two years working with his friend Stephen Vogt, that Craig Albernaz learned a lot of manager stuff.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
There are a pair of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 1969 reliever Al Severinsen, and 1961-62 outfielder Whitey Herzog (yes, that one). The Hall of Fame manager Herzog passed away last year at age 92.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Baltimore-born surveyor Benjamin Banneker (1731), actress/inventor Hedy Lamarr (1914), Baltimore-born disgraced vice president Spiro T. Agnew (1918), astronomer Carl Sagan (1934), baseball Hall of Famer Bob Gibson (1935), and Baltimore-born R&B artist Sisqó (1978).
On this day in history…
In 1799, the French revolutionary government was overthrown in what is known as the Coup of 18 Brumaire, where Napoleon Bonaparte led a group that established him as First Consul of the country. For some historian, this coup marks the end of the French Revolution.
In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt traveled to view the construction of the Panama Canal, becoming the first president to make an official visit outside of the country while in office.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall effectively fell, with East German authorities allowing citizens from the east to cross west with no restrictions. Civilians on both sides of the wall began unofficial demolition as soon as it became clear they would not be shot for doing so.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on November 9. Have a safe Sunday.
