It’s time once again for the All-Star Break, which means that it’s also, for the fourth year running, time for Bird’s Eye View’s BEVy Awards!

Jake reached out to me a few weeks ago, and of course ESR agreed to participate. The problem is that I shat the bed and forgot about it until Jake reminded me that the submissions were due tonight. As a result of my forgetfulness, this year’s ESR BEVy voting will be a bit truncated. I’m counting on you, Birdland – get these votes in quick!

We’re sticking with the two categories that we used in both the 2014 and 2015 BEVys – The Forgotten Man Award and the “Why Are You Breaking My Heart Like This, Just Let Me Love You!” Award.

Our previous winners:

Forgotten Man

2013 – Alex Burnett

2014 – Ramon Ramirez

2015 – Cesar Cabral

“Why Are You Breaking My Heart Like This, Just Let Me Love You!”

2013 – Jim Johnson

2014 – Chris Davis

2015 – Chris Tillman

We always name this year’s award after the previous winner. With that in mind, your nominees are…

Cesar Cabral Memorial Forgotten Man Award

Francisco Pena – Pena filled in for Caleb Joseph after he took a foul ball to the Baby’s Gotta Eat Makers, playing in nine games and hitting .219/.265/.313 in 32 PA. Though Joseph has actually been much worse with the bat this year, I can’t see Pena getting any more action with the team as long as Caleb and Matt Wieters remain healthy – at least not until September call-ups.

Jayson Aquino – Blink and you missed him. Aquino was called up on July 4, pitched two-thirds of an inning in one appearance, and was optioned back to Bowie on July 6. He’s another one that we may see again in September – or sooner, depending on the health of the bullpen.

Ariel Miranda – Like Aquino, Miranda was called up over the Independence Day weekend. He pitched 2.0 innings in Seattle, allowing three earned runs on four hits. He was optioned back to Norfolk immediately.

Brian Duensing – Another reliever who remains in the organization, Duensing spent a few weeks with the O’s before being placed on the DL. In 6.2 IP, he’s given up four earned runs on nine hits. He’s on the 60-day DL, so we won’t be seeing him any time soon.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe the Birds have DFA’d anybody yet this year (I was kinda corrected by @CamdenFanatic – Brian Matusz was DFA’d, but not until after the O’s traded him), so any of our Forgotten Man candidates could resurface. Still, as of right now, those are the four guys I’m least likely to remember when I look back upon the 2016 club.

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The Chris Tillman “Why Are You Breaking My Heart Like This, Just Let Me Love You!” Award

Our next award is for the Oriole who we have high hopes for who is grossly under-performing. As you can see above, in 2013 that was Jim Johnson, in 2014 Chris Davis, and last year Chris Tillman – you get the idea. Fortunately for O’s fans, I’m actually having a tough time coming up with candidates for this particular award in 2016. A guy like Ubaldo Jimenez isn’t eligible because, though he’s a dumpster fire, we EXPECT him to be a dumpster fire.

Let’s see if we can’t cobble a few together…

Kevin Gausman – Hey, like I said…we’re oddly devoid of GROSSLY under-performing O’s, at least among the guys we expect to do well. However, I think we can all agree that we’d like Gausman to be just a tick or two better. A 4.15 ERA in 86.2 IP is workable, and the young man is going through a couple speedbumps as all young pitchers do.

Mychal Givens – Givens has been hot and cold. When hot, he’s everything that we came to expect in 2015. When cold, he’s pretty bad though. He has trouble getting lefties out, and loses the strike zone at times. We – perhaps unfairly – expect a bit better than he’s given us, for the most part.

Caleb Joseph – Here’s a guy who many of us were ready to hand the everyday catcher job to in 2016, back before Matt Wieters accepted the qualifying offer. Perhaps Caleb is a guy who needs to play every day to get into a rhythm offensively, but he has been flat out awful with the stick this year. .164/.228/.192 with just two extra-base hits (both doubles) and nary a single RBI in 73 AB. We’ll give him a pass for suffering a horrific injury, but he was swinging a wet noodle well before his meatballs got all forked up.

Again, admittedly I don’t love this year’s list of candidates for this particular award. Remember though, that’s a GOOD thing for the O’s fortunes.

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