Author Archives: Domenic Vadala

Welcome to Birdland Crush! Yes folks, for the record it's a spin off of the popular summer beverage native to the Mid-Atlantic Region - "orange crush." Nevertheless, I've been covering Orioles' baseball since 2009 in some capacity, and it's basically the greatest gig of all time so far as I'm concerned! But for those who aren't familiar with my work or bio, I'm familiar with pretty much every sport out there. But baseball is king - we all know that. So my hope is that you come back and check in after every Orioles' game, and throughout the off-season. I'm always on duty!

Baltimore Orioles: Some events cross over sports

The Baltimore Orioles yesterday joined the rest of the sports world (and the real world) in mourning the loss of former Los Angeles Laker great Kobe Bryant. As we all know, Bryant and his 13 year old daughter Gianna were tragically killed in a helicopter crash in California. Seven other people died in the accident.

This isn’t a baseball story. But as they say, some events rock the world. In fact, numerous MLB stars, including former Oriole Adam Jones, took to Twitter to mourn the loss of Bryant. Incidentally, you can draw a bit of a parallel with the tragic death of Roberto Clemente in this situation as well.

Speaking for myself, I had a “mixed relationship” with Kobe as a fan. And I say that in the sense that I never would have doubted his talent, nor would I have disagreed with the statement that he defined a generation of the NBA. However in my mind he was taking the place of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson. And I wasn’t okay with that! However he proved that he belonged in the same sentence with those guys, and he proved to be the absolute best ambassador to the game of his era. His loss will be felt throughout basketball, and the entire sports world.

And was eleven years old in 1992 when the Dream Team won Olympic Gold. But USA basketball was in steady decline from that point onward. Kobe Bryant was on the team that restored Olympic Gold to Team USA. And he did it twice. So speaking for myself I’ll always remember and appreciate that.

At the end of the day, however, alone Bryant was someone’s husband, father, and son. His family is more affected by this than anyone. My thoughts are certainly with them, and with all who knew and loved the late Kobe and Gianna Bryant.

Baltimore Orioles: Does MLB’s All-Star game need re-tooling?

Spring Training workouts start for the Baltimore Orioles’ pitchers and catchers in just over two weeks. That means that Super Bowl Sunday is next weekend. And…the NFL’s Pro Bowl is today. Whoop-dee-flippin’-doo.

It’s by far the worst of all of the sports’ all-star games. I log all of ten minutes with it every year. However for better or for worse, the NFL has, in fact, re-done the way it’s being done over the years. It used to be the weekend AFTER the Super Bowl, and always in Hawaii. Now it’s the weekend before the Super Bowl, and the location varies.

Today’s game is in Orlando, FL, and it’ll have a distinctly Baltimore flavor. Ravens head coach John Harbaugh and his staff will be coaching the AFC team. For what that’s worth.

With that said, should MLB consider taking a page out of the NFL’s book and consider re-tooling the All-Star Game? I’m not even sure what could be done, as the venue itself rotates around already. (This year’s game will be at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.) But would more people pay attention to what’s in essence an exhibition?

My answer is that there are two very minor things they could change. The first would be doing what the NBA and NHL do and play the game over a weekend. Now the schedule’s set up so that the game’s on a Tuesday and the season resumes on Friday, but they could remedy that also. Ratings might be better for a Saturday night game.

The other thing would be to move the game back closer to the midpoint of the season. It’s unclear to me as to why the league moved the ASG to the middle of July, which is well into the statistical second half of the year. Granted every team’s different in terms of when their games fall, but ideally they’d have the ASG when most teams had played between 80-84 games.

But other than that, speaking for myself I can’t think of anything else that could be changed. Or that needs to be changed. What are your thoughts?

Baltimore Orioles: Sort of an apology for cheating

The Baltimore Orioles and the rest of Major League Baseball finally got a apology for the cheating scandal from a player from the Houston Astros. Sort of…kind of. Pitcher Dallas Keuchel, now a member of the Chicago White Sox, stepped up and apologized for the actions of his former team. A pitcher. Consider that.

If anything the vibe from the current Astros has been that they’re getting unnecessary scorn. But it took a pitcher, someone who would have never benefited from his teammates’ cheating antics, to apologize. In reality, all Keuchel’s guilty of is not speaking up.

