Baltimore Orioles: Camden Yards needs to make a difference this year of all years

The Baltimore Orioles play in the best ballpark in baseball in Camden Yards. Granted those of us who cover the O’s or go to the games are going to view that in a biased manner. However when in fact what you have has been copied time and time again, it goes without saying that you have something special.

And with Camden Yards it’s never been just about the ballpark. I mean…the park itself we know is special. But it’s that special park combined with the old fashioned manner in which the game is presented. Almost every hill thing is a part of a tradition – whether it’s Country Boy during the stretch, the Oriole Bird running around, or the songs they play between innings. It’s all tradition-based, this as opposed to some parks where rap music blasts and so forth.

Point here being that the game is presented in a very old school manner at Camden Yards, and most Orioles fans like it that way. As the 2019 season draws near, it’s that game day experience on which the Orioles will want to lean. With a young team, young manager, and a not-so-hot outlook for this year, there might be a few games where attendance could be dicey. Throw in a cold night or unpredictable weather, and who knows how many fannies are in the seats.

But the Orioles really need to hone in on the fact that they have the best setup in the league. Who wouldn’t want to come to Camden Yards on a summer evening or afternoon and take in a big league game? It’s spring and summer in Baltimore; baseball is what we do!

Incidentally, contrary to popular belief this doesn’t mean offering mass discounts on tickets. The Orioles already are one of the most reasonably priced franchises in sports. When you offer a discount often times you’re just discounting tickets for people who are already planning on coming to the game. So in essence you’re cutting into what would have been your profit margin.

Maybe you can have a few games here and there where you have a discounted food item, but in general discounting already cheap tickets doesn’t work. If there’s one change I’d make if I were the Orioles, I’d offer a “happy hour” at a beer stand – maybe from the time the ballpark opens until the scheduled first pitch. They did that awhile back but apparently that’s no longer a part of their concessions strategy. Just an idea. Point being that the more ways in which you drive home the point that Oriole Park at Camden Yards is the place to be this summer, the more fans will show up.

Baltimore Orioles: Camden Yards needs to make a difference this year of all years

The Baltimore Orioles play in the best ballpark in baseball in Camden Yards. Granted those of us who cover the O’s or go to the games are going to view that in a biased manner. However when in fact what you have has been copied time and time again, it goes without saying that you have something special.

And with Camden Yards it’s never been just about the ballpark. I mean…the park itself we know is special. But it’s that special park combined with the old fashioned manner in which the game is presented. Almost every hill thing is a part of a tradition – whether it’s Country Boy during the stretch, the Oriole Bird running around, or the songs they play between innings. It’s all tradition-based, this as opposed to some parks where rap music blasts and so forth.

Point here being that the game is presented in a very old school manner at Camden Yards, and most Orioles fans like it that way. As the 2019 season draws near, it’s that game day experience on which the Orioles will want to lean. With a young team, young manager, and a not-so-hot outlook for this year, there might be a few games where attendance could be dicey. Throw in a cold night or unpredictable weather, and who knows how many fannies are in the seats.

But the Orioles really need to hone in on the fact that they have the best setup in the league. Who wouldn’t want to come to Camden Yards on a summer evening or afternoon and take in a big league game? It’s spring and summer in Baltimore; baseball is what we do!

Incidentally, contrary to popular belief this doesn’t mean offering mass discounts on tickets. The Orioles already are one of the most reasonably priced franchises in sports. When you offer a discount often times you’re just discounting tickets for people who are already planning on coming to the game. So in essence you’re cutting into what would have been your profit margin.

Maybe you can have a few games here and there where you have a discounted food item, but in general discounting already cheap tickets doesn’t work. If there’s one change I’d make if I were the Orioles, I’d offer a “happy hour” at a beer stand – maybe from the time the ballpark opens until the scheduled first pitch. They did that awhile back but apparently that’s no longer a part of their concessions strategy. Just an idea. Point being that the more ways in which you drive home the point that Oriole Park at Camden Yards is the place to be this summer, the more fans will show up.

Baltimore Orioles: Is youth the new hand of experience?

It didn’t take much to know that the Baltimore Orioles were going to go with a youth movement this year. New GM Mike Elias (who’s incidentally younger than I) and new manager Brandon Hyde certainly fit that bill. These are men who have never done their respective jobs to this point, but who have certainly seen how to do them and seen it up close.

