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 hire Eve Rosenbaum

Earlier this week the Baltimore Orioles continued their “tradition” of poaching front office talent from the Houston Astros. While the O’s haven’t confirmed this, there’s a report out there saying that they hired former Houston Scouting Director Eve Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum worked under current Orioles’ VP of Operations Mike Elias in Houston, and is rumored to be heading into the newly-created position of Director of Baseball Development.

It’s unclear exactly what this position will do, however the team is still in the midst of restructuring it’s front office. Rosenbaum is a graduated of Harvard, but a native of Bethesda, MD. So in a sense this is a homecoming for her.

The only concern here is that you have to wonder if having too many Houston alumni might put the Orioles under the gun in terms of the investigation going on right now regarding stealing signs. Hopefully that’s not the case, however it could be a concern. More as we hear it.

Baltimore Orioles: Spring schedule update

Very quietly last week the Baltimore Orioles added a game to their spring training schedule in 2020. And a home game at Ed Smith Stadium at that. The O’s will take on the New York Mets at 1 PM on March 23, 2020 in Sarasota. Presumably, this will be the final game of the Grapefruit League season.

We’ve seen the O’s add games against local universities in the past at the tail end of spring training – games which incidentally didn’t count towards the “standings” for the Grapefruit League. Not that the standings matter, but just saying that for the sake of saying it. Nevertheless there’s an additional game that’s now on the schedule.

Why does this even matter? At the end of the day it certainly does matter to season ticket holders in Sarasota. But it’s also just an additional opportunity for guys to make an impression for the Orioles’ brass. And I suspect that most players would relish that chance.

For what it’s worth, the Orioles will also celebrate their 10th year at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota in 2020. It’s kind of hard to believe if you think about it. When the O’s arrived in town Ed Smith Stadium was a rag-tag facility with few creature comforts. Now that they’ve fully renovated the park, it’s the envy of almost every team in baseball.

The Orioles have also invested big time in the Sarasota community, and they have a year-around presence there. I’m not sure there’s another community (in either Florida or Arizona) which embraces a major league team in the manner that Sarasota does for the Orioles. When you invest in the community, the community pays you back in a big way. Needless to say, it’s truly been a mutually beneficial relationship for the Orioles and Sarasota.

Baltimore Orioles: Brian Roberts up for the hall

Former Baltimore Orioles’ second baseman Brian Roberts is on the ballot as a finalist for the 2020 Hall of Fame class. Roberts hit a career .278, stole 285 bases, and played for the Orioles for 13 years. And that doesn’t even touch on the utterly sick defense that he played at second base. Roberts is now an analyst for the Orioles on MASN and on 105.7 “the fan.” It’s his first time on the Hall of Fame ballot.

Results of the vote will be announced in January. I’ll be honest; I’m not sure that Roberts makes the cut. Mind you, this doesn’t mean he wasn’t a GREAT Oriole and a GREAT player throughout his career. He was a bright spot during some incredibly dark years in Birdland. However I’m not 100% sure that he’s a Hall of Famer.

Understand, this isn’t taking anything away from Brian Roberts. Nobody – and I mean NOBODY – honors the past or does nostalgia like the Orioles. NOBODY. Roberts will always be fondly remembered by Orioles fans. But whether he’s immortal and belongs in Cooperstown remains to be seen.

Personally I’m rooting for BRob to get in. And if he doesn’t get in this time around, he’ll be on the ballot for another nine years. I’m just not sure he makes the cut. But again, I’m rooting for him. As I hope all Orioles fans are.

Baltimore Orioles: How does free agency work for 2020?

The Baltimore Orioles and the rest of MLB are currently in the hot stove period, which in essence lasts until pitchers and catchers report in February. The Birds weren’t active in free agency last year, but in the past they have been. Whether they are this year or not remains to be seen.

However what we’ve seen the past two seasons is most of MLB waiting until the very end of the hot stove season to sign free agents. Presumably this was an agreement among GM’s with a wink-and-a-nod to keep costs down. The question is whether or not that will happen this year.

Incidentally, keeping costs down with a wink-and-a-nod is akin to collusion. However I would submit that we won’t see that this year. And not because the teams have suddenly stopped colluding.

The free agent pool this year is strong. The likes of Strasburg and Rendon are out there to be had. You could see a bidding war, if anything. Teams who are in a position to sign guys like that aren’t going to want to wait out of sheer principle to save money. They’d be afraid that those players would sign elsewhere.

Time will tell, but I predict an active hot stove period. And sooner rather than later.

Baltimore Orioles: Death penalty for Houston?

