I have great news and not-so-great news. The great news first – BASEBALL IS ON TODAY! You can watch the Birds start Grapefruit League play against the new-look Tampa Bay Rays at 1:05 on MASN, or listen on 105.7 The Fan.
The not-so-great news: Mike Wright will be on the bump to kick things off. Not exactly setting the tone for a great season, huh? Here’s to Mike getting through his scheduled two innings without having a complete meltdown.
In the meantime, whet your whistle with today’s O’s links:
Orioles 2018 Spring Training Broadcast Schedule
We already talked about the options to listen to/watch today’s game. Here are the details for the full slate of Grapefruit League O’s games, c/o Stacey @ Camden Chat.
Locked On Orioles Episode 2: Is Buck Showalter a Genius?
I linked to episode 1 of this the other day, but as I learned on Thursday, this will be a DAILY podcast – sweet! In Ep 2, Justin is joined by Russell Carleton of Baseball Prospectus to talk about how much difference a manager – specifically Buck Showalter – can make in baseball. He also weighs in on the big Colby Rasmus news.
The Orioles Aren’t Rebuilding, but they Aren’t Reloading Either
There are still players out there the O’s can sign, but so far this has been one of the most confusing & frustrating offseasons in memory. Matt Kremnitzer at Camden Depot tries his best to make sense of what we’ve seen (and what we all expect to continue to see). #ThatsSoOs
Luke’s Top 50 Orioles Prospects – #1-10
Luke Siler of Orioles Hangout has been counting down his Top 50 O’s prospects for weeks, both on Twitter and on the site. For a great breakdown of his top 10 (and links to the other 40), look no further!
The Home Run Record Could Be Broken Twice Over
According to FanGraphs’ Jeff Sullivan, both the Orioles look poised to break the Seattle Mariners’ 1997 MLB record for home runs in a season by a single team. That’s the good news (yep, we’re doing this again). The bad news is that the Yankees are also projected to break that record. The worse news, as Jeff details, is that the Yankees will likely have a great offense that ALSO hits home runs, while the Orioles will just have a “meh” offense that only scores runs when they hit home runs. Sounds like Baltimore baseball to me!
Enjoy today’s game, however you’re able to take it in, Birdland. We made it.
