It's just another New Year's Eve, another night like all the rest. It's just another New Year's Eve, let's make it the best.
(If I can reference Garrett Cleavinger twice within a week, I can sing along with Barry Manilow to close out 2020. There are no rules.)
I feel bad for the people who keep acting as though the world is returning to normal after tonight. The "I can't wait for 2020 to be over" crowd.
I've got bad news for you. It won't feel any different in the morning or the next...
Austin Hays would be the heavy favorite to win a footrace against John Means. However, Means beat him to the father finish line.
McCoy Alan Means was born on Dec. 17.
Levi Austin Jerald Hays was born on Dec. 22.
Tremendous gifts to close out a very difficult year.
Means and Hays will have lots to talk about in spring training besides baseball, but they're two hugely important components of the roster and rebuild.
The Orioles have been envisioning Hays as their center fielder and leadoff hitter...
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
Hall of Famers John Wooden and Earl Weaver preached it. The phrase serves as the title of Weaver's autobiography.
I'm using it this morning to lead everyone into my latest offseason collection of random facts. And most important, what we learned from them.
No need to dig too deeply. Sometimes the answers are lying on the surface.
Also, don't overlook an orchid while searching for a rose. Or something like that.
* The Orioles were 18-11...
The day after Christmas exists in many households to eat leftovers, vacuum pine needles and return unwanted gifts. There's also time spent rehashing some of the most uncomfortable moments at the dinner table.
The Orioles haven't been shy about keeping receipts and making returns, no matter whose feelings get hurt. Just ask Grant Balfour's agent.
Sometimes they can be talked into returning home with the same item, but feeling much better about it. Just ask Yovani Gallardo's agent.
(If you...
'Tis the season to be jolly.
If you pretend that 2020 didn't happen.
My only advice is to dig deep and unearth the joyous moments in your lives. Hopefully, you'll find many more than you expected. Hopefully, you can use a trowel instead of a bulldozer.
For me, it's getting engaged at spring training, less than a week before the shutdown. My plan to propose at the spot where we met outside the Ed Smith Stadium press box would have been ruined if she chose to fly down later.
(I'll never know...
The Orioles announced four of their minor league signings this afternoon, with catcher Nick Ciuffo going unreported until today.
The list also includes left-hander Fernando Abad and right-handers Claudio Custodio and Conner Greene. Abad and Greene were confirmed additions to the organization earlier this month.
Ciuffo, who turns 26 in March, provides some catching depth that the organization has sought with Bryan Holaday and Martin Cervenka entering free agency. He's a left-handed hitter and...
I'm not sure how manager Brandon Hyde will readjust to a normal baseball season, if one becomes available to him, after devoting so much of his energy to detailing the protocols set up at Camden Yards and on the road and how his players adhered to them.
How the Orioles kept everyone safe, taking no chances if someone reported to the ballpark with the sniffles or a headache.
How the sport survived outside of a bubble and completed a 60-game regular season, the playoffs and World Series.
What it...
The Orioles were getting ready to play their 17th exhibition game on March 8. Four days before the team bus pulled out of the complex and circled back, confirmation that baseball was shutting down due to COVID-19. Four days before outfielder Trey Mancini would undergo surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his colon.
Alex Cobb can close his eyes and see it all.
He remembers the local media gathering to ask about Mancini's departure from camp. How he described the situation as...
An offseason exercise that doesn't require a home gym, but makes me sweat as if competing in a triathlon, is creating an Orioles lineup in December. Taking the players on the current 40-man roster and the likely invites to spring training and filling every position.
Go nuts and, if you dare, also craft a bench, rotation and bullpen. But only if you've stretched prior to attempting it.
A national publication seeks my assistance every winter, with a deadline prior to the Christmas holiday. The...
Alex Cobb has arrived back at a point in his career that looks the same in some aspects and completely foreign in others. The final year of his contract. Shuffled priorities as he stands on the deck and peers out again at free agency.
Been there, but doing it differently.
Cobb isn't in the hunt for another four-year deal, which the Orioles gave him at a cost of $57 million before the 2018 season to mark the largest for a pitcher in franchise history. He turned 33 in October, is entering a new...
Conducting the usual search for veteran relievers during the offseason, the Orioles are on the verge of signing left-hander Fernando Abad to a minor league contract per multiple sources.
Final details are being worked out, but the sides are in agreement.
Abad will receive an invitation to spring training, which for the Orioles is supposed to begin with pitchers and catchers reporting to the Ed Smith Stadium complex on Feb. 16.
The Orioles also held interest in Abad last winter and made an offer...
Tyler Wells won't be able to truly demonstrate what he offers the Orioles as a pitcher until reporting to spring training and getting on a mound. Until he faces hitters in live batting practice sessions and in exhibition games.
What he's done so far is prove that he's going to be one of the more thoughtful, open and articulate members of the organization.
Wells was credited with a quality Zoom yesterday afternoon in his first media session after the Orioles chose him in Thursday's Rule 5...
Sometimes you get leftovers for breakfast, sometimes you get the crumbs at the bottom of the toaster.
It's a good way to manage your carbs.
The Brandon Hyde virtual Winter Meetings video conference call last Monday morning - or "Zoom" to save keystrokes - covered a wide range of topics. A few of them also interested the national media that joined in, including how the Orioles handled COVID-19 conditions and whether Hyde is confident in the implementation of a full spring training and season...
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde has his scrubbed and sanitized hands full with his own club and a growing set of responsibilities. However, when another manager makes a decision in the World Series that backfires with such force that it shakes the entire industry, Hyde is bound to be asked about it.
Especially on a Zoom conference call yesterday as part of the virtual Winter Meetings that don't have the usual four-day deadline.
Rays skipper Kevin Cash took the ball from Blake Snell in Game 6, the...
Zach Pop received a phone call from his agent Thursday after the Diamondbacks selected the right-handed reliever with the sixth pick in the Rule 5 draft. Pop should expect to hear from someone in the organization. Just be ready for it and congratulations.
And then it got weird.
Pop never spoke to anyone with the Diamondbacks and began to wonder what happened. He was warned instead on a follow-up call about rumors of a trade.
"I was like, 'What? I just got picked,' " he said yesterday.
The...
