Baltimore Orioles reuniting with Caleb Joseph?

The Baltimore Orioles hosted their first ever Winter Warm-up yesterday at Camden Yards. And it poured. However about 1000 fans braved the elements and came out.

During a question/answer session as part of the event, GM Mike Elias was asked about the catcher position. And he gave a response which indicated that the Orioles might be looking to reunite with former draft pick, Caleb Joseph (quote courtesy of Roch Kubatko, MASNsports):

“He’s on the radar screen for us. We’re looking at some catching depth options and we’ll see where it lands. But we’d love to have him back, for sure. He was great throughout his time here and a very welcomed member of the organization.”

Joseph was a fan favorite when he played for the Orioles before. He was drafted by the Orioles and came up through the Birds’ minor league system. It would be interesting to see him return.

Joseph’s also a veteran and he was noted for how he handled the Orioles’ pitching staff when he was here before. That’s a skill that could come in handy with a presumed young pitching staff in 2020. It’s unclear if Joseph would be coming in as a presumptive starter or as a backup catcher (which is what he was here the first time around). However as I said, he was always a fan favorite. Time will tell if he lands back here.

Baltimore Orioles hosting first ever Winter Warm-up

One of the big changes in terms of how the current Baltimore Orioles’ management is doing things is that Orioles’ FanFest is no more. FanFest was a treasured event, but for whatever reason Mike Elias and company feel that the team’s efforts in terms of PR and winter marketing are best served elsewhere.

And today we’ll see those labors come to pass, as the Orioles will be hosting their first “annual” Winter Warm-Up at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The event lasts from 11 AM – 2 PM, and will be held on Eutaw St. Rain or shine, apparently – yes, you read that right. Today’s forecast looks foreboding, however the event itself does look fairly well put together.

Parking is free in Lot A, and admission is $5 – or free for Birdland Members. (Non-Birdland Members can gain free admission with the donation of a coat.) Fans will have the opportunity to speak with GM Mike Elias, as well as with coaches. Complimentary coffee and hot chocolate will be served, Holiday music will be played, fans will be able to take a picture with “Santa Bird,” all among other things. All merchandise in the Orioles Team Store will also be discounted to 50% of listed value.

Unfortunately with the weather forecast being what it is, this event will probably be poorly attended. That means it won’t be a fair barometer of how popular the event could actually be in general. FanFest was a time-honored tradition in Baltimore. I do think however that this event will be a decent replacement. My hope is that Orioles fans turn out. See you at the yard!

Baltimore Orioles select Brandon Bailey in Rule 5 draft

As expected, the Baltimore Orioles were active in the annual Rule 5 Draft yesterday on the final day of the annual Winter Meetings. With the second pick in the draft, the O’s selected RHP Brandon Bailey, formerly of the Houston Astros’ organization. Bailey was drafted in 2016 out of Gonzaga University, by the Oakland Athletics.

Pitching mainly out of the bullpen, Bailey has a .500 record in the minor leagues. He also has an ERA of 3.07. It’ll be interesting to see how that translates at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which is considered a hitter’s paradise.

To show that they weren’t kidding about pitching, they used their second selection to pick Michael Rucker, formerly of the Chicago Cubs’ organization. In the minors with Chicago, Rucker is 17-14 with a 3.26 ERA. Both Rucker and Bailey are young arms who will be tasked with competing.

Keep in mind that in order to keep a Rule 5 player, he needs to be on the active major league roster in essence for an entire season’s worth of time. That’s why it’s difficult to keep Rule 5 players, as they can sometimes be raw. We’ve seen this nearly every year since 2012, although the Orioles have also gotten some really good Rule 5ers.

I would suspect that even in their rebuilding state, keeping two Rule 5 players on the roster will be next-to-impossible. So it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Orioles let both of these guys compete in Spring Training, and hand onto the best one they can keep. Time will tell.

Baltimore Orioles: Bird is the word in the Hall of Fame!

The Baltimore Orioles have a new Hall of Famer in their midst this morning. At a banquet last night, the Oriole Bird was announced as a new member of the Mascot Hall of Fame! His candidacy was covered on this column, and I know that he appreciates all of our readers who took the time to vote for him.

This is all a bit of a tongue-in-cheek joke, however the Mascot Hall of Fame is in fact a real place. It’s located in Whiting, IN, and while I’ve never been there I’d say it’s worth visiting if you’re in the area. When and if you do, you’ll see the Oriole Bird immortalized with other great mascots such as the Phillie Phanatic, Mr. Met, etc.

