On Monday, the Orioles introduced new Executive Vice President and General Manager Mike Elias in a sort of awkward press conference thing with John & Lou Angelos. Scott from Bird’s Eye View described the setting as featuring “IKEA furniture,” which seems like the perfect choice of words. After the introduction, Elias did an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. I’ll try to pick out some of the more interesting answers he gave here. Question: “Pitching development…how do you plan to fix it?” (Very direct. I like it.) Answer: “developing pitching […]

The Orioles, as is their wont, were in seemingly no hurry to start making actual decisions about their future this offseason. Having wrapped up the worst campaign in team history on Sunday, we heard nothing but crickets from The Warehouse as other teams, such as the Angels, Rangers, and Twins, got on with the dirty business of making staff changes. That finally came to an end today, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that Buck Showalter will not be back with the Orioles, in any capacity, in 2019. The […]

Greeting again, Birdland. It’s been nothing but a whole lotta sadness, losing, and bad, bad baseball since we last talked. My writers are all seemingly too depressed to even analyze anything these days, as my email inbox for ESR stories has been as quiet as Chris Davis’ bat. Hey, I can’t particularly blame them. The Birds have shown zero signs of life lately, and the great majority of the “kids” getting playing time these days are either not kids at all or are kids but are performing quite poorly. The […]

As we search for things to potentially keep us engaged in this 2018 Orioles debacle, we’re pretty much reduced to hoping to “win” the race for the number one draft pick, yes, but shouldn’t we also have some positive and/or interesting things to watch on a nightly basis NOW, as the team plays out the string? There’s Cedric Mullins, who could very well be this team’s centerfielder of the future. There’s Renato Nunez, making a surprise case that he could be a cog in the rebuild. There could very soon […]

For the second time in as many weeks, a long-tenured Oriole, a player who had a huge hand in the team’s run of success from 2012-2016, is getting a proper Eutaw Street Report farewell. Zach Britton, who took Jim Johnson‘s mantle as Orioles closer (we won’t speak of the Tommy Hunter experiment) in 2014, who made Johnson’s own “bowling ball” sinker look like a duckpin version of the real thing, and who gave me one of my favorite twitter schtick bits of all time: .@zbritton is the dealer, @Yankees. He'll […]

Manny Machado is gone. We knew it was coming, but now it’s official. When baseball resumes after the All-Star break, Machado won’t be on the field for the Orioles, and a total rebuild of the franchise may be on the horizon. So while others can do a better job singing hossanas to Manny’s past in Baltimore, allow me to look forward to the future possibilities, with a brief breakdown of the players the Orioles got in return.   Yusniel Diaz – OF (21 years old)   The headliner coming back […]

It’s time for the post I hoped to never have to write, but that, in the back of my mind, I was always preparing myself for. We’ve posted these types of “farewell” articles before – for Wei-Yin Chen, for Matt Wieters – and we will again – likely for Zach Britton in the coming days. I’ve also still got one saved in drafts that I put together for Chris Davis, but never got to post. Funny how things work out (or don’t work out, if you want to look at […]

The All-Star Break approaches. Though this season has seemed to go on forever, it’s somehow just over half finished. Ah, the joys of cheering for a (checks notes) 24-59 baseball team. Jake & Scott over at Bird’s Eye View are soldiering on though, bringing us the SIXTH annual BEVy Awards show. We’re happy to do our small part here at ESR, so please vote on the categories below! Our categories have been the same since 2013 – The Forgotten Man Award and the “Why Are You Breaking My Heart Like […]

(That’s one of my favorite pictures of Manny Machado, via our awesome photographer Craig Landefeld. It’s old, but I don’t know how many more chances I’ll get to use it. So enjoy it with me one last time.) It’s July 3, and the Orioles haven’t lost a game yet this month. They’ve only played one, sure, but we’ll take literally any tiny victory we can get these days. The international signing period began yesterday, and you won’t believe this, but…the Orioles are the only eligible* team that has yet to […]

