Orioles getting ready for roster redesign

Orioles getting ready for roster redesign
Among the many details to emerge concerning the 2020 baseball season was the unfreezing of rosters today and the ability of team executives to resume making cuts and potential trades. The Orioles must create a 30-man roster for opening day, which will be held on July 23 or 24. It's reduced to 28 players after two weeks and 26 after four. It was so long ago that fans may have forgotten, but the Orioles had 54 players on their camp roster on March 12 when baseball shut down and everyone became...
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A different pace to the 2020 baseball season

A different pace to the 2020 baseball season
Baseball used to be a marathon and not a sprint. What does it become when 162 games are reduced to 60? The number still seems too large for a sprint, but it's no longer apt to make comparisons to a marathon. Maybe it's become the 1500-metre run. Kip Keino, Jim Ryun and Sebastian Coe could throw out the ceremonial first pitches. That should cover one home series for the Orioles. The Orioles would be exactly halfway through their schedule without postponements. Eighty-one games in the books...
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Bleier on staying ready for season and reconnecting with fans

Bleier on staying ready for season and reconnecting with fans
Of the many questions that linger as baseball moves closer to a 2020 season, two of the most common are where teams will hold their second spring training camps and what's a reasonable amount of time for pitchers to get ready. The Orioles are going to conduct their workouts in Maryland, whether strictly at Camden Yards or spread out to include one or more of their minor league affiliates. The new coronavirus cases in Florida eliminate a return to Sarasota as the facility remains shut down. An...
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Taking another quizzical look at the Orioles and baseball

Taking another quizzical look at the Orioles and baseball
There won't be baseball until late July or 2021, depending on the Major League Baseball Players Association and COVID-19. They must work in tandem after the union voted 33-5 yesterday against the owners' latest and final proposal. Teams voted unanimously last night to go ahead with a 60-game season under terms of the March 26 agreement. Players have until 5 p.m. today to let MLB know whether they can report to spring training 2.0 on July 1 and agree on the health and safety...
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More delays on deciding whether 2020 season can be played

More delays on deciding whether 2020 season can be played
Players reportedly were going to wait until today to vote on the latest proposal from ownership for a 60-game season, 10 short of their desired total. Then they were actually going to vote yesterday, per multiple reports. And then they didn't, per multiple reports. Isn't this fun? The latest outbreak of positive COVID-19 tests is going to push back the possible start of spring training 2.0 to at least June 29, with opening day postponed until July 26. USA Today reported yesterday that Major...
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Remembering some sports disagreements with my dad

Remembering some sports disagreements with my dad
Today marks the second Father's Day since my dad passed away in January 2019. It's supposed to get easier, I'm told. Except for the people who tell me that it never gets easier. Guess I'll find out. I've shared how he took me to my first baseball game in 1971 at Memorial Stadium. Game 2 of the World Series, with the Orioles winning 11-3 after a rainout the previous day. I got to miss school, hang out with my dad and watch baseball live. It could have been an exhibition game and I'd still...
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Leftovers for breakfast

Leftovers for breakfast
One of the players signed by the Orioles as an undrafted player is a two-way talent. They already know how they're going to develop him in the minors, but it's nice to have options. Isaiah Kearns of Pittsburgh-Johnstown is listed as a right-handed pitcher and left fielder. He put up impressive numbers across the board in 2020 prior to the shutdown, slashing .400/.507/.764 with eight doubles, four home runs, 17 RBIs, nine walks and 15 runs scored in 17 games and going 3-1 with a 1.61 ERA,...
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Is the DH destined to be done in both leagues?

Is the DH destined to be done in both leagues?
I'm going to be accused of American League bias. I don't care. A universal designated hitter is coming to Major League Baseball in 2020 and 2021. If owners get their way, of course. It's in the proposal - or the agreement, depending on which term you've adopted. There's a sense that the new rule will carry beyond 2021. That pitchers will keep their bats in the rack except for extreme circumstances. Who's shedding tears? The purists who will miss a .050 hitter bunting the ball foul? I'm...
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Optimism on the rise for a 2020 season (plus notes)

Optimism on the rise for a 2020 season (plus notes)
This is going to happen. There's going to be a baseball season. At least until I refresh Twitter. Truth be told, I'm so certain of it that I'm already deciding whether to eat dinner at home before heading to the ballpark or packing a sandwich. We'll always wonder why commissioner Rob Manfred and Tony Clark, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, didn't meet face-to-face a long time ago and hammer out an agreement. A couple of weeks ago would have sufficed. We...
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Orioles selling #F16HT T-shirts as latest gesture of support for Mancini

Orioles selling #F16HT T-shirts as latest gesture of support for Mancini
The Orioles keep finding creative ways to offer their support for outfielder Trey Mancini since his diagnosis of Stage 3 colon cancer in March. More than just the phone calls and video messages that were arranged after baseball shut down and teammates returned home. The latest gesture also will benefit the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. The Orioles announced today that they're selling #F16HT T-shirts, with the proceeds going toward the Alliance's Patient and Family Support Services. They're...
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Mayo carries weight of tragedy through his baseball journey