For the record, Astros’ owner Jim Crane has indicated that the franchise will be getting together during spring training and issuing a strongly-worded apology. But it should act as further embarrassment for this group that the only guy who’s had the decency to say anything about being sorry for what happened is a guy who never benefited from the situation. And at that, one who no longer is with the organization.

Meanwhile, the Astros tweeted out a few celebratory tweets touting their players’ accomplishments during the 2019 season. It’s shocking to me how tone deaf people can be. Baseball’s a game of humble men. That attitude spits in the very face of that, which is part of the reason why the league came down so hard on the Houston Astros.

Baltimore Orioles: Minor leauge signings

The Baltimore Orioles yesterday signed RHP Brady Rogers and catcher Taylor Davis to minor league contracts. Both are expected to get invites to spring training. And I would suspect that both have a shot at making the big league roster depending on how that goes.

Rogers was drafted by Houston (when current Orioles’ GM Mike Elias was there) in 2012, and appeared on the way to having a decent big league career. However he was derailed by Tommy Johns surgery in 2017, and was never really able to regain his form. Obviously this is a low-risk move for an Orioles’ franchise who needs to stockpile pitching.

Davis was signed by the Chicago Cubs in July of 2011 as a non-drafted free agent. A career .235 hitter in the minors, he’s apparently very good at framing pitches. He’ll join a large group of catchers looking to break camp in the major leagues with the Birds. Thus catcher will be an important position battle to watch as Grapefruit League play goes along.

Baltimore Orioles to begin Birdland Caravan

The Baltimore Orioles had to come up with a new way to connect with fans after scraping FanFest this year. They had the inaugural “Winter Warm-up” at Camden Yards in December, which seemed like a great event other than the fact that it was on Eutaw Street and it rained. But now we know what the other part of the plan is going to be.

The O’s will be hosting the first ever Birdland Caravan next month. In essence, players, coaches, and alumni will be venturing out into the community over a three-day period, hosting a series of Happy Hours for fans. The official release and the schedule of events is available by clicking here.

Other franchises do this sort of thing, and I think it could be a nice event to attend. Specifically, my understanding is that the February 7th event at the Green Turtle in White Marsh includes a guest bartending feature. So if you’ve ever wanted to get a martini from an Orioles’ player or coach, there’s your chance!

However this all falls under community outreach, and it’s a good thing. You’ll notice that none of the events on the docket are actually in Baltimore. They’re in surrounding suburbs and across the Old Line State. As opposed to FanFest or Winter Warm-up, this event is about the Orioles coming to you.

Baltimore Orioles: How often to play starters this spring?

Baltimore Orioles’ pitchers and catchers are due to report to Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota for Spring Training three weeks from yesterday (February 11th). It’s going to happen – ready or not! Roughly a week later position players will be due to report, and February 22nd is the Grapefruit League opener on the road against the Atlanta Braves.

What will the lineup look like that day for the Orioles? Which players get the plush travel assignment that morning from manager Brandon Hyde, and get to play “on the road” against Atlanta? How often veterans or starters find themselves wearing gray during the spring is always an interesting topic.

I would submit that Oriole “regulars” should be seeing as much time as possible in these spring games. This is a very important spring training for the O’s, as they want to make some strides this year. And it all starts in the spring.

It’s a tough line to walk at times because Brandon Hyde will also want to get a look at some younger players, and some minor leaguers. And you do have to be fair to those guys about getting them into games and giving them time to develop. However the “regulars” could also benefit from appearing in an additional game or two above the slate of home games at Ed Smith Stadium.

This isn’t to say that the regulars get the day off when the team’s on the road and they aren’t on the travel roster. They stay behind at the complex, work out, take batting practice, etc. It’s still very much a full work day for them. But nothing beats live games.

Baltimore Orioles: Adley Rutschman get spring training invite

The Baltimore Orioles are giving their top prospect from last year’s draft, Adley Rutschman, an invite to big league spring training. That means that anyone who makes the trek down to Sarasota for Florida Grapefruit League games starting next month will potentially get a look at Rutschman.

Fans shouldn’t let this get their hopes up to see Rutschman in the big leagues this year. The Orioles would be foolish to bring Rutschman to the big leagues in 2020. It’s impossible that he’s ready for that. Seasoning a prospect does in fact take time.

But we will see him in major league games during the spring. I would expect him to be on travel rosters as the spring goes on, meaning he’ll be facing some big league pitching. I’d also expect to see him as a defensive replacement in home games at Ed Smith Stadium, giving the home fans a chance to see him play. Again however, don’t be shocked when he’s cut and goes down to minor league camp. This is just a chance for him to get his beak wet.