As for the Winter Meetings, the Rule 5 draft is this morning out in San Diego. That in essence means that for us here on the East Coast it’ll be early afternoon. Nevertheless, the Orioles are expected to take a player, and GM Mike Elias said yesterday that they’re carefully weighing their options:

Right now, our focus is on preparing for the Rule 5 draft tomorrow, which we’re still trying to make a decision on.

Quote courtesy of Roch Kubatko, MASNsports

It’ll be interesting to see to which position the Orioles turn in the Rule 5 Draft. Might they consider someone who could actually be in the rotation? Time will tell.

Baltimore Orioles: Adam Jones to Japan is symptomatic in society

Former Baltimore Orioles’ star Adam Jones is headed to Japan – this much we know. Jones announced via Instagram last night that he had signed with a Japanese league team. He won’t be a part of MLB any longer moving forward, at least for the time being.

As time’s going on, MLB and all sports appear to be valuing veterans less and less. It’s unimaginable to me that a player of Jones’ pedigree was going to be unable to find a big league team in 2020. Granted we don’t know what fully went into Jones’ decision, and the reasons could be personal as much as anything else. But many analysts have stated that this might be something that a lot of veteran players start doing.

And to be honest, it’s a trend that I’m seeing in society as a whole. When I was a kid I wanted to be older because I was of the impression that the older you were the smarter you were. I come from a generation and a time in which we valued experience and time spent. Meaning that novices had to work their way up the line.

But society appears to be changing – and not for the better in that regard, in my view. And keep in mind that sports (baseball, in this instance) often mimics life. I’ve literally been told that at 38 I’m too old to understand something. Uh excuse me, but whence I come age and experience is a virtue. I’m not going to lie, I deeply resent that mentality.

I’m nowhere near being a Baby Boomer, but the whole OK Boomer thing is an extension of this concept. And to be honest that’s something that I see as fairly offensive. You can’t possibly be more worldly at 25 (to pick a random age) than someone is in their 30’s and above. That’s just not a possibility. Furthermore not everything needs to be revolutionized.

But going back to baseball, that same emphasis on youth is translating to the diamond. This isn’t to say that young people don’t play a role, because they have to. World class athletes obviously don’t exist in their 50’s and so forth. But are we not going a bit to an extreme by suggesting that a 34-year old guy who’s had a great career to this point is too washed up to play in the big leagues?

And in fact it makes you wonder – with MLB trying to re-define it’s minor league system by cutting teams…is it not possible that they’re trying to get guys into the big leagues at younger ages? Again, youth has to play a role in sports by definition. There’s no question. But wiry veterans who’ve been around the block once or twice also have a place. While young people of today are told they can be or do anything, they still need to be shown the ropes. And by devaluing veteran players, baseball and society are doing youngsters no justice.

Baltimore Orioles: Adam Jones appears headed to Japan

Former Baltimore Orioles’ star Adam Jones‘ days stateside might be numbered. One of the morsels of news to come out of the Winter Meetings yesterday was that Jones is mulling an offer of a multi-year deal to play for the Orix Buffaloes of the Nippon Professional Baseball League. That’s Japan, for those keeping track at home.

I have to say, I’m shocked that it appears there’s no market for Jones in MLB. He’s an established big league player who’s had better than just a solid career. This is the type of move that a player would seemingly make if he’s fairly sure he isn’t going to get an offer back here in the states. It just seems so strange to think that Jones is going to be unable to find even one team who would want his services.

In 2019 he played for Arizona with a $3 million contract. He appeared in 137 games, hitting .260. That’s below what he hit in Baltimore of course, but that’s also Father Time’s doing. Not to mention that you have to figure in that Camden Yards is a hitter’s park. However it still surprises me that not even one big league team would be interested in his services. But this is the world in which we live now.

The Orioles did make a move yesterday, claiming RHP Marcos Diplan off of waivers from Detroit. Not really a high level move, although Diplan does have a minor league option.

Baltimore Orioles head to the winter meetings

GM Mike Elias and his team have arrived in San Diego for the MLB Winter Meetings this week. The Orioles aren’t expected to make many waves, but the fact is you never know. This will be Elias’ second Winter Meetings with the Orioles, although last year he had just been hired a couple of weeks prior.

However manager Brandon Hyde will be in his first Winter Meetings as manager of the Orioles. Actually, it’ll be his first Winter Meetings as a manager overall. This shows of course that the O’s are a young team and have a lot of promise moving into the future. Everyone’s young and/or new.

Again, I wouldn’t expect the O’s to be overly active this week. However the one moment to watch is Thursday morning (probably closer to afternoon here on the east coast) when the final piece of business is conducted during these Winter Meetings. That’s when the Rule V draft will take place. Traditionally the Birds are active in that, which is well-documented.