Mayo carries weight of tragedy through his baseball journey
The innocence and feelings of invincibility that are common in high school sophomores were lost for Orioles fourth-round draft pick Coby Mayo a little over two years ago. He can recite the exact date and time. They're etched so deeply as to leave permanent marks. Mayo was attending classes at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., when a gunman, later identified as former student Nikolas Cruz, entered the building with a semi-automatic rifle and, for reasons that still aren't...
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Eller on Servideo: "He's got every tool you can think of"

Eller on Servideo: "He's got every tool you can think of"
The attitude is the first trait that really got Anthony Servideo noticed. Tom Eller, who would have been serving as Single-A Frederick hitting coach prior to the shutdown, got an up-close look at the Orioles' third-round draft pick back in 2018. Eller was coaching the Maryland Redbirds in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League and Servideo had joined the team after his freshman season at the University of Mississippi. Eller's initial thought? "I was watching him in the Super Regionals two...
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Who's ready for a really short baseball season?

Who's ready for a really short baseball season?
Baseball is going to be played in 2020. And you might actually recognize some of it. Negotiations appear to be done between owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association. Proposals have been rejected on both sides and talks are dead. The counter-offers and counterpunching will stop. We've reached the point where players are waiting for commissioner Rob Manfred to set the schedule, which is going to consist of roughly 50 games. And then they'll accuse MLB of not trying harder to...
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Updates on Orioles signing drafted and undrafted players (more)

Updates on Orioles signing drafted and undrafted players (more)
On the same day that teams are allowed to begin signing undrafted players, cleared to make some noise following the 48-hour quiet period, the Orioles have reached agreements with two of their selections from last week. Both are high school players chosen at the backend of the abbreviated draft. Both are over-slot. Right-hander Carter Baumler, a fifth-rounder from Dowling Catholic High School in Iowa, has agreed to terms on a $1.5 million contract, as first reported by Prospects 365's Mason...
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Orioles to pay minor leaguers through end of season

Orioles to pay minor leaguers through end of season
The 2020 Minor League Baseball season is likely to be canceled as the sport remains shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the Orioles have made the decision to continue paying the players' stipends through the rest of the schedule. The team made the announcement earlier today. The final day of the regular season would have been Sept. 7, but the spring training camps closed on March 12 and there's been no activity. The Orioles already had agreed to $400 weekly payments through...
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Can Orioles' first-round draft picks win a championship?

Can Orioles' first-round draft picks win a championship?
If the Orioles can complete their rebuild project and become perennial contenders, which is how it's supposed to play out, there could be a handful of first-round draft picks to hoist the World Series trophy. A team can dream. Adley Rutschman is supposed to be behind the plate for pitchers Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall. Maybe Cody Sedlock as well, though he's much lower on various prospect lists. Hunter Harvey could close out the final game, assuming that he earns the role of late-inning...
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Remembering a Powell who won after leaving Orioles

Remembering a Powell who won after leaving Orioles
While waiting for the commissioner to try to sell us on a season that will last about as long as spring training ... As I reviewed the list of past Orioles selections in the First-Year Player Draft, a yearly endeavor that illuminates the misses more than the hits, I stumbled upon a reliever taken with the 19th overall pick in 1993 out of Mississippi State. The same school, by the way, that produced shortstop Jordan Westburg, selected by the Orioles on Wednesday with the 30th pick. Jay Powell...
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This, that and the other

This, that and the other
The Orioles didn't select a pitcher in the 2019 First-Year Player Draft until the College of Charleston's Griffin McLarty in the eighth round. They kept bypassing the top-rated arms this week and choose Carter Baumler from Dowling Catholic High in Iowa in the fifth and final round. Are the Orioles duplicating the approach used by the Astros to build a World Series champion? It would make sense, given executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias' role in those drafts. But the Astros...
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Hudson Haskin: "Couldn't think of a better fit"

Hudson Haskin: "Couldn't think of a better fit"
When Hudson Haskin's world shut down in March, lives changing in drastic measures due to the coronavirus pandemic, he had no idea whether he'd play college baseball again. And whether the impact on his status in the First-Year Player Draft would be minimal or severe. Like so many other people around the world, all he could do was wait through it and count his blessings. Haskin wouldn't see another pitch at Tulane University, but the Orioles made it clear that they wanted him in their minor...
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Baseball's shutdown impacting prospects and draft picks (updated)

Baseball's shutdown impacting prospects and draft picks (updated)
Two days of the First-Year Player draft provided the ideal distraction from the back and forth between ownership and the Major League Baseball Players Association. Barely a peep about the length of a proposed season, percentages of prorated pay and an expanded playoff format that could shove 16 teams into October. And now, back to our regularly scheduled bickering, already in progress. Selecting players from the college and high school ranks is followed by negotiations on contracts, with the...
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