I try to write a column about the Baltimore Orioles that’s worthy of journalistic integrity. Thus I’m not a fan of the style of “reporting” done by organizations such as Barstool Sports. I feel it’s too in your face for my tastes. Readers don’t want edgy content when it comes to sports – they want informative content that merits a valid point.

However I did read this article on Barstool last week, and I have to say it’s fairly compelling. The author cites reporters who are saying that the penalty for the Houston Astros as a result of the sign-stealing scandal could be swift and sure. As in what Barstool is calling the “death penalty.”

That would in effect be stripping them of the 2017 World Series title. Now that would be a step, wouldn’t it?! There’s no precedent in baseball for that, and so far as I know it would be a first. But is it warranted?

I say that it is. The league needs to send a message that this type of thing WILL NOT under any circumstances be tolerated. Not only that, but it sends the message that this is what happens to people who cheat. Skirt the rules at your own risk.

And let’s take it a step further. The NCAA will ban programs from television and/or post season play if they pull stunts like this. It wouldn’t be feasible to ban a baseball team from post season play, as you have to qualify in accordance with the standings. However you could very easily ban them from television. In essence, whatever local television deal Houston has set up will be null and void for one year. Save for opposing team broadcasts, you won’t be allowed to see them on television.

Some will say that punishes the fans. And there’s no question about that; however losing television rights for an entire season takes a lot of money out of the franchise’s pockets. And again, it sends a message to the rest of the league.

Whether any of this happens remains to be seen. But time will tell.

Baltimore Orioles: Why is Houston’s sign stealing a big deal?

Have the Baltimore Orioles ever directly been hurt by Houston’s alleged sign-stealing? Odds are that they have. In 2016 they were 1-6 against Houston, 1-5 in 2017, and 1-6 again in 2018. There’s your answer as to why it’s such a big deal.

Mind you, save for 2018 the aforementioned seasons were during good times for the Orioles franchise. Yet they just couldn’t get over the hump against a Houston Astros team which now appears might have had an unfair advantage. A big time unfair advantage.

I said this the other day, but had the 2016 Orioles not been at a disadvantage against this Houston team, perhaps they host the 2016 Wild Card Game. And who knows how things play out. It sounds like a petty point, but…is it really?

Baseball needs to find a way to clean this up. The people who precipitated this need to be held accountable. Because otherwise the sport turns into he who’s willing to stoop the lowest to cheat, wins. Nobody wants that.

Again, this is a pretty big deal. And the argument is akin to the analytics vs. feel for the game discussion. My personal opinion is that baseball should not and cannot belong to computer nerds. People behind a screen thinking they know better than the powers that be.

And this is similar. If we’re going to allow teams to find inventive manners to cheat, we might as well just resign ourselves to the fact that whomever has the best equipment and the most inventive ideas is going to win. It’ll no longer be about who has better talent and out-thinks their opponent the best. And again, nobody wants that.

Baltimore Orioles: Delmarva named MiLB Team of the Year

Baltimore Orioles’ Class A affiliate Delmarva Shorebirds, led by manager Kyle Moore were named the MiLB Team of the Year for 2019 earlier this week. That’s one heck of an honor for a team that’s part of an organization that’s rebuilding, such as the Orioles. Moore on this past season:

I think it was just how hard the guys played and how we stuck with it, even after the All-Star break — it was such a young group of guys,. I think with a group in their first year of pro ball, the staff did a great job keeping these guys going all year because we started off hot. But the Washington Nationals will tell you it’s not how you start, and we ended up finishing good, too. We went through July and August and the kids got better.

Quote courtesy of Andrew Battifarano, MiLB.com

Delmarva won 65.2% of their games, and they did it with pitching. Excellent pitching, incidentally. Orioles’ fans like to say that they’d like to know when they’ll start to see the fruits of labor regarding the rebuild. If that’s any indication, it’s coming.

As has been stated ad hoc on this column, the Orioles’ system was ranked in the 20’s in 2018 by Baseball America. In 2019 they were ranked 8th. The Delmarva Shorebirds are a prime example of how the organization is up and coming. Congratulations to everyone involved in that stellar operation in Salisbury, and we hope for their sake that this trend continues.

Baltimore Orioles: Should snitches get stiches?

The Baltimore Orioles are watching, along with the rest of baseball, as the Houston Astros become engrossed in a cheating scandal. I touched on this yesterday, as former Astro Mike Fiers has told The Athletic that Houston (his now former team) used electronic devices to steal signs:

I just want the game to be cleaned up a little bit because there are guys who are losing their jobs because they’re going in there not knowing. Young guys getting hit around in the first couple of innings starting a game, and then they get sent down. It’s [B.S.] on that end. It’s ruining jobs for younger guys. The guys who know are more prepared. But most people don’t. That’s why I told my team. We had a lot of young guys with Detroit [in 2018] trying to make a name and establish themselves. I wanted to help them out and say, ‘Hey, this stuff really does go on. Just be prepared.’