That’a not unlike moving up in any other career path, for the record. If you get into a company out of college on the ground level, you see your superiors doing their jobs. After a couple of years maybe one of those jobs comes available, you apply, and you’re hired. You have no experience in the job, although you’ve seen it close up.

However as I look around sports, I see lots of teams getting younger in the dugout or on the sideline. The Washington Nationals, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox all have young managers. It’s one thing for the 2019 Orioles – a rebuilding team. But those are teams looking to contend. Heck, Boston won the World Series with a young manager.

The Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA have a young coach in Luke Walton. Again, that’s a team who expects to go to the playoffs each year. And look at the Ravens right here in Baltimore. When they hired John Harbaugh they were looking to contend; and he had no experience.

In my world, there’s no substitute for the steady hand of experience. That’s why Buck Showalter was the right hire in 2010 for the Orioles. And results over time proved that point to be correct. But is the sports business changing?

I think that there’s a perception out there that older and more experienced coaches or managers are less likely to think outside the box or take chances in games. They’ve always done it this way, and that’s not going to change. Younger coaches are hungry and they’re eager to make their own way.

I still maintain that there’s no substitute for the steady hand of experience. That should and will always be the case. Again, the 2019 Orioles were almost begging for a young leader. Someone exactly like Brandon Hyde. However it’s just interesting to see that experience doesn’t necessarily mean what it used to across the sports industry.

Baltimore Orioles: A different kind of spring training awaits

Pitchers and catchers for the Baltimore Orioles will report to Sarasota for spring training roughly a week-and-a-half after this weekend’s Super Bowl. That’s kind of tough to believe if you think about it! It seems like just yesterday we were bidding farewell to the horrid 2018 season. But yet here we are.

Nevertheless, it’ll be interesting to see how new manager Brandon Hyde conducts spring training. It goes without saying that from manager to manager things will be a bit different. It also goes without saying that regardless of who the manager is, this year was always going to be a bit different.

At this time last year the O’s were expecting to contend in 2018. Heck, at this time over the course of the last several years they were expecting to contend. That effort always began on the green fields of Sarasota. That’s certainly where this year’s journey will begin as well, however there’s no real expectation of being in contention. Yes, we know that things happen and that hope springs eternal – but I’ll just leave it at that.

I think that in spring training this year we’ll see more of an emphasis on fundamentals. However even before that, we’ll see an emphasis on becoming a team. The Orioles of yesteryear didn’t have t go through that process per se. This new group will.

Once the games actually begin towards the end of February, one difference I think we’ll see is that home games and travel rosters will be much more interchangeable. Most of the time veteran players are granted a professional courtesy in a sense, and they aren’t required to travel to the road games (maybe two or three here and there, generally towards the end of the spring). However this year I suspect things will be different.

Hyde and his staff are literally trying to figure out the composition of the team. The question of who’s on first is going to be much more than a slapstick routine. So I suspect we’ll see some similarities in terms of who plays in Sarasota and who’s on the travel rosters.

And as I said at FanFest this past weekend, Orioles’ fans should look at this season and specifically at this spring training as an opportunity to “get in on the ground floor” of a new team. 2019 is going to feel much different, and that’ll be true from the very beginning. But the first time this group wins a game in walk off fashion, that old feeling of Orioles Magic will come back through the yard. And things won’t see so off.

However in the interim, Brandon Hyde and GM Mike Elias will have to get a starting lineup ready to go. And that process will start in the coming weeks in Sarasota.

Balimore Orioles: 2019 is big for Trey Mancini

One of the more unsung Baltimore Orioles this off season has been Trey Mancini. And quite frankly I think most players would prefer that. Like most of the 2018 Orioles, Mancini had a down year last year. However he’s still young enough to where he can rebound and recapture some of his 2017 season in which he hit .293.

Mancini however is in a bit of an odd position of still perhaps being considered a young player, but also being a veteran. At Orioles’ FanFest he mentioned that he had some of the younger pups asking him how to handle aspects of professional life, such as 401K. Mancini joked that last year it was him asking those types of questions.