Baltimore Orioles: MLB Handled the Houston scandal properly

Baltimore Orioles’ fans and fans of other teams across the league are increasingly more angry at MLB commissioner Rob Manfred regarding the Houston Astros’ cheating scandale. Many people are saying that the players should be punished for their transgressions. They’re right about that – but so is the commissioner in terms of how this was handled.

The players should absolutely face discipline. However while this hasn’t been confirmed, it’s presumed that all 69 players that were interviewed were granted immunity by Commissioner Manfred. Again this is assumed, however if immunity was granted one would be led to believe that it was done in writing.

So given the outrage that exists, if Commissioner Manfred went back on his word and issued discipline to players, he would be putting the league at legal risk. And it would be an open-and-shut case. So then people demand to know why immunity was granted in the first place. The answer is fairly easy…

…the league would have never cracked the case the way that it did had there been no testimony from players. And the only way the commissioner could get the players to talk was through a promise of immunity. It’s all very much a Catch-22 in a sense.

But there’s another reason that giving immunity to the players was the right thing to do. Commissioner Manfred undoubtedly saw how things spiraled out of control during the NFL’s Bountygate scandal. Suspending the coaches and executives involved isn’t privy to an appeal. When NFL players were suspended for their roles in that scandal, the union got involved and it turned into a mess.

So the immunity situation aside, Manfred didn’t want to be in a situation where he was suspending multiple players and having the MLBPA get involved in appeals among other things. They want this to go away, as well they should.

Again, Commissioner Manfred would be putting the league at legal risk if he disciplined the players at this point. Now the is an exception to this. If new evidence were to come out, or if a player or players were found to have lied, one could then argue the immunity was null and void. However as it stands now, this is just something with which fans will have to deal and accept.

Baltimore Orioles: Is Rio Ruiz the answer at third?

Rio Ruiz provided the Baltimore Orioles and their fans with the most memorable moment of the 2019 season, hitting a walk off homer to defeat the Houston Astros in August. (Evidently Houston didn’t have some elaborate cheating scheme going that day at Camden Yards. But I digress.) the big question facing him now is whether or not he’ll be the starting third baseman in 2020.

And the answer to that appears to be yes. If for no other reason, by default. He’s the main third base candidate on the roster right now. Granted that could change, but for now it’s the case. Last year Ruiz started 114 games at the hot corner. Now before people say that whatever the O’s did last year didn’t work, keep in mind that they’re a rebuilding team. They’re trying to find their way.

Incidentally, Ruiz also fielded at a 9.69 clip at third last year. There’s room for improvement, but that means that almost 97% of the time Ruiz wasn’t committing an error. Most teams will take that.

Offense is Ruiz’s bugaboo in a sense. He only hit .232 last year. And he’s struggled at the plate for much of his short career. The Orioles would like to see more production out of that spot in the lineup.

However again, I suspect that Ruiz will be the starting third baseman in Sarasota, and on Opening Day at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. This barring a free agent signing or a trade.

Baltimore Orioles: Did MLB crackdown on cheating for more than one reason?

Commissioner Rob Manfred put the Baltimore Orioles and the rest of MLB on notice with his penalties to the Houston Astros this week regarding sign stealing and cheating. It’s not going to be tolerated. For the record, I agree with that, and I agree with the penalties to Houston (and eventually Boston).

However I also suspect that these penalties are being dished out for more reasons thank just the integrity of the game, per se. Professional sports, including Major League Baseball, are getting cozier and cozier with the gambling industry. I won’t get into the hypocrisy of this regarding baseball, but I’ll simply state that the fact is the league’s accepting gambling more and more.

PointsBet Sportsbook announced yesterday that any bets involving the New York Yankees, the Houston Astros, and/or the World Series in 2017 will be issued a full refund. Now while the Yankees’ sense of entitlement with 26 rings in their arsenal already does come across as smug, the fact is that anyone who placed a bet does have a legitimate gripe.

Sportsbooks are going to eventually be partners to various leagues. Heck, there are rumors that part of the new entertainment center at Nationals Park in Washington is going to be a Sportsbook. Can you imagine that? Gambling IN a big league park?

However if that’s going to become a thing, it behooves MLB to ensure that the games are fair more and more. And I suppose there’s some irony in that. Gambling helping to clean up the game. Imagine that.