Quote courtesy of Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich, The Athletic

However is there another angle to this that we aren’t seeing? Let me preface this by saying that using electronic devices to steal signs is against the rules. Explicitly. There’s no way around that. It’s indisputable.

However first off, Fiers was on the team when this was going on, and one way or the other he won a World Series as a result. What he said about young guys getting beaten around and getting sent down is a very fair point. However if he cared that much about them and/or about cleaning up the game, would he not have come out while it was going on and said it was wrong? As in, while it was directly benefiting him and his career?

Furthermore, I do firmly believe that there are some things which should stay in a clubhouse. That should be an unwritten code among players and coaches. So…did Fiers violate that unwritten code?

Maybe, maybe not. If you read Ken Rosenthal’s article and others on the topic, they all seem to indicate that Fiers was telling his new and current teammates about this – in the form of a warning. That in and of itself I don’t think violates any unwritten rule. I think that things as such get told all the time. When I played for these guys they used to do this – so be on the lookout.

When it turns into a problem is when it gets released into the public realm. Based on how the firsthand account of these stories are being worded, I suspect that someone to whom Fiers told this story leaked it. I don’t know for sure who that would be, however that’s how it comes across.

This doesn’t absolve Fiers of blame. As I said, he apparently didn’t have enough of a problem with this practice while it benefited him to say anything. But suddenly when they didn’t sign his paychecks anymore, he did have an issue with it.

This is a bit of a Catch-22 overall. Change never happens if whistleblowers aren’t out there. That’s probably a fact. However some things should stay in the clubhouse. Time will tell what punitive measures are taken against Houston.

Baltimore Orioles: Sign-stealing saga continues

The Baltimore Orioles have long struggled at Minute Maid Park in Houston. It was almost uncanny; for some time it’s almost been that no matter how good an Oriole pitcher was looking, Houston would always find a way to get to him. However now we have to wonder if that was more that the Orioles weren’t that good, or if Houston was getting help.

Houston has long been known as an organization that steals signs. We all heard the story during the post season of how they would bang on the top of the dugout or on a trashcan in the dugout to relay signs and signals to their hitters. But now…it seems that the story is gaining legs.

Former Houston Astro Mike Fiers has recently come forward and admitted that the team was using cameras in the outfield to steal signs. Those cameras would beam the signs to the dugout in real time, and then the smack on the dugout or trash can would relay the pitch to the hitter. Seems like there was always more than meets the eye.

Incidentally, this isn’t a foray into the typical unwritten codes argument. Stealing signs is against those unwritten codes. But it’s not against the rules. Using an electronic device to steal signs IS against the rules. There’s cheating, and then there’s cheating. This is a pretty big one.

Fiers specifically said that this would occur when he played in Houston in 2017. And as you’ll recall, Houston won the World Series that year. So…where does that leave us? MLB has said that they’re going to conduct an investigation. For the record, the Houston Astros said they support that effort.

How long had this been going on? Because as I said, the Orioles always seemed to struggle in that park. Had they not been at an apparent disadvantage, perhaps some of those years would have resulted in more wins. Yes, that sounds subjective. And it is. But consider this; had the 2016 Orioles had even one more victory, they would have finished statistically ahead of Toronto. That means they would have hosted the American League Wild Card Game. The O’s went 1-6 against Houston that year. As I said, consider that.

If you look at cheaters in the NCAA, teams literally are made to vacate victories. I don’t see MLB making Houston do that. Odds are they’ll end up getting fined or have to forfeit draft picks. But forcing them to vacate wins and vacate their World Series would certainly send a message.

Baltimore Orioles’ John Means finishes second for AL Rookie of the Year

John Means of the Baltimore Orioles finished second in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. Means had an impressive resume of course, but it wasn’t enough to get him past Houston’s Yordan Alvarez. The Orioles’ Rodrigo Lopez was also the runner up in 2002. The last Oriole to win the award was Greg Olson in 1989.

However just being one of the top three finishers is a feat for Means. And for the Orioles. The fact that an Oriole finished that high should tell us something about the direction of the rebuild. When you combine that with the fact that the Orioles’ minor league system went from being ranked in the 20’s to being top ten in one year, needless to say it bodes well for the future.

I’m sure that both Means and the organization would have loved to have gotten the award. Means certainly had the pedigree in terms of his numbers to win it. But again, even being in the running was pretty special. And combining that with his ASG selection says that the Orioles have a budding star on their hands.