Mancini of course came up first in 2016 – for five games. He then made the team out of spring training in 2017, and over the course of the season hit 24 homers and 78 RBI. Most people forget this, however he had a great spring training last season as well. However in the first week of the season he injured his leg crashing into the wall chasing a foul ball at Camden Yards. While he only hit .242, he still managed to smack the same amount of homers (24), but his strikeouts were up.

So this shapes up to hopefully be a bounce back year for Mancini. However it’s more than just his on the field production that will be scrutinized. As I said above, Mancini’s going to need to be though of as a leader in this year’s clubhouse. While he’s still young himself, he has a plethora of experience as opposed to some of the other guys who’ll find themselves on the roster. And it’ll be part of his job to help all of those guys along this year.

Baltimore Orioles: Why no fanfare for the minors?

All of the Baltimore Orioles’ minor league affiliates are in the mid-Atlantic region, with the exception of the Gulf Coast Orioles. The Norfolk Tides of course are a bit of a hike, but still relatively close. This as opposed to years ago when your affiliates could literally be anywhere.

Yesterday I was flipping channels and I noticed that the Capital City GoGo were being televised locally. If you aren’t aware, the Capital City GoGo are an NBA D-League affiliate of the Washington Wizards. It came across as a low-quality production, but the fact remains that the game was on television, giving fans an opportunity to see the stars of tomorrow right now.

Obviously the Wizards are the main responsibility in terms of providing coverage for the local media (in the context of basketball). But as I said, having the D-League team on television on occasion gives fans a shot to see tomorrow’s stars. So…why doesn’t MLB do this with it’s minor leagues?

In the Orioles’ case, it would be fairly easy given that their affiliates are all local. But I’m a believer that giving fans access to players as such before they’re stars simply cements those players as leaders at the big league level once they arrive. It gives fans an early stake in players who one day might become a force in the majors.

Of course the difference in baseball is that it’s everyday. It might be easy enough to say that a network such as MASN could cover a Norfolk or Bowie game on an off day, but for the most part the O’s are playing everyday. So it would probably be tough to do. But more coverage is never a bad thing.

Baltimore Orioles’ FanFest a rousing success

Yesterday the Baltimore Orioles hosted an estimated 8,000 fans at the Baltimore Convention Center for their annual FanFest. That’s down from previous years; there have been FanFests which have drawn 12,000 or so people. However given the fact that many players on the team wouldn’t have even been recognizable on the street, I think that’s a decent number.

You have to take into account the rebuilding process that the Orioles are going through, and then put the dip in attendance into that context. And the fans who came were genuinely excited and enthusiastic to be there. The way I see it, the current state of the team gives folks an opportunity to get in on the ground level so to speak on the next era and generation of Orioles baseball.

Folks don’t know what to expect going into this year with a new manager and almost an entirely new roster. Yet the fanfare around the club was familiar to people yesterday. Oriole Park at Camden Yards is still a great place to spend a summer evening or afternoon. Not everything will be different – the beer will still be cold!

One thing of note, it’s interesting to hear first baseman Chris Davis speak to some of the changes he’s made (mainly in his offseason workout regiment) going into 2019. Davis, it appears, is fully on board with attempting to reverse the disastrous 2018 season he turned in:

It was a lot different this year. Unfortunately, I’m not getting any younger and I think this past season more than anything just really taught me a lot about taking care of my body, the way it looks like as I get older. I can’t go in there and crush arms all the time or just load up and attack training the way I have in years past. So I’ve had to do some different things this offseason.
I’m a little bit lighter and everybody keeps telling me that I look skinny, so I guess that’s a compliment. But I feel good. I feel more ready this time this year than I did last year. That’s saying a lot because I felt like I was really going to have a good year going into spring training. I’m ready to get it started, I’m ready to put last year behind us and start this season off. We’re actually going down to Sarasota a little early.

Quote courtesy of Roch Kubatko, MASNsports

Whether Davis’ new manner of working out and treating his body makes a difference remains to be seen. However that might well be the key to whether the Orioles show marginal improvement or decent improvement in 2019.

Baltimore Orioles’ Fanfest is today

Today Birdland unofficially opens for business in 2019, as the Baltimore Orioles will hold their annual FanFest. The event, as always, will be at the Baltimore Convention Center- right across from Camden Yards. Admission is $12.