Perhaps might there be a middle infielder on their radar who could plug the hole left by Villar? Anything’s possible. More as we hear it.

Baltimore Orioles: You have to value your own players

If there’s one thing the Baltimore Orioles have learned over time it’s that you absolutely have to value your players. At various points over the last ten years when there’s been push to keep a player, they’ve found ways to do it. For the most part.

Down the road we see a team in the Washington Nationals who’s struggling with that as we speak. Washington of course are the World Series Champions. However two of their biggest stars, Anthony Rendon and Stephen Strasburg are up for grabs. Publicly, Washington hasn’t even formally met with either player about an extension (both are represented by Scott Boras.) But plenty of other teams have.

For the sake of their fan base, I would hope that management and ownership isn’t just assuming that winning the World Series gives them carte blanche NOT to spend money. Especially when the guys in question are their guys. World Series or not, if both of those guys walk you could be looking at a fan revolt.

The point here is not to take shots at another team. (Although I suspect fans might accept one of those guys walking; but both?) However the question at hand is why teams overall don’t value their own players. One could argue that the Orioles did the same thing with Nick Markakis. However as you might remember, Markakis was injured at the time, and coming off of neck surgery. There was risk involved, which the Orioles weren’t willing to assume.

Teams such as NY (Yankees), Philadelphia, Boston, and LA (Dodgers) can’t really be blamed for swiping other people’s players. When the players are out there to be had and their former teams are making no effort to get them, you may as well go after them. Does that make for only a few teams being competitive? Possibly. But what exactly are teams who do value players supposed to do? Wait for someone else to swoop in?

Baltimore Orioles: A day that changed baseball

The Baltimore Orioles didn’t exist until 1954. However December 7th is a date that forever changed both baseball and America – in 1941. Today of course is the anniversary of the Japanese sneak attack at Pearl Harbor, which propelled the United States into WWII.

There was much talk about baseball shutting down during the war. And with good reason – many of the biggest names were part of the war effort. The DiMaggio’s, Williams’, etc. of the world were all overseas serving a higher purpose. However President Franklin Roosevelt wrote what became known as the Green Light Letter in 1942. In effect, he thought that having baseball continue would ease the fears of the American public. In essence, it would represent business as usual.

The league played on, but at a decidedly lower quality of play. With so many stars out fighting for their country, the league couldn’t help but be at a disadvantage. But as almost a motif of America and American life, baseball pressed on.

The Green Light Letter also had one other point of interest to me. President Roosevelt offered a friendly suggestion to the league to perhaps offer more night games in the schedule. Americans on the home front were having to work harder to support the war effort, and with games always being during the day, it was difficult for people to get to games. Night games made it easier.

Ironically, I’m of the mindset that baseball should schedule more day games now. I recognize that’s not about to happen for the most part, but it’s a personal preference – partly due in part to the fact that the roots of the game were games played under the sun. But nevertheless, it’s interesting to note that night games began getting phased in due to a an event that set in motion of series of events, 78 years ago today.

Baltimore Orioles: Trust the process

I’ve said this a few times this week to Baltimore Orioles fans: trust the process. Everyone knows the rebuilding process through which the Orioles are going. However there’s been a lot of angst regarding this week’s trades by some fans.

Sometimes sports management can be a line of work that isn’t for the faint of heart. This is one of those times. The likes of Bundy and Villar had a lot of fans in the fan base. And it’s easy to criticize Mike Elias for making those trades if one of those two were guys you really liked. But we have to trust the process.

Elias has gone through this before, mind you. He went through it as the Asst. GM in Houston. And Houston’s won a World Series in the last three years, and have played in two. And Elias has been clear with where he thinks this process could end:

I want to see a playoff team at Camden Yards, and we want to see a playoff team at Camden Yards. There’s only one way to get there, given where we’re at, where we’re starting from. We all know the strategy, the process. This is not easy. This is not something we want to happen again, but coming into the organization in late 2018, with the roster construction what it was, where the talent base was, where we were in the standings — this was the only path

Quote courtesy of Jon Meoli, Baltimore Sun

Elias isn’t coming in here trying to make the Orioles worse. He wants to win, and he understands how to get that done. And it’s not something through which he wants the Orioles to have to go through again anytime soon:

I don’t want to have to see a selloff process again. It’s something that we want to get through, build our organization and our base, and maintain a high-quality, competitive franchise, even in the American League East. We feel it can be done. We see franchises around the league that pull it off, and we want to build that here. This is part of the road to getting there.

Quote coutesy of Jon meoli, Baltimore sun

So we have to trust the process. It’s not a quick one, but history shows that it works. In all sincerity, is there any other way?