I dunno, guys. I keep saying there’s no bottom, and the Orioles just keep proving me right. Did you know that they have now lost 14 straight games against American League teams, and haven’t beaten an AL team since May 25, over a calendar month ago? Seems impossible right? I assure you, it’s not…not for these Birds. These Birds, who have now managed to surpass even the 1988 Orioles in ineptitude! The 2018 Orioles are now 23-56. The 1988 Orioles through as many games were 24-55. This team is bad. […]

Orioles fans have grown to love Gary Thorne and all his goofy exclamations in the broadcast booth (most of us, anyway – I still come across the random fan here or there who despises Gary). There’s even a Twitter account in his honor, @DrunkGaryThorne. In Monday night’s loss to the Seattle Mariners, Gary may have finally reached his zenith. He was, I assume, trying to say that the Orioles were within striking distance of Seattle headed to the bottom of the ninth inning. (Shocker: they did not strike). He, instead, […]

It may have taken him just a bit longer than it took some of us, but it seems that Buck Showalter has reached the end of his patience with Chris Davis. Davis has already been sitting for a week, having last stepped to the plate on June 11 against Boston, when he went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. When asked yesterday if his return was imminent, Buck was quite non-committal: “It’s getting close,” Showalter said. “I know he didn’t have an off-day yesterday. Trust me. He worked on a lot of […]

The Birds can’t even manage to win two of three from the “hey, we got rid of all our good players and we’re openly trying to be awful!” Miami Marlins at HOME over the weekend, so the season of misery rolls on as scheduled. The O’s did win one game, on Sunday, Father’s Day. In a nice bit of dark symmetry, that was their first home win since MOTHER’S DAY! In between, they lost 11 straight at OPACY, tying a franchise record. And how are things going in the front […]

It just gets worse…and worse…and worse. After being swept by Boston, the Birds have now lost seven straight. Again. Their pace is something to behold…more below. /holds nose To the links… Davis has Struck Out in 21 Straight Games – Personal & Team Records within Reach Let’s check in with Matt Taylor over at Roar from 34, shall we? Matt chronicles Chris Davis’ latest strikeout streak, which is about to break his own ridiculous strikeout streak, and which is catching up to the Orioles’ all-time record. Appreciation for Jim Palmer […]

Every time we think perhaps the Orioles have reached “rock bottom,” they just plunge through the floor and reveal that there is somehow, still another, lower, level. After sweeping the New York Mets in a short two-game set at Citi Field, the Birds have now lost five straight. Last night, they wasted eight shutout innings from Dylan Bundy, losing 2-0 to Boston in 12 innings. Hey girl – not that you need a reminder of how bad this season is, but through 65 games in 1988, the Orioles were only […]

It’s very likely that the only thing that kept the O’s from getting swept in a four-game home series against the New York Yankees was the weather. Two of the four games were postponed, which is, apparently, all the mercy we can expect from the baseball gods here in 2018. The Birds now head to Queens to take on the other New York team for two before going up to Toronto. Maybe they’ll surprise us and win some games on the road trip? Now that the team is on the […]

The Orioles got swept by the D.C. team in a three-game set at HOME, and scored just two runs in the entire 27 innings of the series. You keep thinking they’ve hit rock bottom, and they keep plummeting through the floor. Links. Orioles 2018 Rotation has Been Nearly as Awful as 2017’s The O’s set a franchise record for starting-pitching futility in 2017. They got rid of Ubaldo, and Miley, and cut the Chris Tillman experiment short. They added actual decent MLB starting pitchers…and they’re still horrible. Yet, somehow, through […]

After a road trip that was, unfortunately, successful by their standards at 4-7, the Birds returned home on Memorial Day and got smoked by the Washington Nationals in the first of a three-game set. The Orioles just can’t seem to score like…any runs (scoreless in 17 straight innings), which is a problem for a major league baseball team. Reportedly, that’s what the Baltimore Orioles are. Opinions vary. To the links, I guess. There are Still Some Positives for the Very Bad Orioles Let’s do our best to stave off the […]