After last night’s postponement, the Orioles will again attempt to begin a three-game series with the Nationals in the nation’s capital, which means the paid attendance and viewers get to watch pitchers pretend to be hitters. I’m not sure what baseball was thinking when this series was scheduled last year, but hopefully this isn’t an issue again. If the Orioles were still in a playoff race this would be a bigger story, but since they aren’t, the competitive disadvantage will get swept under the rug.

HARVEY’S INJURED ELBOW FLARES UP AGAIN

I understand the point of organizations wanting their players to rehab and use surgery as a last resort because even though it’s common occurrence, there is always risk. I get it. However, the fact the Orioles will now lose three years of development for Hunter Harvey because they have tried to avoid Tommy John Surgery is a tough pill to swallow. Buck Showalter seemed to finally accept that that is the road Harvey will travel when he spoke about the injury last week and it’s another tough blow for the organization as they don’t have any top pitching prospects ready to contribute.

The Orioles don’t have a strong track record going the rehab route as Dylan Bundy and Matt Wieters both needed Tommy John after rehabbing first and Manny Machado was heading down that path as well prior to both of his knee surgeries.

In the end, Harvey will very likely end up going under the knife, and his next chance to attempt to make an impact with the big league team won’t be until at least 2017.

TIME TO LOOK AHEAD, BUCK

I was hoping to look at the lineup for tonight’s game and see Dariel Alvarez’s name, but he finds himself on the bench. I’m not saying the Orioles should concede the rest of their games, but they do need to start seeing if Alvarez is a guy they can seriously think about inserting into the lineup next season. Is Nolan Reimold or Steve Pearce the answer for this team in 2016? I’ll help you out, the answer is no.

It didn’t work out on Sunday, but I liked that Showalter went to Mychal Givens in the eighth inning of a close ballgame to see how he handled the situation. There’s a strong chance Darren O’Day is getting outs for another team next year so the O’s need to figure out if they have the guys to bridge the gap to Zach Britton.

I would like to see Mike Wright get a chance in the 7^th inning over the next week or so as I believe that is where he is best suited in the long run. Alvarez should play right field for the rest of the way and when the Orioles can use a designated hitter again, Steve Clevenger should face both lefties and righties.

We will have the entire offseason to figure out what this team will (or will not) do, but for now, they need to look at the players who potentially have a future in orange and black and let them play.