Everyone is still wondering if another Orioles pitching move is coming

Hello, friends.

There are now 46 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day. Much closer than that is when WBC pitchers and catchers will report, because that’s tomorrow. It is, famously, only a day away.

If you are still wondering whether the Orioles have another starting pitching move in them before this season begins, so are pretty much all of the professionals. As you’ll see in today’s stories below, there is a lot of thinking about the rotation. It’s not much of a surprise. This is the thing everyone has been wondering about all offseason and it’s still a big question mark. Is getting Shane Baz and reuniting with Zach Eflin going to be enough? It’s fair to wonder!

Framber Valdez being signed and officially clearing away the top of the starting pitching market has not resulted in any movement among pitchers who are going to sign for less money. Take your pick out of Chris Bassitt, Zac Gallen, Lucas Giolito, and Justin Verlander. Or if you’re like me, don’t take your pick out of them. Unless there’s an injury we don’t know about, I’ll take my chances with who is here already.

Probably it would have been better to sign one of the above guys than Zach Eflin, but Mike Elias had other ideas on how to best build the rotation for this year. He’s made some savvy moves in his time but there are also times where he does something where just about any idiot could figure that’s not going to work out and sure enough, it doesn’t work out. We’ll see which of these categories the reunion with Eflin fits into.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

Position preview: Will Orioles starting rotation get one more splash? (The Baltimore Sun)
The question remains even now that Framber Valdez has been gone for a few days. Are they going to do something now that they’ve missed out on all the big free agents? The answer is no until it suddenly changes to yes.

Five key topics to follow as Orioles head to camp (Orioles.com)
Beat writer Jake Rill’s first question is in the same vein as the previous: Is the rotation mix finalized? What happens with Ryan Mountcastle and Coby Mayo is also a question.

Shane Baz is an increasingly important part of the Orioles rotation (The Baltimore Banner)
It is not reassuring to have this written about a guy who had a 4.87 ERA last year. A lot is riding on that disastrous home split getting resolved by getting out of a weird minor league stadium.

Orioles beat Keegan Akin in arbitration case (ESPN)
Akin is set for a $2,975,000 salary instead of the $3,375,000 for which he argued. You may be among those Orioles fans who are not particularly interested in seeing him on the roster at any price.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 2008, the Orioles traded Erik Bedard to the Mariners for five players. Adam Jones was the fantastic find in the trade, as he went on to be a great Oriole. Chris Tillman had some good years here as well, and George Sherrill made an impression before being traded as well. Bedard put up 3.1 bWAR with the Mariners in the years of control that Seattle acquired.

There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2009-11 outfielder Félix Pie, 1974 infielder Bob Oliver, and 1955-56 outfielder Hoot Evers.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: mathematician Daniel Bernoulli (1700), author Jules Verne (1828), chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (1834), actor James Dean (1931), actor Seth Green (1974), actress Cecily Strong (1984), and surfer Bethany Hamilton (1990).

On this day in history…

In 1837, the Senate selected Richard Johnson as a vice president to President Martin Van Buren. This is the only time the Constitutional provision for the Senate to choose a vice president has been employed.

In 1904, a Japanese assault against the Russian forces controlling Port Arthur marked the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, a conflict ultimately won decisively by Japan, to the shock of many in Europe.

In 1960, Hollywood’s Walk of Fame was inaugurated. The first star actually placed the following month belonged to Stanley Kramer, with nearly 1,500 being placed in the first year of existence.

A random Orioles trivia question

I received a little book of Orioles trivia questions for Christmas. I’ll ask a question each time it’s my turn in this space until I either forget or run out of questions. My book has multiple choice answers, but you don’t get those because it would just be too easy.

Which player led the 1970 World Series champion Orioles in batting average during the regular season?(300 PA minimum)

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on February 8. Have a safe Sunday.