I always tell people that FanFest is eveything you love about Orioles games, except the baseball game itself. There are autograph signings, free giveaways, media panels, and other things. FanFest is a beloved event in Birdland, and while there’s a long way to go it always reminds folks that the season is drawing near.

So that’s it for today. Will there be a surprise signing that’ll break news literally as the team entertains it’s fans for the first time in 2019? Could you, you never know. Only way way to find out!

On an unrelated note, former Oriole Mike Mussina won’t wear a hat in his MLB Hall of Fame is induction. Probably the best all-around decision that could have been made.

Baltimore Orioles: Can success make you soft?

The 2014 Baltimore Orioles were the most successful version of the team in a generation. This much we know. However if you ask some people, part of the reason that Buck Showalter‘s team ran away with the division that year was because the AL East was weak.

In essence, they won by default. I don’t buy that, as that team was as solid as anyone else. They won the division at home in dramatic but semi-anticlimactic fashion two weeks before the end of the season. They then swept the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS, a series that included a blowout in game one, and a dramatic bases-clearing double by Delmon Young in game two.

But after that, they were swept in the ALCS by Kansas City. And they looked fairly inept in doing so. Now there are technical reasons why that series swung the way that it did. But…did the success already sustained distract the Birds to an extent?

Sports is a business in which you can’t really celebrate success for too long. Especially in baseball where you play everyday. It’s the ultimate what have you done for me lately sport. If you go 0-for-4 one night, it isn’t acceptable to respond by saying yeah but I hit two grand slams last night. Nobody cares. You have to keep your foot on the gas.

Only the players involved know if they became “overly-satisfied” in that moment. I don’t think they did, because as I said there were technical reasons as to why they lost that series. But the key to sustained success in effect is sustained hunger. If you cease to be hungry, it becomes easier to defeat you.

Again, I’m not saying that happened to the 2014 Orioles. But that is a fact. You have to keep the pressure up in sports, otherwise someone else who’s hungrier will come along.

Baltimore Orioles: Should the Birds reunite with Adam Jones?

Former Baltimore Orioles’ center fielder Adam Jones remains unsigned. So do a lot of decent free agent players. This question has been asked various times this off season thus far, but should the Orioles consider a reunion?

Earlier this off season my response was perhaps, but with a caveat. That caveat was that he would have to be willing to sign for relatively cheap, and on perhaps a one-year deal. (My thought process in general would be that perhaps they could unload him at the deadline, however keep in mind that he’d return to the Orioles with the ability to nix a trade, which is what he did last year.) However I think it’s worth re-visiting the idea at this point.

I think that any deal with Jones should still be short(ish). Perhaps two years with a club option for a third, or something along those lines. However when I wrote about this earlier this off season I expected that by now the log jam of free agent players would be broken. That seems to be as true as the Federal Government re-opening sometime soon. So for the second year in a row, the teams are at this point in a power position in terms of dictating contract terms.

My hope would be that any deal offered would still take into account the fact that Jones is an Orioles’ legend. However one thing that he would have to accept would be that he’d be playing right field. And knowing Jones, I don’t think that would be a problem. He was widely lauded around baseball for how he handled handing off the center field duties to Cedric Mullins last year. That isn’t an easy thing to do.

If Jones understands that he’ll be primarily a right fielder, is willing to sign a club-friendly contract, etc, the Orioles should consider bringing one of their own back home. (And in reality he’ll have never left.) That would also give manager Brandon Hyde a decent amount of flexibility when it comes to the lineup. Trey Mancini and D.J. Stewart could platoon in left field, and Mancini and Chris Davis at first base. And perhaps all of the above as well as Jones (and Mark Trumbo) could rotate at designated hitter.

Having Jones back would also give the Orioles a larger veteran presence in the clubhouse. And that can be huge. While the direction of the team has definitely gone to the youth movement and will stay there, you still need veterans in the clubhouse. Who better than Adam Jones to fill that role?

Is it something that the Orioles and Jones are considering? That I can’t tell you. But it’s something that they should consider. Both parties would benefit, and both would be in a position to help the other out. Plus I think the fans would kind of dig having Jones back at Camden Yards everyday.